- Roku Delivers Upfront Dinners With A Side Of Full-FunnelRoku hosted several client dinners with all of the major holding companies as well as independent agencies in April, each with about 70 people per dinner. It's the second year Roku chose intimate client dinners ... read more
- InMobi Goes All In On iOS; Automation, But With HandholdingInMobi Apple Seeds On Thursday, India-based mobile ad tech giant InMobi announced its acquisition of Apple advertising startup MobileAction. The terms were not disclosed. One rationale behind the deal – and InMobi’s desire to sharpen ... read more
- Future of Marketing Briefing: Memes used to be a joke. Now they’re a strategyLast month, a U.S. Special Forces soldier was indicted for insider trading — not on stocks, but on a prediction market. He had detailed knowledge of a military operation. He bet on it. The platform ... read more
- WTF is a unified ad platform?Ad tech’s shift from an industry littered with point solutions to one built around integrated stacks has been underway for a while. It was only a matter of time before the acronyms followed. Unified advertising ... read more
- The Trade Desk Has A Grand Vision, But Needs A New Breed Of CMO To Make It A RealityThe Trade Desk made $689 million in Q1 2026, up 12% from the period last year, while its net income and profit margin dipped slightly to $40 million and 6%, respectively, according to its quarterly ... read more
- The Trade Desk’s $689M revenue beat is blunted by the departure of CSO Jacobson to OpenAIThe Trade Desk’s Q1 revenues of $689 million may suggest holding-company spats are a mere bump in the road, but confirming the exit of CSO Samantha Jacobson hours before its market disclosure shows complications can ... read more
- Meta Reportedly Developing Agentic Assistant For Social Media UsersMeta is reportedly developing a personalized AI assistant designed to complete tasks for its 3.5 billion users across its various social-media platforms. ... read more
- Snap Loses Users, Readies AR GlassesSnap's Dynamic Product Ads revenue grew more than 30% year-over-year, doubling adoption among small and medium-sized businesses. ... read more
- Amazon, LinkedIn Team Up For B2B TV Ads Ahead Of UpfrontLinkedIn brings its first-party audience data to Amazon Ads' streaming TV inventory through Microsoft Monetize, building on an existing partnership that foreshadows Amazon's upfront presentation next week. ... read more
- Amazon, LinkedIn Team For B2B Inventory Ahead Of UpfrontLinkedIn brings its first-party audience data to Amazon Ads' streaming TV inventory through Microsoft Monetize, building on an existing partnership that foreshadows Amazon's upfront presentation next week. ... read more
- MNTN Wants Its AI Video Ad Generator To Stand Apart From Its CTV PlatformBetween a new quarterly earnings report and the launch of an updated video AI tool, Tuesday was a big day for CTV platform MNTN. The post MNTN Wants Its AI Video Ad Generator To Stand ... read more
- ANA Town Hall: 'How About Nothing — Is Nothing Good For You?'"That's not a sustainable chart," the 4As' Matt Kasindorf concluded, using his hands as the best gestural explanation for the decline in agency compensation fees and the rise in principal media-buying. ... read more
- Planet Propaganda Taps Monarko To Build Media PracticeThe remit is design media to serve an AI-driven marketplace. ... read more
- WBD's Q1 Ad Business Sinks 8%, Streaming Up 19%Streaming distribution revenues are now higher than linear TV distribution revenues - at $2.53 billion (up 7%) vs. $2.37 million (down 8%). ... read more
- Proximity Beyond Audiences Reimagines Performance Metric For TVThe metric is poised to overtake audience targeting for TV to become one of the most effective performance strategies that advertisers tend to overlook, according to a joint report released today from Blockgraph and the ... read more
- ‘Expand thoughtfully’: OpenAI offers ChatGPT ads to new markets including the U.K., Brazil and JapanOpenAI’s ads business is going global. Over the coming weeks it will start testing ads in its ChatGPT AI-powered chatbot in the U.K., Brazil, Japan, South Korea and Mexico. Those countries join the U.S., Canada, ... read more
- Digital Video Spend Surges Past $80 Billion, Leaving Linear BehindEven in its "mature era," digital video is still expanding nearly 20% faster than the overall ad market. ... read more
- Climate Coverage Fell In 2025 As Weather Disasters Increased: ReportCorporate broadcast networks aired just eight hours of climate coverage throughout the entire year of 2025 -- a 35% decline from the prior year, according to an analysis by Media Matters for America, Nonprofit Quarterly reports. ... read more
- Magnite Says It’s Not Afraid Of The Agentic Era – Or Of GoogleHalf of Magnite’s C-suite may be heading out the door, but the company still posted strong Q1 numbers – and leadership is quick to predict that Magnite will prevail in its battles with both Google and ... read more
- Meta Asks Court To Toss Social Media Addiction VerdictMeta Platforms has asked a Los Angeles judge to throw out a $4.2 million addiction verdict reached against it in March and to order a new trial, Reuters reports. The jury found Meta and YouTube ... read more
- Kismet Media, Wheelhouse Reach Partnership DealKismet Media has formed a partnership with Wheelhouse as it prepares to launch the reality series Calabasas Confidential, Deadline reports. The arrangement will combine Kismet’s producing and casing expertise with Wheelhouse’s production, investment and brand-building strengths. ... read more
- Gray Media Completes $80 Million Purchase Of Block CommunicationsGray Media has closed its $80 million acquisition of Block Communications, Stock Titan reports. The previously announced deal brings television stations in Louisville, Kentucky, Springfield-Decatur, Illinois and Lima, Ohio. Gray claims to reach 37% of ... read more
- S4: Q1 Organic Revenue Took 5% HitAll regions declined although S4 noted that the Americas performed stronger than expected with net revenue down 0.5% and is now accounting for 82% of the company's business. ... read more
- CNN Still In The Headlines – Thank Ted TurnerTurner was a key figure in and owner of the budding cable TV network business, giving modern TV business of the time some necessary high-profile spin. ... read more
- A Publisher Didn’t Get Its UID2 Setup Right. The Trade Desk Didn’t Notice. What Went Wrong?Publishers that want access to programmatic CTV demand are under immense pressure to include alternative IDs like The Trade Desk’s Unified ID 2.0 in their bid requests. The idea is that these alt IDs enable ... read more
- Why Platforms Are Cutting Out Clipping; The Scourge Of Search Ad ‘Maxxing’Clip It To Win It If attention is currency, clippers are generating the change in your wallet: It might not look like a lot but, eventually, it adds up. Clipping, which is the practice of ... read more
- Omnicom quietly moves Flywheel and Omni into the media groupEven though Omnicom’s commerce media unit Flywheel has been operating in close proximity to Omnicom Media since the parent company acquired it in 2023, the holdco quietly acknowledged on Monday that Flywheel has formally been ... read more
- Media Briefing: Publishers cautiously count AI licensing as notable revenue amid programmatic strain, in Q1 earningsThis week’s Media Briefing will examine how AI licensing revenue is starting to emerge as a meaningful growth driver for publishers this year, even as traffic declines continue to put pressure on some advertising businesses. ... read more
- Possible expands to Lisbon in 2027, keeping its focus on marketing, tech, culture and creativityIn our last update on Possible 2026, held last week in Miami Beach, its founders and owners declared their intention to launch a European installment of the conference, to be held in Lisbon in October ... read more
- The biggest creators feel growing pains as they try to build successful standalone companiesWhat works structurally for an individual creator doesn’t automatically translate into a scalable media company, and more founders may be running into that reality. Late last month, reports emerged that Unwell Network, the media company ... read more
- Digiday+ Research: Marketers’ AI use rises, but tech skills stallThis is an excerpt from our Digiday+ Research report “The marketer’s guide to AI applications, agentic AI, AI search and GEO/AEO in 2026,” which explores how marketers are navigating the opportunities and challenges AI brings ... read more
- Google AI Search Turns To Social Media Posts For 'Experts'Updates to AI Mode and AI Overviews find Reddit and other social media sites at the forefront in providing expert advice to those searching across the web for information. ... read more
- Google AI Search Scours Social For 'Experts'Updates to AI Mode and AI Overviews find Reddit and other social media sites at the forefront in providing expert advice to those searching across the web for information. ... read more
- Warner Bros Discovery’s Oscar Collection Grew In Q1, But Its Revenue Did NotOn Wednesday, Warner Bros. Discovery hosted its first quarterly earnings call with investors since agreeing to sell itself to Paramount SkyDance over Netflix in late February. The post Warner Bros Discovery’s Oscar Collection Grew ... read more
- Apple Settles $250M AI Marketing LawsuitApproximately 37 million iPhone owners in the U.S. are eligible to receive settlement payments, according to court filing. ... read more
- Trump’s Hollow Indiana VictoryHe’s still king of the GOP, but it may soon be a smaller kingdom. ... read more
- Threads Launches Desktop DMs Ahead Of Website RedesignDirect-messaging capability has begun rolling out on the Threads desktop app, a significant step in the evolution of the platform and its upcoming web redesign. ... read more
- LinkedIn Certification Program Aims To Link Marketers With Experienced AgenciesLinkedIn's "Agency Certification" program offers marketers a new way to identify agencies that are most familiar with the B2B social platform's ad tools. ... read more
- Pinterest Q1: Adds Users, Invests In AI Ad Suite, SearchPinterest's Q1 2026 performance shows user growth across the globe, while its revenue per user decreased compared to previous quarters. ... read more
- U.S. Ad Market Growth Dips Back To Low Single Digits In MarchMarch expanded 2.8% - a big deceleration from February's double-digit sports-related gains. ... read more
- Stop Treating AI Search Like SEOGEO and SEO diverge on five operational dimensions: tone, format, freshness, measurement, and whether the channel produces a click. ... read more
- Criteo Faces Tough Headwinds Until Agentic AI Ad Revenue MaterializesCriteo shares dropped by 20% Wednesday morning after the company reported shaky Q1 earnings and revised its guidance downward for the rest of the year. The amount spent by advertisers on Criteo was up, and ... read more
- Ted Turner, CNN Founder And Media Titan, Dead At 87Ted Turner, the brash broadcaster who changed TV news forever when he founded CNN, has died. He was 87. ... read more
- Roundel’s Jenny Holleran: Efficiency or Growth? Retail Media Network’s Precision Plus AI Tool Promises BothMost discussions of artificial intelligence in advertising and media circles still largely revolve around how to use the technology to generate actual growth, as opposed to achieving some level of efficiency. Target’s Roundel believes it ... read more
- Media Curation Is The Open Web Fighting BackCuration is not a new layer of technology, but a philosophical shift. For many years, programmatic optimized for reach. Curation optimizes for relevance. ... read more
- Ted Turner's Greatest Contribution Was Not CNN...or creating cable TV's "superstation" or saving the American bison. It was shaming the world's richest men into becoming its greatest philanthropists. ... read more
- AI Promises Creative Scale. Marketers Discover They Now Need 10 Times More AdsMassive datasets are used by AI models to determine what works, replacing gut feel with something closer to algorithmic judgment day. ... read more
- Google Tests 'Remy': How Long Before Agentic Personalizes Ads?Google's personal agent "Remy," currently being tested in the Gemini app, can act on behalf of humans - but the ad industry is only beginning to explore these advancements. ... read more
- Google Tests 'Remy': How Soon Before Agents Own The Ad Chain?Google's personal agent "Remy," currently being tested in the Gemini app, can act on behalf of humans - but the ad industry is only beginning to explore these advancements. ... read more
- Disney’s New CEO Is Focused Two E’s: Engagement And ESPNOn Wednesday, Josh D’Amaro led his first earnings call as the new CEO of Disney. The company closed last quarter with $25.2 billion in revenue, a 7% year-over-year increase. Disney Entertainment advertising revenue rose 5% ... read more
- Disney Q1 Ad Spend +5%, Streaming Ads +12%Growth for streaming continues to outperform linear TV. The company says D2C advertising from Disney+ and Hulu was up 12% to $821 million, driven by more viewer impressions. ... read more
- Despite enthusiasm over its ChatGPT tie-up, Criteo’s shares slide on downgraded revenue forecastThe buzz around Criteo’s groundbreaking partnership with OpenAI was palpable during the ad tech company’s first-quarter earnings call earlier today, but an earlier-tipped lag in retail media spend, plus slowed performance media spend, impacted its ... read more
- People Inc. Looks Inward For Growth As Its Search Traffic DownsizesPeople Inc. is making “who needs Google?” an entire business philosophy. The company – still technically IAC, though it’s rebranding to People Inc. – is undergoing a major reorganization. The company has spent the past ... read more
- Sports Teams Must Take A Holistic Approach To TV Advertising: NielsenSports teams advertising in today’s three-pillared television scene should take a holistic approach where linear TV, free ad-supported TV (FAST), and other ad-supported streaming (Non-FAST AVOD) are seen as a single, scalable ecosystem. Nielsen states in a new guide. The guide explores ... read more
- Under California Bill, State Agencies Would Spend 40% Of Ad Budgets On Ethnic Media
- Linear Still Has Positive Brand ROILinear TV is a cost-effective channel with extensive reach and long-term benefits, a new report from Circana finds. ... read more
- FTC Signs Deal Dropping Its Probe Into Media MattersThe Federal Trade Commission has entered into a legal settlement with Media Matters that would end its investigation into the a progressive media watchdog according to a press release from Media Matters, Huffington Post reports. ... read more
- Co-Viewing For The Big Screen: How Big A Deal Is This Now?TV still needs to up its game, despite what is still significant brand reach. Nielsen says a recent pilot co-viewing program shows some key results for February. ... read more
- Instagram Unveils New 'AI Creator' Account LabelInstagram is building upon its in-feed "AI info" tag with a new AI label that creators who post content primarily generated by AI can add directly to their accounts. ... read more
- CTV Democratizes Big-Screen Moments for Niche Healthcare Brands, DeepIntent CEO SaysMIAMI BEACH, Fla. — The pharmaceutical industry has long dominated television advertising with blockbuster drugs and massive budgets. But connected TV is rewriting those rules, potentially giving smaller, precision medicine brands access to premium inventory ... read more
- Van Leeuwen, Rula Mental Health App Serve 'Therapy In A Pint'Select Van Leeuwen shops mark Mental Health Awareness Month with a deal: $7.95 for a scoop and a free Ruta online therapy session. ... read more
- From Downloads To Daily Use: Rethinking The Value Exchange In App MarketingThe last decade of app marketing drove massive success in downloads thanks in large part to preloads, install campaigns and carrier partnerships. But the app download is just the beginning. Ninety percent of new users ... read more
- Will Kimmel Deliver A Trump Diatribe At Disney Upfront?There is no reason to expect Disney to deny Jimmy Kimmel his annual opportunity to strut upon the Upfront stage for a monologue that generally runs for about 15 minutes. ... read more
- AB InBev Named Cannes Marketer Of The Year For Record Third TimeIt also won in 2022 and 2023. The company won 37 lions at last year's Festival. ... read more
- The Direct Supply Myth: Why CTV Inventory Looks Better Coming From A Streamer Than Directly From A PublisherThe CTV ecosystem has spent the last two years insisting that the antidote to complexity is “direct supply.” Buyers are told that if they transact closer to the source, they will regain transparency, control and ... read more
- AI Creates More Ad Tech Frenemies; Is Social Video Eating CTV’s Lunch?Sparring Partners Agentic advertising is forging a wave of unexpected programmatic alliances. Last week, The Trade Desk announced a partnership to embed its DSP in another platform – a first for the company – giving joint ... read more
- ‘CPC pain is real’: One year on, Google’s AI Max has pushed up search budgets – and costsIn the 12 months since Google debuted AI Max for Search, brands have increased their search budgets and seen cost-per-clicks (CPCs) rise, while compounding search’s transition into a media channel ruled by automation. For some ... read more
- ‘Maybe ChatGPT is a different kind of a place’: Why OpenAI is saying no to search budgets — for nowThree months into testing ads, OpenAI has significantly changed. An ads manager is now up and running, pricing has come down and ad tech partnerships have been struck. What hasn’t shifted is the pitch to ... read more
- Future of TV Briefing: The upfront glossary, 2026 editionThis week’s Future of TV Briefing looks at the terms on the tips of ad buyers’ and sellers’ tongues when talking about the upfront market. The upfront, defined Amazon’s upfront pitch, Roku’s outcomes pitch, ... read more
- Marketers at Possible adjust to the realities of AI while trying to stay humanWith year four of the Possible conference in Miami said and done, the time has come to focus on Cannes Lions — a festival that Possible is often compared to, somewhat unfairly. But the conversations ... read more
- How Ace Hardware built its employee AI assistantThis story was originally published on sister site, Modern Retail. Ace Hardware is a unique retailer, being a cooperative with more than 5,200 stores that are operated independently. As a result, its executives and development ... read more
- OpenAI Opens Ad Platform To CPC Bidding, Self-Serve BuysThe company also designed and launched measurement capabilities and a landing page with sign-up instructions, video guides and documents to get started. ... read more
- Murdoch Scion In Talks To Buy New York Magazine And Vox Podcasting UnitJames Murdoch, the youngest so of Rupert Murdoch, is in talks to buy Vox Media’s New York magazine and the Vox podcast division, according to sources familiar with the talks, The Wall Street Journal reports. ... read more
- Murdoch Scion In Talks To Buy 'New York" Magazine And Vox Podcasting UnitJames Murdoch, the youngest so of Rupert Murdoch, is in talks to buy Vox Media’s New York magazine and the Vox podcast division, according to sources familiar with the talks, The Wall Street Journal reports. ... read more
- Indeed, Fox Seek 'Chief World Cup Watcher'Wanted: A journalist who is also FIFA's No. 1 fan. ... read more
- POSSIBLE 2026: Industry Experts Dish On AI – And Other Trends To WatchAt POSSIBLE 2026 in Miami, the ad industry was over the hype around AI. Industry experts got real about how agentic AI is actually changing advertising workflows today. And they called out the pie-in-the-sky use ... read more
- Meta Sued For Allegedly Training Llama On Pirated BooksMeta and CEO Mark Zuckerberg "engaged in one of the most massive infringements of copyrighted materials in history," book publishers and "Presumed Innocent" author Scott Turow allege in a new lawsuit. ... read more
- GameStop's Reason For Takeover Bid? EBay's Marketing SucksThe minnow-swallows-a-whale bid hinges on one claim: eBay's marketing is broken. But eBay may have already gotten the memo. ... read more
- Local Digital Ad Growth Slows As Markets MatureYear-over-year digital ad growth has fallen to low single digits and is projected to dip below 3% by 2029 - the slowest pace in the past 18 years, according to a report released today by ... read more
- TikTok Expands Out-Of-Phone Ad Program With Vistar MediaTikTok's "Out of Phone" ad program is expanding to additional real-world placements via a partnership with DOOH media company Vistar Media. ... read more
- OOF! TikTok Ads Jump 'Out-Of-Phone'"Our goal is to make TikTok ubiquitous. There are over two billion 'New Screens' outside of mobile and our goal is to be on all of them," says TikTok's Dan Page ... read more
- Forget the In-Housing Debate: Why CMOs Still Need Agencies to DeliverIn 2026, agencies aren't fading; they're becoming more essential. Not because brands can't build capabilities internally, but because most CMOs don't have the time, alignment, or operational capacity to do so fast enough. ... read more
- OpenAI opens up ChatGPT ads manager to the U.S. while promising third-party measurement, CPA biddingThird-party measurement and cost-per-action bidding are both in the works at OpenAI, which has now opened its self-serve ads manager to advertisers of all sizes in the U.S. To attract smaller advertisers, it has also ... read more
- Will OpenAI’s New Measurement Tools And Ads Manager Prove Its Worth As An Ad Channel?Now that OpenAI is in the ad platform business, the next step is getting into the prove-your-ads-work business. Enter the OpenAI conversion API (CAPI), which the company announced on Tuesday along with the public launch ... read more
- Connecticut Passes Law Banning Sale Of Location Data, Regulating Ad VolumeAlong with new privacy restrictions, the bill will prohibit streaming services from transmitting ads at a higher volume than content. ... read more
- General Motors Marketing Leader Plans DepartureNorm de Greve, who joined GM in July 2023, said he will be "moving on in June to pursue a new endeavor." ... read more
- IAB Highlights Agentic Adoption In Video Ad-Spend ReportArtificial intelligence has moved from experimental to operational in the past six months - changing how advertisers plan, buy, create and measure campaigns. ... read more
- Digitas, Five Below and January Digital are among the 2026 Future Leader Awards WinnersThis year’s Future Leaders winners show how a new generation is redefining business impact. They are turning once-tactical roles into growth engines, using data and performance insights to drive measurable results while applying innovation to ... read more
- Digitas, Five Below and January Digital are among the 2026 Future Leader Awards WinnersThis year’s Future Leaders winners show how a new generation is redefining business impact. They are turning once-tactical roles into growth engines, using data and performance insights to drive measurable results while applying innovation to ... read more
- Consumers Want Everything Everywhere All At Once, Expect Brands To Pay For ItPeople move fluidly between live events, streaming platforms, social feeds, podcasts and merchandise. ... read more
- Your TV Ads Might be Playing to an Empty Room: Viant CEO Tim Vanderhook
MIAMI BEACH, Fla. — At the Possible conference, where optimism flows as freely as rosé and every panel promises to reinvent advertising by Tuesday, Tim Vanderhook, co-founder and chief executive of Viant Technology, ... read more
- Just The FACs, Ma'am: ANA Unveils Its Own New Ad TaxThe new media-buying fee, called a "fractional advertising contribution," or FAC, will be charged to use the ANA's crossmedia measurement platform Aquila. ... read more
- Digital Video Ad Spend To Climb 11% To $82B In 2026: IABSocial media video ad spend will grow at a faster pace - 13%, to $31.9 billion - than CTV at 11% (to $29.3 billion) for the first time. ... read more
- Google, Microsoft, xAI To Send Models To U.S. Government For Security ReviewGoogle, Microsoft, and xAI plan to give the U.S. government early access to new AI models before releasing them publicly under a new deal. ... read more
- Think Small. (Agencies, that is).This week, Black Noise Founder Craig Crawford took out paid ads in trade books and LinkedIn in the form of "Open Letters" to CMOs. The message: rethink the value you're getting from your big agency ... read more
- Ocean State Media Launches Statewide Signal In Rhode IslandRhode Island’s Ocean State Media has launched a more powerful signal at 103.7 WVEI-FM, facilitating consistent statewide coverage, Inside Radio reports. The statewide frequency is designed to replace a patchwork of signals the organization has ... read more
- Google Ads Launches New Tools For Mapping IncrementalityDid you ever wish you had a version of Google Maps charting connections between your different data sources? Google announced today it’s adding a Map View to Data Manager, its tool for activating first-party data. ... read more
- Google Measurement Tools For AI Era Coming SoonAs advertising reaches a new era in measurement and metrics, Google has combined data and causality to build out a series of tools to support advancements in AI. ... read more
- Netflix's 'Narnia' Magic: Old School Or New Tricks?Netflix is giving "Narnia: The Magician's Nephew" a regular 49- to-54-day exclusive theatrical window for its debut next year in February. ... read more
- Wikipedia Founder Denounces Social Media Ban In AustraliaWikipedia’s founder, Jimmy Wales, calls Australia’s social media ban an “unmitigated disaster” that is teaching kids to accept surveillance from tech companies, the Guardian reports. Wales, who founded Wikipedia, in 2001, says many ills of ... read more