Daily News Roundup

T-Mobile may be considering an acquisition in the mobile data market; Google’s glitch shuts down ads for a weekend; and ad tech’s old guard is salivating over AI startups.

Google has been spotted triple serving ads to search pages. Plus, good luck getting ads next to Oscars content this year.

Pinterest is being overrun with low-effort generative AI slop. Plus, Stagwell partially credits its 14% growth last year to – you guessed it – AI.

WPP shares dipped to a four-year low on after posting its 2024 earnings results. Plus: How brands are courting virality.

DoubleVerify adds Rockerbox to its attribution stack; Taboola courts performance marketers with a new ad platform; and the end of the MLB/ESPN deal spells opportunity for sports streamers.

YouTube advertisers prefer long-form videos to Shorts; Microsoft tests an ad-supported version of its Office suite; and Chegg sues Google over lost traffic from gen AI search.

Amazon is still lowering its Prime Video ad rates across the board. Plus, there are disadvantages to being a big tech giant.

YouTube is adding a new tier with a “light” ad load. Plus, remember Facebook?

More dollars are flowing through the Amazon ads machine. Plus, are advertisers coming back to X out of fear of the Trump administration?

Why Google Demand Gen is struggling to grow; embattled web browser extensions test the limits of last-click attribution; and the State Department demands diplomats cancel their news subscriptions.

Spotify faces obstacles in its ticket sales aspirations; Apple switches to view-through attribution; and The Washington Post and Meta remove ads that were critical of Elon Musk.

AirBNB starting an ad service business is “not a matter of if; it’s a matter of when.”  Plus, Walmart is winning.

Meta is no stranger by now to complaints from ad buyers, particularly ecommerce brands and social agencies, reporting major systemic platform issues, including outright bugs and glitches – not to mention decreased marketing returns at higher CPMs.

US judge rules generative AI has no fair use claim; Snap sets its sights on SMBs; MMM comes to CTV; and Disney introduces ads in live TV, even for paid users.

TVs are officially the most popular device for watching YouTube; Google’s lead generation comes under fire; Temu tests a “half custody” distribution model to counter import tariffs.

Netflix’s programmatic platform is a tough sell in Europe. Plus, awkward euphemisms makes marketing for sports gambling a problem. 

Google just can’t seem to win with its Gemini ads. Plus, what’s the deal with Roblox’s nascent ad business? 

Meta quietly launched a product and loudly updated another. Plus, DeepSee.io’s naming and shaming which sellers it found monetizing stolen content.

Google’s AI search drops click-through rates for organic search results to 0.4%; Trump’s China tariffs put the squeeze on Temu; and how other brands could pull back ad spend due to tariffs.

Publicis looks to capitalize on potential fallout from the Omnicom/IPG merger; Google Cloud is seeing an influx of ad sales talent; and Spotify advises investors to be patient with its growing programmatic ads biz.

Paramount and Nielsen have ended their measurement standoff. Plus, a new survey says digital ads now cost more and convert less.

Coinbase has acquired a blockchain-based advertising and attribution startup. Plus, is brand safety on social media a myth?

Fiat is taking luxury car-branded apartment complexes to the next level. Plus, the new FCC Chair is launching an investigation into NPR and PBS.

Google’s open-source MMM product goes live; Amazon Prime Video’s ad biz turns one; and teens don’t trust Big Tech and have doubts about AI.

The IAB predicts what privacy laws might be passed by the new congress; AI-generated newsletters are competing with local news; and the IAB Tech Lab ramps up production of new OpenRTB specs.

Things aren’t going well for Hollywood. Plus, Nielsen is finally ripping off the Band-Aid.

At long last, brands on Threads can buy ads. Plus, Meta is also trying to copy-and-paste an alternative to CapCut.

Kimberly-Clark didn’t hire a new CMO, and it doesn’t intend to. Plus, now airport bookstores are also ad networks.

P&G pumps the brakes on paid media and turns to product innovation to drive growth; with TikTok’s fate unclear, Snap and Reddit offer credits for new advertisers; and brands are following news audiences and journalists to Substack.

Google asserts its position in the CTV ad ecosystem. Also: a change to its search ads biz may be inflating advertising costs for charities.