Google adding chatbot to CTV

John Ebbert

CTV

LLMS & CHATBOTS

Chatbots in your CTV

Google announced that it was adding Gemini to Google TV as a “conversational assistant to help you find content to watch on the big screen, plus get more information about your favorite shows and movies.”

Read more on Google’s The Keyword blog. (September 22)

From tipsheet: There was no mention of ads but…

More data (i.e. conversation) being input by the consumer into the Gemini chatbot could potentially mean that advertising addressability will go up across Google CTV ad experiences, let alone anywhere else Google is connected.

Google said in the blog post that it has “300 million active Google TV and other Android TV OS.” Reach and frequency, right this way.

The AI assistant in your CTV experience is only going to grow, and one can imagine the OpenAIs and Anthropics of the world – let alone the ‘walled gardens’ with their LLMs – making deals across CTV enablers.

More: Gemini is coming to Google TV starting today (September 22) – The Verge

LLMS & CHATBOTS

Chatbots for email, dating

  • Chatbot for email: “Introducing Perplexity Email Assistant: an agent that behaves as your personal/executive assistant on your email client (Gmail, Outlook); scheduling meetings, prioritizing emails, and drafting replies for you. Available to all Perplexity Max subscribers from today!” (September 22) – Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas on X

  • Chatbot for dating: “Facebook Dating Adds Features to Address Swipe Fatigue” (September 22) – Meta

From tipsheet: Data is everywhere — and so are the Large Language Models (LLMs). AI gets smarter and smarter.

LLMs & CHATBOTS

Developments

  • Nvidia plans to invest up to $100 billion in OpenAI as part of a deal to deploy at least 10 GW of Nvidia systems for OpenAI’s infrastructure (September 22) – CNBC and OpenAI
  • White House says TikTok’s new US entity would lease a copy of ByteDance’s algorithm, which Oracle would retrain; US users wouldn’t need to re-download the app (September 22) – Axios
  • Elon Musk says the next version of Grok will be AGI (September 18) – The Independent

BRANDS

Use cases: DOOH and AI

Business industry lobbying organization, The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, stepped up its support of AI with an article on how the technology is creating opportunity in digital-out-of-home (DOOH) advertising.

The article ticked off several use cases including:

In one example that highlights the ability of AI to generate localized content, storage and moving container company PODS worked with digital marketing agency Tombras to create a dynamic digital billboard on the side of a PODS truck. Using Google’s Gemini AI platform, the roving billboard displayed ever-changing ads that were tailored to each neighborhood and adjusted to such inputs as time, weather, traffic conditions, and subway delays.

“We made the world’s smartest billboard,” said Juan Tubert, Chief Technology Officer at Tombras, in a YouTube video describing the effort.

Read: “How Brands Are Using AI to Optimize Digital Out-of-Home Advertising” (September 22) – U.S. Chamber of Commerce

BRANDS

Resisting AI is not futile

In an op-ed in Campaign, columnist and media industry consultant Ian Whitaker warns marketers that AI should be resisted:

“One reason is that the industry may talk itself out of a business. Mark Zuckerberg’s comments that Meta could run an ad campaign for a client from start to finish (from creating the adverts to showing them) should serve as a warning: if advertising becomes simply about who can deploy the best AI features to create adverts at the cheapest price and at the quickest pace, then the advertising industry will lose.”

Mr Whitaker concluded, “…if the industry starts to believe that AI is more important to its success than its creative brilliance, then it risks losing consumers altogether—and the industry.”

Read more. (September 22)

AGENCIES

Havas on the ‘early internet’ and AI

Trevor Carr, the new Head of CSA – Havas Media Network’s technology, data and analytics consultancy arm – spoke to AdExchanger’s Joanna Gerber about his views on the current agency landscape.

On the evolution of AI and the ad industry’s response to it, Mr. Carr offered perspective:

“This moment reminds me a lot of the early internet, when the entire economy and culture was being disrupted. But the rapidity of AI is quite stunning to me. It’s definitely changing the way our business works and will be working in the future.

That being said, even though AI is changing very quickly, people are still in that trough of disillusionment. Everyone jumped into it very quickly, trying to design proofs of concept and implement AI in their businesses.

A lot of those projects failed.

It’s really important to make sure your data, your cloud, your technology chops and your data maturity level are ready to take advantage of AI.”

Read more on AdExchanger. (September 22)

SELL-SIDE

Search referrals and ‘hard news’

Yesterday, The Wall Street Journal looked at publisher The Guardian’s efforts to convince marketers to advertise against ‘hard news’ while The Guardian managed what it saw as the threat of AI.

The WSJ’s Katie Deighton wrote:

“The Guardian is trying to raise its profile as publishers across the political spectrum scramble to protect their website traffic and ad businesses from AI-generated search results and chatbots, which are often robust enough to eliminate the need for consumers to click through…”

Read more in The WSJ. (September 22)

From tipsheet: Is the problem Google Search referrals and the consumer’s move to chatbots or marketer reluctance to advertise against news? According to The WSJ, the Guardian’s ad revenue Guardian Media Group rose about 3% year-over-year in the March quarter, but was down 10% compared to 2023. This story has yet to play out.

TECH

As the remedies trial phase opens in the Google ad tech (not Search) antitrust lawsuit, Google seems to be saying AI has changed the ad tech landscape without saying “AI.”

This is in contrast to the remedies phase for the Google Search antitrust trial where Google did say “AI” had changed everything and the court agreed.

In a blog post yesterday presenting Google’s proposed ad tech remedies, Lee-Anne Mulholland, VP of Regulatory Affairs at Google, wrote:

“We’ve said from the start that DOJ’s case misunderstands how digital advertising works and ignores how the landscape has dramatically evolved, with increasing competition and new entrants. Getting the remedies right in this new environment will be key to addressing concerns without breaking what’s working, and we look forward to making our case in court…”

Read more on Google’s “The Keyword” blog. (September 22)

On LinkedIn, Google VP of Global Ads, Dan Taylor, echoed Ms. Mulholland:

“We’ve long said the DOJ’s case against our ad tech business is backwards-looking, ignoring increasing competition, the rise of new entrants and advancements in technology – trends that have only accelerated over the past few years.”

Read more on LinkedIn. (September 22)

More: Google Ad Tech Trial, Part 2: What to Watch (September 22) – Ari Paparo, Marketecture

From tipsheet: As Marketecture’s Ari Paparo pointed out in July during Alphabet’s latest earnings release, the ad tech business is actually in decline at Google. They may be happy to spin out the underperforming “open web” ad tech business while retaining ad tech functionality for YouTube, Search and owned & operated properties. AI as an overt defense, or excuse, may not be necessary.

And if Google does spin out the ad tech biz, a new player will need to step in.

TECH

Creating agentic ad standards

Scope3 CEO Brian O’Kelley ‘picked up the baton’ on startup Optable’s announcement regarding an October 15 event to discuss agentic ad standards in the age of AI. The organizers have put out an open invite to publishers, agencies/marketers and technologists.

Comparing the agentic ads effort to standards such as those for Prebid, ads.txt and OpenRTB, Mr. O’Kelley wrote on LinkedIn yesterday:

“We can design for privacy, for diverse channels, for brand safety, for trust. We can engage the full ecosystem – not just ad tech nerds like me – to figure out how to protect interests and amplify opportunities. It’s been a privilege to work with more than 20 companies to start working on standards and the community around them…”

Read more on LinkedIn. (September 22)

In the comments to O’Kelley’s LinkedIn post, publisher and CEO Jim Spanfeller chimed in: “Part of the reason for the perceived disconnect might be that the Walled Gardens get to grade their own homework…well that and the fact that vast majority of AdTech solutions are using extremely flawed signals.”

From tipsheet: As Mr. O’Kelley’s Scope3 pivots to its agentic ad future as reported by Adweek earlier this month, the outcome of the standards effort will likely be central to its strategy.

TECH

Another AI ad standards effort

In an opinion piece on Marketing Dive titled, “Why the advertising industry can’t wait for responsible AI guidelines,” Integral Ad Science Chief Compliance Officer Kevin Alvero discussed the need for advertising standards in the age of AI.

Mr. Alvero argues that beyond a company’s internal policies, existing standards bodies can help:

“That is where third-party certification comes in. Independent organizations like the Alliance for Audited Media (AAM), International Organization for Standardization (ISO), and TrustArc can step in to test, validate and certify AI systems. This shows that your tools meet high ethical and technical standards, not just the ones you set for yourself.

Third-party certification sends a clear signal. It tells clients, partners and the public that you are serious about responsible AI. It proves you are not only talking about it, you are holding yourself accountable. In a market where trust is everything, that kind of validation can be a powerful competitive edge.”

Read more. (September 22)

From tipsheet: Dueling standards efforts? There is no discussion of agents, specifically, by IAS, but the IAS proposal and the efforts by Optable/Scope3 could intersect. From here, IAS is speaking to transparency with AI in advertising. Optable/Scope3 is speaking to efficiency for market participants.

TECH

Procurement funding

“With the recent influx of funds, Omnea is prepared to take significant steps toward its vision of AI-powered Supplier Relationship Management. This vision is grounded in a single, reliable source of vendor data that is continually updated through a sophisticated two-way orchestration layer. This layer integrates seamlessly with the entire financial technology stack, enabling real-time access to the most accurate information.”

Read: Omnea: $50 Million Raised For AI-Based Procurement Intake And Orchestration Platform (September 22) – Pulse 2.0

From tipsheet: Though not specific to ad or martech, procurement innovation is one of the many horizontal AI opportunities that will move across all segments of the advertising and marketing industry.

PROMPT

How will AI-enabled devices uniquely impact advertising in 5 years?

Response from Perplexity:

AI-enabled devices will fundamentally transform advertising over the next five years by acting as consumer gatekeepers and decision-makers, drastically accelerating personalization, and enabling always-on, contextually rich interactions at scale…

Read more on tipsheet.

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