WebProNews

Category: AdvertisingDay

Learn how advertising strategies are rapidly evolving as companies immerse themselves in digital transformation.

  • Walmart is the Roman Empire of Retail

    Walmart is the Roman Empire of Retail

    Walmart is the Roman Empire of retail, says Burt Flickinger, Managing Director of SRG. Walmart announced an impressive earnings and revenue beat that told the story investors want to hear. Walmart is winning the retail wars, especially against arch-rival Amazon. “Like Hannibal and the Carthaginians, Amazon is starting to go the wrong way.” says Flickinger. “Big win for Walmart today and they will accelerate that in the next two to seven years.”

    Burt Flickinger, Managing Director of SRG, a consumer industry business consulting firm, discussed how Walmart is winning the retail wars in an interview on Fox Business:

    Walmart is the Roman Empire of Retail

    This earnings report just reinforces its winning. Amazon is going sideways. This is a reenactment of the Punic Wars, Rome versus Carthage. Walmart is the Roman empire of retail. Like Hannibal and the Carthaginians, Amazon is starting to go the wrong way. Big win for Walmart today and they will accelerate that in the next two to seven years.

    What’s doubly impressive, we talk to a lot of vendors and shoppers around the world, what the vendors are saying is Walmart is reinvesting all the PPA (price and promotional allowances) in lower prices. Lower prices normally mean lower margins and lower revenue. But in this case, the shopper is shifting to Walmart.

    Walmart strategically saw all the land-based businesses like Payless and all the retailers from toys to sporting goods going out of business. They had great sales on land and not so good online. Walmart is winning both ways. Amazon, with all the trouble they’re having with Whole Foods, can’t capitalize. Walmart is running the table.

    This Says it All for US Retail

    This says it all for US retail. The well capitalized highly capable retailers are winning and if it’s a one man show, like Bezos running the show, you could be Alexander the Great, you could be Hannibal out of Carthage, but one general isn’t going to win a war. Recent (lower) retail sales numbers were a combination of a couple things. One is Jerome Powell scared the market, especially high to mid-end, didn’t spend as much. Also, consumers were a little bit scared toward the end of the year. Walmart, off price, low price, did very well, but full price full service struggled and that’s why the numbers were bad.

    Walmart comp sales increased 4.2 percent, just like Steve Jobs and Apple with their great campaign Think Different with Muhammad Ali, Walmart is thinking different with Doug McMillon. It’s evolved from a company of family management to professional management. Walmart had 40 percent growth online.

    Walmart Ads Are Really Connecting

    Before, Walmart looked at advertising as an expense. But as Jerry Della Femina said, most of the Super Bowl ads were pretty pathetic. Walmart was one that stood out because it advertised Walmart online and Walmart in-store. The Walmart ads are really connecting with consumers, a United Nations of consumers.

    They’re reaching everybody around the world with better prices and better service. Doug McMillon has invested in inventory and has invested in store staffing, first to raise wages with some push from the UFCW. They are hitting on all cylinders. The biggest problem now is they can’t handle all of the volume they are seeing on the weekends.


  • Netflix Confirms Ad-Supported Plans Are On the Way

    Netflix Confirms Ad-Supported Plans Are On the Way

    Netflix has confirmed rumors that it is working on ad-supported plans as the company looks to grow its subscriber base.

    Netflix turned in its first subscriber loss in roughly a decade at its last quarterly results, sending the stock down and leading to hundreds of lay-offs. The company is experimenting with various ways to turn the situation around, with free, ad-supported plans being one of them. According to The Hollywood Reporter, co-CEO Ted Sarandos has confirmed the plans.

    “We’ve left a big customer segment off the table, which is people who say: ‘Hey, Netflix is too expensive for me and I don’t mind advertising,’” Sarandos said at Cannes Lions. “We adding an ad tier; we’re not adding ads to Netflix as you know it today. We’re adding an ad tier for folks who say, ‘Hey, I want a lower price and I’ll watch ads.’”

    Given this would be Netflix’s first foray into ad-supported media, there’s infrastructure and development that needs to be done to make it work. According to The Wall Street Journal, the company is looking to either Google or NBCUniversal to help it roll out its ad platform.

  • Microsoft Advertising Can Now Import Facebook Ads

    Microsoft Advertising Can Now Import Facebook Ads

    Microsoft has announced its Advertising platform can now import Facebook Ads.

    Many companies live or die by their online advertising. Especially in the wake of the pandemic, many small businesses have increasingly shifted to online sales, making their advertising more important than ever.

    For companies looking to expand their advertising reach, recreating a successful campaign on another platform can be a time-consuming proposition. Microsoft is hoping to make it easier, releasing Facebook Import to help companies import their Facebook ad campaigns into the Microsoft Audience Network.

    Are you new to audience campaigns, or looking to expand your existing presence on the Microsoft Audience Network? Using Facebook Import, it’s now easier than ever to get audience campaigns up and running by importing from Facebook Ads. Now rolling out to all advertisers in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, France and Germany, this new feature is designed to save you time and maximize ROI by seamlessly bringing over your campaigns from the Facebook Audience Network into the Microsoft Audience Network. Facebook Import can be used as a standalone tool, as well as a powerful complement to any existing Google Import strategy.

    The new feature can be accessed via the Import menu in the Microsoft Advertising dashboard.

  • Google Ads Error Impacting Video Pages in Google Ads Frontend

    Google Ads Error Impacting Video Pages in Google Ads Frontend

    Google Ads is experiencing a major issue, one that is impacting access to Video pages in the Google Ads Frontend.

    First spotted by Search Engine Land, the issue has been acknowledged by Google and is impacting “a majority of users.” The issue happens when users try to access the Video pages, leading to an error message and red banner. The company says there is no work around, although it is working on a fix.

    We’re aware of a problem with Google Ads affecting a majority of users. We will provide an update by May 19, 2022, 6:00 PM UTC detailing when we expect to resolve the problem. Please note that this resolution time is an estimate and may change. The affected users are able to access Google Ads, but are seeing error messages, high latency, and/or other unexpected behavior.

  • Privacy-Focused Tech Companies Call for Ban on ‘Surveillance-Based Advertising’

    Privacy-Focused Tech Companies Call for Ban on ‘Surveillance-Based Advertising’

    A group of tech companies with a history of protecting user privacy is calling for a ban on “surveillance-based advertising.”

    Mojeek, along with DuckDuckGo, Ecosia, StartPage, Fastmail, Proton Technologies and others have written a letter calling on the US, UK, EU and Australia to take action against the dominant form of online advertising. Mojeek is a UK-based search engine that has not tracked users since its inception, and holds the distinction of being the first privacy-oriented search engine. Similarly, the other companies on the list have a long history of protecting user privacy.

    The companies make the case in their open letter that surveillance advertising, commonly called “personalization,” is a threat to consumers, businesses and democracies. The companies also stand as examples that prove it’s possible to build a profitable business without exploiting consumers.

    We are a group of businesses who write to you today to show our support to this initiative. We represent small, medium and large businesses who all believe -and demonstrate on a daily basis -that it is possible to run profitable companies without exploiting the privacy of individuals.

    The companies emphasize they are not anti-advertising, they simply want the industry to use technologies and methods that don’t involve invading the privacy of users.

    Although we recognize that advertising is an important source of revenue for content creators and publishers online, this does not justify the massive commercial surveillance systems set up in attempts to “show the right ad to the right people”.

    Other forms of advertising technologies exist, which do not depend on spying on consumers, and alternative models can be implemented without significantly affecting revenue. On the contrary – and that we can attest to – businesses can thrive without privacy-invasive practices.

  • Tim Cook: ‘We’re Not Against Digital Advertising’

    Tim Cook: ‘We’re Not Against Digital Advertising’

    Tim Cook has set the record straight that Apple is not against digital advertising, it simply wants to give consumers more control.

    Apple is at odds with the advertising industry over changes to iOS. Apple recently began enforcing privacy labels, forcing app developers to disclose what user information they collect and track. iOS will soon include App Track Transparency (ATT), forcing apps to ask users for permission to track them.

    Unfortunately, the advertising industry seems to suffer the belief that it has an inalienable right to track users, and build detailed profiles of them, with or without their permission. Thankfully, Apple is opposed to that view, and holds to the idea that people should be able to decide for themselves whether they are tracked and profiled — not the have the decision made for them by advertisers.

    In an interview with the Toronto Sun, via AppleInsider, CEO Tim Cook clarified the company’s stand.

    “We’re not against digital advertising,” Cook said. “I think digital advertising is going to thrive in any situation, because more and more time is spent online, less and less is spent on linear TV. And digital advertising will do well in any situation. The question is, do we allow the building of this detailed profile to exist without your consent?”

    Cook framed Apple’s actions in the context of protecting its users.

    “We feel so much that it’s our responsibility to help our users be able to make this decision. We’re not going to make the decision for them. Because it’s not our decision either. It should be each of ours’ as to what happens with our data. Who has it and how they use it,” Cook continued.

    Cook also addressed why companies like Facebook and Procter & Gamble are so opposed to Apple’s efforts. P&G has even gone so far as to work with a Chinese ad agency to find ways of bypassing ATT.

    According to Cook, these companies are only concerned because they’re facing a reality where they may not have access to the same amount of data as before, and they would only lose that access if customers choose not to give it to them. Rather than accept that change, their approach is: “You don’t want to give us access to all your data, so we’re going to try to find ways around your choice and collect your data anyway.”

    Regardless of whether you’re an Apple or Android user, Apple’s stance on privacy is a refreshing one — one where the customer comes first.

  • Top Data and Analytics Trends For 2022

    Top Data and Analytics Trends For 2022

    Through data and analytics, businesses can uncover customer data, boost productivity, and improve project management.

    It helps in 25% faster innovation cycles, 17% improved business efficiencies, 13% more effective R&D, and 12% better product and service.

    In fact, the annual revenue from the global big data analytics market is likely to reach $68.09 billion by 2025.

    This means that data and analytics have become a central part of any business growth. Having experts, especially employees with bachelor’s in data science in the business, who can analyze and interpret data is key to any business’s continued growth and success in this cut-throat competitive market.

    The first step is to understand what is next in the world of data and analytics so that you plan ahead. Here is the list of the key trends in data and analytics for 2022:

    In-Memory Computing Will Become Popular

    In-memory computing is a way of running complex computer calculations, which require specialized systems software, entirely in computer memory i.e. RAM.

    It is becoming a major technological solution since the cost of memory has begun to decrease of late. The global market size of in-memory computing in 2020 was $11.55 billion, which is likely to reach $44.10 billion by 2028, with a CAGR of 18.4%.

    This gives room for data and analytics in large companies and SMEs. With IMC, data can be stored in RAM rather than on their hard disks across different devices allowing for real data scaling and agile performance. This includes addressing the demands for omnichannel marketing, real-time regulatory compliance, and digital transformation.

    IMC analytics helps remove inefficiencies that businesses are facing in intelligence solutions. By keeping the detailed data in the main memory, this model speeds up data crunching and meets diverse information and analytics requirements faster.

    Predictive Analytics Will Rise

    To predict future trends in business, most organizations are leveraging different features of predictive analytics.

    Many businesses are already using predictive analytics to apply Artificial Intelligence, optimize internal processes, and eliminate all bottlenecks. In fact, the predictive analytics market is expected to reach around $11 billion in annual revenue by 2022.

    It uses current and historical data to derive predictions about unknowns such as future trends and events. It uses scientific methods and techniques such as data mining, modeling, and machine learning.

    Predictive Analytics can be integrated into business processes so that analytic insights and projections are used automatically by other systems such as a BPM system or CRM system.

    Knowing what the future holds in the market is central to businesses building their brands. With predictive data analytics, most businesses are able to forecast how the future looks like for their markets. It includes leveraging on a new customer, social media, market mountains, and predictive analytics.

    AI Will Keep Evolving

    Artificial intelligence is another trend you should look out for in 2022. A scalable AI which is smarter and responsible will facilitate improved learning algorithms, enhance interpretable systems, and take the shortest time to interpret data.

    NLP, which is Natural Language Processing, is one of the best AI technologies that significantly reduce the necessity for typing or interacting with a screen as machines can comprehend human languages.

    Moreover, AI-powered devices can turn natural human languages into computer codes that can run applications and programs.

    Even AI software such as video markers and website builders leverage the latest technologies for analyzing data and suggesting the best options to the customers.

    Large organizations and SMEs will see the need to rely on AI and other related technologies in 2022. For instance, businesses have to look into how voice assisting devices, such as Alexa, Siri, and Google Home use AI to recognize and respond to voice search queries.

    Automation Will Be the Front and Center of the Data Process 

    Businesses can save time and money when they upload and handle processes via automated tools and by eliminating all the repetitive tasks in their business.

    Businesses can automate multiple and repetitive processes that involve large volumes of information and data using robotic process automation (RPA) and intelligent business process management software (iBPMS).

    Augmented Analytics Will Spur Major Developments

    In 2022 and beyond, augmented analytics will become an essential factor that pushes the growth of BI platforms and growth analytics. It will also play a critical role in the advancement of embedded analytics and data science platforms.  

    The increasing demand for obtaining critical insights from customer data seems to be boosting the widespread use of augmented reality.

    Using augmented analytics in data preparation, data discovery, insight generation, and insight explanation not only helps to explore, analyze, understand and act on data but also transform, democratize and automate the use of data for all types of users.

    A number of emerging AR techniques include:

    ●  Augmented data preparation: It is used in the extraction, transfer, and load phase of data preparation. Algorithms are used to detect schemas and join profiling, and data enrichment through the automation of data transformation steps.

    ●  Automated analytics: It is also known as automated business monitoring as it enables the running of always-on analysis in the background.

    ●  Machine-assisted insights: It is used to generate visualization, calculation creation, and variance analysis through machines. It is often triggered by the action of the user asking a question.

    Data-As-A-Service (DaaS) Will Become More Popular

    In 2022, DaaS will become more popular than ever. DaaS is a cloud-based technology that enables its subscribers to easily access and use files through the internet. The pandemic challenges have made DaaS more helpful to people.

    According to Market Research Future, the DaaS market is expected to increase to $12 billion by the end of 2023.

    DaaS is expected to be a viable solution to companies already embracing data as a decision-making tool. Only a few companies have internal mechanisms that can help them to leverage the power of collected data.

    DaaS will have a broader reach in 2022 as most internet users can now access high-speed internet. DaaS is expected to change how small and large businesses access and use data in decision-making.

    Conclusion

    The digital economy relies more on data today. Businesses need reliable data for decision-making. Data is like an engine that propels businesses and industries.

    Thus, businesses should invest in data and analytics. You should adjust their strategies if you want to increase your returns. Whether it is IoT, AR, AI, or VR, knowing how these new technologies impact your businesses is fundamental to achieving growth and success.

  • We Are a Marketplace That Sells Demand Generation, Says Grubhub CEO

    We Are a Marketplace That Sells Demand Generation, Says Grubhub CEO

    “We are a marketplace that sells demand generation,” says Grubhub CEO Matt Maloney. “We sell growth. That’s what our primary product is. We’re not a logistics company. We do logistics because we know that’s an end to get to restaurant growth and make money off our logistics. The gross margins on the logistics are not fabulous. The gross margins on the demand generation are fabulous which is why I differentiate between a logistics company and demand gen company. If you’re selling consumers, you’re selling growth, and you can charge a lot for that.”

    Matt Maloney, CEO of Grubhub, discusses with Jim Cramer on CNBC how Grubhub is in the business of driving growth for restaurants and is not just a logistics company:

    The American Public Has Just Adopted Digital Ordering

    This is our fifth anniversary of our IPO. The market now is ten times what I thought it was five years ago. It’s because the American public has just adopted digital ordering as their preferred way to engage with their local restaurants. We are not just marketing to Millennials. We are marketing on national television across all channels, all time zones, and hitting all segments. We just see that people realize that digitally ordering on their app or on their desktop is just easier.

    Of course, our ad campaign is working. I wouldn’t have it on TV if it wasn’t working. You think about it this way. You know your LTV, your lifetime value of your customer, once they start ordering we know that they’re lifers. They’re on forever. We can make that revenue model and then we know how much it cost to put the ad on there. So yes, over time, as people see the ad, more and more it becomes less and less effective. But we’re nowhere near our LTV.

    https://youtu.be/qpyVP-JhToc
    Grubhub National TV Commercial

    I have always been willing to be extremely aggressive investing in the future. Historically, I was bound by the amount of money I could invest. The reception of these communications just weren’t hitting the public and they weren’t working as well. Then around the third quarter of last year, we saw that we could spend way more than we had historically. I’m just talking about effectiveness. Spending it effectively. We came to the street on our third quarter earnings call and said we see opportunity and we are going long in the fourth quarter.

    Yum Made $200 million Investment – They Believe in Our Story

    People are going to say where’s the beef, the old Wendy’s commercial. They’re like show me the money. (We don’t have Wendy’s) but everyone talks to everyone in this industry. I think over time exclusivity is just not going to happen. (We have Yum) and Yum is the biggest restaurateur in the world. YUM is an incredible brand which includes Taco Bell, KFC, and Pizza Hut. They are very forward-thinking. They invest in technology a lot and they wanted to make a fundamental partnership and we wanted to understand what the brands needed from a partner.

    Yum made a $200 million investment because they believe in our story. We didn’t need the investment because we have a very healthy balance sheet. What it did it was really bringing the support of the young brand and the franchisees into Grub. As a tight partnership, we’re able to execute on technology and growth for them in a way that nobody else in the industry is doing right now. I totally disagree (that we aren’t making money from this partnership).

    We Are a Marketplace That Sells Demand Generation

    We are a marketplace that sells demand generation. We sell growth. That’s what our primary product is. We’re not a logistics company. We do logistics because we know that’s an end to get to restaurant growth and make money off our logistics. The gross margins on the logistics are not fabulous. The gross margins on the demand generation are fabulous which is why I differentiate between a logistics company and demand gen company.

    If you’re selling consumers, you’re selling growth and you can charge a lot for that. That’s the profitable side. Everyone else in my industry is a logistics company which has razor thin margins. One of my competitors said they’re the next FedEx. Do you really want to be the next FedEx? There’s the multiple that we can get as marketplaces and there’s the multiple that logistics companies can get.

    Everyone Would Prefer to Order Digitally

    I think that everyone in the country would prefer to order digitally than order on the phone. That’s why we acquired Tapingo. It’s an incredible acquisition because it gives us further scale on campuses. Tapingo is a pickup focused product. So here’s what you need to think about. We sell growth, we sell orders. I don’t care if that’s a pickup order, a delivery order, a self-delivery order, or a catering order.

    Everyone else in my industry only does delivery facilitated by that platform. Because we partner with the restaurants (which means) the restaurants are subsidizing part of our transaction fee, we are always cheaper. That’s what people don’t understand. There’s a lot of bait and switch pricing going on (from competitors).

    We Are a Marketplace That Sells Demand Generation, Says Grubhub CEO


  • LG: We Know What Users Want — More Ads On Their TVs

    LG: We Know What Users Want — More Ads On Their TVs

    In the latest example of unadulterated greed, LG is planning to serve its users even more ads on TVs they have spent hundred of dollars on.

    As we have pointed out many times in the past, it’s one thing for companies like Google or Facebook to make money selling ads to people. They are, after all, providing their services free-of-charge. When a customer spends hundreds of dollars on a piece of hardware, however, there’s a certain expectation that they will get to enjoy that product ad-free.

    Those days may be over, if LG Ad Solutions has anything to say about. Not content to charge a premium for its TVs, the company is evidently planning on bombarding its users with even more ads. Unlike traditional TV commercials, these ads are in LG’s smart TV interface, meaning there’s no way to easily avoid them when using the built-in features.

    “We’re turning the tables for advertisers, making performance not just something brands aim for, but something that is actually guaranteed,” said chief executive officer Raghu Kodige. “Whether driving sales, conversions, or customer acquisition, advertisers struggle to quantify ROAS for TV spend. We created this extensive program as the starting point in a new paradigm for TV-driven outcomes in which marketers are assured every CTV ad dollar hits the bullseye.”

    Worse yet, the company plans on greatly expanding the metrics it uses to track the effectiveness of ad campaigns.

    The conversion metrics program will begin immediately with app installs and is available globally. More conversion metrics such as tune-in, web visits, physical location visits, and more, will be available in the coming months both in the U.S. and globally. 

    There’s just one thing LG seems to have forgotten: Advertisers aren’t the ones buying their TVs, meaning advertisers should not be the company’s prime concern — its customers should be. 

    Fortunately, users still have a way to opt out, albeit at an added expense. Users who don’t want to see LG’s ads should not give the TV internet access and use a third-party device, such as an Apple TV, instead.

  • Google Experiment Is Adding Favicons to Ads

    Google Experiment Is Adding Favicons to Ads

    Online ads may be on the verge changing significantly, with Google testing favicons within ads.

    Favicons are those little icons that show up in browser tabs when visiting certain websites. They’re a way for websites to add a little more branding, but many users find them annoying and distracting. What’s more, browser favicons have been exposed as a privacy risk, allowing bad actors to track users’ activity.

    Evidently, Google still believes favicons may have a place in advertising, and is testing their inclusion, according to a tweet by Google’s AdsLiason account.

    This is part of a series of small experiments to help users more easily identify the brand or advertiser associated with the Search ads they may see for a given query.

    AdsLiason (@adsliason), January 24, 2022

    There’s no indication when Google will make a final decision.

  • It’s “Game On” for Buffalo Wild Wings New Brand Architecture, Says CMO

    It’s “Game On” for Buffalo Wild Wings New Brand Architecture, Says CMO

    “When I think of brand architecture it really gets to the essence of the brand,” says Buffalo Wild Wings CMO Seth Freeman. “The essence of the brand is around this idea of camaraderie and ritual and something that we like to call “game on.” It’s our ability to make sure that when folks come in to experience Buffalo Wild Wings that we have a game on mentality and that we bring them the very best of who we are.”

    Seth Freeman, Chief Marketing Officer of Buffalo Wild Wings, was recently interviewed on Adweek’s CMO Moves podcast with Nadine Dietz. Freeman discussed their new “game on” brand architecture that defines not just their new marketing strategy but really the heart of the business. “The purpose ultimately is really about inspiring legendary experiences between friends,” noted Freeman:

    Turning Good Times With Friends Into Great Times With Brothers

    When I think of brand architecture it really gets to the essence of the brand. There are three components to it in the way we framed it up.  They are the promise, the essence, and the purpose. We identified an insight out there that guys want to turn good times with friends into great times with brothers. More accurately, legendary experiences with brothers. That was the cultural insight that really framed our brand architecture.

    When we think about our purpose we defined our promise as the great American sports bar that turned game time into stories worth telling. It wasn’t just about inviting folks to watch a game. It was about translating that into an experience worth telling. That’s what folks are really looking for. That’s the promise that we deliver on every single day. That’s why we get up. That’s why folks are going out there and doing the job that they do and delivering a great experience.

    It’s “Game On” for Buffalo Wild Wings

    Our purpose ultimately is really about inspiring legendary experiences between friends. The essence of the brand is around this idea of camaraderie and ritual and something that we like to call “game on.” It’s our ability to make sure that when folks come in to experience Buffalo Wild Wings that we have a game on mentality and that we bring them the very best of who we are. We have 80,000 folks out there working across Buffalo Wild Wings and they bring it every single day.

    https://youtu.be/AkGZHYM-D90
    It’s Game Time at Buffalo Wild Wings!

    As we were talking to consumers, one of the things we learned was that some of the most impactful experiences that they talked about was with the bartenders and servers. They are influencing whether or not those folks come back. For instance, one of the most memorable experiences they talked about was the bartender remembering them when they came back.

    That is our brand architecture, but it also lends itself to things we have done in rolling out this purpose to the broader community through our Brand Champ Initiative. That really is a cultural movement that we are employing across our franchises and corporate stores. We have over 1,200 locations where folks are trained to make sure that the brand architecture is translating to a way that is meaningful to the consumers and also meaningful to the folks that are on the front lines every single day.

    It’s “Game On” for Buffalo Wild Wings New Brand Architecture


  • Google Under Closer Scrutiny From German Antitrust Watchdog

    Google Under Closer Scrutiny From German Antitrust Watchdog

    Google has been labeled a company of “paramount significance” by the German antitrust watchdog, opening the door for more scrutiny.

    Google is facing scrutiny and legal challenges worldwide over antitrust concerns related to its search dominance, advertising business, and its Android operating system.

    According to SFGATE, Google’s designation was changed by the Bundeskartellamt, the German antitrust group, allowing it “to intervene earlier and more effectively” to block anti-competitive behavior. The classification lasts for five years.

    “This is a very important step, since based on this decision, the Bundeskartellamt can now take action against specific anti-competitive practices by Google,” said the watchdog’s president, Andreas Mundt.

    Google has already said it will not appeal the decision.

    “We are confident that we comply with the rules and, to the extent that changes are necessary, we will continue to work constructively with the (Federal Cartel Office) to find solutions that enable people and businesses in Germany to continue to use our products,” Google said in a statement.

  • Microsoft Buying Xandr Ad Business From AT&T

    Microsoft Buying Xandr Ad Business From AT&T

    AT&T has agreed to sell its ad marketplace, Xandr, to Microsoft as the ad industry tries to adapt to a post-cookie world.

    The ad industry has been working to cope with changes to online advertising, including initiatives to replace the web browser cookies that have formed the backbone of the industry for years. AT&T says Xandr compliments Microsoft’s current efforts in the context of the open web.

    “Microsoft’s shared vision of empowering a free and open web and championing an open industry alternative via a global advertising marketplace makes it a great fit for Xandr. We look forward to using our innovative platform to help accelerate Microsoft’s digital advertising and retail media capabilities,” said Xandr’s EVP and GM Mike Welch.

    “With Xandr’s talent and technology, Microsoft can accelerate the delivery of its digital advertising and retail media solutions, shaping tomorrow’s digital ad marketplace into one that respects consumer privacy preferences, understands publishers’ relationships with consumers and helps advertisers meet their goals,“ said Mikhail Parakhin, President of Web Experiences at Microsoft.

    The deal is subject to regulatory review. Neither company disclosed the financial terms of the deal.

  • UK Takes Aim at Adtech, Warns Against Unlawful Behavior

    UK Takes Aim at Adtech, Warns Against Unlawful Behavior

    Elizabeth Denham, the UK’s information commissioner, has penned a piece on the adtech market, warning against unlawful behavior.

    Adtech has becoming an increasingly controversial business model. No longer content to simply offer and sell goods or services for a fair price, companies have built entire businesses around treating their customers as the product, mining every last bit of data about them — whether they like it or not. Some companies are pushing back with privacy-oriented services, such as Apple’s App Tracking Transparency or DuckDuckGo’s App Tracking Protection for Android.

    Denham is throwing her weight into the dispute, calling out the adtech market for unlawful behavior that doesn’t take consumer choice and privacy into account.

    As organisations continue to evolve their proposals, the Commissioner believes that market participants should develop solutions that are focused on the interests, rights and freedoms of the individual. These should move away from intrusive tracking technologies that may continue to pose risks and struggle to comply with the law. 

    While Denham acknowledges there are multiple ways to address the issues moving forward, she emphasizes that any path forward must be a departure from current practices.

    Participants should note that continued use of intrusive online tracking practices is not the right way to develop solutions. Anything that essentially results in a continuation of existing practices will not meaningfully change the status quo. 

    Industry must recognise the need for change. It should understand that the Commissioner does not advocate for alternatives that use the same fundamentally flawed approaches.

    It’s refreshing to see an official take such a strong stance against an industry that has devolved into near-parasite practices that ignore the privacy and security of its users.

  • Google Joins Exclusive $2 Trillion Club

    Google Joins Exclusive $2 Trillion Club

    Google has joined the $2 trillion club, becoming only the third US company to cross the threshold, thanks to a surge in its stock price.

    Apple was the first company to cross $2 trillion in valuation, in August 2020, followed by Microsoft in June of this year. According to TheStreet, a surge in Google’s stock price Monday helped the search and ad giant cross over.

    Despite a great deal of hand-wringing over Apple’s various privacy initiatives, the ad industry in general, and Google in particular, has managed to survive relatively intact.

    Google’s valuation shows there’s still plenty of money to be made in the advertising industry, while still respecting user privacy.

  • Twitter Tweaks Algorithm and Adds New Features to Bolster Performance Ads

    Twitter Tweaks Algorithm and Adds New Features to Bolster Performance Ads

    Twitter is tweaking its algorithm and adding new features as it works to bolster its performance advertising business.

    Performance advertising is Twitter’s solution to continued growth. With an emphasis on rapid and quantifiable sales generation, the company hopes performance ads will help it double its revenue by 2023. In order to prove its value to companies looking to sell via its platform, the company needs its algorithm to properly target potential buyers.

    The company told Reuters it is tweaking the algorithm that determines what ads users see as part of its new initiative.

    “Performance ads are a very large opportunity … that’s relatively untapped for us,” said Kamara Benjamin, group product manager at Twitter. “Ultimately, this is going to lead to people installing apps, visiting websites and finding products that meet their needs.”

    One of the major new features the company is rolling out is the ability to download mobile games and apps, displayed in ads, without ever leaving the Twitter app.

  • Reddit 1-800 Flowers Ad Goes Viral

    Reddit 1-800 Flowers Ad Goes Viral

    “Our ads on Reddit have gotten a lot of traction and puts a big smile on people’s faces,” says 1-800 Flowers CEO Chris McCann. “That’s what we’re trying to do is just make sure we’re relevant and create that cognitive speed bump when people think about our company. They see something different and I’m thrilled with the creative team for coming up with something like that.”

    Reddit Ad That Went Viral for 1-800-Flowers.com

    As usual, some opinionated Redditers expressed their thoughts on the ads:

    1-800 Flowers CEO discusses the company’s growth that was accelerated by the pandemic:

    Ecommerce Growth Accelerated During Pandemic

    What we’ve seen is an acceleration of growth in our company that began back in 2018 and really then accelerated even further in 2020 with the pandemic. It’s driven by the need for us as people to connect and express ourselves. As a company whose vision is to inspire more human expression, connection, and celebration, and as an ecommerce leader, we’re well-positioned in the trends that we see coming out of this pandemic. We think these trends are sustainable going forward.

    We started out as one flower shop many years ago. What we’ve done is created this e-commerce platform for growth, a platform for expression, connection, and celebration. It starts with this all-star family of brands that we have led by Harry & David, 1-800-Flowers, Cheryl’s Cookies, Shari’s Berries, and our recent acquisition just this past August of Personalization Mall. You see us now as a company in the expression and connection business with a leadership position in floral, a leadership position in gourmet food gifting, and certainly now leadership and position in expressions and personalized items which is a fast-growing market.

    You’ll continue to continue to see us grow by organic product development of products that help customers express and connect. And as we’ve done through acquisition, adding to that platform and leveraging that platform that we’ve built.

    Need To Express and Connect Is a Lasting Trend

    Hopefully, the vaccines accelerate and we turn to some sense of normalcy sooner rather than later. As we look at our business, the momentum we saw began in 2018 and 2019 and then accelerated with the pandemic. We’ve been on a good momentum growth even before the pandemic and we really see ourselves now as a bigger stronger company than we were prior to it. We’ve acquired Personalization Mall just this past August and by putting it on our platform and leveraging our digital marketing expertise we accelerated the growth of that company. It grew by 50 percent this last quarter.

    A year ago August we acquired Shari’s Berries and took a business that was stagnant and losing money to now one that’s got a nice growth rate and is generating a nice contribution margin as well. If we just keep our focus on what the consumer is looking for to help express and connect then we’ll be continuing to see double-digit growth for some time to come. That trend that we’ve all learned from being isolated, our need to express and connect is a lasting trend coming out of this pandemic along with the shift from offline to online.

    1-800 Flowers Ecommerce Growth Accelerated During Pandemic

  • YouTube Paid Creators $30 Billion Over the Last Three Years

    YouTube Paid Creators $30 Billion Over the Last Three Years

    YouTube has provided insight into the state of its content platform, including some impressive figures regarding its revenue and payouts to creators.

    YouTube is the undisputed king of video platforms. The company recently crossed the milestone of two million creators in its monetization program — the YouTube Partner Program (YPP) — and is revealing just how much it has paid those creators over the last three years.

    Creators who are part of YPP can make money and earn a living from their content on YouTube with ten different monetization features (and we keep adding more), from advertiser revenue to selling merchandise. Over the last three years, we’ve paid more than $30 billion to creators, artists, and media companies. 

    With $7 billion in ad revenue in Q2 20201 alone, YouTube’s report is an impressive glimpse into just how important the platform is to Google’s overall business.

  • Reddit Hits $10 Billion Valuation

    Reddit Hits $10 Billion Valuation

    Reddit has secured another round of funding, bringing the social media company’s valuation to $10 billion.

    Reddit has been the darling of the social media industry, posting impressive growth, especially compared to its larger rivals. The company has been moving toward an IPO, hiring Drew Vollero as its first CFO in an effort reach that goal.

    The company has now revealed its latest round of funding, placing the company’s valuation at $10 billion.

    We are optimistic and encouraged that not only are we resourced and capitalized to continue on our growth path, but also that our investors support our vision and want to deepen their stakes in our future. We will raise up to $700 million in Series F funding, led by Fidelity Management and Research Company LLC. and including other existing investors, at a post-money valuation of over $10 billion.

    Reddit reiterated its solid growth, noting its first $100 million advertising revenue quarter, a 192% increase from the previous year.

  • Invisibly Launches Platform to Help People Control and Monetize Their Data

    Invisibly Launches Platform to Help People Control and Monetize Their Data

    Invisibly is looking to disrupt the advertising industry, launching a platform that puts people in control of their data.

    The advertising industry is in a state of flux, as privacy has become thefront-and-center issue for many consumers, regulators and companies. Apple’s recent moves with App Tracking Transparency (ATT) has been seen as particularly devastating to the advertising industry, by giving people a choice about whether to be tracked.

    Invisibly is taking that a step further, putting people in control of their own data and putting them in a position to benefit from the monetization of it. Founder and CEO Jim McKelvey, also co-founder of Square, sees this is as the perfect time for Invisibly to make its mark.

    “It’s time we enable people to take back control of their data,” Dr. Don Vaughn Ph.D., Head of Product at Invisibly says. “By creating a platform that lets people make money from their data, we’re not only educating people on how valuable their data is, we’re telling big tech it’s time to change the way things are done, and time to start fairly compensating people for the data they regularly profit from.”

    “Right now people can make a few dollars a month from sharing their data on our platform, but within the next couple of years, we hope that people will be able to earn around $1,000 per year from Invisibly,” Vaughn continues. “We believe that data licensing will be a powerful new source of passive income for people and are excited to help the industry change to a 100% consumer-consented data model that people are fairly compensated for.”

    The platform is now in beta. Those interested in participating can sign up at www.invisibly.com.

  • Google Piloting Three-Strikes Policy for Repeat Ad Policy Violators

    Google Piloting Three-Strikes Policy for Repeat Ad Policy Violators

    Google is cracking down on those repeatedly violating the company’s ad policies, piloting a three-strikes program.

    Google has a number of policies aimed at preventing harmful or inappropriate ads. The company prohibits “ads promoting deceptive behavior or products such as the creation of false documents, hacking services, and spyware, as well as tobacco, drugs and weapons, among other types of content.”

    Unfortunately, companies often try to circumvent Google’s policies, leading the company to try a ‘three strikes and you’re out’ approach.

    “That’s why we are introducing a new pilot program to test a three-strikes system for repeat ad policy violations,” writes Brett Kline, Product Manager. “Starting September 2021, warnings and strikes will be issued for violations of our Enabling Dishonest Behavior, Unapproved Substances and Dangerous Products or Services policies—this includes ads promoting deceptive behavior or products such as the creation of false documents, hacking services, and spyware, as well as tobacco, drugs and weapons, among other types of content. These types of ads have long been prohibited, but now we are introducing increasing penalties with each strike applied.”