Podcast advertising once required brands to find individual shows, negotiate deals and arrange host-read spots one at a time. It was intimate, bespoke and about as scalable as running a national delivery service with a ... read more

For all of digital advertising’s sophistication, marketers have spent three decades doing essentially the same thing: deciding in advance which static message to put in front of a consumer. Firsthand is built on the premise ... read more

Artificial intelligence can process billions of signals, deploy autonomous agents and tell advertisers what consumers want before consumers have finished wondering why their refrigerator needs a software update. But Sean Black, general manager and senior ... read more

Google today introduced a way to buy and measure vertical video space programmatically across channels including platforms, apps and publishers in one platform to centralize media buys. ... read more

The further investment is designed to help expand the company, which also announced the hires of two senior executives: Jared Smith as president and Kristen Elliott as Head of Commercial. ... read more

Retail media doesn't have a measurement problem anymore, making the moment dangerous for brands. Distinctiveness is still possible, but it has to be an active choice by a brand, not a byproduct. ... read more

The U.S. ad market expanded a modest 0.7% in August following two consecutive months of World Cup growth in June and July. Digital's share of ad spending topped 80% for the first time in the ... read more

The open web is done, stick a fork in it. Banner blindness is near universal, search traffic has run dry and publishers are struggling for oxygen. A consensus has emerged in recent years that the ... read more

Data from Luminate shows that existing broadcast TV series had a 75% and 68% renewal rate in 2025 and 2024, respectively. ... read more

A new docuseries about casino operations provides a fascinating look at the problems that can develop in a location that draws thousands of people for gambling, drinking and general carousing. ... read more

Fellow privacy nerds, farewell. After 100 (hopefully) adorkable dispatches, the Data Privacy Roundup is dropping its last mic. This is the final edition, and it’s been a pleasure to ad serve you. But don’t worry. ... read more

Upfluence guides brands through the process of finding and executing creator partnerships using its agentic system, Jaice. The post This Creator Marketing Platform Has Gone Fully Agentic  appeared first on AdExchanger. ... read more

Why AI commoditizes publisher content; credit cards are incorporating brand deals at the expense of exclusivity; and McDonald's launches a media network. The post Why AI Treats Publisher Content As A Commodity; Playing Your Credit ... read more

Eyebrows were raised when Stagwell announced last November it struck a deal with defense and surveillance firm Palantir to build an AI-powered data and audience platform. But Stagwell CEO Mark Penn knew Palantir’s CEO Alex ... read more

Related Insights Marketing Marketers bemoan the culture of ‘good enough’ as standards fall amid the AI bubble Read More As many inconsistencies exist across adland that AI has introduced, ... read more

Publishers outlined how they’re preparing for a post-search era by prioritizing direct audiences, diversified revenue and AI strategies that put their journalism (and not the platforms) at the center, at the September 2026 edition of ... read more

With a record-setting $1.2 billion total worldwide for its opening weekend, 'Avengers: Endgame' comes seven years after the franchise's first film, 'The Avengers.' ... read more

With a record-setting $1.2 billion total worldwide for its opening weekend, 'Avengers: Endgame' comes seven years after the franchise's first film, 'The Avengers.' ... read more

NEW YORK — Gen Z may have grown up with smartphones, streaming services, social media feeds and algorithms that know what they want before they’ve finished wanting it. Apparently, they still like radio. That’s one ... read more

Groups uniting under the Block the Merger banner, filed a third-party brief on Friday, opposing the merger of Paramount Skydance and Discovery, Variety reports. This occurred after 12 state attorneys general signed a deal to settle their ... read more

Traffic to media web sites has plummeted over the past year, as Google and other tech giants funnel into AI products that summarize journalism without encouraging users to click through to the source articles, Futurism ... read more

Meta is taking a structurally irreversible gamble worth roughly $200 billion in annual capital expenditure to prove that its AI vision works, BigGo writes in an analysis. The bull side of the argument questions whether ... read more

Meta is taking a structurally irreversible gamble worth roughly $200 billion in annual capital expenditure to prove that its AI vision works, BigGo writes in an analysis. The bull side of the argument questions whether ... read more

A bill that would require automakers to include AM radio in new passenger vehicles has been passed by the House of Representatives, WTVB reports. The bipartisan AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act was supported by ... read more

Local advertising has always traded on reach. What’s changing is the precision with which local brands can now find their audiences. But as with all advertising, the details depend on the measurement infrastructure. “Relevancy is ... read more

Trying something new here. In the old days we would have called it a "reporter's notebook." Let's start with Smartly's Laura Desmond and see where we end up. ... read more

The retail shelf has always been competitive. AI is making it smaller. “AI is showing a smaller selection of products to consumers than they would see if they were walking down the aisles of the ... read more

The New Mexico jury's verdict came after a two-week trial that largely focused on the Cambridge Analytica debacle. ... read more

A recent proposal that would require companies to disclose their use of personalized pricing in some circumstances "will create confusion and uncertainty," ad industry groups told the FTC Friday. ... read more

As lawsuits and privacy concerns plague its wearables business, Meta plans to launch a new pair of AI-powered virtual-reality glasses designed to rival similar products from competitors like Apple. ... read more

The album, "Songs to Listen to in a Wendy's Parking Lot," was created as a soundtrack for QSR customers who "have turned Wendy's parking lots into an unexpected backdrop for documenting life's emotional moments." ... read more

Serviceplan's Mediaplus will handle media duties and Gut has been selected for creative chores with both appointments starting Oct. 1. ... read more

The 5th Circuit should leave in place its prior decision blocking a Texas law that requires social platforms to screen out "harmful" content to minors, the tech groups Computer & Communications Industry Association and NetChoice ... read more

A redesigned Copilot app, announced Friday, shifts from a standard chatbot to autonomous agent that pulls the entire strategy, budgeting and planning process into one. ... read more

The agency timesheet is finally dead. What comes in its place are contracts rooted in outcomes incentivizing the quality of results, not hours burned. Before you celebrate, the reality is agencies are evolving their SOW ... read more

Leisure behavior can reveal to marketers not only what consumers buy but where they spend their attention. ... read more

The award honors a public figure outside the industry whose work has shaped how brands advertise, market, and reach new audiences. ... read more

Merging the two companies' streaming platforms into one to get greater scale may be challenging. How will consumers judge this possible streaming combination? ... read more

The advertising often foreshadows significant cultural moments. ... read more

The idea that there was an accomplice in the Simpson murders stems from the odd memoir Simpson wrote in 2007 - 'If I Did It: Confessions of the Killer.' ... read more

Only 10% of people ages 18-24 watched any local news content within a given week, according to research from a survey commissioned by Ring Digital. This further emphasizes a trend of young media consumers moving ... read more

Marketing measurement is really about answering two questions: what happened, and then what should I do about it? Most marketing mix models are built to answer the first one, but the second is where things ... read more

Recent technology shows how Meta Platforms is moving toward search and transactions for brands rather than selling traditional advertising, and monetizing it through Muse, its AI agent. ... read more

The "live avatar" feature in the model creates an experience that listens, sees and speaks with a dynamic visual persona, with the goal to give companies "distinct visual identities to fit their brand," Google wrote ... read more

Investment firm RedBird Capital Partners is acquiring Puck, the five year-old media startup that is valued at $250 million, Variety reports. Redbird is a backer of other media properties, including Paramount Skydance and its merger with Warner Bros. Discovery. ... read more

Barry Diller's People Inc. has withdrawn its bid to buy all public shares of MGM Resorts International, sending MGM’s shares tumbling by 8%. Reuters reports. People, the owner of a 27% stake, offered to purchase ... read more

Artificial intelligence has expanded beyond individual outputs to running entire processes,  Alex Vasekin, CEO of Adtech holding, writes in TechHQ. That includes launching and managing campaigns, adjusting bids and overseeing analytics, traffic quality and fraud prevention. “What’s ... read more

Businesses using AI agents for customer service are getting a taste of their own medicine, Business Insider reports. Consumers are increasingly using AI Agents to call customer-service lines, wait on hold, negotiate bills or cancel ... read more

Let's talk acquisitions! The WarnerMount merger is close to being in the clear, after California and 11 other states settled their antitrust lawsuit against the merger. Plus: Taboola bought Dianomi. Infillion bought Foursquare. We get ... read more

The California legislature has passed the compromise version of SB-690, leaving most of the private right of action provisions of the California Invasion of Privacy Act (CIPA) in place. Thanks to massive lobbying efforts by ... read more

How legit is "annualized revenue run rate" as a metric?; YouTube discusses new creator marketplace tools; and AI agents keep bypassing safeguards. The post Higgsfield’s $1 Billion Run Rate Comes With An Asterisk; It’s Hard ... read more

This story was originally published on sister site Modern Retail. Instacart is focused on value and affordability to unlock its next phase of growth.  Speaking at the Groceryshop conference in Las Vegas this week, CEO ... read more

Meta built its $243 billion ads business on human attention. Agents could be next in line.  The more popular Muse gets, the harder that prospect is to rule out. This is a member-exclusive article from Digiday. ... read more

Related Insights The Business of AI Comscore data shows how AI discovery is splintering beyond ChatGPT Read More It’s Fall 2026, i.e., the peak of the annual ad industry ... read more

YouTube is piling on AI agents, live “gamification,” and new testing tools as it looks to keep creators, and their ad dollars, firmly within its ecosystem. These tools took center stage at the platform’s Made ... read more

The future of AI adoption and the role of CMO in that disruption and transformation were central hot topics discussed on the main stage across the two days of DMexco 2026 held in Cologne, Germany ... read more

The campaign, which launched last week and will run into 2027, is intended to help investors see the value in the company's data, research, ratings, benchmarks and other tools. ... read more

Marketing discipline and common sense both failed the cratering Nike brand. When does neglect turn into marketing malpractice? ... read more

American Eagle is celebrating "Give Like Dolly Day," created by the Dollywood Foundation. The retailer will donate all proceeds from two products to The Dollywood Foundation. ... read more

Select games will also support ambient lighting integration in compatible vehicle models and trims, allowing interior lighting to respond to gameplay for a more immersive in-car experience. ... read more

The In Real Life Act, unveiled by Senator Chris Murphy (D-Connecticut), would require social platforms with at least $500 million in ad revenue to pay taxes at rates ranging from 10% to 50% -- but ... read more

Of all the self-aggrandizing things Trump has used our taxpayer dollars for, a paid ad calling on us to "love" him is the last straw. I mean, until the next one. ... read more

According to the companies, the main goal is to help brands shift ad budgets toward the campaigns that are generating the best returns. ... read more

Many consumers have begun to settle into routines with preferred chatbots. The implications for advertisers are reshaping the traditional marketing funnel. ... read more

Online impersonation scams "have been amplified by search engine, social media, and other digital marketplace platforms that profit from optimizing online ads for third parties, regardless of whether the third parties are legitimate," the FTC ... read more

As artificial intelligence reshapes how businesses work, marketers are rethinking the tools, habits and workflows that drive innovation. But as with past technological shifts, adopting new tools often means navigating uncertainty before their value becomes ... read more

The digital audio market is becoming more programmatic, with dynamically inserted podcast ads leading the way. But, as programmatic buying becomes more common in audio, marketers and audio platforms are falling into the same habits ... read more

Netflix had four of the top ten shows and posted the best overall results with six of the top 20 shows, followed by Apple TV with four. ... read more

Everybody agrees AI saves time. Agencies believe the saved time should cost clients more. ... read more

For advertisers, this technology will not change daily procedures today, but it lays the foundation for massive scale, hyper-localized ad delivery, and lower long-term infrastructure costs by the mid-2030s, based on a Google paper and ... read more

KYIV, UKRAINE -- I am writing from here, where as you might expect, war is front-and-center. Many of the conversations are about the rapidly-emerging concept of "Cognitive War." It's one quite familiar to the media ... read more

The Trump administration continued barring journalists from CNN, MS Now and Politico early Thursday despite a judge’s order that their access to the White House be restored immediately, The New York Times reports. It was ... read more

Uberall study found a whopping 83% of restaurant locations are "entirely invisible" in AI-generated suggestions. ... read more

"Clients ultimately care about the quality, impact and performance of the work - not how many people or hours were required to produce it," says the World Federation of Advertisers' Laura Forcetti. "The growth of ... read more

The deal with blockbuster Japanese anime publisher Kodansha makes Dentsu the primary contact for U.S. brand marketing tie-ins with multi-billion dollar franchises like "Attack on Titan," "Ghost in the Shell," and "Blue Lock." ... read more

Judge Timothy Kelly, a Trump appointee, early Thursday issued an emergency order requiring the White House to immediately restore the press credentials of CNN, MS NOW and Politico. ... read more

A new analysis from WARC finds a strong relationship between highly awarded creative work and advertising effectiveness. ... read more

It's not surprising that the start of this 24/7 livestream channel on YouTube began just after President Trump posted that he was banning CNN, MS Now, and Politico from the White House. ... read more

Netflix positions a revival of the 1990s sitcom "A Different World" as a dramedy, but the show veers more toward drama than comedy. ... read more

Ad execs have kept their distance from agent-to-agent ad trading, wary of the technical cost and definitional questions still hanging over it. New research says that wariness is starting to shift. Fifty ad execs across ... read more

Connected TV advertisers are still pining after show-level control. And PubMatic announced contextual targeting at the episode level is available to media buyers accessing CTV inventory through its platform. The post PubMatic Jumps On The ... read more

Prompt Partners There’s a well-worn playbook for big media owners entering programmatic. First, they pick one exclusive or preferred platform partner. Think Walmart and The Trade Desk or Netflix and Microsoft Advertising (née AppNexus). Then, ... read more

Amazon announced new tools for its sellers across the marketplace with a plugin, made available Wednesday, that will allow them to run their businesses from Anthropic Claude and "Amazon Quick" assistants. ... read more

This week’s Media Briefing looks at publishers’ push to personalize newsletters as search traffic declines, and whether those efforts are actually paying off yet. Does personalization pay off? AI Overviews links take users to ... read more

This story was originally published by sister site, Glossy. Sephora shoppers getting a head start on their holiday shopping may have come across a new holiday value set from POV Beauty, which launched at the ... read more

As the creator economy has matured, it’s moved beyond one-off brand deals to pulling creators into the C-suite and onto advisory boards. Now, a new phase is underway: getting creators in at the ground floor ... read more

YouTube music exec Lyor Cohen announced the company will continue its partnership with Coachella, offering exclusive streaming of the music festival through 2030. ... read more

Citi is launching an advertising business with a new unit called Citi Commerce Media, Business Insider reports. The bank will allow brands to reach its 70 million customers with advertising on its app and website based on ... read more

McDonald’s said it will create its own media network, hoping to build a $1 billion business, CNBC reports. In a pilot starting last month, 450 restaurants began displaying advertising for other brands on its digital drive-through ... read more

A federal judge said he will issue a ruling regarding President Trump’s attempt to ban CNN, MS Now and Politico from the White House as soon as possible, The New York Times reports. Judge Thomas J. Kelly, ... read more

Retail marketers are gearing up for the holidays, with 55% increasing their budgets compared to 44% last year, according to Yahoo DSP’s 2026 Holiday Shopping Study, Chain Store Age reports. Of the agencies polled, 57% are planning ... read more

A ChatGPT campaign can look weak in platform reporting while generating signals of genuine demand elsewhere. ... read more

CANNES, France — The “click economy” that has driven digital advertising for three decades is facing its most serious structural challenge yet. Flowcode CEO Tim Armstrong, who built Google’s ad sales operation and later ran ... read more

CANNES, France – Retail media has spent years promising advertisers a seamless system connecting ads, shoppers and sales. The industry has also spent years handing marketers a collection of platforms, dashboards and passwords that suggest ... read more

An estimated 11.2 million Americans who see the climate and environment as a top priority don't vote, according to a recent study. ... read more

Trump's decision to revoke the press credentials of CNN, MS NOW and Politico is "probably the clearest case in history" of unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination, the organizations' attorney, Ted Boutrous, argued during a 50-minute hearing Wednesday ... read more

Best Buy will announce new CTV ad offerings Wednesday, significantly expanding its reach through enhanced partnerships with major companies and streaming platforms. ... read more

Ten months after acquiring three agencies of differing but complementary abilities, talent staffing firm 24 Seven has assembled them into a cohesive pitch machine while keeping their individual abilities distinct, creating 24 Seven Agencies as ... read more

CANNES, France — Marketing mix models have long been the industry’s best attempt at accountability. They have also been slow, backward-looking, and riddled with the biases of whoever commissioned them. A panel at the Beet.TV ... read more

At its Made On YouTube event, YouTube announced "Shorts series," designed to promote more creator-made episodic content, aligning with similar launches from competing platforms like TikTok. ... read more