Digiday

The #DOJ alleges that #Google maintains monopolistic control over the entire online display advertising sector, using an ad tech stack equipped with tools used by advertisers, publishers and third-party ad tech companies, such as ad exchanges, etc. Per its arguments, this control stifles competition, as Google’s dominance forces advertisers and publishers to use products, such as its ad server, that impact ad prices, and ultimately result in consumer harm. #USvsGoogle

“Having seen a steady shift of SSPs moving from second to first-price auctions — almost directly in-line with the growth of header bidding — we would expect others to now move quickly,” said Nikita Borisenko, technical product lead for demand solutions at ad tech developer Iponweb. “More complicated technologies now need to be developed and deployed by RTB bidders; those players that don’t own them will find it harder to survive.”

Many of the headlines surrounding Google center largely on how the biggest company in advertising will look following its latest battle with the U.S. government. However, away from the developments in a courtroom in Eastern Virginia, it’s business as usual for Google. On Sep. 12, it unveiled a new tool to its suite of marketing dubbed “confidential matching.” According to Google, the new offering uses “Trusted Execution Environments” (TEE) to help advertisers use its suite of marketing tools for their online campaigns to ensure that their first-party data, such as CRM lists or customer loyalty data, is less prone to data leakage.

Since the advent of generative AI roughly two years ago, one concern has persisted among marketers contemplating the advantages of the tech — bias. Agencies such as DDB, Monks and Huge, as well as generative AI marketing platform Pencil, hope to bolster their clients’ confidence through a mix of human corrections and technical fixes. The latter has this week unveiled a spread of new solutions its executives hope will quell client worries and provide a welded fix, if not a solution, for the issue.

After a series of smash hits, Hollywood’s video game adaptations are starting to face more scrutiny from gamers. The pushback is a sign of potential burnout among moviegoers — but also shows that game adaptations are here to stay. As gaming film and TV adaptations such as the “Super Mario Bros. Movie” and “The Last of Us” crescendoed in popularity last year, Hollywood studios jumped to scoop up other popular gaming properties, viewing gaming as potentially the next great source of IP after the success of comic book adaptations in recent years. In 2024, the downstream effects of this feeding frenzy are becoming visible in the form of releases such as last month’s “Borderlands” film, as well as the teaser trailer for “A Minecraft Movie” released by Warner Bros. last week.

The creator economy is booming with brands chasing viral trends to monetize cultural moments online. In response, creators behind those viral moments are increasingly looking for ways to stretch their 15 minutes of fame, including launching their own podcasts, product lines, e-courses and talent agencies. There’s money at stake: the creator economy is expected to be worth $480 billion by 2027, according to Goldman Sachs’ calculations. Consider Logan Paul’s Prime drink, Mr. Beast’s Feastables snack brand or Emma Chamberlain’s Chamberlain Coffee, which have become real industry category disruptors, experts say. It’s not a new phenomenon, per se, but there are a few reasons the trend shows no signs of slowing, according to three agency execs Digiday spoke with for this story.

On Thursday in federal court, the U.S. Justice Department introduced internal Google documents — including emails, chat logs and audio recordings — that showed Google execs’ plans around the introduction of new publisher tools to compete with header bidding. Evidence submitted by the DOJ suggests Google knew about industry unease over the evolution of DoubleClick — Google’s publisher platform in question as part of the antitrust trial — but continued on its path to monetization anyway and even took measures to allegedly thwart efforts to side-step its control. Documents also gave a behind-the-scenes look at how Google execs understood why publishers wanted to diversify revenue away from the Google-controlled advertising waterfall and employ rival monetization technology header bidding instead. #USvsGoogle

According to a recent Activision Blizzard Media survey of over 10,000 gamers, mobile gaming has become universal. And even though there are distinct groups of gamers, all segments appreciate rewards linked to ads but don’t like ads that interrupt their gameplay. In this guide on the new view of game players, learn how to reach this audience more effectively and tailor ad strategies for high engagement: https://buff.ly/46Vfpc3

Google has attracted criticism from multiple quarters in its ascent to the pinnacle of the online advertising industry with the company currently in the crosshairs of governments’ antitrust authorities across the globe.

With retail media networks continuing to attract a significant increase in media dollars from endemic advertisers — one estimate from eMarketer puts omnichannel retail media spend in 2024 at just under $60 billion — there’s one part of the business that’s been almost overlooked. Ironically, it’s the part of the business that’s been around longest: in-store media. Granted, a lot of the hype driving significant growth among RMNs is the ability to link shopper data with viewership on CTV and other digital platforms. But some companies are now taking steps to help improve stats that support in-store media efforts, which remain a part of campaigns — things like foot traffic, conversion rates, unique visitors, engagement levels and others.