Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here.
The round-up will return Tuesday, February 21, in observance of the Presidents’ Day holiday. Thanks, George and Abe, for the long weekend!
The Clone Wars
Every few months, social platforms align on a shiny new object … that’s really just another version of someone else’s old object. The list is long: Stories, vertical videos, short-form videos, Clubhouse (lol).
And now Spotify will soon lift a page from TikTok’s playbook, Bloomberg reports, with a new UI that mirrors the vertical video feed, including autoplay videos and loops featuring songs. Spotify plans to announce these changes, according to Bloomberg.
But TikTok knows how to borrow someone else’s bit, too.
Its livestreaming hub, TikTok LIVE, just announced a new TikTok Trivia program that will air over five days and dole out a combined $500,000 to winners. The program is presented by Lionsgate to promote the new John Wick joint.
“Maybe you’ll even dive into the #WickTok community,” TikTok wrote in its press release.
The idea is a rip-off of HQ Trivia, which had a huge popular streak in 2018 before ultimately flaming out by November 2022.
And on the same day as TikTok’s announcement, Zuck himself revealed that Instagram is rolling out a product called “channels,” a so-called “broadcast chat feature” that borrows heavily from Telegram and Twitter.
Such is the state of platform innovation.
Wojcicki Passes The Torch
YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki will step down after nearly 10 years as the video platform’s chief executive, she writes in a blog post.
Replacing Wojcicki as CEO will be Neal Mohan, YouTube’s longtime product chief. A successor for the chief product officer role has not yet been named.
Wojcicki climbed the ranks at YouTube’s parent company, Google – perhaps you’ve heard of it? – after starting there 25 years ago as its first marketing manager. She’s gone down in Google lore for renting her garage as a makeshift office to founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page when the company was first getting started.
The leadership change comes during a down time for YouTube’s advertising business and structural shifts in its business.
In Q4, YouTube’s ad revenue was down 7.8% YOY, representing the second consecutive quarter of ad revenue decline – and also the second quarter of YOY decline for YouTube.
Mohan came to Google via DoubleClick, where he was SVP of product. After Google’s acquisition of DoubleClick, he led product during the development of the Google Display Network, AdSense, AdMob and YouTube’s ad platform.
It remains to be seen if Mohan’s appointment is a sign that YouTube will refocus on advertising or pursue subscriptions and commerce.
Pampered Precision
If you’re tired of hearing about AI in advertising every day, too bad.
Advertisers are using machine learning tools to extract every efficiency they can from media budgets and reduce the tedium of time-consuming tasks.
For example, P&G is using a tool called Search AutoBidder to automatically adjust ad placements on retail search channels every 15 minutes, Ad Age reports. P&G also uses AI to test copy, which means it can optimize faster and spend more money programmatically as a result.
But “it’s not who spends the most that matters,” said Marc Pritchard, P&G’s chief brand officer, speaking at the ANA’s Media Conference in Orlando, Fla.
“What matters is who reaches the most consumers with the greatest media precision, the highest advertising effectiveness and the optimum efficiency to deliver sustained growth and value creation,” Pritchard said.
Pampers, for example, uses first-party data and the company’s AI tech to create more custom audience segments programmatically, which helps reduce frequency and increase reach.
P&G is also shifting more spend into retail search, streaming and diverse-owned media.
But Wait, There’s More!
TikTok is quietly testing its in-app checkout in the US. [Ad Age]
LiveIntent product chief Mano Pillai on the power of the hashed email. [AdMonsters]
The spread of conversational interfaces will change media habits. [The Rebooting]
Demandbase raises $175 million from Vista Equity’s credit financing subsidiary. [release]
Virginia Republicans reject a menstrual app privacy bill, which means the data may be seized by search warrant and used in a criminal case. [Axios]
Eureka Equity Partners makes an investment in ad research firm Advertiser Perceptions. [release]
Google: How the Ukraine conflict transformed the cyber threat landscape. [blog]
You’re Hired!
Tammy Filler and Jamie Cutburth take on EVP roles within NBCU’s advertising and partnerships division. [The Wrap]
Cloud-based tech company Phrase names Simone Bohnenberger-Rich as chief product officer. [release]
DMi Partners, a performance marketing agency, announces four VP additions. [release]
Generative AI ad platform Omneky rapidly expands its team with a raft of new hires. [release]
