Tiny TV
Social media microdrama productions have grown up in a short period of time. (It’s all SAG-AFTRA-sanctioned union work after all.)
Now, here come the advertisers.
Social-native brands, such as Poppi, e.l.f. cosmetics and the skin care lotion startup Sol de Janeiro are among the early sponsors for the microdrama production studio Hoorae founded by Issa Rae, Ad Age reports. The studio is also backed by TikTok.
Part of the appeal is the home run potential if the microdrama turns out to be a breakout hit. Also, the inventory is a relative bargain.
Poppi has been an early mover in the microdrama trend, similar to how it got in on the ground floor with American pickleball leagues. The brand makes its soda an inextricable part of the show. And Hoorae’s branded entertainment studio, Ensemble, puts paid media behind its content, giving brand partners even more visibility.
There are other unique benefits to the microdrama format, too. Since the shows are on social networks (mostly TikTok, at least for Hoorae), there’s an active culture of commenters weighing in live as the content airs (posts?). That means the brand can interact with those users and use the data to gather real-time feedback and other marketing insights.
Gaming The System
Ever feel like your favorite mobile game is just a vehicle for blasting you with ads? Well, you’re probably onto something.
Now, through the magic of AI-driven game decompiling, we have more insight than ever into how mobile game apps make their ad bucks.
Consider Block Blast!, a fairly derivative Tetris-like game that regularly ranks in the top 5 on most-downloaded mobile games lists. It recently made a stir with a big brand activation at Coachella. Oh, and it earned $127 million in ad revenue this year as of May – about $46 million more than Candy Crush.
Ayomide Omolewa, a data scientist, creator and founder of AI game coding platform a0.dev, has gone viral for his videos decompiling the code behind popular mobile apps like Duolingo. His deep dive into Block Blast!’s code illustrates that how well you do in the game depends on how valuable you are to advertisers.
A rule called “high value ad harvest” identifies players who tend to watch ads, helps them beat their high scores, then triggers a “death algorithm” in which the next round is impossible to win. At which point, the app readies a rewarded video ad that will bring the player back to life.
Another game Omolewa decompiled, Dicero, sends five separate conversion signals to its ad trackers when a player makes a purchase. This helps the app make about $100,000 in ad revenue a day.
Makes you wonder what other algorithmic advertising tweaks will soon be uncovered by AI agents.
Advertising Addiction
One of the biggest stories in sports is the growing chuminess between professional leagues, sports media and gambling companies. Nowadays, viewers see gambling ads or logos every 13 seconds when watching a game.
But you might not realize the scope of the problem based on mainstream sports coverage – and marketing partnerships could be to blame, according to former ESPN producer Nicole Noren, who quit the network in 2024 after 24 years.
Noren tells the Columbia Journalism Review that she grew disgusted by ESPN’s partnership with DraftKings as someone who’s seen gambling addiction ruin the lives of multiple family members, including her brother, who died homeless on the streets of Las Vegas.
ESPN used to have a hard line against promoting gambling, Noren says. But after the 2018 Supreme Court decision that loosened sports betting restrictions, ESPN changed its tune. By 2023, ESPN had launched its own gambling app. The app was a flop, but it was the last straw for Noren.
Plus, Noren says, after ESPN started working with sportsbooks, the wall between business and editorial got “a little more penetrable,” and there was “a rocky path to report some stories that involved stakeholders.”
Noren’s objections echo a story from 2024 in which a Publicis employee whose family had a history of opioid addiction quit after the holdco paid a $350 million settlement for marketing opioids to doctors on behalf of Purdue Pharma.
But it seems the promise of big ad budgets still outweighs the danger of promoting risky, addictive products.
But Wait! There’s More!
Fox’s $22 billion acquisition of Roku is approved by shareholders and is on track to close in the first half of 2027. [The Wrap]
Netflix lays off roughly 1,000 employees – or 6% of its workforce. [Variety]
Polymarket launches its first ad campaign to promote its political markets in time for the midterm elections. [Adweek]
Is Character.ai’s bankruptcy a warning sign for the AI bubble? [404 Media]
Two unnamed minors are suing OpenAI for allegedly training its models on sensitive data, including kids’ personal secrets and health information disclosed in ChatGPT conversations. [Futurism]
Why ads aren’t enough to power the “knowledge creator” economy. Plus, how AI will make every piece of software headless. [The Rebooting]
Swedish social media company W Social made its verified users’ personal data publicly available in plain text. [blog]
You’re Hired!
Adam Gerhart is promoted to global chief client officer at WPP. He previously held the same role at WPP Media. [Adweek]
