“Amazon Ads and Netflix today announced a partnership that provides advertisers using Amazon DSP with direct access to Netflix’s premium ad inventory. The offering will be available in the United States, United Kingdom, France, Spain, Mexico, Canada, Japan, Brazil, Italy, Germany and Australia, providing availability for marketers using Amazon DSP in these countries. The new integration will be available beginning in Q4 2025.” – Netflix (9/10)
Variety noted that Amazon had made a similar deal with Disney in June, while Netflix had partnered with Yahoo DSP at the same time.
From tipsheet: Amazon’s AI-enabled DSP (demand-side platform) will now be able to further extend its identity footprint for CTV advertisers. This also follows Roku’s deal with Amazon in June providing access to Roku identity – also rolling out in Q4.
Amazon DSP’s authenticated reach and frequency are hard to beat in CTV.
Google adding AI for the holidays
As part of its ‘Think Week’ in New York City, Google announced new AI-powered advertising tools for retailers for the holidays.
Google’s Director of Google Ads Product Management, Brandon Ervin, explained on the company’s Ads & Commerce blog:
“All advertisers globally can now use AI Max for Search campaigns, a one-click solution that brings the best of Google AI into your Search campaigns. It’s now available in beta across Google Ads, Google Ads Editor, Search Ads 360, and through the Google Ads API.
We’ve heard that you need more flexibility and creative control to make smarter optimization decisions for your campaigns. That’s why we’ve rolled out new one-click experiments, built directly into your campaign flow to help you test AI Max with ease.
We’re also working on text guidelines, a new feature to help you create even more brand-safe creative, steering Google AI to create high-performing text assets that meet your brand and business requirements. Look for it in both AI Max and Performance Max campaigns as we start making it available to more advertisers this fall…”
Search Engine Land warned marketers, “… While AI Max and other Google AI tools offer powerful ways to optimize campaigns, advertisers should avoid relying solely on automation, as they are very new tools and will inevitably be prone to errors.” Read it. (9/10)
Google VP of Global Ads Dan Taylor told a press audience yesterday, “Most of these innovations didn’t exist in any form a year ago. (…) That’s why we’re doing these events in the middle of the year, as opposed to just one time a year, because we’re having to iterate and launch new things so quickly.” Read an overview by Adweek. (9/10)
Retailer updates from Google yesterday:
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See what’s new in Google Ads for Retail (9/10) – Google
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New ways to win over today’s consumer this holiday season (9/10) – Google
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How leading retailers and brands are using Google Ads to win and retain customers (9/10) – Google
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Generate and scale creative assets with Google AI in Asset Studio (9/10) – Google
From tipsheet: Mr. Taylor’s comment about the announced updates coming so fast speaks to the pace of innovation in advertising thanks to AI.
Also, the most important AI-related lever here may be the creative. AI’s ability to quickly adjust the creative (such as putting a human model in a new location) puts the old “dynamic creative optimization” (DCO) days well beyond the rear-view mirror.
Imagine easily placing every model in a locally relevant location for the consumer? — “This is how you will look at Dunkin’ in this new sweater.” Sold!
ICYMI, Meta released their holiday package on August 22.
Related: “The more favorable you feel towards a Brand, the less important Price becomes in the Purchase Decision…” (9/10) – Dharmesh Damani, UK Retail Lead, Google on Linkedin
Agencies try to open Meta ‘black box’
“Ad agencies are building tools to give brands more control and transparency into AI ad campaigns, especially on Meta, as advertisers push for clearer answers about how the technology makes decisions. The efforts reflect growing concern in advertising that automation, while effective, is leaving brands in the dark and raising questions about the future role of agencies in an increasingly AI-driven ad market. As Meta automates its ad platform, agencies develop new tools to understand how the AI works.”
Read: How AI ad automation is forcing agencies to redefine their role with Meta (9/10) – Ad Age (subscription)
AI’s favorite publisher is sharing
Reddit, which has lucrative AI licensing deals with OpenAI and Google, announced that it has launched a new tool that allows fellow publishers to share and track stories on Reddit.
A Reddit blog post explained three new features of its Reddit Pro suite: article insights, auto import of articles and AI-enabled ‘community recommendations’ described as…
“AI-powered community suggestions for where to post their articles, ensuring their content finds the right audiences and generates meaningful conversations.”
Read more on Reddit. (9/10)
TechCrunch covered the news and noted that Reddit “has been alpha testing the publisher product with publications like The Atlantic, The Hill, NBC News, and the Associated Press. The social platform is now inviting other platforms to try it out under beta.” Read TC’s overview if you’re a publisher. (9/10)
From tipsheet: As consumers move from search to answer engines, Reddit is arguably positioning itself as the new referral engine for publishers while aiming to ramp engagement on its own website. What’s old is new.
WPP on Advertising 2030
“What will advertising look like in 2030? WPP Media asked 62 global experts to rate 20 possible futures — from AI-created blockbusters to the limits of consumer privacy. The Advertising in 2030 report reveals what’s most likely, what’s less certain, and what’s already taking shape. See all 20 predictions and plan for what’s next…”
Read:
- “Our latest Advertising in 2030 report offers a glimpse of the industry’s future” – WPP Media
- Advertising in 2030 – WPP Media (PDF)
Cognitiv targets context with AI
AdExchanger covered an AI product update by contextual advertising technology company Cognitiv yesterday.
Earlier this year, the company announced that it was using enterprise APIs from OpenAI’s ChatGPT to refine its core product ContextGPT, back in March.
This particular ContextGPT update appears to hook into the contextual “vibes” which curates a list of targetable URLs. AdExchanger’s Joanna Gerber reported:
“The updated version features a chat-like interface where advertisers can describe their core audience using specific personality traits and behaviors, like young dog owners who don’t have kids but treat their pet as their child.”
According to Gerber, Cognitiv co-founder and Chief Science Officer Aaron Andalman explained:
“Once an advertiser determines which strategy best fits their goals, Cognitiv creates a ‘dynamic deal ID’ (…) which is appended in real time to bid requests through SSPs and then feeds into the client’s preferred DSP.”
Read more on AdExchanger. (9/10) Also, read more from AdExchanger in March.
More: Cognitiv Unveils Next Evolution ContextGPT, Redefining How Advertisers Find Their Audiences (9/10) – press release
From tipsheet: As far back as 2023, Cognitiv has been repositioning the company from “deep learning” and “big data” to AI. Company funding has only included one convertible note back in 2019 according to Crunchbase. Regardless, real-time contextual advertising makes sense in an AI world especially when the brand may not have access to identity.
eMarketer on trusting AI influencers
“Only 23% of adults worldwide are likely to consume content from AI-generated influencers, while nearly half (45%) are unlikely to trust them, highlighting hesitancy to buy into non-human creators.
Over 47% of US adults are very unlikely to follow AI-generated influencers on social media, while another 15.2% are somewhat unlikely and only 8.5% are very likely.
Engagement potential remains low: 58% of adults across generations are unlikely to engage with content from AI-generated influencers, while only 11% are likely to engage.”
Read: “An AI-generated influencer ad is the latest test of consumer sentiment” (9/8) – eMarketer
Context, conversation — and AI — are king
“When users engage with a publisher’s branded AI copilot powered by Dappier, they will now be served conversational ads that deliver Sovrn Commerce offerings informed by layers of direct interactions and context. By embedding Sovrn ads directly inside AI answers, Dappier is unlocking new AI inventory that is more relevant to consumers and more valuable to marketers than previously available ad formats, due to its rich real-time signals, high attention and viewability.”
Read: Sovrn partners with Dappier to unlock conversational AI advertising for publishers and marketers (9/10) – press release
Correction
Yesterday, I reported that former Google and Facebook ad tech executive Gokul Rajaram recalled a “degradation budget” that CEO Mark Zuckerberg gave the ads team as advertising was being introduced on Facebook.
In fact, it was an “engagement budget.”
Mr. Rajaram said on the World of DaaS podcast earlier this week:
“Mark Zuckerberg used to have an engagement budget every year as to how much engagement degradation he was willing to permit. So, the ads team and the newsfeed team had to really stay within that budget. So every company should be measuring — and probably is measuring — through holdout groups and so on.”
Listen on the Apple Podcasts app. (9/9)
From tipsheet: I kinda like “degradation budget,” but Gokul and Mark Zuckerberg know best.
More
- Lenovo’s new VP of AI innovation, brand strategy plans to break through ‘AI slop’ marketing (9/10) – Campaign
- Advertising’s canary in the AI coal mine (9/10) – MediaPost
- Adobe Announces General Availability of AI Agents for Businesses to Transform Customer Experience Orchestration (9/10) – press release
- WPP partners with MACH Alliance to power AI-driven modern marketing (9/10 – Storyboard18
- US Senator Cruz proposes AI ‘sandbox’ to ease regulations on tech companies (9/10) – Reuters (subscription)
- Oracle, OpenAI sign massive $300 billion cloud computing deal (9/8) – The Wall Street Journal