In addition to noting that OpenAI’s ChatGPT has replaced the word “sponsored” with “ad,” MediaPost’s Laurie Sullivan says that ChatGPT now provides directions.
She writes about the contextual advertising impact:
“OpenAI has moved ChatGPT closer to real-time competition with Google by having the ability to not only serve information and ads related to conversational intent, but also directions and relevant ads that serve up at the bottom of the page.
When querying travel plans, ChatGPT also brings into the conversation such topics as weather, clothing and lodging options, mileage, and directions. One feature is missing today. OpenAI has not publicly announced plans for ChatGPT to provide continuous, real-time driving alerts or navigation…”
Location-based ads? ChatGPT has come a long way since last November.
Read: ChatGPT Ads To Compete With Google Maps (June 30) – MediaPost
From tipsheet: As ChatGPT expands its advertising product, conversational intent is beginning to intersect with traditional targeting signals like location. AI assistants could eventually combine context, geography and recommendations into a new kind of local advertising experience.
Related: “AI Visibility Index: Personal Care and Beauty Quarterly Insights” (June 30) – eMarketer
LLMs & CHATBOTS
Developments
- Introducing Claude Sonnet 5 (June 30) – Anthropic
- Start building with Nano Banana 2 Lite and Gemini Omni Flash (June 30) – Google The Keyword blog
- Announcing the hosted X MCP (June 29) – X Developers on X
COMMERCE MEDIA
Instacart moves retail media up-funnel
Instacart’s retail media business is expanding beyond lower-funnel advertising with a new vertical video experience and plans to integrate advertising into its AI shopping assistant in the second half of the year, as it seeks to engage consumers earlier in the purchase journey.
Marketing Dive’s Peter Adams covers the implications for Instacart’s AI assistant:
“Where the assistant will sit within Instacart’s advertising mix is an open question. Other AI platforms beginning to run ads have similarly taken a TBD position regarding their ultimate place in the marketing funnel. Sponsored recipes and occasions — think drawing up a shopping list for a barbecue on the latter — surfacing deals and offers and promoting product exploration were some of the potential use cases floated by Ali Miller, general manager of advertising at Instacart.
‘We’re going to see what ends up being the dominant behavior that consumers turn to AI for. My hypothesis is that we are going to be able to see more of this upper funnel, kind of mid-funnel-y behavior,” said Miller. “I think it can help to … move a little more up-funnel and drive a little bit more of that discovery behavior.”
Read: “How Instacart is cultivating full-funnel marketing with video, AI” (June 30) – Marketing Dive
More: Introducing New Enterprise AI Solutions to Democratize AI for Grocers of All Sizes (November 2025) – Instacart
From tipsheet: Retailers are collapsing discovery, recommendation and purchase into a single experience. As shopping becomes conversational, retail media gains new opportunities to influence demand before consumers are ready to buy.
LLMs & CHATBOTS
Beyond language models
On the latest episode of the Marketecture Podcast, Ari Paparo interviews René Raiss of SQREEM, which has built what it calls a Large Behavioral Model.
Previewing the episode on LinkedIn, Paparo observes, “They built their own AI models based on consumer behavior instead of language.”
Language was just the first modality. The podcast illustrates how advertising is beginning to develop specialized foundation models trained on behavior, bidding, commerce and recommendation data.
Today, that expansion includes:
- Behavior (SQREEM)
- Bidding, ad decisioning (Alibaba Bid2X, Meta GEM)
- Commerce (Shopify Commerce Graph)
- Recommendations (Amazon, AppLovin, TikTok, Meta)
- Scientific domains (biology, materials, chemistry)
Listen: “How SQREEM’s Large Behavioral Model Predicts Consumer Intent with René Raiss” (June 30) – Marketecture Podcast
SELL-SIDE
UK publishers take curation back
Publishers in the UK have banded together to control how their inventory is curated rather than leaving that role to ad tech vendors.
Shrinking margins meet curation.
As transparency and commoditization squeeze publisher economics, former partners can end up competing over who captures the remaining value. (See the since-resolved Publicis-Trade Desk dispute in March.)
AdExchanger’s Anthony Vargas writes:
“Between the six publishers involved, Atria features 105 different digital media brands. Combined, these publications boast 33 million monthly unique visitors. That’s enough to reach over 60% of the UK online audience, said Doug Green, digital strategy director at Hearst UK.
Atria curates display and video inventory from across these publishers and gives the curated deal IDs priority in their respective SSPs’ programmatic waterfalls, Walmsley said. If there’s no bid for the inventory through an Atria PMP, it’s still sold through open auction.”
All the publishers share data management platform Permutive, too, reports Vargas.
Read: “Why Major UK Publishers Are Finally Joining Forces To Curate Ad Inventory” (June 30) – AdExchanger
From tipsheet: Curation is becoming a strategic function rather than simply an ad tech feature. As AI automates more of media buying, controlling how inventory is packaged, priced and sold becomes another way to reclaim economics from intermediaries.
Related: “Reddit Is Training The Robots” – AdExchanger Talks podcast
TECH
AI momentum: Holidays and games
- Holiday industry prepares for the agentic travel agent (June 30) – Financial Times (subscription)
- AI drives a boom in new games but big developers dominate (June 30) – Financial Times
From tipsheet: AI democratizes creation. Distribution remains scarce. Whether planning holidays or building games, the winners are still the companies that own the customer relationship, data and feedback loops.
COMMERCE MEDIA
More reaction: Walmart buys Vibe
Eric Seufert, analyst, on his Mobile Dev Memo blog:
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“It should be noted that Walmart claims that it benefits from closed-loop measurement in its partnership with The Trade Desk. But owning Vibe[dot]co gives Walmart native control over the attribution data and logic, as well as more real-time integration of that data for optimization. Further, owning Vibe eliminates a middleman and the associated fees…”
Read: “Walmart/Vibe is not a CTV consolidation story” (June 30) – Mobile Dev Memo (subscription)
Henry Innis, co-founder of measurement firm Mutinex, on his Substack:
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“Walmart looked at Amazon’s machine — screen, inventory, demand-side software, purchase data, all owned — and realized it had every piece except the self-serve front door that turns a small advertiser into a TV buyer. It couldn’t build that fast enough, so it bought the best one going, and paid a price that looks insane against Vibe’s P&L and entirely rational against Walmart’s distribution..”
Read: “Inside Vibe[dot]co’s Acquisition and Walmart’s 200,000+ seller strong CTV play” (June 30) – “Marketing Economics” Substack
More: “Walmart’s Vibe deal is a reminder not to spend too long courting Madison Avenue” (June 30) – Digiday (subscription)
From tipsheet: Good reads. Commerce platforms are evolving from selling advertising to deciding how marketplace sellers achieve marketing objectives.
“Here’s $30,000. I need outcomes at a $30 CPA.”
PEOPLE MOVES
OpenX CEO departs
- “After four incredible years, today marks my last day at OpenX.” (June 30) – Matt Sattel on LinkedIn
- OpenX hunts new CEO after parting ways with Matt Sattel as chief executive (June 30) – Digiday (subscription)
MORE
- IBM hires Stagwell as lead creative partner — AI capability and speed won out (June 30) – Ad Age (subscription)
- Google looks to bleed publishers with new AI partnerships that would cull their content (June 26) – NY Post
- Unilever tells agencies to make way for creators: ‘We don’t need the big idea’ (June 29) – The Drum (subscription)