Adtech
 
We are still in the early stages of the battle between Google and the Regulators and the FT sum things up well with Competition and the clock: how Google plans to deflect and delay a historic break-up threat
 
We pointed to the excellent Arête report on this topic the other week and their founder has now written a great summary of the argument that a break up could work for everyone;
 
But it’s naïve not to acknowledge that Google’s end-to-end third-party network is still among the cheapest ways to buy digital ads on a wide variety of sites. Google’s competitors by comparison – however excluded they may feel from the market – often take far more than their fair share and hide that fact behind layers of unnecessary complexity.
 
The timing helps Google – for the first time in years they face credible competition; banker Rich Greenfield discusses the weakening of Google’s ad revenue as rivals like TikTok, Amazon, and AI-powered startups challenge its lead
 
The WSJ has more on this saying Google’s Grip on Search Slips as TikTok and AI Startup Mount Challenge. And Amazon Follows Google Into Visual Search To Strengthen Shopping
 
But whilst there are use cases that favour Amazon search and TikTok search, they are still the exception.
 
The new Q3 2024 Market Report from Luma Partners shows a healthy sector but BI note the high turnover in adtech execs – citing pressure from investors as a cause.
 
As the chart above shows the market is dominated by the same players and whilst everyone has new ads ( like Snap with Chat ads and Discord adding video ads) it’s so hard to get traction.
 
Social
 
The latest Piper Sandler report on US Teens has TikTok the most popular social media platform but surprising falls from Nike – particularly amongst women and upper income.
 
The Live Learning Event from U of Digital is well worth your time – covering: TikTok Ban? Google Breakup? Where Will Ad Budgets Go?
 
Deep coverage on Will the U.S. ban TikTok? And who will be the winners and losers?
The piece feels the legal battle will see TikTok lose but a political solution is possible.
 
But at AdWeek it was business as normal with TikTok launching an ambitious set of tools for advertisers; Automate, Measure and Maximize: TikTok Is Building For The Future With New Performance Advertising Solutions
 
TikTok Video For Open Web Publishers? Outbrain Built It.
 
Don’t go cutting spend on paid social yet — hear me out
 
The most talked about brand on social this week? Nutter Butter
 
In what feels like a cross between a Van Gogh painting, a ’90s MTV commercial and a rendition of a psychedelic trip, the sandwich-cookie company’s social media pages have caused a stir in recent months. Are they funny, disturbing, or cutting edge? Yes.
 
AI
 
AI video continues to get lots of attention, with the new meta tool Movie Gen being announced this week – but it won’t be available until the new Year. The demos are impressive and it’s doing the right thing by watermarking all content and stressing the continued importance of production people.
 
But it’s time to focus on what people have got working – what are the use cases and what problems are being solved?
 
Meta is seeing rapid take up of their AI tool enabling expansion of video assets – more video ads quicker.
 
I was impressed with German start up Black Forest, who are working with Hollywood legend Mike Ovitz and powers Elon Musks Grok
 
Google’s AI search summaries officially have ads – Verge
 
I guess everyone has seen – or heard talk of – the neat trick Google have enabled with their NotebookLM audio. These instant podcasts are impressive – and whilst they are probably over hyped it’s a use case that people find useful. The story behind the product development is a good read.
 
Following Google poaching their top engineers Character ai is to pivot away from LLMs
 
..three-year-old Character.ai will focus on its popular consumer product, chatbots that simulate conversations in the style of various characters and celebrities, including ones designed by users.
 
Understanding a brands share of voice, share of shelf and more recently share of search is a good tool to assess brand health.
 
Brandtech firm Jellyfish have applied the thinking to Large Language Models and are rightly getting traction with this smart thinking. Quite how you can optimise the results is less clear.
 
Walmart Reveals Plan for Scaling Artificial Intelligence, Generative AI, Augmented Reality and Immersive Commerce Experiences
 
TikTok’s parent launched a web scraper that’s gobbling up the world’s online data 25 times faster than OpenAI – Fortune
 
ITV charge £1k for their GenAI ads 
 
Retail Media
 
Coming in at number 4 in the chart above Microsoft have embraced ads in the last few years – but now seem set to close their retail media business and instead refer brands to Criteo
 
I had to miss this weeks Tesco Media Upfront but heard positive things. Their new retail measurement framework looks good. Developed in conjunction with brands, agencies and Industry bodies it sets new standard – just as the industry is calling for better transparency and accountability
 
Tesco are pushing new short form video formats and their store wraps look good too.
 
Instacart is rolling out new ad formats on their carts – the range of opportunities is great but we need tech that reduces the cost of creating all these different assets
 
NewTV
 
Trad TV is quickly adapting to new tech and adopting new tools – as the Telegraph report Channel 4 will offer street by street targeting.
 
For example, someone watching Made in Chelsea on Channel 4’s streaming service could be served an ad for a fashion brand in a local outlet to them if a particular fashion trend is being discussed.
 
Advertisers can further optimise their campaign by selecting from 26 programme genres, as well as time of day and device the show is being watched on.
 
The dividing line between newTV and retail Media is shrinking. The most exciting aspect of the news from Tesco and Walmart is how their data can be used to target TV ads. The new partnership between Roku and Instacart demonstrates this well
 
Shoppable ads: On Roku, CPG advertisers can create a direct path to purchase from their ad creative via text messaging or QR code, with Instacart as the landing destination. With Instacart, people watching Roku can go from seeing an ad to getting the advertised products in their hands in as fast as an hour – shopping from their favorite retailers.
 
Top ad exec is leaving Warner
 
Great oral history of Roku – such an impressive company.
 
Dave Morgan – newly back as CEO of Simulmedia on what’s wrong with CTV – Fraud, Fake Ads and the AdTech mess. Must listen.
 
Measurement
 
An important new report ‘Making effectiveness work‘ was  launched at the IPA Effectiveness Conference this week. It’s driven by a new Model- Experiment- Simulate- Implement (MESI) approach.
 
Chair of Judges for the IPA Effectiveness Awards, Catherine Kehoe delivered a powerful speech on the state of marketing effectiveness at the 2024 Awards ceremony, and why the learning from the entries is so important for our industry
 
Social Shopping
 
TikTok just hosted its first summit for its US e-commerce partners.and Business Insider have the details .
 
The company spent much of the event pushing TikTok Shop partners to test out live selling.and has sellers from the Chinese sister app Douyin. But people were quick to point out Chinese tactics may not work in the west.
 
Adexchanger have a good piece on live shopping and also updates us on how Instagram are looking at commerce.
 
Live shopping app WhatNot does well in niche products – Gary’s uses it for his collectibles. They have added a loyalty programme to minimise sellers moving over to TikTok etc.
 
Shein has doubled profits in the UK to £24m on sales of £1.5bn – up 38%
 
Marketing Week have a good feature on Chinese shopping with interviews with key execs from RB
 
And we wrote about Live Shopping and Made by Mitchell in GoodTikTokCreative
 
Merchant
 
Significant moves on grocery from Amazon. They are looking to remove the distinction between buying from Whole Food, Amazon grocery and Amazon.com.
 
This is best exemplified by the idea you can combine orders
 
We’re running a trial in the greater Phoenix area where customers can now shop tens of thousands of grocery items—including fresh groceries—alongside millions of Amazon.com products, and have them delivered, together, in hours.
 
With this trial in Phoenix, we are making it easier for customers to buy the products they want and need, and have them delivered to their homes quickly. It’s Amazon’s unparalleled selection under one roof, coupled with Same-Day Delivery speeds and multiple delivery window options, that sets this experience apart. We’re going to continue to expand to more locations as we test and learn with this model. Over time, we expect to see more and more customers using Same-Day Delivery from Amazon to shop for fresh groceries or get ingredients for meals
 
Really interesting developments and it’s worth reading the whole article.
 
In other Amazon news they are closing 3 Amazon Go stores in New York and expanding same day delivery on Amazon Pharmacy to half of the US.
 
Tech is helping the competition too – discount store Save a Lot are reentering Neew York with the help of robots and Uber; At a Brooklyn Warehouse, Robots Are Reshaping the Grocery-Delivery Business
 
A good LI post looks at how Temu and Amazon are competing for sellers and Temu Targets Amazon Fire TV Streaming Gadgets With $4 Remote – Amazon’s official branded replacement product sells for $25
 
Deliveroo have opened a 4th Hop store – this time in Hong Kong Not sure I understand the model for these stores. Serving a variety of partners, whose products do you carry? And how do you avoid competing with other stores?
 
And Just Eat partners with Waitrose -working across 229 locations. They already work with Ubereats and Deliveroo.
 
MYT Netherlands Parent B.V. (“Mytheresa”) and Richemont sign agreement for Mytheresa to acquire YOOX NET-A-PORTER (“YNAP”) to create leading, global, multi-brand digital luxury group in exchange for a 33% equity stake in Mytheresa
 
Mytheresa Acquires Yoox Net-a-Porter From Richemont in Equity Deal | BoF
 
Web3 Games
 
In the new Piper Sandler report we see Roblox active usage improved to 46% from 34% in Spring 2024. 17% of Teens have never played Roblox, down from 22% in Spring.
 
WPP and Roblox strike new global content and advertising partnership – Digiday
 
Short Seller Hindenburg Goes After Roblox – Research firm alleges videogame company has exaggerated user data and compromises child safety
 
Epic has a plan for the rest of the decade – The Verge
 
Google ordered to open Android app store in Epic Games trial
 
Plus+
 
2025 Media Trends – DEntsu
 
Securing the corner office at home: How CEOs can protect their personal email
 
New York Sun owner Dovid Efune closes in on £550mn deal for UK’s Telegraph
 
Please Don’t Make Me Download Another App – The Atlantic
 
Starbucks’ mobile orders are a challenge for its new CEO – who wants « a clear distinction between ‘to-go’ and ‘for-here’ service » in stores
 
Students adapt Meta’s smart glasses to dox strangers in real time | Science & Tech News
 
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