Digiday

Social media platforms have become fundamentally unstable places to build audiences, says Nilesh Ashra, CEO of OK Tomorrow, a consultancy. TikTok is just the latest platform subject to changes, similar to Elon Musk’s takeover of X (formerly Twitter) last year. “What this represents is another clear sign that as a brand, you can’t only invest in a single platform that isn’t yours,” Ashra said.

Marketers there are pointing fingers at Temu, attributing the sharp surge in advertising costs across Meta’s ad platforms to its ad dollars. There’s been a lot of chatter on X, LinkedIn discussions and even some heated conversations on WhatsApp over the past week as these marketers worry about what they see as predatory growth. They suspect that Temu, one of the largest advertisers on Meta, if not the largest, is driving up ad prices. And there might be some truth to their suspicions.

This week’s Digiday+ Research Briefing examines how YouTube commands the majority of marketers’ ad placements and ad budgets among ad-supported streaming services, how fewer publishers plan on growing their events business, and how ads are coming to Meta’s Threads platform sooner than expected.

Let’s be clear: Not all ad tech vendors see the Sandbox as an issue. Given Google’s dominant position in the market, some vendors might see collaboration with the Privacy Sandbox as a strategic move to stay relevant and competitive — a decision made easier thanks to the testing grants Google is offering. With that said, there are other companies who aren’t as acquiescent. They don’t want to back the Sandbox while their concerns that it could further solidify Google’s dominance over advertising go untempered. To many of them, doing so now would be akin to buying a car before standardized and transparent crash tests have been conducted.

As generative AI continues to evolve, marketers are faced with a choice: Does using the technology in marketing and advertising make sense for their brands? And if it does, then how do they go about doing so? Using AI in that way doesn’t make sense for all marketers, of course, which is why it’s not surprising to see Dove come out this week with a statement that the beauty brand, known for its now 20-year-old Real Beauty campaign, does not plan on using the tech in its advertising. Read more: https://buff.ly/4cQ2TNz

For all X has done to try and make #advertisers believe it’s a platform that’s safe for brands, advertisers remain unconvinced — and the latest headlines don’t help. Earlier this month it was revealed that DoubleVerify reportedly provided incorrect data for #X advertisers over the course of at least four months, later apologizing for the snafu. Around the same time, #Hyundai became the latest advertiser to pause #advertising on the platform after a sponsored post was seen next to antisemetic content. 

Publishers are testing generative AI technology for all kinds of functions — from onsite search to games. But monetizing those offerings is slow going. Some publishing execs told Digiday they’re not ready to do so by adding advertising to these generative AI products just yet. Like the rest of the digital publishing world, monetizing these AI experiences falls into two camps: subscriptions or advertising — both for publishers and the AI companies themselves.

Madison Avenue and Wall Street are receiving similar signals from Silicon Valley this earnings season: Generative AI will be worth the investment. It just might take a while. Google, Microsoft and Snap all reported results yesterday that exceeded expectations. And while CEOs celebrated solid results, leaders in social and search also warn it will take a while to scale the business side of generative AI across those areas.

We’re 10 weeks out from the Union of European Football Associations’ Euro 2024 tournament, one of the largest sporting events on the planet and a major opportunity for marketers to get their brands in front of enormous audiences. Just 12 days afterward, some of them will be doing it all over again when the Olympic Games roll into Paris. Though only European teams compete in the Germany-hosted Euro 2024 tournament, soccer has been growing in popularity in the United States in recent years. “There’s Wrexham effect, the Beckham effect and the build-up to the World Cup, which will be in the U.S.A. in a couple of year’s time,” said Toan Ravenscroft, Amsterdam managing director of M&C Saatchi Sport & Entertainment. “It’s like a super-Super Bowl. The scale is there for this summer to be massive.”

Looks like those third-party cookies aren’t going anywhere just yet. And you know what that means: cue the flood of theories and hot takes about what Google is really up to. Digiday has gathered up some of the juiciest theories and added a bit of extra context for good measure.