Google and Unity, a game-development company that also operates an AI-powered ad platform, announced a new partnership yesterday which starts with Playground, Google’s experimental prompt-based game creation platform, and will expand later this year with Unity Spark:
“Introducing Playground, a gaming platform for creators of all abilities
An essential part of this partnership is Google’s experimental new Playground platform, available today, which allows users (18+) to generate and customize playable games using natural language prompts, with no coding required.
Building on Playground, later this year Google and Unity will introduce an expanded creation experience called Unity Spark, a brand new product built from the ground up for a new generation of creators.”
Google is also building Playground as a place to play and share: users can publish games to a community gallery, with multiplayer and leaderboards available in select genres.
Read: “Google and Unity Partner on New AI Gaming Platform for the Next Era of Interactive Entertainment” (Oct. 7) – Unity
ARK Invest analyst Austin Koring sees a possible ad tech consequence in the partnership: if AI makes games cheaper to create, the number of mobile apps — and the ad inventory they generate — could grow. He rage-baited X followers yesterday:
“Is AppLovin just The Trade Desk of mobile now? Google + Unity partnership news might be the most interesting ad tech story nobody is talking about.
If AI dramatically lowers the cost of creating games, the number of apps and therefore mobile ad inventory could explode.”
Read it on X. (Oct. 7)
From tipsheet: Roblox, watch out?
If AI-made games become apps, AppLovin could see more inventory, too.
AppLovin CTO Giovanni Ge argues earlier this week that stronger competitors can help grow the market, too: “I’m deeply committed to outperforming our competitors. I also respect what they’re building, and I don’t wish them to fail. I want us to succeed by being better. There’s room to be ambitious for our own business and generous toward someone else’s success.” (Oct. 5) – Giovanni Ge, CTO, AppLovin on X
CONNECTED TV
Walmart expands audiences, talks Vibe CTV strategy
Walmart Connect is extending its audiences and closed-loop sales measurement across Spotify, CTV bought through Yahoo DSP, and Warner Bros. Discovery streaming and live TV.
The Yahoo DSP integration, first tested on VIZIO CTV through Magnite, is moving into Alpha and expanding to additional publishers. WBD’s live TV deals use FreeWheel. In the Yahoo DSP test, Hidden Valley Ranch reached 55% more viewers beyond linear TV while lowering CPMs by 27%.
Walmart Connect’s Khurrum Malik offers the strategic framing: “Together, these expansions help advertisers reach Walmart customers across more of the places they spend time, with more flexibility in how they buy and consistent measurement connecting media investment to Walmart sales.”
Read: “Expanding where and how advertisers can use Walmart audiences and measurement” (Oct. 6) – Khurrum Malik, VP of Business & Product Marketing on Walmart Connect
From tipsheet #1: Walmart’s video ad platform Vibe (acquisition first announced in June) wasn’t among the three new or expanded partnerships in the announcement, but it was part of the Partner Connect conversation.
Walmart Connect SVP & GM Ryan Mayward said on LinkedIn yesterday that Walmart sees an opportunity to combine Vibe’s CTV technology with Walmart audiences and measurement, extending those capabilities to advertisers of all sizes. That puts Vibe within the same broader strategy: connect Walmart’s signals to more media and measure the sales impact.
From tipsheet #2: Walmart is assembling the pieces AI needs across partners and its own platforms: audience data, access to inventory and feedback on what drove sales. The connected data and activation layer addressed in the announcement could support more automated cross-channel planning and optimization.
PLATFORMS
Meta brings AI closer to campaigns and checkout
Last year at Advertising Week, Meta emphasized AI-powered ad creative and Advantage+ tools, alongside new creator and shopping features.
This year, Meta is bringing AI deeper into campaign planning and shopping: Meta’s business assistant is gaining more context and campaign capabilities, while the company tests checkout inside AI conversations.
The updates extend Meta’s existing AI and advertising strategy:
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- Creative intel: “Ads Creative Studio is rolling out more broadly after our initial tests this summer to arm marketers with creative performance insights.”
- Business context: Meta’s AI business assistant now draws on more context about a business. New capabilities in testing let marketers plan, create and optimize campaigns, and schedule tasks and alerts, just by asking.
- Targeting: AI-enabled audience discovery is coming to Detailed Targeting, helping marketers find their ideal audience. Customer Lifecycle Strategy is opening to all advertisers to help them prioritize new customers.
- AI video tools: “We’re helping marketers launch new ad creatives faster by expanding our generative AI video tools.”
- Speed the transaction: “With direct checkout tests in Meta Business Agent on Messenger, Meta AI, and Muse, people can now make purchases without leaving the conversation.”
Read: “Advertising Week New York 2026: New AI Capabilities to Guide Campaigns and Reach Customers” (Oct. 7) – Meta
AGENCIES
Omnicom Media and Rembrand scale streaming ads
Agency Omnicom Media is partnering with in-content ad platform Rembrand to help brands identify, plan and activate placements across premium streaming inventory. Rembrand’s VISTA platform uses AI to find scenes that could accommodate ads; Omnicom Media’s Content Collective develops the placements.
The companies are negotiating with several streaming platforms but haven’t named them. Their aim is to make in-content advertising repeatable beyond one-off integrations.
Rembrand said on LinkedIn (Oct. 7) that the partnership “enables our In-Content Advertising solutions through their Content Collective and is now available in the Omni buying platform.”
Omni is agency holding company Omnicom Group’s AI-enabled “marketing intelligence platform.”
Read: “Omnicom Media and Rembrand partner to evolve in-content ad placements” (Oct. 7) – Digiday
Why it matters
In a separate LinkedIn post yesterday, Rembrand CEO Omar Tawakol quoted Omnicom Media Chief Product Officer Megan Pagliuca: “This is the first time this capability has been used by the buy side. It has historically been a sell-side technology.”
Tawakol said Omnicom is matching Omnicom-owned Acxiom’s Real ID audiences with Rembrand’s VISTA platform to place brand messages in streaming shows after production, without interrupting the show. He called the partnership “an important moment for the mainstream adoption of in-content ads in the US.” Read more. (Oct. 7)
From tipsheet: In-content ads are moving into the agency buying workflow. For brand advertisers, the promise is more reach/frequency in streaming content. For performance marketers, the question is whether audience-targeted placements can drive measurable conversions at an efficient cost.
AGENTS
Agents for advertising
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- Context and governance: “Building a Governed Path for AI Agents in Advertising” (Oct. 5) – Erin Foxworthy, Industry Principal for Media at Snowflake
- Orchestration: CTV ad platform Olyzon “Launches its Agentic Orchestration Platform for Advertising” (Oct. 7) – press release
- In-platform agents: “Amazon DSP puts AI agents at the centre of buying, creative and targeting: Ankur Rathi” (Oct. 6) – Exchange4Media (India)
From tipsheet: Make way for agents. They want the controls.
TECH
AI visibility is an ad tech brand game, too
From Vladimir Hanzlik, Chief Content Officer, eMarketer on LinkedIn yesterday:
See all the slides. (Oct. 7)
From tipsheet: It pays to be an early ChatGPT Ads partner.
B2B MARKETING
SAP: CMOs need to worry about the data layer
SAP CMO Ada Agrait tells Ad Age’s Marketer’s Brief podcast that customers have moved past questioning whether the AI hype will live up to expectations and are now asking which partners can help them transform. At SAP, about 40 of 100 marketing AI pilots have worked, she says. Pilots, right this way…
On advice for fellow CMOs, she says:
“You have to start thinking about your data layer. AI becomes the most powerful when you have the right data connections, the right context, to be able to deliver great outcomes. So, starting with the tech that you’re using in your data layer, to get that ready to be able to scale AI as a technology, specifically, in this case, with marketing. You need to start with a clear outcome of what you’re trying to do.”
Read/Listen: “How SAP is putting people—not product specs—at the center of its AI marketing” (Oct. 7) – Ad Age
From tipsheet: The SAP CMO says her company is piloting ads on ChatGPT. Really? How’s that going? Ads aren’t shown to Plus, Pro, Business or Enterprise accounts. OpenAI undoubtedly sees a B2B opportunity; the unlock is figuring out how to bring ads to its subscription business. Read tipsheet. (Sept. 22)
Not B2B: “Very excited to be speaking with Molly Battin, CMO of The Home Depot tomorrow at Advertising Week New York. We’ll discuss how AI is helping people find information and make choices, and how marketers can benefit.” (Oct. 7) – David Dugan, Head of Global Ad Solutions, OpenAI on LinkedIn
LLMs & CHATBOTS
Developments
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- Claude Haiku 5.5 (Oct. 7) – Anthropic
- GPT‑6 and Intelligent UI for everyone (Oct. 7) – OpenAI
- Musk Says SpaceX Will Sometimes Use Rival Models to Power Grok Bot (Oct. 7) – The Information (subscription)
MORE
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- Apple blocking: “The Open Web Can Be Downright Lawless” (Oct. 7) – Alan Chapell on Marketecture’s The Monopoly Report
- Personal agents: “What Muse Gets Right About Every AI Agent” (Oct. 7) – Adam Epstein on Gigi’s blog
- Agents’ roles: “‘Agentic’ means three different jobs in advertising. Ad Week is obsessed with agents buying media, and almost nobody is paying for it yet.” Alex Brownstein, consultant, on LinkedIn
- Evolving teams: “How to adapt your marketing team as AI eliminates entry-level roles” (Oct. 7) – Ad Age (subscription)
- Rebrand: “Stagwell launches Stagwell Media and axes Assembly brand” (Oct. 6) – Campaign Asia