Cloudflare tries talking to Googlebot

LLMS & CHATBOTS

OpenAI looking for head of ads

According to reporter Alex Heath (formerly of The Verge and The Information), OpenAI ad strategy is underway.

Heath writes on his Sources substack, “Fidji Simo is on the hunt for someone to oversee all monetization efforts. (…) Sources say that Simo has recently been meeting with potential candidates, including some of her former Facebook colleagues, to lead a new team that will be tasked with bringing ads to ChatGPT. The role will oversee all monetization efforts across OpenAI, including subscriptions.”

The new head is expected to report in to Ms. Simo.

Read more on Sources. (September 24)

Meanwhile, Adweek’s Trishla Ostwal reports on a new OpenAI job listing for a “Growth Paid Marketing Platform Engineer” which indicates the company is constructing a paid marketing platform for use by its growth team. Could this lead to an eventual ad product for answer engine ChatGPT? Read that one. (September 24)

From tipsheet: Given Ms. Simo’s previous experience, I’d guess a former Facebook ad product executive will get the role. On the job listing, this appears to be for internal use. But who knows? Amazon’s AWS was for internal use initially and then…

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LLMS & CHATBOTS

Blocking bots: AI Overviews, but not Search

Content delivery network Cloudflare announced it is trying to thread the needle on behalf of its publisher clients with its latest product (or feature), Content Signals Policy. Cloudflare’s new digital instructions will effectively tell Google’s website crawler — known as Googlebot — that it won’t allow crawling for AI Overviews, but it will allow crawling for Google Search. All of this is implemented via an edit in robots.txt.

Cloudflare VP of Product Will Allen said on his company’s blog:

“To address the concerns our customers have today about how their content is being used by crawlers and data scrapers, we are launching the Content Signals Policy. This policy is a new addition to robots.txt that allows you to express your preferences for how your content can be used after it has been accessed.”

But, as Search Engine Land reported…

• “Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince told The Information (subscription required) that Google was given a heads up about content signals, but has not said whether it will respect the new signals.”

• Robots.txt directives are not legally binding, and Cloudflare acknowledged that some companies may ignore them.”

Read more on Search Engine Land. (September 24)

Cloudflare also launched ContentSignals.org for help editing a robots.txt file.

From tipsheet: Stepping back, as publishers scramble in the age of AI amid fewer traditional search referrals, Google needs Google Search to continue to thrive and, therefore, making publishers happy is important. But, meeting the competitive threat post by AI companies such as OpenAI and their chatbot, ChatGPT, is existential. Wild times.

Related: AI Overview citations – Why they don’t drive clicks and what to do (September 24) – Search Engine Land

LLMs & CHATBOTS

Developments

• We’re expanding the models that power Microsoft 365 Copilot with the addition of Anthropic models (September 24) – Microsoft
• SAP and OpenAI partner to launch sovereign ‘OpenAI for Germany (September 24) – OpenAI
• Strengthening US National Security by Making Llama Available to Key Allies (September 23) – Meta
• We’re making public data more usable for AI developers with the Data Commons MCP Server. (September 24) – Google

BRANDS

Being a marketer at OpenAI

OpenAI and its answer engine, ChatGPT, may not have ads yet, but it does have in-house marketers.

OpenAI marketer Dane Vahey shared a list of AI-centric observations on his LinkedIn yesterday.

“After being at OpenAI for awhile now, I’ve seen how the best people adapt when working alongside AI. I wanted to share a few traits I’ve noticed again and again:

Energy: Some people wait for direction. Others create momentum and inspire everyone around them to do great work. Be the second type. That infectious momentum, passion for the work, and steady optimism are not things AI will easily replace…”

Read more from Dane Vahey, Head of B2B Marketing, OpenAI on LinkedIn. (September 24)

BRANDS

The under-monetized consumer and AI

On Mobile Dev Memo, analyst and performance marketer Eric Seufert said yesterday that there is a new-ish consumer who will be reachable for marketers due to the AI enablement of advertising tools.

Mr. Seufert reasoned that SMB advertisers will benefit from the new wave of AI tools and explained:

“I’d contend that the businesses — almost entirely SMBs — onboarded to the advertising economy will bring customers who were likewise not being targeted by advertising with them. In its Q2 report, the Census Bureau of the Department of Commerce estimates that eCommerce comprised 16.3% of total sales. Capital One estimates that while 84% of US consumers shop online, only 30% of US consumers shop primarily online.”

Mr. Seufert concluded:

“In other words: these AI-enabled tools won’t manifest new consumers, but they’ll increase the value of currently undermonetized consumers by expanding the retail advertiser base. And while I believe that these tools will create inflationary price pressure for existing audiences in tandem as creative production and targeting get more efficient, many of these newly-targetable consumers will represent incrementally new impressions within the digital advertising ecosystem. Thus, the continued optimization of workflows and targeting through AI won’t merely increase prices and reduce ad load — it could also expand the size of the digital advertising economy.”

Read: “AI-enabled advertising and the invisible retail consumer” (September 24) – Eric Seufert on Mobile Dev Memo blog. (subscription)

SELL-SIDE

The publisher ad server could be on the move

Reporting on the implications of the Google ad tech antitrust trial remedies phase, Ad Age’s Garett Sloane speaks to Chalice AI’s Adam Heimlich about possible outcomes. The future of Google’s publisher ad server known as Google Ad Manager (GAM) is hanging in the balance.

In previewing his piece on LinkedIn, Sloane wrote concluded:

“…The biggest concession from Google so far is that it will start to coordinate its ad stack with Prebid.

Google’s advances with Prebid could satistfy competition in the SSP space, but GAM would still give Google a lock on measurement, Heimlich said.

Any deal Google makes, it could just cover a part of programmatic that’s already obsolete, and fail to ensure competition in the next AI phase of things.”

Read more on LinkedIn. (September 24)

More: Google’s plan to appease ad tech—share data and open auctions (September 24) – Ad Age (subscription)

SELL-SIDE

‘Chief AI Officer’ defined

Digiday asked Washington Post Chief AI Officer Sam Han, “WTF is a Chief AI Officer?” Mr. Han answered in the context of his current employer:

“We want to reach 200 million paying customers. How can you use AI to improve user engagement by providing AI-powered products? How can you use [AI to] help newsroom and businesses to improve their operations? And then at the same time, how can you use AI to optimize subscription revenue and advertisement revenue? That’s the core mission of [chief] AI officer…”

Read more on Digiday. (September 23)

Related: Please Do Not Hire A Chief AI Officer (September 24) – Cory Treffilleti, CMO, Rembrand on MediaPost

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TECH

Ad verification firm IAS acquired

Ad verification company Integral Ad Science (IAS) will be acquired by private equity firm, Novacap, for $1.9 billion – a 22% premium to IAS’ market cap the previous day.

The Canadian PE firm also owns Cadent[dot]tv.

Reuters reported yesterday:

“The deal, expected to close before the end of this year, is the latest in a string of private equity buyouts of software and technology companies as they bet on artificial intelligence to become a strong driver of growth.”

IAS CEO Lisa Utzschneider emphasized her company’s AI differentiation in the press release: “I’m proud of the strong momentum we’ve built for our company, the strength of our AI-powered measurement and optimization platform, and the outstanding work of our employees.”

PE firm Vista Equity Partners is also selling its stake in the firm. Vista bought IAS in 2018 and took it public in 2021.

More: IAS to be Acquired by Novacap for $1.9 Billion to Further Support Its Strategic Goals (September 24) – press release

From tipsheet: With Cadent in the same Novacap portfolio, it may follow that this acquisition is part of a connected TV (CTV) play by the investment firm. It’s still early days in CTV with plenty of cords left to be cut. Read the IAS’ ad verification pitch for CTV on its website.

No doubt IAS is in a very competitive environment. Ad verification company DoubleVerify did not see an appreciable boost in its stock price yesterday. If markets thought IAS was in a hot market for M&A, DoubleVerify’s stock price (also with a market cap of $2 billion) would have shown it. Also worth considering: Novacap may have chosen between the two verification vendors.

Ultimately, this acquisition is a bet by Novacap that it can boost the value of IAS and resell the business or take it public again. AI as a forcing function in the next few years is likely at the center of that strategy. FWIW, previous PE owner Vista has likely already taken all the cost-cutting possible out of IAS.

At a very high level, Novacap’s investing thesis could be one of just waiting for AI with one of the industry leaders such as an IAS or Cadent.

Novacap understands that the transformational change which is about to occur will create some big winners in, let’s call it, traditional ad tech. And traditional ad tech —with its specialized products— needs to keep doing what it’s doing while integrating the AI opportunity.

TECH

Live Search is here

Google’s Search Live launched yesterday in the U.S. which may give augmented reality (AR) marketers a vision of putting blue search links on the tree, the fire hydrant or the neighbor’s dog. It’s not that good – yet!

“When you go Live with Search, you can have an interactive voice conversation in AI Mode and share your phone’s camera feed. This means Search can see what your camera sees, respond to your questions in real time and connect you with helpful web links to dive even deeper,”

ZDnet noted that this feature is similar to Gemini Live which debuted last October.

From tipsheet: Sure, this is about a visual connected future, but voice is a key part of the Search Live experience, too. AI will be everywhere courtesy of voice activation.

TECH

Chart: AI brings funnel compression

Spinning out of his ExchangeWire ATS event in London earlier this month, Ciaran O’Kane shared a new sketch on LinkedIn showing what will happen to the purchase funnel as AI and the chatbot evolve with advertising.

Mr. O’Kane saw funnel compression:

“In this sketch, ExchangeWire presents the idea that chatbots/search AI could collapse the lower funnel of advertising (traditional search ads, retargeting). In that instance, the upper and mid-funnel become more critical in a shortened marketing funnel. The irony of brand building becoming existential in an AI-first world should not be overlooked. Although mid- and upper-funnel advertising is now more data-driven and accountable than ever, A hat tip to Karsten Weide, who recently wrote a brilliant piece for Marketecture about some of the above points.”

Read more on LinkedIn.

TECH

Research: MAMMA or AI-driven SaaS

IAB CEO Emeritus Randall Rothenberg has partnered with consultant John Frelinghuysen on a new whitepaper for WARC on an emerging software category that they are calling Marketing-Advertising-Media-Measurement-Analytics or MAMMA.

On LinkedIn yesterday, Mr. Rothenberg compared AI-enabled MAMMAs to cross-functional solutions in finance (Bloomberg terminals), agriculture (Climate Fieldview) and music production (Digital Audio Workstations).

He explained what MAMMAs enable:

• “Data Unification at Scale: They integrate thousands of previously incompatible data sources—from CRM systems to social sentiment to weather patterns—into a unified intelligence layer.”
• “Real-Time Scenario Testing: Marketers can examine thousands of scenarios in minutes, isolating variables that actually drive growth.”
• “Continuous Learning: Every interaction, impression, and sale feeds back into the system, creating institutional memory that improves over time.”
• “End-to-End Automation: From insight generation through creative development, media placement, and optimization, marketing functions can be orchestrated by AI agents that work 24/7.”
• “Natural Language Control: Complex analyses that once required data scientists now happen through simple queries: ‘What’s driving our competitors’ growth?” “Which creative elements correlate with purchase intent?’”

MAMMA – could this describe your company? Read more on LinkedIn. (September 24)

PROMPT

What will advertisers be able to do with voice and AI in 5 years that they can’t do today?

Response from xAI’s Grok:

Based on industry predictions, here are key capabilities advertisers will likely gain by 2030 that aren’t feasible at scale today:

• Deliver emotion-aware, real-time voice ads
• Deploy hyper-realistic AI virtual influencers and brand ambassadors
• Facilitate voice-driven, autonomous shopping and transaction experiences
• Orchestrate fully autonomous, voice-optimized ad campaigns
• Embed advertising into everyday conversational AI interactions
• Leverage predictive customer journey mapping via voice data

Read more on tipsheet.

MORE

• DOJ v. Google: Judge Brinkema Calls For Less Ad Tech “Window Dressing” In The AdX And DFP Divestiture Debate (September 24) – AdExchanger
• Invoca Launches New AI Solution for Agencies and Marketing Teams to Connect TV and Video Advertising to Revenue (September 24) – press release
• “Insights Vendors and Clients Want Different Things From AI” (September 24) – Marc Ryan, former Kantar Chief Data Officer on his substack
• “A host of CEOs on Wednesday will launch an ad campaign to push companies, governments and other organizations to speed up their efforts to adopt AI.” (September 24) – Axios
• AI in Ads Faces Consumer Backlash: Efficiency gains clash with trust deficit (September 24) – Storyboard 18