AdTech News Round-up

The Short Straw

Short-form video is winning right now in terms of content production and advertiser mind share. But is that good for TikTok? 

Intuitively, yes. But one problem for TikTok is that it’s woken up the sleeping giants – GoogleTube and Facebookagram – which are bringing advertisers’ focus back to their ad platforms. 

This isn’t a new dynamic, Digiday reports. Snapchat began the heavy lifting to get Silicon Valley and Madison Avenue on board with vertical videos. (Snapchat walked so TikTok could fly.) Snapchat succeeded, but that meant GoogleTube and Facebookagram adopted Stories posts and squashed Snapchat’s growth. 

Twitter no longer exists as a company

Twitter no longer exists as a company after Elon Musk merged it with another entity called X Corp.

The app now forms part of Musk’s X Holdings Corp., which has been touted as the future parent company for all of his companies, which include Neuralink, SpaceX, Tesla and The Boring Company.

It also potentially signals the next phase of Mr Musk’s plan to turn Twitter into an “everything app”.

Industry experts have questioned whether Mr Musk can succeed in transforming Twitter into a platform where users can access all basic online services, from making a payment to ordering a taxi.

DTC marketers planning to up CTV/OTT spend this year

Direct-to-consumer (DTC) marketers are flooding into connected TV (CTV) and over-the-top (OTT) digital TV advertising. 

Over two-thirds of DTC brands use these channels, and 57% plan to increase spending in CTV/OTT in the first half of 2023.

CTV is the fastest growing digital ad channel because of its inventory and adtech precision. Brands can fit a campaign into a budget of any size. They can deliver ads to a few hundred consumers in their target demo, or many millions. That’s all due to the wide range of inventory available, from free ad-supported services up to very premium opportunities on ad-supported streamers like Netflix. 

Check out our blog post: The Difference Between Traditional, Linear, Connected TV, OTT, and Advanced TV Advertising [infographic]

Google TV Positions Itself as the New Gateway to FAST

Google announced an update to Google TV, the CTV platform which powers its newest Chromecast devices and comes embedded into some Sony and TLC smart TVs (it's also available as a mobile app).

The company says that over 800 FAST channels will be available within the live tab in the US.

This ‘Live’ tab hosts paid linear channels which Google has the right to distribute, and from other vMVPDs which Google is partnered with. 

These channels are essentially browsable side-by-side via Google’s interface, meaning users can see what’s currently showing on live channels from multiple different providers. If they then want to watch that show, they are taken straight through to that provider’s interface.

Netflix with Ads is Delivering on ARPU but Password Crackdown is Kicked Down the Road

On last night’s earnings call for Q1 2023, Netflix revealed that its average revenue per user (ARPU) was higher on the ad-supported tier than its basic ad-free plan – and in the US, higher than the standard plan.

Last month the ad-supported plan reached 1 million US users, who Netflix suggests are new sign-ups rather than customers downgrading from premium tiers.

The biggest sticking point seems to be Netflix’s password sharing crackdown, which has resulted in the “initial cancel reaction” that had largely been anticipated. In Latin America, where the password sharing policy is currently enforced, the service lost 450,000 subs during the quarter. As a result, the company has pushed back the US roll-out of the plan to Q2.

Cutting Out High-Carbon Publishers Can Eliminate 16 Percent of Emissions, Finds Scope3 Report

Programmatic advertising generates 215,000 metric tonnes of CO? each month, across the US, UK, France, Germany and Australia, according to Scope3. But by eliminating spend across certain high-emission websites, buyers can collectively cut up to 16 percent of those emissions.

The inaugural State of Sustainable Advertising report tracked carbon emissions for Q1 2023, and identified ‘Climate Risk’ websites whose emissions are twice the industry average. The research found that shifting ad spend away from high-carbon inventory can improve campaign performance, while removing some 33,500 metric tonnes of CO?.

How Home Depot and Kroger use RMN to improve shoppers’ ad experience

Retail media networks (RMNs) are a rapidly growing channel for advertisers. RMN revenue in 2022 was estimated at $37.5 billion by the IAB in their Internet Advertising Revenue Report.

The key to RMN’s success is how interactions with brands can enhance the shopper experience. Digital media experts at Kroger and The Home Depot have spent years developing media networks keeping this key point in mind. If a branded ad interrupts the customer’s journey, it doesn’t help the brand, the retailer or, most importantly, the customer.

Check out our blog post: What Is Retail Media & Retail Media Networks (RMNs)?