Monday June 7, 2021

On the heels of Apple’s ad tracking changes, Google will disable advertising IDs for users who opt out of tracking. The change will roll out later this year, starting with apps running on Android 12 devices.

Donald Trump will remain banned from Facebook and Instagram for at least two years, the company announced Friday. Trump was indefinitely suspended from all Facebook platforms in the wake of the January 6 riot on the Capitol. His account will remain suspended until January 7, 2023, and be reinstated only if the “risk to public safety has receded,” the company said. In addition, Facebook will no longer treat content posted by politicians differently than content posted by others when determining whether its “newsworthiness” outweighs potential harm, said VP of global affairs Nick Clegg in a blog post. That changes a policy announced in 2019, saying that “speech from politicians is inherently of public interest.”

In other news from the house of Zuckerberg, the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) and the European Commission launched probes into whether Facebook’s use of data for online classified ads and dating gives the company unfair advantage to benefit its own service.

At its developer conference, Facebook introduced Facebook Login Connect with Messenger, a tool in closed beta that would allow users to log in using their Facebook credentials and opt in to chat with businesses over Messenger, in the Facebook Login flow. Facebook also added new features to its Business Suite, including a feature that will allow developers to build “business apps,” and announced the general availability of the Messenger API for Instagram.

Ahead of Apple’s WWDC21, kicking off today, the company reported the App Store facilitated $643 billion in billings and sales last year, up 24% from 2019. About 90% of those sales took place outside its walls (so, no commission on the purchases for Apple), versus 85% last year.

Apple employees will be heading back to the office, at least part of the week, in early September. This per an email from CEO Tim Cook that noted in part, “For all that we’ve been able to achieve while many of us have been separated, the truth is that there has been something essential missing from this past year: each other.”

Rockbot, creator of smart music and TV platform for businesses, is going sky-high. A partnership with Clear Channel Airports will expand Rockbot into airports, replacing CNN’s now shuttered news format with sports, news, entertainment, and lifestyle content from brands localized to each city. In addition, Rockbot’s platform gives airports a platform to enhance their traveler experience with music, audio messaging and digital signage.

Advocado, a cross-media data management platform, announced a three-year plan to add over 100 technology jobs, spanning engineering, data science, customer success, operations, sales and marketing roles, in downtown St. Louis as part of its long-term commitment to the city’s economic development. Advocado was founded in St. Louis in 2017.

Tokyo Olympics viewers may run to a bar or a friend’s house to watch the Games, but they can’t hide from NBCUniversal. NBCU has teamed with Tunity for OOH viewership figures for all linear networks presenting the Tokyo Olympics in primetime, which will be incorporated into NBCUniversal’s holistic measurement of the event. “We’ve known for decades that people gather together both in and out of their homes to watch the world’s athletes come together and compete at the Olympics,” said Jorge De La Rosa, SVP, Research, NBC Sports Group. “For the first time, Tunity will enable us to measure those Out-of-Home viewers and accurately add them to the massive and unmatched viewership that only the Olympic Games provide.”

Measurement company 605 and Charter Communications are in it for the long haul, with an agreement to extend their existing viewership data licensing agreement into 2031. The agreement also includes a commitment by Charter to purchase a wider portfolio of specific 605 products and services on an annual basis.

Etsy is buying social shopping app Depop, where users buy and sell used clothing and accessories, for $1.6 billion. The Gen Z app has grown to over 30 million customers worldwide since its launch in 2011.

Chat marketing platform ManyChat announced it will begin rolling out Messenger API support for Instagram to the general public, allowing brands to access new functionality on Instagram for the first time on ManyChat. “Instagram Automation by ManyChat is the easiest solution to automate Instagram Messages and Instagram marketing,” said Mike Yan, CEO of ManyChat. “Brands choose ManyChat because it’s the quickest and most cost-effective tool to drive product sales, generate qualified leads, automate FAQs, and boost Instagram engagement.” Previously, Instagram Automation by ManyChat was only available to a small number of select beta testers.

Paul Donato (ARF) will moderate the discussion on June 15 at 2:20pm between John Vilade (Premion), Jessica Daigle (TEGNA), & Sunil Soman (WarnerMedia).

REGISTER NOW

Magnite announced Rakuten Advertising will leverage the Magnite CTV platform across Europe to broaden advertiser and agency access to inventory on Rakuten TV AVOD service. Magnite’s CTV platform further expands Rakuten Advertising’s access to technology built to handle the nuances of long-form video.

Ad management company Flashtalking announced that Protected by Flashtalking and Viant Technology are collaborating to protect clients against current and developing CTV ad fraud threats. Following its acquisition of Protected Media, Flashtalking offers the industry an MRC accredited solution for Sophisticated Invalid Traffic Detection and Filtration in OTT.

Verizon Media announced the launch of new ad formats available through their DSP. One of the formats identifies images on Verizon Media’s properties and automatically surfaces a similar image within an ad. Another format helps optimize the text in an ad, providing advertisers with the predicted performance of the copy in their ad as it’s created. “Without relying on IDs, our industry-first Text Strength Indicator feature applies AI-driven text analysis across the billions of ads we’ve run on the Verizon Media DSP to optimize copy for performance,” said the company in a blog post. “It provides advertisers with real-time feedback on the predicted performance of the copy in their ad as it’s being created, while also making recommendations for winning ad copy.”

ABC Owned Television Stations has transitioned to selling TV advertising based on impressions rather than traditional ratings. “Marketers with local strategies want to build multiplatform campaigns and need a common currency to do so effectively,” said Debra O’Connell, President, Networks at Disney Media & Entertainment Distribution. “Using an impressions-based currency to evaluate, sell and buy local broadcast video enables us to offer our advertisers full visibility into local audiences and extends the overall reach of their messaging across platforms.”

Astute Solutions and Socialbakers have combined and rebranded themselves as Emplifi, launching a unified CX platform. The goal is to help clients “better empathize with their customers and amplify their brand experiences – wherever they might be,” says Mark Zablan, CEO of Emplifi.

DoubleVerify announced that, in the four months since introducing DV Video Filtering, advertisers are experiencing significantly decreased fraud, in-geo, brand safety and suitability violations, leading to 62% percent fewer quality violations on DV measured video impressions across devices. “Before the launch of Video Filtering, fewer than 40% of video impressions were eligible for post-bid blocking on desktop and mobile web, and on CTV and mobile apps, blocking was virtually impossible,” said Jack Smith, Chief Product Officer at DoubleVerify. “With DV Video Filtering, advertisers are able to substantially reduce non-compliant ad placements, helping to improve the quality and performance of their video campaigns.”

STREAMING

ViacomCBS is offering a less expensive tier of streaming service Paramount+ that includes ads for $4.99/month. Half the price of Paramount+ Premium, Paramount+ Essential will include live sports, but not local CBS stations.

Gusto TV is now available on streaming service Struum. An early preview of Struum is currently available via the iOS App store, web, and Chromecast with a full rollout coming this summer across more platforms including AppleTV, Android TV, Android, Amazon Fire TV, and Roku.

XUMO TV has launched on Apple TV, and released a series of AVOD exclusive movie titles from Magnolia including thrillers “In the Fade” (streaming through July 10) and “Tomato Red” (available through June 10), as well as dramedy” Please Stand By” (streaming through July 31).

Music video network Vevo has added Afro Pulse, consisting of curated music videos by Black artists, to its suite. Instead of only targeting household artist names or a specific genre, brands can advertise within music video programming that features Black artists of various musical styles and levels of popularity. “Brands and agencies are actively looking to bolster diverse voices and content today more than ever, evident in the most recent pledges by Dentsu, IPG and GroupM, among others. They hear the demands by Black Americans for more culturally relevant programming that features Black leads and reflects their own lives and experiences,” said Jesse Judelman, SVP of Sales, Americas, Vevo. “Given the importance of supporting Black culture, coupled with Vevo’s own rapidly expanding distribution network, we felt now was the perfect time to launch Afro Pulse.”