Advertising Perspectives

This story was first published by Digiday sibling ModernRetail In an email to employees in May, after pulling back on some diversity, equity and inclusion goals, Target’s CEO tried to reassure employees that its values ... read more

Related Insights Member Exclusive Ad Tech Briefing: Public companies’ first loyalty is to shareholders — why do advertisers give them an easy time? Subscribe To Read Read More ... read more

As thousands of agency folk grab their passports, sunblock and antacids to head to Cannes next week for the annual Lions fest, Omnicom has quietly hammered out its strategy and message it take to the Croisette. ... read more

It’s no secret that retail media networks are seeing a boon in business and viewed as a bright spot in advertising. Financial institutions are chasing those dollars now, too, from the likes of Chase and ... read more

To receive this daily Cannes briefing over email, please subscribe here. If this is your first time (or if you want a refresher on what you might expect), here’s what we can tell you about ... read more

The job market has never been easy to navigate. But right now — between tightened marketing budgets, agency consolidation and economic headwinds — it’s as convoluted as ever. Job seekers say they’re seeing hundreds of roles for ... read more

Next week’s Cannes Lions festival in the south of France will bring CMOs, holding company execs and consultants together for the industry’s biggest bazaar. While the creative shops are there exclusively to gather up armfuls ... read more

This video is sponsored by Index Exchange. For more information about sell-side decisioning, check out this report. A lot of decisions are made between the time someone shows up on a website and when an ... read more

This WTF guide, sponsored by Index Exchange, explores what sell-side decisioning is, how it is reshaping the programmatic supply chain and how both publishers and marketers can benefit from applying inventory, audience and quality insights ... read more

The decision to leave was already on the table. For months, senior marketers at one of WPP’s clients had grown frustrated with the holding company’s pace of change. WPP had been trying – streamlining teams, ... read more

The folks at independent agency Known have always done things a little differently. Digiday first wrote about Known as having built an Iron Man suit it would put to use for clients, developed under the ... read more

This week’s Media Briefing looks at Reddit becoming a top referral channel for some news publishers (although the audience coming from the social media platform isn’t big enough to replace declining search referrals). ... read more

Pinterest is going all-in on programmatic, and its newest hire is the tell. Chip Jessop, Amazon’s former director of global accounts and North America ad tech sales, joined the visual search platform on May 27 ... read more

Interested in sharing your perspectives on the media and marketing industries? Join the Digiday research panel. Marketers, ad executives, publishers, tech companies — pretty much every conceivable member of the ad industry — they’re set ... read more

Dave Taylor, Chief Product Officer, Alliant The days of influencer marketing as an auxiliary tactic, rather than an integrated part of a broader omnichannel marketing mix, are over. Now, with industry power player Omnicom Media ... read more

Index Exchange’s investment arm, IX Labs, has announced a “multimillion-dollar” partnership deal with investment fund First Party Capital, a further sign of scaled ad tech companies looking to startup investments to future-proof their strategies. The ... read more

This week’s Future of TV Briefing looks at how the transition to Nielsen’s big data plus panel measurement currency is complicating price negotiations in this year’s TV and streaming ad upfront market. Currency exchange ... read more

The Mark Read era at WPP is winding down with little spectacle. The company announced he’ll exit at year’s end, closing a chapter on a tenure marked by quiet pragmatism and market erosion. Read inherited ... read more

This article was first published by Digiday sibling ModernRetail With the NBA Finals between the Indiana Pacers and Oklahoma City Thunder in full swing, brands are getting in on the excitement.  Athletes and sporting events ... read more

Last year at the Cannes Lions festival, TikTok execs were peppered with questions about the app’s future in the U.S. This time, advertisers want to know about its future, full stop. Whether it’s querying TikTok’s ... read more

The Future Leader Awards, presented by Digiday, Glossy, Modern Retail and WorkLife, honor the next generation of leaders leaving their mark in their industry, with 10 years of experience or less. The winners demonstrated an ... read more

The Future Leader Awards, presented by Digiday, Glossy, Modern Retail and WorkLife, honor the next generation of leaders leaving their mark in their industry, with 10 years of experience or less. The winners demonstrated an ... read more

This State of the Industry report, sponsored by PadSquad, explores how brands and agencies deploy interactive videos for more relevant and engaging advertising experiences. The digital video advertising market surpassed $191 billion in 2024, yet ... read more

Related Insights Brand Safety How ‘The Godfather of ad tech’ aims to ‘reimagine’ brand safety and challenge the status quo Read More Three months since the unveiling of ... read more

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts • Spotify Next week, thousands of marketers and ad execs are expected to once again brave the French Riviera’s heat, rosé-laden soirees and back-to-back meetings that make the annual Cannes Lions ... read more

WPP hasn’t just lost its CEO Mark Read — it’s also about to lose Mars, one of its biggest media accounts. The CPG giant is shifting its media account to Publicis, according to two sources ... read more

Fortnite’s copycat culture might finally be on its way out. Fortnite creators’ habit of copying other creators’ popular experiences, rather than developing original games, has long frustrated both fellow creators and brands looking to invest ... read more

As the multiple antitrust cases this year attest, Google’s place at the top of the digital advertising market is clear (if under threat). The same can be said of its demand-side platform, DV360, although it’s ... read more

Meanwhile, in a galaxy far, far away from the parent company, WPP Media has downgraded its forecasts for global ad spend growth by 1.7%, a consequence of clients responding en masse to U.S. President Donald ... read more

Michael Rubenstein, co-founder and co-CEO, Firsthand The old model is breaking. Digital media’s foundational ad model — capturing attention and monetizing it through volume — is no longer sustainable. Publisher site traffic is declining, consumer ... read more

As expected, professional sports inventory is selling rapidly in this year’s upfront marketplace, notably the NFL, which as one media buyer said has become “mainstream,” and no longer the place to reach just sports fans.  ... read more

Lifestyle publishers face distinct challenges from the generative AI features Google is adding to its search engine, such as AI Overviews and AI Mode.  Evergreen and lifestyle content — like science, health and society — ... read more

Meta’s plans to fully automate ads with AI by 2026 doesn’t come as a surprise to creative agencies – but it could make retaining clients and scooping up new business that much more difficult. By next ... read more

Yet again, generative AI is likely to be center stage at this year’s Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity from June 16 to 20 – a development that may be expected for some agency execs ... read more

Is Fortnite the next YouTube? Perhaps — but Epic Games has higher aspirations. As Fortnite evolves from a popular video game into a robust ecosystem of creators, brands and virtual worlds, some observers have begun to ... read more

A fresh wave of publishers have signed up for generative AI startup ProRata’s revenue share program, including The Boston Globe, Vox Media and Future, as well as Fast Co. and Inc owner Mansueto Ventures. ProRata ... read more

Transparency is one of the ad industry’s favorite pet topics.  Today’s marketers spend sleepless nights puzzling over how much of their budget is lost along the mazelike programmatic supply chain, if they can trust CTV ... read more

If there’s one thing keeping Zola’s new CMO up at night, it’s search — or rather the messy reinvention of it. Barely two weeks into the role, Briana Severson is already navigating a marketing minefield, ... read more

DEI might not dominate boardroom agendas like it once did, but for marketers it remains essential. After all, growth doesn’t come from ignoring the audiences who make it possible. That’s why Heineken’s marketers are digging ... read more

Interested in sharing your perspectives on the media and marketing industries? Join the Digiday research panel. Publishers have grappled with a love-hate relationship with social media platforms over the years. But as AI continues to ... read more

Jorge Poyatos, co-founder and co-CEO, Seedtag Contextual ad targeting capabilities are expanding rapidly, and AI is playing a prominent role in that evolution. In the same way that the human brain uses neural networks to ... read more

If you thought the hype around AI was receding, think again. Generative AI applications have become the key battleground between marketing services companies of all stripes, from creative to strategic consulting, to media planning and ... read more

This week’s Media Briefing looks at the state of publishers’ commerce and affiliate businesses, given the recent news that Business Insider is shutting down most of its commerce division in light of search referral traffic ... read more

Against all odds – and headlines – ad spending is holding steadily.  Despite a parade of problems, the market hasn’t blinked. Ad buyers are saying it, and the latest forecast from Madison & Wall backs ... read more

More media agencies are attempting to go around traditional ad tech gatekeepers to strike their own deals with supply-side platforms (SSPs). Media agencies are under pressure, squeezed between marketers holding back on budgets and the ... read more

The Trade Desk is poised to launch Deal Desk, a new capability within the demand-side platform aimed at easing the structural inefficiencies in the Deal ID ecosystem. Deal Desk’s official announcement is expected imminently, although ... read more

In a surprise move that happened last week but news of broke last night, studio and TV company Paramount moved its media business to Publicis and Interpublic Group, dealing losses to WPP and Horizon Media, ... read more

This State of the Industry Report, sponsored by Arc XP, explores how publishers are incorporating AI into their newsrooms beyond the typical workplace efficiency avenues, how far they’ve gotten with those implementations, the challenges they’ve ... read more

IAB Tech Lab has used its annual summit to announce two major initiatives aimed at modernizing digital advertising infrastructure and content governance, as well as addressing some of the fundamental challenges that generative AI and ... read more

In 2025, podcasts are more attractive than ever to advertisers who want to reach young and plugged-in consumers. As podcasting evolves from an audio medium into a video medium, brands are increasingly viewing the format ... read more

This week’s Future of TV Briefing features an interview with YouTube creator Michelle Khare who has 5.1 million subscribers on YouTube and potentially someday soon an Emmy Award. YouTube TV (Emmys edition) TelevisaUnivision’s ad ... read more

Oatly’s marketers don’t do normal – even when it comes to market research. Usually it’s sanitized – committee-approved, consultant-scripted and delivered too late to shape real creativity.  Oatly, the oat milk brand, however, is taking ... read more

TikTok really wants advertisers to see it as a place to drive full-funnel results — not just boost brand awareness but deliver on performance too. “We’ve been listening and building alongside our partners to create ... read more

It might be perceived as a sign of uncertain economic times that agencies are doing their best to stay lean by keeping full-time staff at a minimum and relying more heavily on freelance help in ... read more

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts • Spotify Nikki Ogunnaike wasn’t always a morning person. But for the last decade, the editor-in-chief of Marie Claire magazine has made it a point to start the day around 6:30 ... read more

MNTN’s initial public offering has revived hopes for ad tech companies eyeing public markets, debuting at $16 per share and quickly rising to $28, with a valuation of $1.2 billion.  Backed by Morgan Stanley and ... read more

Budgets may be tighter this year, but the rosé will still be flowing freely as agency executives flock to the French Riviera to attend the year’s Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity from June 16 ... read more

Roblox is pushing to onboard more advertisers, but the platform’s current lack of third-party measurement tools is becoming a roadblock for some marketers. Agencies trying to onboard advertisers new to Roblox say it’s becoming harder to ... read more

It finally happened: The New York Times signed an AI licensing deal. Not with Perplexity, or Google — and definitely not with OpenAI or Microsoft — but with Amazon. The agreement will allow Amazon products, like ... read more

In today’s tech lexicon, slapping “AI” in front of a problem, or a product, is the fastest way to make something old sound new, whether it’s clickbait, content farms, or a decade-old dashboard with a ... read more

In 2025, advertisers’ Pride Month spending has cratered — and LGBTQ+ creators and influencers are feeling the squeeze. Brands and marketers have been reconsidering their support of gay pride since 2023, when Bud Light’s Pride campaign ... read more

GroupM’s rechristening as WPP Media last week was intended to answer questions posed by clients, staffers and industry critics about the future of what was once the industry’s largest media investment house. But beyond the ... read more

While Target continues to contend with sluggish sales and external economic pressures, Roundel, the retailer’s ad business, seems to be a bright spot in an otherwise gloomy financial picture. In its Q1 2025 earnings call ... read more

Patrick Roman Gut, svp, head of new business, Adstra Modern business relies heavily on the concept of identity and understanding customers and their preferences. The most common proving ground for the concept of identity has ... read more

Digiday editors asked the Digiday+ community for any questions it had during their first Ask Our Editors event on Thursday, which covered off expectations for the Google trial, updates on M&A activity and privacy workarounds. ... read more

Accenture Song is in for change, as its leader and creative power, David Droga, steps upstairs to the parent company Accenture’s corner office as vice chair. Droga, considered by many to be one of the ... read more

This article was first published by Digiday sibling, Modern Retail. As brands recalibrate their marketing budgets amid a tough economy, they’re trying to get the most bang for their buck this summer. While summer might be ... read more

Even without the Olympics or a major soccer tournament to tide sports fans over this summer, marketing investment in sports continues to rise. In the U.S. alone, brand sponsorships of major teams in the NFL, NHL, ... read more

For years, Amazon’s advertising playbook was all about keeping advertisers in-house — using its data to target shoppers within its own ecosystem. Now, it’s shifting gears, urging advertisers to take that data on the road ... read more

This Tactics + Insights guide, sponsored by Simpli.fi, explores how brands and agencies can successfully navigate sudden and continuous market disruptions by prioritizing omnichannel strategies. Disruption has become a defining feature of digital advertising. Seismic ... read more

LinkedIn has introduced a range of creator metrics aimed at giving brands and marketers deeper insights into the platform’s influence and ROI. As of Wednesday (May 28), LinkedIn creators can now track how many profile ... read more

Google’s rollout of AI Mode to search has rattled publishers, reinforcing fears of a future where the platform stops sending traffic to publishers’ sites outright in lieu of their AI-generated summaries.  While that may still ... read more

This week’s Media Briefing looks at advertising spend going to publishers, and which categories are faring well and not so well. Q2 ad revenue is pacing well, but publishers are dealing with some ... read more

The recent reframing of Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s public image as an unabashed figure with more “masculine energy” has sparked controversy in recent years, primarily due to the associated political implications.  However, it was in ... read more

When the economy turns sour, marketers are the first in their businesses to taste it, especially the ones on in-house teams. Just last month, PepsiCo reportedly handed off parts of its internal creative studio to ... read more

Lindsay Shelton, director, North America, VIOOH Not all screens are created equal, and in the modern fragmented marketplace, how advertisers access and activate the best placements can make or break a campaign. Brands need guaranteed ... read more

For ad tech bosses, the IPO dream is no longer just a late-night fantasy, it’s starting to look like a real possibility.  “Look” being the operative word. Nothing’s guaranteed but there is momentum. MNTN’s splashy ... read more

This is the third installment in Digiday+ Research’s 2025 CMO Strategies series that analyzes key marketer strategies and challenges across leading marketing channels, including ad-supported streaming, retail media, display advertising and social media. ... read more

Fine dining and globe-trotting travel have been displacing mere objects as consumer status symbols ever since Instagram first arrived on the app store way back in 2010. It’s a shift that brand marketers have long ... read more

It’s only been six months since Perplexity launched its ad business, but advertisers are already hungry for it to grow up fast and prove it’s more than just another shiny object. Six media buyers Digiday ... read more

This week’s Future of TV Briefing looks at how Amazon and YouTube are dangling incentives to get advertisers to buy more CTV inventory through their respective demand-side platforms. ‘Everyone’s trying to undercut The Trade ... read more

The Future Leader Awards, presented by Digiday, Glossy, Modern Retail and WorkLife, recognize the next generation of leaders making a big impact in their industry, with 10 years of experience or less.  This year’s finalists ... read more

The Future Leader Awards, presented by Digiday, Glossy, Modern Retail and WorkLife, recognize the next generation of leaders making a big impact in their industry, with 10 years of experience or less.  This year’s finalists ... read more

No apocalypse yet: Google’s March core update has brought manageable search traffic dips for some publishers, with AI Overviews dragging and Discover picking up some slack. Google’s rollout of its generative AI search experience, AI ... read more

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts • Spotify Google’s traditional search business is transforming for the AI era. Last week’s roll-out of AI Mode in the U.S. enables people to replace the traditional search engine results page ... read more

When programmatic media buying first started heating up in the early 2000s, it promised scale, efficiency and more precise ad placements. But some of that promise has worn off. Programmatic marketers are weary, wading through ... read more

These agents will do everything, if they’re built on Google systems can it tweak them to help Google? Robert Webster, TAU Marketing Solutions Alphabet’s AI advancements continue to wow Wall Street, but they’re ... read more

Ad spending held steady in Q1, but the rest of the year is shaping up to be a far murkier story. With companies adjusting earnings forecasts and the upfront market losing steam, the signs are ... read more

In an era of programmatic investment and complex media marketplaces made more byzantine thanks to the crush of ad-tech and mar-tech firms offering their brand of “unique” or “proprietary” solutions, does a personal touch or ... read more

The bull case for OpenAI to build an ads business just got a lot more real.  The company is developing a sleek AI companion device, born out of its acquisition of former Apple designer Jony ... read more

Over the past two years, clipping has quietly become a staple in some advertisers’ media mix. The term “clipping” refers to the practice of sharing short clips from longer content such as podcasts, livestreams or YouTube ... read more

Ad spend is under more scrutiny than ever as economic headwinds pressure marketers to stretch budgets, making every dollar count. Marketers are scrutinizing their ad spend more closely than ever and pressuring retail media partners ... read more

Paul Woolmington certainly looks the part of an ad agency creative. But in actuality he’s one of the senior media-side executives with decades of experience under his belt, including at holding companies including IPG, WPP, ... read more

Interested in sharing your perspectives on the media and marketing industries? Join the Digiday research panel. There are a lot of questions in this year’s upfront market negotiations: Will ad prices come down after last ... read more

This story was originally published on sister site, Glossy. TJX, parent company to off-price leaders like TJ Maxx and Marshalls, reported 3% sales growth during its Q1 fiscal 2026 meeting on Wednesday. “The availability of ... read more

Food and beverage brands are introducing new products that aim to address the questions raised by consumer usage of GLP-1 weight-loss drugs like Mounjaro and Wegovy. At the same time, they’re beginning to borrow from ... read more

This week’s Media Briefing looks at what AI Mode, the latest generative AI search experience Google has rolled out, means for publishers’ search referral traffic. Users’ queries in AI Mode are two to three ... read more

AI may be fueling a fresh chapter in ad tech fraud — and not in ways the industry is ready for. Generative AI content farms are stealing publishers’ ads.txt files to hijack ad revenue, according ... read more

Related Insights Google on Trial Assessing the fallout of Google’s ad tech antitrust trial Read More Participants in the Google antitrust trial are entering the final furlong, with ... read more

ChatGPT is sending more of its traffic to publishers’ sites.  Of the traffic OpenAI’s generative AI platforms send to external websites, 83% went to news and media sites in April, up from 64% in January, ... read more