Media Monday

LinkedIn Expands Access To 'Accelerate' AI Campaign Builder

By Kristen McCormick, Senior Media Buyer

LinkedIn has broadened access to its 'Accelerate' program, aimed at enhancing advertising campaigns through AI-driven tools. Originally introduced in October of last year, this expansion allows more advertisers across the globe to utilize features like automated bidding and creative optimization to improve campaign performance. These tools leverage machine learning to refine targeting and optimize ad placements across LinkedIn's platform. This initiative seeks to empower businesses of all sizes by democratizing access to advanced advertising capabilities, potentially increasing ROI for advertisers through more effective ad campaigns. Read more on MediaPost HERE .?

Google Experiments With Using Video To Search, Thanks To Gemini AI

By Drea Gonzalez, Paid Search Manager

Video platforms such as TikTok and Instagram are eating into Google’s core Search product , particularly among younger Gen Z users. This has prompted the search engine giant to make searching video a bigger part of Google Search thanks to Gemini AI, as announced at the Google I/O 2024 Developer Conference in May.

This multimodal capability expands upon existing search features allowing users to incorporate text into visual searches. By incorporating video search capabilities, Google is responding to the way users, especially younger demographics, interact with the world via their smartphones. The feature will allow users to upload a video and ask a question to form a search query. The video is then analyzed frame-by-frame to offer an AI overview answer.

Read more about Google’s video to search capabilities here or check out the demo presented at Google I/O 2024 here .

Skydance Media Nears Close of Acquisition of Paramount

By Joe Antonini, Media Supervisor

In a news story jam-packed with proper nouns, Skydance may not be the most recognizable. But the production company is behind massively successful films like Top Gun: Maverick and the Jack Reacher and Mission Impossible franchises.? (*Not all of Skydance’s projects involve Tom Cruise.) Helmed by Gerry Cardinale and David Ellison (son of multibillionaire Oracle founder Larry), the company also recently secured a deal to purchase Paramount.

Named for the storied production hub (not unlike Skydance’s role now) from the Golden Age of Hollywood, Paramount now is of course a media conglomerate comprised of assets such as CBS, Nickelodeon, Paramount+, as well as, yes, a film and television production business. For all of the machinery here, one can’t help but think the real value in this acquisition lies in the most powerful types of proper nouns: Intellectual Property. 112 years in the business has afforded Paramount a couple hits - The Godfather, Friday the 13th, Beverly Hills Cop, Mean Girls, Spongebob Squarepants, Star Trek.

Cardinale on the inspiration for going after Paramount: “As one of the iconic media brands and libraries in Hollywood, Paramount has the intellectual property foundation to ensure longevity through this evolution”. “Library”, “Foundation”, “Longevity”, “Evolution”.? In the modern Streaming Wars Content is King; and so often that means that it’s everything past which holds sway for the future. How will Skydance’s leaders use the legacy titles of Paramount in fresh bundles, sequels, and formats?

Announcements have hinted that the restructured company will be called “New Paramount” - a perfect summoning of “New Coke”, the once beverage of the future which now is only associated with nostalgia.