Netflix is partnering with dating app Bumble for “Netflix Nights In,” a game that asks users questions about a Netflix show. Each Monday, a different series will be featured. “When we’re getting to know someone, it’s human nature to try and find common interests. It gives you something to bond over and go beyond surface-level conversation,” said Magno Herran, VP of Marketing Partnerships at Netflix. “With this partnership, we wanted to give people a way to find someone who gets them based on what they watch while leaning into ‘if you know you know’ Netflix references that have helped to spark many conversations.” The game begins today, January 30, and runs through March 13.

The Justice Department and a group of eight state is suing Google, seeking to break up its online advertising business. In the agency’s first antitrust lawsuit against a tech giant under President Biden, Google is accused of “engaging in a systematic campaign to seize control of the wide swath of high-tech tools used by publishers, advertisers and brokers to facilitate digital advertising.” The lawsuit asks for Google to be forced to sell its suite of ad technology products and cease engaging in allegedly anticompetitive practices.

German group HateAid, which campaigns against hate speech, and the European Union of Jewish Students have filed a lawsuit against Twitter for failing to enforce its rules against antisemitic content. That includes rules against holocaust denial, which is a crime in Germany. “Twitter knows Jews are being publicly attacked on the platform every day and that antisemitism is becoming a normality in our society. And that the platform’s response is by no means adequate,” say the litigants.

Over the last month, discovery-based shopping app Temu has become the most downloaded free app in the US Apple App and Google Play stores. Launched in September by Chinese parent company Pingduoduo, credit for the e-commerce app’s explosive growth goes to a hefty marketing budget, a wide variety of products and remarkably cheap prices.

Heavy investment in AI tools has enabled Meta to make better predictions based on less data, reports The Wall Street Journal. Optimizing Facebook has been a big part of the effort, along with moving to advertising less dependent on harvesting user information, aimed at dealing with Apple’s privacy change that impacted its ads business.

Also leaning into AI is BuzzFeed, in its case to help produce content. “You’ll see AI-inspired content move from an R&D stage to part of our core business, enhancing the quiz experience, informing our brainstorming, and personalizing our content for our audience,” wrote CEO Jonah Peretti in an email to staff on Thursday. “If the past 15 years of the internet have been defined by algorithmic feeds that curate and recommend content, the next 15 years will be defined by AI and data helping create, personalize and animate the content itself.” BuzzFeed also inked a deal with Meta last week to produce creator content for Facebook and Instagram.

YouTube has launched a new program called YouTube Listening Room, offering a premium subscription and early access to new features, in return for feedback on the features. Feedback on the program was immediate – after just 24 hours, due to “overwhelming response,” no more submission were being accepted.

Microsoft announced a multi-year investment in OpenAI, the third deal in its partnership with the artificial intelligence company. Microsoft new investment will “advance cutting-edge AI research and democratize AI as a new technology platform,” said Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella in a blog post.

Cyanite has launched a search engine that can instantly translate complex text input a musical equivalent. Users can find matching music by telling the AI exactly what they need, in their own language and unbound to a prefixed set of keywords. “Music rights holders are bombarded with requests from both sides of the professional spectrum, from branding agencies to DIY content creators,” said Markus Schwarzer, CEO, Cyanite. “They cannot possibly meet all of them in a timely manner with a consistent high quality. With Free Text Search, we provide music companies with a tool that catches the first wave by giving a variety of music choices to broad requests for users to drill down from – or very targeted music recommendations to specific requests.”

Nearly half of all executives surveyed said their organization has poor-quality data, according to findings from Tamr. Seventy-five percent of respondents said their companies are focused on improving data quality, and 65% stated they’re investing in data management technologies this year. On the consumer side, data security will become even more prominent, with 95% of executives agreeing they have to do a better job securing their data. “Although we’ve seen companies make significant strides over the past decade, our research shows that many organizations still have a long road ahead,” said Andy Palmer, co-founder, chairman and CEO of Tamr.

Moviebill, the augmented reality platform that delivers weekly experiences for theatrical release movies, has rebranded as ‘Really’ and will expand AR distribution and Web3 content offerings to moviegoers via its partnership with Regal. The platform will offer entertainment fans AR experiences that are interconnected between the Really SDK in the Regal App, WebAR, Social Lenses, native OS, and a new standalone mobile application launching in the Apple App and Google Play stores this month.

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IAB released its annual State of Data report, highlighting how privacy-preserving technologies such as Data Clean Rooms are being managed and activated. Highlights include:
? 64% of companies leveraging privacy-preserving technology are using DCRs.
? Respondents cited time-frames of months to up to two years to get up and running with the technology.
? Nearly two thirds (62%) of users spent a minimum of $200K on the technology in 2022, with a quarter (23%) spending upwards of $500K.
“So far, most companies are using DCRs for privacy controls, matching data for collaboration, and data activation,” said Jeffrey Bustos, Vice President, Measurement, Addressability & Data, IAB. “But that only scratches the surface of what’s possible.” Less than a third of users are using DCRs’ advanced measurement capabilities, including attribution, return on investment (ROI) / return on ad spend (ROAS) measurement, media or marketing mix modeling, and propensity modeling and predictive analysis.

Twitter has partnered with DoubleVerify and Integral Ad Science to offer advertisers insights about the content that appears adjacent to their ads, including promoted tweets. “Twitter is committed to promoting a safe advertising experience for people and brands, and this commitment has never been stronger,” said AJ Brown, Twitter’s Head of Brand Safety. “Validation of the context in which ads serve according to Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM) industry standards is incredibly important to us and our customers.”

StackAdapt struck a partnership with Broadsign that strengthens the OOH inventory available on StackAdapt’s multi-channel digital advertising platform. The integration of Broadsign’s global SSP with StackAdapt’s multi-channel digital advertising platform enables media buyers to weave global digital out-of-home ads spanning roadside, retail, transit, and beyond into cohesive programmatic multi-channel campaigns. “Out-of-home plays well with mobile, social, and CTV, and we expect this integration will help drive new growth here at StackAdapt, and fuel the continued evolution of multi-channel,” said Lina Wangfang, Senior Director of Inventory, StackAdapt.

Fyllo, a platform providing data-driven marketing and regulatory solutions, announced the launch of Hypertail PMP, a solution that helps advertisers contextually reach their target audiences through the unique set of websites essential to their passions and lifestyles. By identifying long-tail sites where a brand’s hyper-obsessive consumers are frequenting, Hypertail PMP offers efficient and targeted opportunities for programmatic marketers, yet it is particularly well-suited for advertisers promoting niche products/services where consumers are less likely to be engaging with mainstream publications. “Keyword targeting on major websites only paints a vague, and sometimes misleading, picture of a brand’s target consumer at a higher cost,” said Chad Bronstein, Founder and CEO at Fyllo. “Hypertail PMP’s ability to build semantic topics identifying hyper-engaged enthusiasts on niche sites more precisely connects the brand directly to their target audience at a lower cost, allowing for greater scalability and significantly improved performance.”

Lotame introduced Spherical, a data platform designed to help marketers and media owners drive the most value from both known and unknown first-party data for customer engagement and acquisition in a privacy-first world. Spherical will enable interoperability and data portability across brand and media owner tech stacks, extending first-party data living in data warehouses or customer data platforms (CDPs) into the madtech ecosystem. CDPs integrated with Lotame at the launch of Spherical include BlueConic, Meiro, mParticle, Rudderstack, Salesforce, Simon Data, Tealium and Treasure Data. Lotame plans to expand support to additional CDPs on an ongoing basis.

STREAMING

Spotify head of content Dawn Ostroff is one of the employees leaving the company as it cuts 6% of its workforce. “To bring our costs more in line, we’ve made the difficult but necessary decision to reduce our number of employees,” wrote CEO Daniel Ek in a memo to employees. “While I believe this decision is right for Spotify, I understand that with our historic focus on growth, many of you will view this as a shift in our culture. But as we evolve and grow as a business, so must our way of working while still staying true to our core values.” Ek praised Ostroff, who will remain to assist with the transition as Alex Norstrom assumes her duties, as having “made a tremendous mark not only on Spotify, but on the audio industry.”

MuxIP, provider of automated solutions for ad-supported streaming, will deliver 24/7 live FAST channel capabilities for MTRSPT1, the global motorsports network. The first major live MTRSPT1 event powered by MuxIP’s FastHub solution will be the Daytona 200 on March 11.

DEALS

DataCore Software has acquired Object Matrix, the object storage and media archive specialist. Object Matrix’s appliances and cloud offerings will become part of the DataCore Perifery portfolio that specializes in delivering end-to-end, application-centric solutions for edge and high-growth markets, including media and entertainment.

Cynopsis Team