Digiday Sunday
—Digiday It was a very eventful week with President Trump’s first days back in the White House sparking a flurry of activity by the media and marketing biz to best position brand safety and business concerns considering the new administration’s rapid conservative pivot. The TikTok stay of execution remained a hot topic across the week as did the ongoing impact generative AI is having across our key coverage areas. Even in the face of the Trump and TikTok developments, our most-read story of the week looked at how media agency leaders are not exactly won over?by?the concept of using AI tools in their product placement and influencer marketing campaigns. Amazon’s DSP ambitions drew?readers’?interest as did an analysis of the likely outcomes of the Google DOJ antitrust trial – we remain at the ready for that verdict to finally come down. – James Cooper
Story highlights
Antoinette S. had the week’s most-read piece with an analysis of media agencies' concern regarding the use of generative AI tools in the creation of product placement and influencer marketing efforts for clients. As she reported, ‘With these platforms, brands can make product placements far more natural-looking and scalable now — and the hope is this technology can bridge the gap in the world of product placement and simultaneously boost influencer content across channels … So far, agencies remain divided on these new tools: Some find them promising and are curious about them because of their flexibility. Others remain cautious about costs and other aspects of adopting the tools.’
Seb Joseph had a story piece that broke down the programmatic marketing ambitions of Amazon (hint, they want to dominate it.) As he reported, ‘More advertisers are turning to Amazon’s ad tech as their mainstay for programmatic buying — not just for Amazon’s own media properties, but increasingly for ads across the wider web too. Despite this progress, Amazon’s DSP isn’t yet the dominant force in programmatic advertising. Conversations with ad buyers over the last three months reveal that Amazon is still seen as a challenger rather than a frontrunner — at least for now. The consensus? It won’t stay that way for long. The question isn’t if Amazon will challenge the largest DSPs — it’s when, said Kevin Weiss, vp of Retail Media at Skai.
Marty Swant pulled together a great WTF on AI agents, kinda the buzziest topic du jour at the moment. And despite publishing on Friday, it bubbled up nicely on our most-read story list of the week. As he reported, ‘Despite so much use of the A-word, it’s still early for AI agent adoption, meaning marketers should ask what agents are for, how they’re made, what they do, what they might do – and what they can’t do – including potential reputational risks. As tech titans build autonomous bots to tackle the mundane, marketing teams must weigh up how to integrate agents into their existing processes in order to better convert ‘prospects’ to paying customers.’?
Kristina Monllos had a sharp daily piece, took the pulse of the marketing community as President Trump’s inauguration day came and went a week ago today. As she reported, ‘The CMO during a Trump presidency in 2025 won’t be the same as in 2017. It’s unlikely that CMOs will be seen making statements about marketing as a force for good or announcing they’re pulling funding from a platform or making any moves that could be seen as overtly political. (Though, arguably, not doing so could also be considered its own political move.) This time around, while of course it will vary from one CMO to another, it seems that CMOs in general will focus on getting back to the basics of marketing and focus intently on their own customers rather than making any big statements.’
Kimeko McCoy and Sam Bradley teamed up on the Trump beat for a story that looked at how, in the wake of the inauguration, media buyers were hastily building brand safety barricades for what will like be a socially fractious time ahead. As they reported, in response to Trump’s executive orders to dismantle the DE&I efforts of the past four years, ‘Media buyers said they’re on high alert, prioritizing brand safety and clamping down on media buying practices to more frequently review ad placements. In what’s expected to be a volatile news cycle, media buyers said they’re more regularly reviewing inclusion lists, websites and domains deemed brand safe and acceptable for serving ads.’
Krystal Scanlon continued her great reporting on the TikTok saga, offering up a guide for marketers attempting to navigate the platform’s revival after months of uncertainty about its future, or lack thereof, in the U.S. As she reported, ‘What’s next? A labyrinth of political wrangling that leaves skeptics wondering if TikTok’s future in one of its largest markets is any less murky than it was six years ago when the first doubts were cast. But for marketers, this limbo doesn’t mean their?prep work was for nothing.?While the immediate storm may have passed, the effort was far from wasted — it’s just on pause. If anything, the real takeaway here is to embrace uncertainty: preparation isn’t optional, it’s essential. Plan for the worst-case scenario, but keep an eye out for the best.’
Kimeko McCoy ’s edition of the Digiday Podcast featured a conversation with Nick Kelly, Verizon’s vp of partnerships during which he discussed Verizon’s revamped sports marketing strategy, venturing into NIL deals and this year’s Super Bowl plans.?Give a listen here
Tim Peterson 's latest video dispatch unpacks the biggest marketing bets coming out of CES by some of the biggest media companies, such as Havas, Mastercard, NBCUniversal and Stagwell, for the rapidly unfolding new year. Check out the video here
领英推荐
“Quote” of the week
“Some of them are monetary. Some of them are more about being part of new marketplaces that they’re developing. And to me, the part that’s the most interesting… I would rather be a part of that… I would rather we be an early partner. I believe the deal terms are only going to get worse over time.”
Mark Howard ,Time chief operating officer, on how the publisher evaluates deals with AI companies.
Here are the Digiday + Briefings for the week
—Media Briefing: TikTok’s U.S. shutdown has little impact on publisher’ traffic and video strategies
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See you next Sunday!