Nardone, who is credited for placing the first paid internet ad in 1994, estimates search referrals, which drove most of the traffic to publish sites, have dropped from 70% of visits for many publishers just ... read more

As agentic commerce promises to further ease the friction that still hinders online shopping, earning consumers’ trust is the foundational factor that will determine greater adoption. Still, consumers’ embrace of agentic commerce may actually be ... read more

When more than half of all media is purchased and optimized by algorithms, brands risk blending into what one agency leader calls a “sea of sameness” – the same signals, the same optimization targets, the ... read more

AMENIA, NY – The display advertising ecosystem is massive, mature, and moves a lot of money. It also has a problem: most of what fills it doesn’t move. That gap between display’s scale and video’s ... read more

When we convened in February, marketers’ approaches to AI were still nascent. Over the past several months, many iconic brands have moved from early experimentation to strategies and tactics that put AI firmly in the ... read more

When we convened in February, marketers’ approaches to AI were still nascent. Over the past several months, many iconic brands have moved from early experimentation to strategies and tactics that put AI firmly in the ... read more

CANNES, France – Global sporting events offer brands a chance to reach massive audiences, but getting noticed can feel like trying to hail a taxi outside the stadium after the World Cup final. Lucy Markowitz, ... read more

When everything is changing all around you, it’s a great time to recalibrate. Prebid.org, which oversees the open-source header bidding software of the same name, is confronting major change both internally and across the ad ... read more

What does it mean for brands and creators following and optimizing citations in AI engines as rules and metrics change? ... read more

Following three years of legal warfare with its parent company LG Electronics, Alphonso – LG’s ad tech division – finally has a way out. Actually, it has three potential options. Alphonso is weighing a traditional IPO ... read more

The deal resolves charges that TikTok allowed children 12 and under to bypass a "Kids Mode" setting that would have restricted data collection. ... read more

Anthropic just dropped Claude Sonnet 5, reigniting a broader debate about how AI should be priced. Some argue that published token rates no longer tell the full economic story because changes in token consumption and ... read more

Vertical media is expected to generate $150 billion in revenue in markets outside China, a 42% gain YoY, according to a study by Owl & Company, Variety reports. Of that money, $131 million will come ... read more

Stars and Stripes was rocked on Friday when the Pentagon fired the publisher, Max Lederer, and the editor in chief, Erik Slavin. Lederer had announced his retirement last week, The Associated Press reports. Also dismissed was ... read more

Legislators are taking aim at employers that advertise “ghost jobs” -- positions that may not actually exist, Morning Brew reports. For instance, the New York state legislature recently passed a bill that would fine companies ... read more

Say hello to the Charity Action Network; marketers are maxxing like everyone else; and Discord is trying to gamify its ads. The post Ad Tech Without Profit; What’s With The MaxxMaxxing? appeared first on AdExchanger. ... read more

What a time to be a holding company CEO. You’re either the charmer who lands big clients then waltzes off to the next pitch to sprinkle your fairy dust (Arthur Sadoun), or you’re the wily ... read more

Ads are starting to get served to bots instead of people. Nobody agrees on what that’s worth, or who gets credit for it. The Interactive Advertising Bureau is trying to fix that. A new framework, ... read more

This article was first published by Digiday sibling Modern Retail. When and how to use AI in advertising imagery is proving to be one of the biggest questions facing marketers this year. For some brands, ... read more

OpenAI’s enterprise ambitions have found a new target: ad teams.  The company is hiring a San Francisco-based head of ads enterprise marketing to shape that positioning, according to a vacancy currently on OpenAI’s careers page. ... read more

Marketers want their brands to be part of culture, rather than advertising around it — and see fandoms as the way in. Marketing execs have long since rallied around industry buzzwords like authenticity or community. From ... read more

To Nexxen has launched new standardization tools that will allow advertisers to activate campaigns quickly across more than one original equipment operator (OEM0, AdExchanger reports. Last year, Nexxen started making native home screen ads programmatically available through ... read more

CANNES, France — The gap between product discovery and purchase represents billions in lost sales for consumer brands. Creators spark interest, but interest fades fast without reinforcement. That problems is the focus of a new ... read more

CANNES, France — Live commerce’s mix of real-time streaming video viewing and online shopping hasn’t quite reached mainstream adoption in the U.S. But that early-stage status is precisely what makes it strategically valuable for brands ... read more

This email is how one knowledgeable source sums up one of the weirdest -- and most ironic -- of multiple "enhancements" Nielsen unveiled late last week for measuring the new TV season. ... read more

"Mallard's departure comes as the company restructures its approach to consumer marketing," according to Social Samosa. ... read more

Snap must face content creators' claims that it wrongly scraped YouTube videos to train generative artificial intelligence models that can create videos from texts or images, a federal judge has ruled. ... read more

"The fact that Sony has never publicly disclosed this information, and Plaintiff's refusal to name his source, strongly indicates that he obtained the information by improper means," WPP stated in its motion. ... read more

"Content posted by friends has become a small fraction of the content that users see on Facebook and Instagram -- less than 15% of posts in Facebook's news feed and 5% on Instagram's feed," Meta ... read more

To explain revolutionary new tech, the company created a 14-month pre-launch odyssey. ... read more

Internal audit details from Sony allege undisclosed markups, shell brokers used as financial warehouses, and missing rebates disguised as principal media buying in China. ... read more

Senior editors Victoria McNally and Alyssa Boyle chat about why ad tech insiders should learn more about the larger TV media industry (via our sister brand Cynopsis!), and what’s new in the world of home ... read more

Fox garnered 2.5 million average viewers. ESPN was next at 1.7 million; then comes MS Now (1.1 million) and Home & Garden TV (723,000). ... read more

"Cable operators are no longer reliable engines of indefinitely expanding retransmission revenue," says Tim Hanlon, founder/CEO of media consulting firm, Vertere Group. ... read more

Microsoft Advertising on Friday released an agentic commerce blueprint to guide businesses, retailers, and developers into the massive shift when AI agents make purchases on behalf of humans. ... read more

Much like the ecosystem of life that surrounds a blue whale, a market of AI SaaS vendors is springing up around the biggest AI companies. And AI data startup Micro1 is emblematic of the shifting ... read more

Can There Be Fewer RMNs, Please? There are hundreds of retail media networks. Even if you narrow the definition to brick-and-mortar retail chains – and ignore the endless parade of first-party data sellers now flying ... read more

There’s a sneaker shop in my neighborhood where troops of lithe, late 20-somethings congregate for a weekly running club. The wall opposite the front door is dominated by long shelves holding 80 different running shoes ... read more

Discord is taking its ads business further down the funnel with its latest ad format, Play Quest+. The format lets brands offer players rewards for completing in-game actions, such as finishing a match, completing a ... read more

This story was first published by Digiday sibling Modern Retail. Tariff refunds continue to bolster the balance sheets of big retailers while consumers remain constrained by higher fuel prices and other macroeconomic factors. Walmart has ... read more

It wasn’t that long ago that a brand announcing a creator had taken up an internal role would’ve triggered an eye roll. Gemma Collins called herself creative director at Canva. Dhar Mann as the NFL’s ... read more

This story was originally published on sister site, Modern Retail. Launched in 2024, toy brand Sticki Rolls first took off through YouTube creators, unboxing videos and trading hauls before growing into a collectible brand and ... read more

The Federal Communications Commission has approved Cumulus Media’s reorganization, the last major obstacle to its emergence from its packaged bankruptcy, Radio World reports. The company filed for Chapter 11 protection earlier this year. Cumuus CEO Mary Berner ... read more

At the 2026 New York International Auto Show, 41% participated in an on-site test drive, with 34% saying the experience made them more likely to consider buying that brand. ... read more

AI use has grown among social media professionals, with 95% now using AI tools in their work, and 75% daily, according to a newreport from Metricool, Net Influencer reports. But 14% say AI-generated content performs worse than human-made, ... read more

Scripps News, the digitally distributed information service., has launched an initiative to give viewers more direct access to reporters, according to Radio & Television Business Report. Dubbed “Connect with Me,” the new effort is moving beyond traditional ... read more

New research from iHeartMedia shows that Gen Z is still attracted to broadcast radio despite perception that it prefers personalized, on-demand audio, Inside Radio reports. “While Gen Z is conventionally thought to want everything on-demand and tailored ... read more

"Range anxiety was never really only about the battery. It's about trust in the system built around it," said Hyundai's Olabisi Boyle. ... read more

"Colorado's Healthier Social Media Use by Youth Act requires social media companies to disclose factual, research-based information to young users about the health effects of their own products," the state argues to the 10th Circuit. ... read more

Among the non-intuitive insights about U.S. TV viewing brought to light: Only 30% of U.S. households are "streaming TV only." ... read more

Conan O'Brien demonstrates he's an active senior as he travels to four more distant locations in the third season of his far-flung travel show, "Conan O'Brien Must Go." ... read more

NAD VP discusses the problem: "An avatar or a virtual persona by its very nature cannot have used a product and experienced its benefits." ... read more

Stewart brings more than 20 years of media investment leadership to the role. Most recently, she has been advising agencies independently on investment strategy, operating model design, and AI workflow integration. ... read more

Stewart brings more than 20 years of media investment leadership to the role. Most recently, she has been advising agencies independently on investment strategy, operating model design, and AI workflow integration. ... read more

New research estimates 10% of all web content has been edited or written by AI. The real question is, how much of it is actually meaningful? ... read more

A SponsorUnited report also shows 67.3% of WWE's brand partners (35) in 2025 as new brands added to the sport versus the year before. ... read more

A SponsorUnited report also shows 67.3% of WWE's brand partners (35) in 2025 as new brands added to the sport versus the year before. ... read more

"All of plaintiff's claims are barred because she consented to OpenAI's terms of use and privacy policy, which expressly inform users that information about their use of ChatGPT, including their prompts, may be disclosed to ... read more

By Adobe Over the past few years, B2B buying has changed dramatically. Buyers now expect relevant, connected experiences across every interaction, whether they’re searching for information online, attending webinars, downloading content or speaking to sales ... read more

It just accelerated how users -- as well as publishers -- personalize their journeys across search, discovery and news in ways that could impact consumers and marketers alike. ... read more

The largest viewing gain came with the WNBA, up 54% to 3.8 billion minutes viewed. And the number of overall women's sports telecasts shot up 230% to 3,363 in 2025. ... read more

Statista says "live sports piracy" is the fastest-growing digital piracy segment. ... read more

Building on AI Max's "one-click" experiments late last year, Google unveiled new A/B testing tools for search ads using a demo that took ten clicks to execute. ... read more

How long does it take you to decide what to watch after you turn your TV on? The post How Programmatic Home Screen Ads Are Becoming More Standardized (And More Accessible) appeared first on AdExchanger. ... read more

Raised on welfare in one of Chicago's roughest neighborhoods, Mr. T came up with a brand name and image for himself that made him world famous. ... read more

While marketers are happy to let AI analyze performance, draft creative and perform the chores that make humans question their career choices, they're much less comfortable letting it control budgets, adjust bids or make consequential ... read more

A report dropped last month from eMarketer that made me curious. Social networks will capture 27.7% of all US ad spend this year, despite accounting for just 12.5% of the time Americans spend with media. ... read more

"That cost is warranted where AI use could mislead consumers," an update to the IAB's AI transparency framework states. "However, labeling applied to AI involvement that poses no risk of deception penalizes advertisers without protecting ... read more

Back-to-school shopping is one of my most treasured late-summer activities. When the school supply list came out as a kid, I would wait with anticipation until my mom could drive me to Office Max in ... read more

Outta The Box Back in the long, long ago – as in, 2017 – Apple News made a tentative step into programmatic territory via an ad sales partnership with NBCUniversal. The arrangement brought programmatic plumbing ... read more

Earlier this year, YouTube made a major infrastructure play to help iron out the operational layer of the creator economy. In the last week, the platform announced two major changes that will affect how creators ... read more

This week’s Media Briefing looks at the emerging race to measure and attribute ads served to AI agents — and why the industry is still far from agreeing on a standard way to do so. ... read more

This story was originally published on sister site, Modern Retail. Tariff refunds were a massive tailwind for Target last quarter that could help it continue to lower prices. Target received $994 million in pre-tax tariff ... read more

AI media buying tests are expanding to audio. Rochester, N.Y.-based independent media agency Butler/Till and iHeartMedia have been testing the use of AI media buying agents on streaming audio and podcast inventory, Digiday has learned. ... read more

There’s a new deliverable on the creator brief: AI visibility. As more people start their shopping journey in AI chatbots, marketers are hoping creators can help put their brand names in front of those shoppers.  Brand ... read more

Most Americans have seen ads that clearly have been created with artificial intelligence, Gallup reports. Of those surveyed, 79% have seen such ads in the last 30 days, and 49% have negative feelings about use ... read more

The media world has received the sad news that Columbia House, the mail order music subscription business and major advertiser, is shutting down, CNN reports. Founded in the 1950s, the brand peaked in the 1980s ... read more

West Virginia’s HD Media is acquiring 25 publications from AIM Media Management, effective Sept. 1, according to the Daily Reporter, of  Indiana. Six publications are part of AIM Media Indiana and 19 from AIM Media Ohio. “We found ... read more

Michigan Stadium, a 107,601-seat facility that turns 100 next year, is taking advertising for the first time, pulling in Coca-Cola, Meijer and Google Gemini as the first three brand sponsors, The Athletic reports. Their logos will ... read more

Amazon is urging a federal appellate court to reconsider a ruling that allowed Perplexity's Comet assistant to continue shopping on Amazon.com, on behalf of users. ... read more

"Social media companies need clearer standards addressing youth-oriented features... as well as potentially misleading health claims and inadequate safety information." ... read more

Marketers that use personal data to set prices should tell consumers about the practice in certain situations, the FTC proposed Wednesday. ... read more

Billboard of a Patron bottle covered with honeybees invites consumers to identify the brand, then go to a website to finish the guessing game. ... read more

Curation doesn't just make the supply chain more honest. It makes it shorter. ... read more

But overall consumer spending on all video -- pay TV, streaming, other home entertainment --- continues to climb, to just under $40 billion. ... read more

CANNES, France – For marketers trying to catch a TikTok trend, timing can be unforgiving. By the time a conventional campaign makes it through meetings, approvals and production, the internet may have moved on to ... read more

CANNES, France — Marketers obsess over moments. Uber’s head of Global Creative Studio thinks that framing misses something essential about how consumers actually move through the world and ultimately decide to connect with ads. “We ... read more

AMENIA, NY – Thirty years after a college term abroad planted a seed in his mind, Jay Sears founded a school-building charity. Now, one of his former colleagues is finally ready to pick up a ... read more

Watching an appealing stream of bite-sized clips shifts the brain into an immersive, low-effort state in which self-monitoring takes a breather, a scientific study found. ... read more

Just in time for new TV programming to hit the screens in September, Nielsen is rolling out a few upgrades to its video measurement currency that will go live by the end of August The ... read more

I'm publishing them verbatim, because Nielsen had not responded to my questions asking to explain explicitly what they are, how they work and why they are improvements. ... read more

One figure not involved is Bill Cosby -- creator of the original NBC series -- and his name reportedly will not be on the credits of the new Netflix version. ... read more

Consumer data has become more than a record of historical transactions. It has become a tool for shaping future behavior. ... read more

According to Horizon Media's Bob Lord, most agencies are trying to solve the wrong problem by obsessing over cost efficiency at a time when AI has quietly unlocked something far more valuable: the ability to ... read more

OpenAI will begin serving ads to people using ChatGPT across 31 European markets on Monday (August 24), including Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Poland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Ireland, and the Netherlands. The timing lands at the ... read more

A lot of marketing leaders are wondering whether AI is really bringing incremental value to their business. Teams are moving faster than ever. Campaign briefs, social copy, first-pass creative and competitive research can now be ... read more

Fire Sale Firestarters One surprise beneficiary of the Spirit Airlines bankruptcy debacle: Google. Google spent $10 million to acquire “a trove of deidentified business data, software code and operations records” from the now-defunct airline, Bloomberg ... read more

Klaxxon alert: another social network is launching on Thursday. This one, though, isn’t ruling out advertising. It’s called diVine as a nod to Vine, the influential, though short-lived six-second video app that shaped a chunk ... read more

An agent buying ads sounds great in theory to a lot of advertisers. Less cost, less complexity and ultimately less need for a human in the loop at all. Georgia-Pacific knows that better the most. ... read more

At a time when companies are using AI to automate work processes and build products faster, The Atlantic is taking an increasingly unusual approach to its latest game: building it by hand, every day. The ... read more