Poison Tasters
Agentic search traffic raises fundamental new questions for first-party data and content owners, but this is one of the biggest: Should a site allow agents to freely peruse its media or should it block scrapers as potential usurpers of the direct customer or reader relationship?
As AI agents and LLMs increasingly draw on web content, first-party data owners and social platforms like Reddit are restricting public or logged-out access to their content while licensing it directly to LLM providers.
But another emerging issue is that core data sources like Google – which are also fierce competitors in agentic search and marketing analytics – may deliberately poison and pollute responses when an agentic rival scrapes a page.
Semrush, Ahrefs, DemandSphere, SEOmonitor and other SEO services are shouting from the rooftops that Google has begun crafting misleading search response pages to throw off their tracking, Search Engine Land reports.
A search for a baby stroller in Brazil, for example, returned results featuring dental supplies. To be fair, the Portuguese word “carrinhos” can refer to “strollers” or supply carts wheeled around a dentist’s office, but still.
Google Search understood the stroller intent, yet it fed its rivals an irrelevant result instead.
Consolidation Conundrum
Skydance CEO David Ellison has named his combined company’s new advertising team, with former Paramount CRO Jay Askinasi at the helm – and one of their most pressing questions may be what to do with Skydance’s ad tech stack.
At this point, any planned shakeups in its stack could roil the CTV advertising market, writes Mike Shields in his Next in Media newsletter.
Rumors are swirling that Skydance is considering dropping FreeWheel as its ad server, Shields writes, although he doesn’t say where he heard those rumors.
FreeWheel is now owned by Comcast, but FreeWheel will go with NBCU when it spins off from Comcast next year. Losing Skydance’s business would be a major blow for the fledgling spin-off. And, as Shields notes, it’s likely Skydance wouldn’t want its ad data living inside a server owned by a network rival.
Skydance is also rumored to have plans for unifying Paramount+ and Pluto TV into a single ad tech stack, Shields writes, although the industry speculation is that Skydance has no interest in building its own tech.
So who could win Skydance’s business? Google makes sense, Shields notes, since it previously ran ads for CBS All Access, the precursor to Paramount+.
Of course, Skydance might also have concerns about sharing data with Google, Shields writes. But those reservations could disappear if Skydance is able to parlay its existing carriage deals with YouTube TV into exclusive ad products or opportunities.
Getaway Car
Car commercials aren’t gone. They’re just moving closer to home. As auto ad spending shrinks, brands are shifting from nationwide campaigns to regional sales pushes.
For the first time, less than 10% of US ad spend will go toward automotive ads this year, according to ad intelligence platform Guideline. And local campaigns are taking a bigger share of the TV budget: They accounted for 40% of US linear TV ad spend from January through August this year, up from 20% over the same period in 2023.
Part of the shift is due to “financial pressures stemming from tariffs, interest rates and the rising cost of gasoline,” The Wall Street Journal reports, citing Gina Reduto, EVP of strategy, advertising and partnerships at NBCUniversal. All marketers – car brands included – are “being tasked with demonstrating the value of every dollar that they spend,” Reduto says.
Automotive brands are also shifting away from linear TV, drawn by the greater control streaming offers over targeting.
For American Honda, streaming is “where we know the eyeballs are,” says Megan Amic, the automaker’s head of digital marketing and strategy in North America.
But Wait! There’s More!
L Catterton, a large consumer brand investment firm, announced a strategic investment in Glance, an AI shopping agent created by InMobi. [release]
Salesforce customers brace for new fees to use Claude within its product suite. [The Information]
Anthropic’s ad bill is soaring, although it’s a pittance compared to its other costs. [Digiday]
Google hasn’t confirmed anything, but there appears to be a Search ranking update going on. [Search Engine Roundtable]
You’re Hired!
Purpose Worldwide promotes Hollis Guerra to partner and expands its leadership board. [release]
Liquid I.V. hires former Poppi CMO Jenny Danzi to lead its marketing. [Adweek]
Donna Sharp becomes general manager of Life360 Ads. [Campaign US]
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