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☆ Adtech company MediaMath has hired bankers to explore a possible sale
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( Lara O'Reilly | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

MediaMath has appointed investment bank Houlihan Lokey to explore its strategic options. Amid a period of major upheaval, MediaMath has been pursuing a sale since 2020. Adtech company MediaMath has appointed the investment bank Houlihan Lokey to explore its strategic options, which could include a debt restructuring or a sale, according to two people familiar with the matter. It's the third investment bank MediaMath has appointed in three years, amid a period of major upheaval for the company. While MediaMath held serious talks with four companies between 2020 and 2022, including Amazon and the publicly traded adtech firm Tremor, a sale didn't materialize.

Besides YouTube's 2.6% first quarter ad revenue decline, Google is facing multiple challenges to its advertising business. While Google's search revenue was up about 2%, Microsoft is in the early stages of a big play to go after it. Matthew Bailey, principal analyst at research firm Omdia anticipates Google will post digital ad revenue growth at around 5% in 2023 and in 2024. Google's monolithic search ads business is starting to see real competitionMost of Google's ad revenue is driven by its ubiquitous search engine. But Amazon, which has a $31 billion ad business, and Walmart, which has a $2.7 billion ad business, grab roughly 80% of retail ad spend.

Google's monolithic search ads business is starting to see real competitionMost of Google's ad revenue is driven by its ubiquitous search engine. But neither pose the threat to Google's search dominance that ChatGPT-powered Bing does today, according to an agency source. But ChatGPT-Bing has a bigger opportunity to grab budgets earmarked for Google search because it will change the entire way consumers search for information. But Amazon, which has a $31 billion ad business, and Walmart, which has a $2.7 billion ad business, grab roughly 80% of retail ad spend. Morgan Stanley recently estimated that adtech firms are poised to win $26 billion out of a $130 billion retail media market by 2025.

☆ Check out the pitch deck identity management startup Lockr used to raise $2.5 million in pre-seed funding
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( Lara O'Reilly | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Identity and email management company Lockr raised $2.5 million in pre-seed funding this week. Check out the pitch deck that convinced investors like Mozilla Ventures to join the funding round. Lockr, a digital identity management startup, said this week it had raised $2.5 million in pre-seed funding, investment it plans to use to grow its team, scale its userbase, and add more features to its consumer product. For publishers and marketers, the company provides Lockr Identity. Investors in Lockr's pre-seed funding round included Mozilla Ventures, Junction Venture Partners, and Grit Capital Partners, as well as individual investors.

The group represents a range of roles at adtech companies, publishers, retailers, and advertisers. They are helping the ad industry grab new opportunities, like retail media and streaming TV ads. Adtech companies are jockeying against each other to capture market share in streaming TV advertising, servicing the needs of content owners like Netflix, Warner Bros. They're also trying to strike gold in retail media, a relatively new category that could represent a $26 billion market for adtech companies, according to Morgan Stanley. We considered nearly 90 people from adtech companies, publishers, and advertisers.

☆ Softbank-backed adtech firm Permutive announces further layoffs, which could affect up to 40% of staff
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-11 | by ( Lara O'Reilly | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Permutive told staffers this week it's preparing a round of layoffs that may affect up to 40% of staff. It follows an earlier round of layoffs in August last year, which reduced its then-headcount by 12%. Permutive said it wants to focus on profitability amid a challenging economic environment and drop in venture funding. UK-based adtech company Permutive this week announced a layoff that is expected to affect just under 80 staffers, or about 40% of its headcount, Insider has learned. UK employment laws stipulate employers laying off more than 20 staff must consult with employee representatives over redundancy plans.

He had told Oxford Gold that he wanted to "get the lay of the land" ahead of picking up a $9 million order for 151 gold kilo bars. But most unusual was that Mancuso wanted to pick up the order from the Oxford Gold office, the source said. The next day, Mancuso contacted Oxford Gold about buying $9 million worth of gold, and the company agreed to sell him 151 gold kilo bars. But Oxford Gold was alerted on December 2 that this was a fraudulent transaction, said a source with direct knowledge. Unsure what to do, Oxford Gold contacted the Beverly Hills Police Department, and eventually got in touch with the FBI, this source said.

☆ Meta's layoffs are affecting customer service and leaving influencers and businesses on Instagram and Facebook in the lurch, report says
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-06 | by ( Sawdah Bhaimiya | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Meta's mass layoffs have affected over 20,000 employees, including its customer support teams. One Instagram influencer told CNBC that her requests for support are going "into the void." The layoffs, which saw thousands of employees leave the company, affected staff in Meta's client support and customer experience and communities teams, former staff told CNBC. The company declined to provide comment to CNBC but provided the outlet with examples of its investment in customer service in recent years. The company has started building a customer service division, Bloomberg reported last year.

Generative AI has exploded in popularity, and advertisers are figuring out how to use it. Insider profiled 15 ad execs leading generative AI projects for their own agencies and major brands. They're using AI tools to build creative assets quickly, kickstart ideas, and automate boring tasks. Generative AI has taken the world by storm, but many in the advertising industry were experimenting with it well before OpenAI's ChatGPT catapulted the technology into the zeitgeist last November. Insider has identified 15 ad industry experts who are leading the charge around generative AI by figuring out what it can and can't do, and teaching their colleagues and clients how to get the best results.

☆ Read the full 'Myth vs. Fact' document TikTok sent to advertisers after US lawmakers grilled its CEO
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-27 | by ( Lara O'Reilly | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

TikTok sent advertisers a document titled 'Myth vs. TikTok is seeking to reassure advertisers over national security concerns raised by lawmakers. On Friday and over the weekend, TikTok emailed advertisers and their agencies a document entitled "Myth vs. Many TikTok advertisers have simply adopted a wait and see approach to the potential for a TikTok ban in the US, as The Wall Street Journal and other outlets have previously reported. Fact" document TikTok sent to advertisers below:Source-providedSource-providedSource-providedSource-provided

☆ WPP is nearing a deal to acquire influencer marketing specialist The Goat Agency
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-17 | by ( Lara O'Reilly | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

WPP is in late-stage talks to acquire UK-based influencer marketing agency The Goat Agency, sources said. Sources said the deal could value The Goat Agency between $121 million million and $425 million. The Goat Agency said last year it "was on a fast track" to reach $100 million in revenue. Advertising giant WPP is closing in on a deal to acquire the fast-growing influencer marketing specialist The Goat Agency, according to people familiar with the matter. Sky News in April reported that The Goat Agency had appointed financial advisory firm GP Bullhound to help explore its strategic options.

☆ Uber is making its biggest play yet for the $10 billion US out of home ad market
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-15 | by ( Lara O'Reilly | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Uber is rolling out a self-service platform for advertisers to access its cartop ad network. Uber is targeting $1 billion in ad revenue by 2024. The new ad platform currently offers advertisers access to around 3,500 cartops in seven markets in the US, including New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago. It also offers data on whether ad campaigns led to increased activity on the Uber Eats app. Uber also offers marketers ads on both the Uber and Uber Eats apps and within emails.

☆ Inside Microsoft's plan to use the new OpenAI-powered Bing to steal share from Google and net billions of dollars in ad revenue
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-10 | by ( Lara O'Reilly | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Microsoft has begun to showcase ad formats within the OpenAI-powered new Bing search engine. A slide from a Microsoft Advertising roadshow event held in Amsterdam in March. Dennis WesterbeekAdvertisers can't currently buy ads specifically on the new Bing chatbot; their current Bing ad campaigns will extend to the chatbot automatically, agency sources said. Dennis Westerbeek, a senior digital advertising marketer at digital ad agency Adwise, was excited when he saw the new search ads. Westerbeek, who attended a Microsoft Advertising roadshow in Amsterdam, said he was also impressed that the new Bing had reached 100 million daily active users.

☆ TikTok is about to crash Google and Microsoft's search ad wars
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-07 | by ( Lara O'Reilly | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

TikTok search ads have been in beta testing for almost a year on an invite-only basis. One agency source predicts TikTok search ads will become more widely available by Q3. As Google and Microsoft duke it out over the future leadership of artificial intelligence-powered search, TikTok is quietly preparing a big search advertising play of its own. These moves, as well as recent TikTok job posts looking for search ads engineers to develop a "large-scale ads system," indicate a wider rollout of TikTok's search ad product. A TikTok spokesperson said the details it could share about TikTok search ads were limited during its initial testing phase.

☆ Apple's advertising business is expanding into new areas this year such as TV. Here are 14 behind-the-scenes Apple executives building its advertising empire.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-03 | by ( Lara O'Reilly | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +11 min

Right now its roughly $5 billion-in-revenue ads business largely consists of search ads sold within the App Store. We asked more than a dozen advertising industry insiders and former Apple advertising staffers to identify the most important executives building Apple's advertising business. Teresi's ascent coincides with the explosive growth of Apple's ad business in recent years. A former Yahoo and Quantcast staffer, Crawford first joined Apple in 2011 to work on global operations for iAd. Lauren Fry - Apple TV+ ad salesApple hired Fry, a TV and video ad sales veteran, in February this year, The Information reported.

☆ MediaMath seemed destined for a $1B fairy-tale exit. Instead, most early investors got nothing.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-01 | by ( Lara O'Reilly | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +19 min

At its Halloween party in 2015, the adtech startup MediaMath seemed on the brink of greatness. The machine-learning revolution that took over the financial industry was finally happening in marketing, and many industry insiders considered MediaMath to be the hottest adtech company of the time. "We never came close to consummating such a deal with MediaMath nor entertained the purported valuation," said a representative for Singtel. The Trade Desk, the most comparable independent DSP company to MediaMath, was riding high after its 2016 initial public offering. The quasi-equity agreement was structured to protect Searchlight if MediaMath didn't perform to certain quotas or if things went south financially.

☆ Meta has massively revamped its ads division. Here are the 21 most powerful execs tasked with saving the company's biggest revenue stream.
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-28 | by ( Ryan Joe | Lara O'Reilly | Lauren Johnson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

Nicola Mendelsohn and Justin Osofsky are Meta's top ad execs after Marne Levine stepped down. After Meta's ad revenue took a series of hits, the company banking on an overhauled ad offering powered by AI. Insider identified Meta's 21 top ad execs tasked with reviving its most crucial revenue stream. Here are the 21 most powerful and important advertising execs still at the company, listed alphabetically. Their roles span ad sales, strategy, marketing and product across Meta's portfolio.

☆ Check out the pitch deck AI-video startup Capsule used to raise $4.75 million in seed funding
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-28 | by ( Lara O'Reilly | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Video-AI startup Capsule this month raised $4.75 million in seed funding. Check out the pitch deck that encouraged VCs including Bloomberg Beta and Array Ventures to participate. Capsule, a tech startup that uses artificial intelligence to help its large-business clients create and distribute video content raised $4.75 million in seed financing this month. The seed round was led by Bloomberg Beta and Array Ventures, with participation from other investors including Swift Ventures, Clark Valberg's Tiferes Ventures, and Behind Genius Ventures. Check out Capsule's seed financing pitch deck below

☆ PE firm Bridgepoint takes a majority stake in Equativ, valuing the adtech firm at around $370 million
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-23 | by ( Lara O'Reilly | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Bridgepoint Development Capital has taken a majority stake in the adtech firm Equativ. It values Equativ at 350 million euros, or $371 million, according to a person familiar with the matter. Private equity firm Bridgepoint has taken a majority stake in Equativ, the French adtech company formerly known as Smart Adserver, the pair said on Thursday. A person familiar with the matter said the deal values Equativ at 350 million euros, or around $371 million. Bridgepoint raised 1.7 billion euros for its BDC IV fund, while Croissance had raised 100 million euros.

Not only have marketers been pausing ad spend en masse, YouTube is also battling TikTok for audiences and content creators. Industry insiders credit Mohan with building out the ad products that made YouTube Google's main growth engine for so many years. Tal Chalozin, CTO and cofounder of the adtech company Innovid, said that Mohan's expertise stretches across all of YouTube's ad business, particularly adtech. "He was leading product for the launch of YouTube Premium and YouTube TV, and the growth of YouTube Music," said one former YouTube employee. "It's now Neal and YouTube against TikTok, and that's the existential battle for short-form video monetization and creators," Norman said.

☆ The M&Ms spokescandies are back. Here’s how the chocolate candy went from a wartime treat to playing a starring role in the culture wars
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-13 | by ( Lara O'Reilly | Alex Bitter | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

M&Ms brought back its talking candy mascots after Sunday's Super Bowl game. The “spokescandies” went on “an indefinite pause” as part of the brand’s Super Bowl ad play. But after Sunday's Super Bowl game, M&Ms ran a 15-second ad making clear that Rudolph's tenure as spokesperson was ending. "I mean, as a walking, talking candy, my options are pretty limited." M&Ms is among the oldest candy brands in the US, and its talking candies are relatively recent additions.

☆ Goldman Sachs partners are pissed
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-12 | by ( Matt Turner | Dave Smith | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

On the agenda today:But first: Lara O'Reilly, our senior correspondent covering the advertising industry, looks ahead to the Super Bowl. Insider's Aki Ito breaks down why grandiose job titles like "senior executive vice president" are suddenly all the rage. According to a new study, early-career job titles have changed drastically in the past few years. While it's not clear how widespread this discontent is — Goldman has some 400 partners — some partners are already talking about who might replace CEO David Solomon if it comes to that. Inside the drama at Goldman SachsRead more:Tyler Le/InsiderGoogle's search engine is about to change.

The rise of AI-powered search could transform the internet. If AI-powered search catches on, it will upend the practice of search advertising. Right now, not a lot seems to have changed on the ad landscape, despite the media frenzy around the new AI search tools. Bannister doesn't think AI-powered search will change advertising drastically in the short term, but even small changes can have an impact on business. Sutton is cautiously optimistic though that the addition of AI to search queries on Bing and Google Search won't impact publishers like Gannett, which owns mostly news sites.

YouTube is shaking up its influencer-marketing program BrandConnect. As part of the layoffs, the BrandConnect team shrunk, with several people who identified themselves as part of that team posting on LinkedIn that they'd been let go. Many of the insiders said they were unclear as to YouTube's future plans for BrandConnect and its team. Two talent managers said the BrandConnect team would routinely present deals that paid mid-five-figures. But sourcing deals focused on YouTube had begun to feel out of step with the market, some insiders said.

☆ Microsoft and Google will duke it out over Silicon Valley's true financial driver: ads
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-09 | by ( Hasan Chowdhury | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Google search dominated, but Microsoft's AI-powered Bing is emerging as a credible challenger. Google has dominated search and the search ad market for the almost 25 years since its inception. The company has around 90% of the search market, according to data firm Stat Counter. Microsoft's share of the search ad market is small: it made nearly $18 billion in ad revenue last year, far smaller than the $224 billion Google made in gross ad revenue last year, the analysts wrote. Declining ads market will spark fiercer competitionThe fight coincides with a slump in ad sales, upping the pressure on Google is the dominant player.

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