Advertising Perspectives

Nearly a year after he left Netflix, ad industry veteran Peter Naylor is back as a board member at ad tech business Kochava. Digiday caught up with Naylor to unpack why he’s stepping back into ... read more

Related Insights The Programmatic Marketer Advertisers put SSPs and curators under the microscope in sell-side push for ad tech fee transparency Read More It’s late April/early May, and ... read more

Publishing execs didn’t shy away from the elephant in the room during their first quarter earnings calls: What impact would President Donald Trump’s tariff policy and the uncertain economic climate have on their businesses? CEOs ... read more

As generative artificial intelligence improves, creators are growing more confident using it to make audience-facing content. For content creators of all types, generative AI use is on the rise. In March, a survey of content ... read more

AI is upending the ad business and S4 Capital is changing its pricing accordingly. CEO Sir Martin Sorrell said the rise of automation is forcing a rethink of how the firm is paid, particularly with ... read more

Related Insights The Programmatic Marketer The Trade Desk stumbles, and the ad tech world cheers — maybe too soon Read More Maybe things weren’t so bleak for The ... read more

Uber’s ads business now has an annual run rate of $1.5 billion — up 60% from its where it was a year ago. To bolster its case with advertisers, Uber Advertising has brought on its ... read more

This week’s Media Briefing looks at news publishers’ pitch to the ad market at the IAB NewFronts, amid continuing challenges to get marketers to invest more ad dollars in news, and an uncertain economic environment. ... read more

Interested in sharing your perspectives on the media and marketing industries? Join the Digiday research panel. With so much uncertainty in the mix and even more likely on the horizon, signs are pointing toward publishers ... read more

This story was first published by Digiday sibling ModernRetail As tariffs drive up the cost of imported goods, Amazon shoppers appear to be increasingly curious about one thing: where their products are made. According to ... read more

The longer this earnings season drags on, the clearer it becomes: the ad slowdown might be steeper than anyone first thought. It’s not the tariffs themselves spooking advertisers – its the fog of uncertainty they ... read more

Karim Rayes, Chief Product Officer, Nexxen Artificial intelligence has quickly become the ad tech industry’s favorite talking point, and understandably so. Nearly every company is racing to launch AI-powered products, from generative creative tools to ... read more

There’s new leadership at the industry’s top agency trade association. Starting today, Justin Thomas-Copeland will succeed Marla Kaplowitz as the 4As’ CEO. Throughout this month, Thomas-Copeland will work alongside Kaplowitz, who has been CEO of ... read more

After nearly 30 conversations with a variety of executives attending Possible last week in Miami, a few topics bubbled to the surface, from a cooling of the merger and acquisition market to the opportunities and ... read more

Podcasts are no longer the territory of audiophiles. As connected TV becomes YouTube’s primary watch surface, podcasters are seeing a rise in viewership on the biggest screen in the house. Amid the shift, many podcasters ... read more

It’s been a year since Google rolled out AI Overviews, and over two years since the launches of ChatGPT and Perplexity — tools that have collectively upended the traditional relationship between publishers, platforms and audiences.  ... read more

Interested in sharing your perspectives on the media and marketing industries? Join the Digiday research panel. There’s a shift happening in the display advertising space: Marketers are using and spending more on email this year ... read more

This week’s Future of TV Briefing recaps a heated discussion about transparency in the connected TV ad market that took place during the Digiday Programmatic Marketing Summit. Black box Trump’s Hollywood tariffs, Roku’s kids’ ... read more

This year’s Digiday Content Marketing Awards winners embraced video content, in its various forms, to craft compelling narratives that successfully connect with audiences. As brands work to build long-term consumer relationships, tailoring content to individual ... read more

Lance Brothers, Chief Revenue Officer, Adstra Managing identity has never been more complex. Customer data is fragmented across systems, privacy regulations are tightening and enterprises need different identity capabilities at various stages of their marketing ... read more

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts • Spotify The upfront seems set for one of those up-and-down cycles. The annual TV and streaming advertising haggle has had a rash of rollercoaster years recently — 2020 and 2022 ... read more

Now that September is locked in for Google’s showdown with the Department of Justice over how to dismantle its grip on online ad sales, it’s time to dissect how each side thinks the monopoly should ... read more

If you were to sum up the first 100 days of Trump’s presidency — a milestone we just passed on April 30 — with one word you’d likely use “uncertain” to do so. And for ... read more

The 4A’s has overhauled the Multicultural Advertising Intern Program (MAIP) and Vanguard — two of the marketing industry’s cornerstone diversity initiatives, revamping the curriculum for both and expanding access to applicants. It’s a push for ... read more

TikTok’s fate may be uncertain in the U.S. but many advertisers are simply shrugging and spending anyway, according to a Digiday+ Research survey of brand, retailer and agency professionals. Nearly halfway through its second 75-day ... read more

AI-powered chatbots are scary smart, thanks to the large language models undergirding them. But they’re only as smart as the data they’re trained on. Two major factors can inhibit the AI chatbots being created by ... read more

Marketers are adding yet another item on their growing honey-do list for smaller and mid-sized retail media networks. They’re pushing for real-time bidding, a form of programmatic advertising that allows ads to be bought and ... read more

There’s a quiet vibe shift rippling through marketing circles as the industry comes to terms with the epistemic hangover of its long entanglement with Google.  None of this is new, of course — marketers have ... read more

AI agents are no longer just experimental tools — they’re rapidly becoming indispensable intermediaries in how people search, shop, and interact online. As platforms like Google, OpenAI, and Perplexity race to roll out agentic AI, ... read more

With an ongoing global trade war and stricter border enforcement, the travel and tourism industry in the U.S. is starting to see a dip in visitors. During the month of March, international visits to the ... read more

More advertisers and their media agencies are considering DV360, Google’s demand-side platform (DSP), for their connected TV (CTV) campaigns. It’s another sign that competition between the big DSP providers — a triumvirate including The Trade ... read more

Media agency network GroupM was once the market’s apex predator — and the engine room of industry giant WPP. The London-headquartered holding company still looks to its media business to power a long-term return to ... read more

Creators are flocking to LinkedIn — and brands’ dollars are right behind them. As LinkedIn positions itself more firmly as a home for creators, influencer marketers who operate within the platform’s ecosystem say that their ... read more

Some companies just don’t lose – even when the market is in free fall. Amazon’s ads business is proof, cruising steadily while the broader market sputters in the face of economic drag. That strain has ... read more

AI didn’t dominate the chatter at Possible like some expected but when it did surface, the tone had shifted: marketers are no longer starry-eyed. They’re focused on what AI can deliver now, not someday.  In ... read more

Sometimes it feels Google can’t do right for doing wrong, but let’s not feel overly sad for a company that generates hundreds of millions in daily ad revenue.As Digiday noted on multiple occasions, April was ... read more

In corporate boardrooms and on the sidelines of industry conferences, marketers are considering how best to respond to President Donald Trump’s tariffs. It’s become the key question facing them this year. Marketers’ collective wisdom, gleaned ... read more

Related Insights Life Beyond the Cookie The winners and losers of Google’s third-party cookie reversal Read More Google isn’t known for saying sorry so the fact that it’s ... read more

The transition from viral influencer to a full-time career as a creator has always been tough — but with greater economic pressure, some are realizing the juice isn’t worth the squeeze. After working 11 years as ... read more

This week’s Media Briefing looks at The Washington Post’s deal with OpenAI to use the news org’s content in its ChatGPT search product, and what it says about the future of licensing deals between AI ... read more

Roblox partner Super League, a metaverse production company, today has acquired fellow Roblox specialist Supersocial, for an undisclosed sum, as it seeks to scale up brand world-building for advertisers. As Roblox and its ecosystem of ... read more

Between U.S. tariffs and a potential recession, marketers are feeling cautious at the moment. Sound bets for their media budgets are welcome. Sports, however, offers a haven. Live sports has already become one of the ... read more

While Google insists Privacy Sandbox is still moving forward, publishers say the writing’s on the wall: with little incentive left to support it, the Privacy Sandbox is effectively dead. While no one is celebrating the ... read more

This is the second installment in Digiday’s two-part series covering the top ad-supported streaming services and a part of Digiday’s CMO Strategies series. In case you missed it, the first installment provided an overview of ... read more

Linda Yaccarino continues to cast X as the anti-media media company — a disruptive alternative to what she and Elon Musk believe is the dusty, broke fourth estate. It’s a contentious claim, especially in an ... read more

Bradley Keefer, CRO, Keen Decision Systems Legacy media mix planning software remains widely used across agencies. These tools offer a structured process and a game plan marketers can follow, but they were built for a ... read more

This State of the Industry Report, sponsored by Warner Bros. Discovery, explores how marketers, retailers and agencies have used contextual commerce on CTV and streaming as shoppable advertising gains traction. Consumer buying and viewing habits ... read more

After just over 100 days in office, Donald Trump’s presidency has left U.S. advertisers’ heads spinning. The impact of his tariff policies, however, are being felt far beyond the 50 states. Global research outfit WARC ... read more

Another publisher is taking OpenAI to court. Ziff Davis is the latest media company to sue the tech company over copyright infringement, but the lawsuit highlights a broader reality: Publishers still have no reliable way ... read more

The remedies phase of the Google search antitrust trial is forcing Google to contemplate the unthinkable: potentially parting ways with the world’s most popular browser, Chrome. Unsurprisingly, a crowd of would-be buyers is already lining ... read more

This week’s Future of TV Briefing looks at how mid-sized advertisers may be less inclined to make upfront commitments this year — which could have the effect of pressing larger advertisers to commit. The ... read more

Starting in March, parenting creator Tina Cartwright heard from three brand partners that they would be halting or pulling upcoming campaign spending (around Mother’s Day, for example), citing “budget freezes” and “tightening budgets” in the ... read more

The finalists for this year’s Digiday Media Awards showcase how brands push boundaries by smartly integrating emerging technologies. Each entry highlights a commitment to deepening audience engagement with interactive formats, inviting participation and building community. ... read more

The only thing clear at the moment in forecasting economic conditions across the marketing ecosystem is that you pretty much can’t. At least that’s the message being delivered by executives who swung by the ... read more

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts • Spotify In the age of the retail media network boom, retailers have been all too happy to strike a deal with marketers, selling off ad space on their own platforms ... read more

Now that the dust has settled from Google’s gut punch — being called out not just for monopolizing how people access information online but how that information is monetized — the hot takes are flying. In ... read more

Earnings season can be windows into what major marketers’ are thinking — especially amid the ongoing economic uncertainty caused by President Trump’s tariffs. In recent weeks, marketers have experienced decision paralysis; been expecting chaos (and regularly ... read more

TikTok is aggressively courting creators and agencies to showcase the revenue potential of its livestreaming tools. TikTok says its creators are now collectively generating $10 million in revenue daily through livestreaming — a figure the ... read more

Was last quarter a fluke or is this a legitimate turning point for the business? That’s what industry analysts will want to clarify during Snap’s Q1 2025 earnings results later today. As W Media Research’s ... read more

Jacki Kelley does not want to attract attention. In fact, the evp and chief client and business officer of Interpublic Group does not want to be written about during this sensitive time in the holding ... read more

It’s difficult to know how marketers should manage this current moment. It’s not just a matter of a potential economic downturn that could hurt consumer sentiment and ultimately consumer spending. It’s not just tariffs and ... read more

Is it time for yet another reset in how marketers and their media agencies need to approach media investments thanks to changing consumer habits? Horizon Media certainly is proposing that, with new research it is ... read more

Just when publishers thought Facebook was done, it’s pulling them back in.  Publishers have witnessed a recent year-over-year spike in Facebook referral traffic, and it’s — somewhat surprisingly — coinciding with an influx of revenue ... read more

President Donald Trump’s tariffs have advertisers on edge, and many are hesitant to shell out on long-term spend commitments, like the ones found in retail media’s joint business plans. Small businesses, however, are keeping their ... read more

With TikTok’s future hanging in the balance, music promoters are widening their focus from TikTok to creators on other short-form video platforms such as Instagram and YouTube. Although President Donald Trump extended the deadline for ... read more

The dust has (mostly) settled, the hot takes have cooled to a low simmer and Google’s cookie U-turn is officially yesterday’s panic. So naturally it’s time to do what the industry does best at times ... read more

A new category of bots is quietly becoming one of the biggest forces reshaping the web: gray bots. They’re not yet a household name like “generative AI” or “AI agents,” but gray bots are already ... read more

The all-conquering video platform YouTube turned 20 years old this week, signifying a welcome break from drama after drama in what could be described as the most turbulent month in the 26-year history of its ... read more

The long saga of Google’s third-party cookie crumble has come to an end. The tech behemoth has stopped kicking the can down the road when it comes to removing third-party cookies from Chrome and, instead, ... read more

Interested in sharing your perspectives on the media and marketing industries? Join the Digiday research panel. The subject can’t be avoided — following years of delays and panicked preparations, Google is keeping third-party cookies in ... read more

Livestreaming is having a moment in 2025 — and it’s bringing some growing pains. Creator platforms’ push into livestreaming is exposing a deep cultural divide between Twitch’s dedicated streaming community and creators going live on ... read more

For years, privacy was treated as advertising’s great reckoning. The introduction of the General Data Protection Regulation in 2018, Apple’s crackdown on mobile identifiers and the slow death march of third-party cookies in the largest ... read more

After a mere three months of testing, Meta announced on Wednesday that ads on Threads are now available to all eligible advertisers globally. While it might seem quick — testing periods can typically take anything ... read more

Anudit Vikram, Chief Product Officer, Channel Factory Brand safety technology has advanced well beyond its origins. What began as simple keyword blocklists has matured into a new generation of tools powered by AI. These systems ... read more

This WTF guide, sponsored by Adstra, explores how composable identity is changing how marketers target and engage consumers across a fragmented ecosystem, future-proofing their marketing strategies against industry and regulatory changes. Amid evolving privacy regulations, ... read more

In this week’s Media Briefing, publishers say that after years of preparing for Google’s deprecation of third-party cookies in the Chrome browser, the tech giant’s u-turn this week felt like a slap. And yet, they ... read more

The digital advertising industry has spent the last five years preparing for a cookieless future. This week, they’re looking for ways to make that feel less like a wasted effort, following Google’s latest policy reversal. ... read more

When major marketers like Unilever are saying they’re dramatically increasing their ad spending on influencer marketing, the agencies who manage influencer marketing are, naturally, chomping at the bit to get those ad dollars. But ... read more

The Possible conference, trade show and kibbitz-fest kicks off on Monday in Miami, its third year of existence. And while it has grown its audience sizably since year one — with an emphasis on attracting ... read more

This is the Digiday+ Research Data Sheet, a new monthly feature that takes an in-depth look at our survey data in relation to major trends in the marketing and media industries. This month, we look ... read more

After more than half a decade of delayed timelines, government oversight and industry infighting, Google has fulfilled many expectations: a u-turn on third-party cookies in Chrome. For some, it spells the death of Privacy Sandbox ... read more

It’s been nearly a week since U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema ruled that Google illegally monopolized the tools that direct how ad dollars flow across the internet. The moment felt, briefly, like vindication for publishers. ... read more

This week’s Future of TV Briefing looks at a report from Innovid that seems to show CTV advertisers’ reach and frequency calibrations are out of whack. Beyond reach Productions’ Hollywood exodus, Netflix’s podcast interest ... read more

When the economy wobbles, most marketers ease off the gas. Amazon is telling them to floor it — on its ads, naturally. It’s a predictable pitch from a media owner. But Amazon isn’t just any ... read more

As more vendors rebrand automation as agents, established giants and startups alike are challenged to show agentic AI delivers real business value — not just hype. Among the most ambitious is Salesforce, which aims to ... read more

Brands looking to reach Roblox users in 2025 are finding themselves inundated with competing pitches from Roblox over how to best advertise on the platform — and some are deciding to spend their marketing dollars elsewhere ... read more

The winners of this year’s Digiday Streaming and Video Awards — formerly the Digiday Video and TV Awards — found success by focusing on personal stories and meaningful experiences to foster connections and drive brand ... read more

This year’s Digiday Content Marketing Awards finalists showcase the companies and campaigns successfully using content to modernize media and marketing. The standout campaigns reveal how brands are leaning into storytelling to foster emotional connection, while ... read more

Related Insights Life Beyond the Cookie Google’s latest Chrome update leaves third-party cookie phase-out as unclear as ever Read More In a shocking development, Google won’t roll out ... read more

In a rapidly evolving multiplatform viewing environment, audiences are changing how they find and engage with content. Many viewers increasingly gravitate toward streaming platforms or short-form content, expecting enhanced personalization beyond what traditional linear offerings ... read more

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts • Spotify These past few weeks have been a whirlwind as marketers have started to feel the effects of President Donald Trump’s tariffs. The start and stop nature of the tariffs ... read more

It’s not an overstatement to say Merkle’s role in Dentsu has been a bit unclear since the Japanese agency holding company consolidated its ownership in the firm back in 2020.  Even a few Dentsu executives ... read more

Earnings season has returned and with it a familiar exercise in managing uncertainty. For the first time since President Trump’s administration put sweeping tariffs on imports, the country’s biggest advertisers, retailers, media companies and platforms ... read more

For LG, the future of advertising isn’t flashy ad tech or buzzworthy partnerships — it hinges on something far more mundane. The TV menu. The South Korean electronics giant has quietly bet its ads business ... read more

As content creators across the web get swept up into discussions of tariffs and a potential recession, some are adjusting their approach to avoid possible blowback from affected fans. With Donald Trump’s currently-paused tariffs (save ... read more

Marketers may be expecting, and prepared for, chaos but that doesn’t mean it’s easy to navigate yet another round of economic uncertainty — especially when the last one was just a few years ago. The replanning, ... read more

Two deals stood out during the Q1 wave of consolidation in the ad tech and martech landscape, with activity from agency holding companies piquing interest: Publicis Groupe bought Lotame, while WPP acquired InfoSum. These deals ... read more

As generative AI moves from shiny new object to table stakes across the media agency landscape – in fact across the entire media and marketing world – some agencies are putting it to valuable use ... read more

When times get tough, some advertisers look to performance channels to see them through. As advertisers get buffeted by tariff-induced uncertainty and a precipitous drop in consumer confidence, Amazon appears to be emerging as an ... read more

Small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are no stranger to pivoting on the fly, but President Donald Trump’s tariffs have sent waves through the media and marketing economy. And for SMBs, it’s difficult to grapple with ... read more