Commerce

You know you’ve won the lottery as a brand when you go viral on TikTok (for a good reason). Last year, it was Ocean Spray, and this year it’s Gap, whose vintage logo sweatshirts – the brown one, in particular – made a comeback on TikTok as an unexpected fashion trend of 2021. Gap capitalized on […]

A weekly comic strip from AdExchanger.com that highlights the digital advertising ecosystem…

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Tale Of Two Internets Apple’s and Google’s user privacy rules have caused distress among advertisers and might reshape the internet itself, The New York Times reports. Audience-targeting tech (i.e., site tags and third-party cookies) helped morph many ad tech and social media platforms into […]

The country’s largest grocers are adapting to new shopping habits with a hybrid model that combines their brick-and-mortar footprint with online advertising platforms. Although Amazon paved the way with its ad platform and 2017 acquisition of Whole Foods, grocery giants, including Kroger and Walmart, are also investing heavily in sponsored search and programmatic. And now […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. The Party Line The Washington DC Attorney General’s office expanded its antitrust suit against Amazon. The complaint initially targeted Amazon’s third-party seller policies and now also encompasses first-party seller deals. The crux of the AG’s case against Amazon’s first-party seller policies is the “Minimum […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Podcast Talk Podcasting has heated up, with big M&A deals in recent years, including Amazon’s acquisition of Wondery for $300 million and Spotify’s $235 million deal for Megaphone. Podcast advertising is forecasted to exceed $2 billion by 2023, according to emarketer, which revised up […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Is The Cart Half Full Or Half Empty? Instacart’s grocery delivery business has slowed, or at best is showing zero sales growth from this time last year. That’s largely because quarantines forced people to order online, and many have returned to in-store shopping. Frankly, […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. The TV Prize Amazon plans to introduce its own line of smart TVs in the United States, perhaps as early as October, Business Insider reports. On the one hand, it’s surprising Amazon hasn’t released its own television, since it would be a natural extension […]

Facebook’s org chart is changing. Several of its most longstanding and recognizable advertising and media executives left big blue for greener (or at least other) pastures this summer. Just this week, Mark D’Arcy, Facebook’s chief creative officer and VP of global business marketing, said he’ll be stepping down after more than a decade with the […]

There is a distinct Amazon approach to advertising, and it’s taking over the rest of retail media. To be successful within the walled garden platform, brands must be sharply focused on search. They also become accustomed to seeing ad costs factored as an incremental part of overall sales. Spectrum Brands honed its advertising approach on […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. They See Me Rollin’ Uber tapped former Sizmek CEO and Amazon ad exec Mark Grether to lead its advertising business, Business Insider reports. Poaching Grether is a big deal for Uber as it stands up a global advertising strategy. Though Uber’s ad revenue isn’t […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. SPAC’s All Folks Vice Media officially nixed plans to go public via a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), at least for now, The Information reports. However, Vice did raise an additional $85 million from existing investors. A portion of those funds are earmarked for […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. A Shot Across The Bows Comscore is capitalizing on Nielsen’s latest stumble. The company told AdExchanger in an email that it asked to be audited by the MRC for both national and local TV measurement accreditation – a clear dig at Nielsen’s MRC disaccreditation […]

The first era of online shopping was independent merchants setting up their own sites. And the second era simply belonged to Amazon. But now we’re in a third era, which could be known as the social commerce age.  Put differently: the age of Shopify. The ecommerce tech company announced an integration with TikTok on Tuesday, […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Ecomm Dollar Signs The pandemic fueled a massive shift to online buying, and investors are following the money. Tiger Global, the investment firm that led investments in DoubleVerify and Moloco, among other ad tech startups, put a $50 million round behind Nacelle, which provides […]

Erik Huberman, CEO and founder of marketing consultancy Hawke Media, has some pretty strong – if not outright harsh – words for most media agencies out there: “They’re full of [expletive].” Before founding the Los Angeles-based company in 2014, Huberman launched and sold two commerce companies – Swag of the Month and Ellie – and […]

“The Sell Sider” is a column written by the sell side of the digital media community. Today’s Q&A is with Michael Schuh, VP of media strategy Kroger Precision Marketing’s 84.51°. Kroger, the largest grocery chain in the United States, is capitalizing on major swings in shopping patterns since the COVID-19 pandemic as it expands its retail […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Everything Store Adds More Audio Amazon is new to podcasting but it’s moving fast, borrowing from Spotify’s playbook. After scooping up podcast publisher Wondery eight months ago, it’s now signing exclusive distribution and ad deals with buzzy podcasts like SmartLess (hosted by Jason Bateman, […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Booming Biz The DSP Viant reported a year-over-year revenue increase of 66% to $50.4 million. Viant IPOed in February, part of a recent boom in programmatic companies on the public market. As with most of those companies, Viant is going big on CTV, which […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Pour One Out For The Insta-Brands Facebook surprised most analysts with a powerhouse Q2, despite the rollout of Apple’s AppTrackingTransparency (ATT) framework and new IDFA rules. But Facebook’s diminished targeting and attribution capabilities are having concrete effects on advertisers. A few years ago, many […]

The pandemic upended consumer buying habits – and the brands behind these products are not going back to their old ways. Many of the world’s largest food and beverage brands reported quarterly earnings in the past two weeks, and two important themes running throughout those calls was the sharp increase in advertising spend this year […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Gold goes to … It’s only a few years ago that the International Olympic Committee begrudgingly agreed to let athletes tweet, post and snap, except beyond specific sponsor-vetted arrangements. And not long before that, the IOC threatened to expel athletes who posted from the […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. The Agency Revival “Broad-based recovery” is the term of the week, repeated in quarterly earnings calls by ad giants like Alphabet, Amazon and Facebook, as well as the publicly traded agency holding companies, which capped off unexpectedly strong years with additional growth in Q2 […]

Roku saw viewership decline in Q2 as pandemic restrictions eased. Streaming hours dropped a billion hours from Q1 to 17.4 billion hours in Q2, and the company’s stock was down 9% on Thursday. While Roku’s streaming hours declined sequentially, they still increased 19% from the previous year, during the early days of lockdown. It added […]

Getting online shoppers to click and add a product to their cart – and then have that product ship cost-effectively to a customer – is the latest challenge for CPG companies. During earnings calls over the past week, leaders of CPG companies had to answer to investors about their ecommerce strategies, which have accelerated thanks […]

Driscoll’s, the century-old fresh fruit company, is no stranger to change. But the transition to online ordering is a tricky one for the brand. Driscoll’s works with geneticists and fruit growers to hone the tastiest berry varieties, and its sales and marketing arm brings the fruit to market. But its marketing and seed-editing machine is […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Video Killed The TV Star Comcast’s and Google’s earnings calls last week mark two converging trends in brand advertising and the decline of linear TV. NBC is haggling with advertisers of the Olympics because ratings are down – 42% down – at the halfway […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Just Browsing The only browser operators with the resources and potential building blocks to compete with Google Chrome are Microsoft Edge (which is built on Chrome’s open-source code) and Apple’s Safari WebKit. So really that just leaves Safari. And Apple has given up on […]

Amazon doesn’t disclose advertising revenues in its quarterly earnings reports. It bundles the ad group into an “Other” category, which consists of advertising and analytics services. But even without a specific number, it’s clear that Amazon’s advertising business is both massive and growing fast. Amazon’s Other category earned more than $7.9 billion in Q2, up […]

More and more ecommerce sales are preceded by paid product listings. The advance of ecommerce advertising in the past year and a half can be seen in the revenue growth in Amazon earnings reports and the promulgation of retail media platforms such as Walmart Connect, Target’s Roundel and Google Shopping. Marketers, too, are getting used […]