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☆ Crypto firms like Binance, Grayscale, and OKX are pouring money into marketing to regain trust and save their companies from the fallout of the FTX implosion
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-01 | by ( Lara O'Reilly | Reed Alexander | Lauren Johnson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

The bitcoin crash and FTX implosion massively dented the crypto advertising boom. But fewer crypto advertisers can also create an advantage for those still trying to get their messages to consumers. And Dinu added that crypto companies' efforts to advertise to restore trust could persist "well beyond" the next six months. Some crypto companies are still launching splashy campaigns, similar to crypto ad campaigns from the beginning of the year. "Crypto companies have to stop talking about themselves and start talking about how cryptocurrency or blockchain fits into normal people's lives."

☆ 13 behind-the-scenes executives leading Apple's $5 billion advertising division
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-30 | by ( Lara O'Reilly | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +10 min

Right now its roughly $5 billion-in-revenue ads business largely consists of search ads sold within the App Store. It's been a big year for Apple's ad division. 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 digital advertising veteran — having held senior roles at Yahoo, Quantcast, and Adobe — Teresi joined Apple in 2012 as vice president for its iAd division.

☆ Apple quietly hired a mobile advertising pioneer to build a new ad-buying platform, the latest sign of its growing advertising ambitions
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-30 | by ( Lara O'Reilly | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

He is tasked with building a demand-side platform for advertisers to automate their buying of Apple ads. Apple quietly hired mobile advertising veteran Vishal Gurbuxani last year to build what two sources familiar with the matter described as a demand-side platform. Insider reported Gurbuxani's hire earlier on Wednesday, as part of a list compiling the 13 key executives driving Apple's advertising business. Right now its roughly $5 billion-in-revenue and high-margin ads business largely consists of search ads sold within the App Store, as well as ads sold in its News and Stocks apps. Check out Insider's list of 13 key behind-the-scenes executives building Apple's advertising business.

☆ Microsoft has laid down a plan to double the size of its advertising business to $20 billion
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-25 | by ( Lara O'Reilly | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Microsoft Advertising has ambitions to double the size of its ads business to $20 billion. Today, Wilk heads up Microsoft Advertising, a $10 billion business. Microsoft is now looking to double the size of its ads business, Wilk said, though he didn't offer a timeframe of when it might hit that target. If Microsoft Advertising were to grow into a $20 billion business, it would overtake Chinese tech giant Tencent. Gaming could become an important Microsoft Advertising assetGaming will become another key driver of Microsoft's advertising growth.

☆ 50 of Twitter's top 100 advertisers have pulled out of the platform since Elon Musk took over, report says
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-23 | by ( Pete Syme | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Half of Twitter's top 100 advertisers have stopped promoting on the platform, per Media Matters. Since 2020, those 50 companies have spent $2 billion on Twitter advertising. Coca-Cola, Kellogg's, and Meta are among those who have pulled their advertising budgets away from Twitter, according to Media Matters. The list of all 50 is available in Media Matters' report. Insider has reached out to all 50 companies for comment.

☆ The ad industry is prepping for a make-or-break holiday shopping season, with some advertisers pulling spend up to 25% even before Black Friday
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-22 | by ( Lara O'Reilly | Ryan Joe | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales figures will determine whether ad spend budgets decline. Some advertisers are already pulling back spend up to 25%Last year, advertisers marched into the holiday shopping season with confidence. For retailers who are making the bulk of their money during that time, ad spend correlates to sales, Lardner said. Marketers feel less pressure to spend their fourth quarter ad budgets this yearSome advertisers are pulling back even before the holiday shopping season kicks off. Traditionally, marketers deploy most of their ad dollars during the fourth quarter — and not just because it's the holiday gifting season.

☆ Elon Musk fired Twitter's head of sales after she refused to sack more employees. He had previously begged her not to resign.
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-22 | by ( Kate Duffy | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Elon Musk sacked Twitter exec Robin Wheeler after she refused to fire more staff, sources said. Wheeler was sacked despite Musk persuading her to stay after she tried to resign, per Bloomberg. Some Twitter sales staff found out over the weekend and on Monday they were fired, per Platformer. Two sources said Wheeler was fired on Friday after she refused to cut the headcount of Twitter's ad sales team — a department that was already depleted. Chris Riedy, Twitter's former vice president of the Europe, Middle East, and Africa region, replaced Wheeler at the weekend, per multiple Insider sources.

☆ Twitter's newest sales chief Chris Riedy is relocating from Dublin to San Francisco to try to revive its ailing ad business under Elon Musk
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-21 | by ( Lara O'Reilly | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Chris Riedy is the latest executive to lead ad sales at Elon Musk's Twitter. He is replacing Robin Wheeler, who was let go after she refused to fire more people from a depleted ad sales team. Riedy hosted an all-hands meeting with Musk for Twitter's sales staff on Sunday. Another week under Elon's ownership, another ad sales chief at Twitter. Bloomberg also earlier reported that Musk didn't discuss the impending sales team layoffs that followed the call.

Twitter usage is about to spike as the 2022 World Cup kicks off this weekend. Hundreds of employees have just left the company, rejecting Musk's "hardcore" vision for Twitter. Supporting a major event, like the World Cup, will come with challenges for the skeleton staff. The World Cup is soccer's most prestigious tournament held every four years and is watched by billions of people worldwide. In 2014, the World Cup set the record for tweets per minute, doubling the current average of roughly 350,000 tweets a minute.

☆ Check out the pitch deck privacy compliance platform SafeGuard Privacy used to raise $7 million in funding
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-17 | by ( Lara O'Reilly | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Privacy-compliance platform SafeGuard Privacy has raised $7 million in a "late-stage seed" round. Check out key slides from the pitch deck that helped SafeGuard Privacy secure the investment. Founded in 2019 by advertising industry veteran Richy Glassberg and longtime attorney Wayne Matus, SafeGuard Privacy describes itself as the "TurboTax of privacy compliance." Glassberg said SafeGuard Privacy helps companies mitigate risk and save money on hourly lawyer fees as a patchwork of different privacy laws roll out across US states and globally. Check out the key slides from the pitch deck that helped SafeGuard Privacy raise its $7 million late-stage seed round below.

☆ Introducing Insider's 100 people transforming business
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-16 | by ( Matt Weinberger | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

It's my pleasure to introduce to you Insider's list of 100 People Transforming Business in 2022 — our annual celebration of the people who are bucking trends and upending convention across industries. Insider's annual list of the 100 People Transforming Business. 100 People Transforming Business. Twitter insiders worry that a crash is incoming. TCI, a major investor in Google's parent company Alphabet, sent a letter on Tuesday urging Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai to cut costs.

☆ Twitter insiders are getting more worried that the site is at massive risk of crashing under Elon Musk's reign
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-15 | by ( Kali Hays | Lara O'Reilly | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Thousands of Twitter employees have been laid off, and Twitter cut costs in infrastructure. Twitter is already under strainA big test for Twitter will be the FIFA World Cup, which kicks off this weekend. In 2018, Twitter boasted its "massive role" in World Cup fandom that year and live matches, which drove 115 billion views of tweets with the World Cup hashtag. The tool was affected by Musk's decision on Monday to turn off the many "microservices" at Twitter, a current employee said. But convincing people to return to the chaos under Musk has been a tough sell, two current employees said.

☆ Chaos unchecked: A comprehensive timeline of Elon Musk's Twitter verification saga - for now
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-12 | by ( Bethany Biron | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +12 min

Elon Musk's revamped Twitter Blue launch has hit some major snags in the past week. The shenanigans surrounding the blue check (and subsequent gray check) has heads spinning among average Twitter users, major advertisers and big-name celebrities. Here's a look at everything that's happened with Twitter Blue in the past week and the murky state of verification on the platform. Musk's new verification model was designed to become part of Twitter's existing Twitter Blue feature, a $4.99 monthly subscription offering premium services. He also said that Twitter is adding a "parody subscript," because "tricking people is not ok."It is unclear when and how Twitter Blue may be reinstated.

☆ Elon Musk has just given this little-known Twitter exec the toughest job in advertising right now
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-09 | by ( Lara O'Reilly | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Twitter executive Robin Wheeler is leading the company's global ad sales teams. But she is now de facto Twitter ad sales chief, and those who know her say she's used to navigating complex problems. Advertisers describe a sales team hampered by an information vaccuum as Musk unleashes chaos through his tweetsOne of Wheeler's biggest tasks is getting a depleted ad sales team organized and running. From AOL to Twitter, Wheeler has managed sales teams in crisis beforeWheeler has operated successfully in chaotic environments before. In 2020, she become the commercial lead for MoPub, Twitter's ad network that helped publishers and app developers sell mobile ads.

☆ Meta laid off 11,000 of its staff, and Apple is a big reason for the social media giant's sudden decline
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-09 | by ( Lara O'Reilly | Kali Hays | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Meta is laying off 11,000 employees, or 13% of its staff, and Apple is a big reason why. Zuckerberg has often cited Apple's threat to Meta's ads business, and recently pointed to Apple as a major culprit for its second successive quarter of revenue decline. Revenue in Apple's services business — which also includes sales from the App Store, Apple TV+, and Apple music — grew 5% to $19.2. "Apple previously said it didn't take a share of developer advertising revenue, and now apparently changed its mind." Of course, Apple's ATT restrictions and its push into becoming an ad seller itself isn't the only threat to Meta's ad revenue.

☆ The midterms are moments away, and these 9 behind-the-scenes agencies are helping politicians get elected, with control of Congress at stake
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-07 | by ( Lara O'Reilly | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Political midterm ad spending is expected to hit a record high of $9.7 billionA new crop of digital-first firms is competing with traditional ad agencies for that money. Here are 9 of the most notable firms working for top GOP and Democratic candidates and organizations. Political advertising is reaching unprecedented levels for a midterm election. An August report from analytics firm AdImpact projected that political ad spending would reach $9.7 billion this year, beating the previous $9 billion record set in 2020. Kantar CMAG has forecast that $8.4 billion political ad dollars will be spent this year.

☆ Apple's ad business is quietly expanding into streaming ads and sponsorship, as it pitches $4 million packages for Major League Soccer
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-07 | by ( Lara O'Reilly | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Apple's advertising empire is extending into its Apple TV service. Apple's advertising empire is set to expand beyond the App Store when Apple TV begins broadcasting Major League Soccer for ten seasons beginning February 2023 — a global deal that is costing Apple $250 million per season. The next tier comes at $3 million and the last tier was described by one person familiar as more "a la carte," in which advertisers can cherry-pick a smaller number of specific placements. The Apple TV app will host an exclusive MLS streaming service, and Apple TV+ customers and MLS season ticket holders will be able to access it for free. Today, that business is mostly focused on search ads in the App Store, as well as ads within its News and Stocks apps.

Elon Musk is shaking up Twitter. From the blunt email to Twitter employees about layoffs to angry advertisers, a lot is happening. Insider has exclusive insights from employees, advertisers and others about working with Musk. And this kind of chaos is only the beginning, warns one former SpaceX VP who says Elon Musk can be 'vicious' in the workplace. Rebecca Blackwell/AP PhotoAdvertisers are nervously pausing their spendMusk has been wooing advertisers, his major Twitter customers, but they are wary.

☆ Companies are suspending ads on Twitter after Elon Musk's takeover. Here's the full list of brands pressing pause on advertising.
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-04 | by ( Beatrice Nolan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

"As always, we will continue to monitor this new direction and evaluate our marketing spend," a spokesperson for General Mills told The Wall Street Journal. As is normal course of business with a significant change in a media platform, we have temporarily paused our paid advertising. VolkswagenVolkswagen has reportedly taken similar steps and pulled its ads from the social media platform, per The Wall Street Journal's anonymous sources. Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty ImagesAccording to the report, Oreo maker Mondelez International has also suspended advertising on Twitter for the time being. Interpublic GroupMajor advertising agency Interpublic Group has also advised clients to pause spending on Twitter advertising during the company's "chaotic" interim.

☆ In closed-door meeting, Elon Musk tells 100 top ad execs that he will improve brand safety on Twitter and that he will personally oversee its new video product
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-03 | by ( Lara O'Reilly | Lindsay Rittenhouse | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Elon Musk spoke on Thursday with more than 100 advertisers and ad agency executives in a virtual meeting to reassure them that Twitter will remain safe to advertise on, following his takeover. The Washington Post reported earlier this week that Musk's Twitter is working on a paid-for video feature, in which creators could charge viewers for access. One advertising executive who met with Musk earlier this week said Musk "said all the right things" on the topic of brand safety. Musk had also said that Twitter could be using its data in a more efficient way to improve results for advertisers. General Mills, Mondelez, Pfizer, and Audi all paused ads on Twitter, according to The Wall Street Journal.

☆ Netflix's ad tier has finally launched, and while some advertisers were initially all-in, many plan to buy ads on competitors like Amazon or Disney instead
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-03 | by ( Lindsay Rittenhouse | Lara O'Reilly | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Netflix's ad tier launched November 3, and its top ad exec Jeremi Gorman has said its ad inventory is nearly sold out. But some ad buyers said they're advising clients to hold out until the price comes down. One buyer said only half of its TV advertisers initially interested in Netflix are going forward with a deal. This person is advising clients to buy Netflix ads only when prices likely dip in six to 18 months. Most ad buyers think Netflix will eventually field a valuable offering but early returns are likely to be disappointing.

☆ As chaos continues with Twitter under Musk, advertiser patience is starting to wear thin
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-02 | by ( Lindsay Rittenhouse | Lara O'Reilly | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Advertisers weigh whether to pull ad spend from Twitter or stay. He plans to hold a virtual meeting with advertisers this Thursday but patience is wearing thin. But the Twitter team is in such disarray, attendees aren't clear who would be on the call to settle advertisers' nerves. A separate source said Meg Haley, Twitter VP of revenue product specialists, has been taking charge of conversations concerning advertiser partnerships in the interim. Some in the advertising community also question how committed Musk's Twitter will be to advertising in the long-term.

Musk has said he would reverse Twitter's ban on former president Donald Trump if he bought it. Trump has previously said that he isn't going back to Twitter, and instead wants to focus on Truth Social. Before he was banned from Twitter, Trump had over 88 million followers. Since then, the two have sparred, with Trump calling Musk a "bullshit artist," in July, and Musk saying Trump shouldn't run for president again that same month. Musk also called Truth Social a "right-wing echo chamber," in a Financial Times interview earlier this month.

☆ 9 hot European digital-marketing companies that experts say are prime acquisition targets for 2023
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-28 | by ( Lara O'Reilly | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Insider spoke to experts who identified nine European adtech companies ripe for acquisition. Private-equity firm Mayfair Equity Partners took a majority stake in UK-based adtech firm LoopMe in January. Given the strength of the dollar versus the euro and the pound, European companies may now be more affordable than in prior years. These characteristics make European companies attractive acquisition targets for US firms. Insider spoke to six experts — a mix of bankers, adtech insiders, VCs, and M&A advisors — who identified nine European digital marketing and adtech companies that are on the market or would be attractive targets.

☆ Meta's successive quarters of dismal earnings show just how much of a chokehold Apple has on Facebook. All signs suggest it's going to keep squeezing harder.
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-27 | by ( Lara O'Reilly | Kali Hays | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Apple this week updated its terms to require Meta cede 30% of the sales of some ads to the iPhone maker. The company posted its second successive quarter of revenue decline and again pointed to Apple as a major culprit. And just this week, Apple revised its App Store Review Guidelines. "Apple previously said it didn't take a share of developer advertising revenue, and now apparently changed its mind." To be sure, Apple's ad revenue is currently largely derived from search ads within its App Store, which don't necessarily directly compete with Meta's social ads.

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