While e-commerce app installs declined 14% YoY globally in H1 2025, sessions increased 2%, indicating apps are attracting fewer but more engaged users, according to Adjust report, “The Shopping App Insights Report.” “In today’s mobile commerce landscape, trust is key to lasting growth. The most successful apps create experiences that are relevant, respectful, and consistent across every touchpoint,” said Tiahn Wetzler, Director, Content & Insights at Adjust. “It’s not about speed or better targeting alone, but building real value with every impression, click and session.”

OpenAI has launched GPT-5, combining the reasoning abilities of its o-series with the speedy responses of its GPT series. The new AI model allows ChatGPT to complete tasks for users like generating software applications, navigating a user’s calendar, and creating research briefs. There was a glitch in the rollout, however, which OpenAI CEO Sam Altman addressed on Friday. During a Reddit Ask Me Anything session, Altman said, “GPT-5 will seem smarter starting today. Yesterday, we had a sev and the autoswitcher was out of commission for a chunk of the day, and the result was GPT-5 seemed way dumber. Also, we are making some interventions to how the decision boundary works that should help you get the right model more often. We will make it more transparent about which model is answering a given query.”

Ad management company Mediavine has submitted a letter to the US Copyright Office demanding more robust copyright protections for content creators in the age of AI. Mediavine urges the office to consider the following positions:
• Clear Credit and Compensation: AI-generated answers that pull from creator content must clearly credit, compensate, and link to the original source.
• No Fair Use for AI Model Training: Training AI on copyright protected content without explicit permission should not be considered fair use, as it disrespects intellectual property rights and undermines economic value.
• Mandated Transparency: Transparency should be mandated across all generative AI systems, requiring platforms and model developers to disclose training data sources, including whether copyright protected content was used.
• Licensing Frameworks: Licensing frameworks must be developed to allow content creators to opt in and be paid for their work, supporting exploration of extended licensing, opt-in registries, or new models that ensure creators are included in the economic benefits generated by AI systems.
• Search Equity and Content Attribution: Search equity and content attribution must be protected.

Yelp unveiled Local Co-branded Showcase Ads, an advertising solution that enables national brands, including those without physical locations, to reach Yelp’s audience by spotlighting relevant local businesses. Consumer packaged goods, financial services, and other location-less companies can now highlight their local business partners in ads directly in Yelp search results. Pepsi was a pilot partner. “Just halfway through the campaign, we’ve already seen promising results – including a more than 25% drop in cost per lead for our restaurant partners and lift in restaurant visits – underscoring the impact of reaching consumers at the moment of decision,” said André Moraes, Head of PepsiCo’s Away From Home Digital Lab. “We’re excited to build on this momentum and deepen our collective impact.”

Samsung Ads Canada is flying high over the results of a recent campaign with Porter Airlines in Canada. By leveraging premium CTV video and native first-screen inventory to deliver targeted brand experiences at scale, Samsung Ads said it connected Porter Airlines with high-value audiences in key markets, driving deeper penetration into the leisure travel segment. Key highlights from the campaign include:
· Achieving a +550% lift in website visits and 104% attainment in impressions
· Delivering VCRs exceeding Samsung benchmarks across CTV (98%) and native first screen (42%) inventory
· Driving a 109% incremental reach from native first screen inventory compared to video, which aided in finding hard-to-reach viewership, including 53% who were exclusive SVOD viewers
· Reaching nearly 600,000 Samsung households across Canada

“Our campaign with Porter Airlines clearly illustrates the power of combining our high-impact CTV video and native offerings,” said Dave Pauk, Country Manager, Canada at Samsung Ads. “We’re pleased to have driven exceptional outcomes from Porter’s first screen placements, which delivered considerable incremental reach, particularly within SVOD households not reachable within ad-supported video environments.”

Forty-three percent of all US adults say TV is the most acceptable place for advertising and the platform where they tend to pay attention to ads the most. That’s according to Tenetic, which collected data in conjunction with CivicScience from July 8 through July 11 and found that only 28% of adults feel that the internet is the most acceptable place for ads, and 29% that social media is best. On the down side, 37% of respondents said they believe TV advertisers don’t know anything about them, with 59% saying they rarely or never remember the sponsor or advertiser of a show they watched. Additional findings from the study include:
· 47% of US adults would prefer to choose the ads they see over letting AI decide.
· Those earning over $100K (52%) are the most likely to want control, compared to 45% of those earning $50K–$100K and 42% of those earning under $50K.
· Gen Z stands apart: 42% prefer to let AI choose their ads.

“Clearly there is an untapped opportunity in the television advertising market,” says Chris Wilson, CEO, Tenetic. “Viewers are accepting of ads on TV, but they are not finding enough ads to be relevant to their interests or needs. We can better realize the impact of TV advertising, especially as a driver to local purchase, with a more accurate, real-time understanding of the consumer.”

Emotional resonance in advertising is a powerful trigger in driving CTV viewer engagement, according to “The Impact of Emotion Alignment on Ad Attention in Streaming,” a report from Wurl in partnership with TVision. The study found viewers paid more attention to 30-second ads that matched the content’s emotion, with attention to the ad jumping from 27% to 66%. The length of the ad didn’t matter – emotionally aligned ads for 15-second spots got similar attention levels to 30-second spots.

Kargo has launched a new Pause Ad activation in partnership with the Ad Council. According to TVision, compared to CTV benchmarks, Kargo’s creatives are 78% more effective at maintaining eyes-on-screen, with 30-second spots driving 74% greater attention than typical CTV ads.

StackAdapt has launched StackAdapt for Sales Cloud on Salesforce AppExchange, making it easier for marketers to connect their Salesforce data with StackAdapt. This new integration lets users sync their first-party data in real time to run personalized, cross-channel marketing campaigns. By combining Salesforce’s CRM tools with StackAdapt’s marketing and measurement capabilities, the partnership aims to help marketers reach the right audience more effectively.

Vistar Media, part of T-Mobile Advertising Solutions, has announced a new data integration with Acxiom, bringing audience targeting capabilities to its out-of-home demand-side platform. The partnership allows brands and agencies to access over 500 Acxiom audience segments directly within Vistar’s platform. IPG agencies also gain enhanced planning capabilities through access to Acxiom data in Vistar’s Adstruc platform, streamlining campaign workflows and improving precision.

Jukin Licensing announced what it calls a major leap forward in UGC technology integration. The company’s new AI integration empowers advertisers to find, license, and deploy authentic content faster and more efficiently, streamlining creative workflows and maximizing campaign performance. “Our customers now have unparalleled access to real, relatable stories that cut through the digital noise and resonate with audiences,” said Sascha Weis, Head of Global Licensing at Jukin Licensing. “In a landscape dominated by skepticism toward AI-generated content, our technology ensures that brands can harness the power of authenticity at scale.”

Nielsen and WPP Media struck a new agreement for audience measurement spanning TV, streaming, audio, and cross-platform ad performance via Nielsen ONE. The companies are also planning to integrate Nielsen’s insights to Open Media Studio, an end-to-end media delivery platform within WPP Open, WPP’s intelligent marketing system. “At WPP Media, our priority is equipping clients with the intelligence and tools they need to drive measurable growth,” said Nicolas Grand, Executive Director of Research and Investment Analytics at WPP Media. “By integrating Nielsen’s advanced audiences into WPP Open, we’re building a more seamless, interoperable planning and measurement ecosystem that empowers advertisers to optimize performance and accelerate growth.”

Nielsen also announced a new collaboration with podcast research firm Edison Research, to launch Nielsen Podcast Fusion powered by Edison Research. Advertisers and agencies will be able to plan, optimize and compare all major media types – including podcasts, TV, radio, digital and social – in one place. This new data fusion will integrate the Edison Podcast Metrics into Nielsen’s media planning tool, Nielsen Media Impact (NMI). NPR and Ocean Media are among the charter subscribers at launch.