GAMUT TOTAL
THE LEADER IN LOCAL OTT

Winner of Best TV Ad Tech Innovation at the 2021 Digiday Video & TV Awards

Only Gamut TOTAL delivers everything the evolving local OTT advertising landscape demands: content, audience, data, reach, transparency—and total expertise.
Now is the time to move beyond impressions, to impact—at massive scale.

LEARN MORE

Monday October 4, 2021

With the launch of iOS 15, Apple is at long last allowing users to rate and review its built-in iPhone and iPad apps, like Mail, Music, News, and Calculator. Out of the gate, FaceTime is receiving positive reviews, while Podcasts…not so much.

As the new Microsoft Store prepares to launch to the public along with Windows 11, the company shared updates to policies for third-party stores. Microsoft Store will allow third-party app store apps, and soon make third-party storefront apps discoverable on Windows, including Amazon and Epic Games. They will not be required to also list their apps and games inside the Microsoft Store, and can use their own payment processors and keep the revenues. “As we continue our journey, we are grateful for the response from the app developer ecosystem, and we will continue to listen to their feedback,” said Giorgio Sardo, GM, Microsoft Store, in a blog post.

Facebook has launched Reels in the US, bringing video experiences seen on Instagram to the Facebook app on iOS and Android. Reels are short, entertaining videos that can consist of music, audio, AR effects, text overlays and more, and can reach everyone, not just followers. Facebook is testing the ability for Instagram creators to have their reels recommended on Facebook, as well as launching the Reels Play bonus that will pay eligible creators based on the performance of their reels.

YouTube has expanded its medical misinformation policies with new guidelines for approved vaccines that are confirmed to be safe and effective. Noting that it has removed over 130,000 videos for violating COVID-19 vaccine policies, the Google-owned platform said in a blog post on Wednesday that “content that falsely alleges that approved vaccines are dangerous and cause chronic health effects, claims that vaccines do not reduce transmission or contraction of disease, or contains misinformation on the substances contained in vaccines will be removed.”

YouTube’s tougher stance comes as a new report from IPG Mediabrands criticizes platforms including Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Twitter for allowing misinformation to spread. “The Dis/Misinformation Challenge for Marketers” advises brands to shift media investments to platforms that are taking effective steps to halt the spread of misinformation, to protect brands as well as for the public good. “Marketers are right to be concerned when they find their advertising near misleading content as, unchecked, it could harm their reputations and the communities they serve,” said Harrison Boys, director standards and investment product EMEA at Magna. “The industry, which joined forces against online hate speech and supported online privacy, needs to take a stand against misinformation and disinformation today

Donald Trump wants to get back on Twitter. Attorneys for the former president filed a motion in Miami seeking a preliminary injunction against Twitter and CEO Jack Dorsey, claiming the platform’s banning of Trump, following the January 6 attack on the Capitol, is a violation of his First Amendment rights and Florida’s new social media law. The new law, signed by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in May, prohibits social media companies from “knowingly” deplatforming politicians, but was blocked by a federal judge in July, in a decision that is being appealed.

Video software provider Synamedia announced it has achieved 8K real-time encoding and streaming with “zero compromise” on its VIVID Compression platform powered by AMD EPYC 7763 processors, eliminating the need to split the 8K signal into 4k quadrants, nor for dedicated GPU memory or other hardware acceleration. This eliminates issues with memory communication and throughput, as well as local video quality variations. “The flexibility of using one CPU without a single technological compromise allows us to provide our customers with the high-quality video content they expect from us,” said Elke Hungenaert, Vice President, Product Management, Synamedia. “By combining our team’s expertise with the performance of AMD EPYC processors, we are able to bring more 8K content to the market at an affordable price to enable the 8K economy.”

Brandtech group You & Mr Jones has acquired a majority stake in DP6, a Latin American marketing technology and data company. Brazil-based DP6 delivers technology and data solutions for global brands operating there including Carrefour, CNN, BASF, Natura, Nubank, Raia Drogasil and Whirlpool. The company provides technology and data expertise, from data measurement to media attribution, martech integration, data science, AI-powered marketing analytics and content optimization. “Brazil is one of the largest and most advanced marketing technology markets in the world and DP6 is a brilliant company, so it was a no-brainer to bring them into the group,” said Mr Jones founder David Jones. “At the heart of every great technology company is a data core.”

Cumulus Media has launched an audio media and creative advisory group for marketers and agencies. The Audio Active Group partners with clients to measure the impact of the entire audio campaign (not just the Cumulus Media investment), specializing audio creative best practices, media planning, strategic allocation within audio, and on the right approach to measure brand lift, sales effect, and search and site attribution.

Audience intelligence platform Helixa and audience insight company GWI have launched a joint initiative to integrate consumer predictive insights with expressed consumer intent. By matching GWI’s Core survey with Helixa’s behavioral affinity data derived from AI analysis of public social personas, “Global Audience View” enables a more granular and holistic look at digital-first audiences. The initial release provides insight into to US audiences, with eventual expansion of the platform to markets worldwide.

“Instagram Kids” was put on pause by Facebook days before the company’s Global Head of Safety, Antigone Davis, was grilled at a September 30 Senate hearing about Instagram’s effect on young people. “It has hidden its own research on addiction and the toxic effects of its products,” said Senator Richard Blumenthal, the chairman of the subcommittee. “It’s chosen growth over children’s mental health and well-being, greed over preventing the suffering of children.” Jones responded that eight out of ten young people reported having a neutral or positive experience on Instagram.

Focus Technologies announced that its AI/ML–powered native media recognition engine CLEAR Vision Cloud has completed successful Proof of Concepts and pilot projects in media and entertainment industry specific workflows such as conformance, segmentation, localization, marketing and content QC. “M&E organizations investing in AI/ML should be willing to impart the AI models with learning that is specific to their organization’s unique business needs,” said Muralidhar Sridhar, Vice President, AI/ML Products, PFT. “The machines learn from each and every interaction and improve the accuracy and actionability of their outcomes thereby enhancing the overall efficiency of the process.”

GAMUT TOTAL
THE LEADER IN LOCAL OTT

Winner of Best TV Ad Tech Innovation at the 2021 Digiday Video & TV Awards

Only Gamut TOTAL delivers everything the evolving local OTT advertising landscape demands: content, audience, data, reach, transparency—and total expertise.
Now is the time to move beyond impressions, to impact—at massive scale.

LEARN MORE

To beef up brand safety on TikTok, Integral Ad Science is launching a new brand safety solution for in-feed video ads; using proprietary technology that IAS specifically designed for social environments, the new solution gives marketers greater transparency and granular controls to ensure their ads appear next to brand suitable content on TikTok. The technology helps advertisers to run ads within the “For You Feed” with a three-layered approach that goes beyond the creator level to provide precise scoring for individual videos across the platform.

At its TikTok World event, the company introduced new ad solutions aimed at luring more marketers. In-feed ad products for online shopping include Collection Ads, featuring swipeable and tappable product cards; Lead Generation Ads; and Dynnamic Showcase Ads. TikTok has also expanded its e-commerce shopping partners, and launched new interactive ad formats.

In-content advertising company Mirriad announced it is working with Magnite’s SpringServe, the ad serving platform for OTT and CTV, to bring scale and automation to the in-content advertising format via programmatic ad campaigns. The collaboration with SpringServe enables Mirriad to programmatically activate more valuable ad inventory, offering brands digital integrations into a broader range of video content. “This will unleash new opportunities for publishers and content owners with an ad format that is created in the content itself, thus not interrupting peoples’ viewing experiences,” said Stephan Beringer, CEO, Mirriad.

DoubleVerify released data showcasing which publisher verticals score the highest with advertisers – and the winners are sports publishers, technology publishers, and lifestyle publishers. That said, “publishers in other areas have advertiser sweet spots that they should be pursuing to maximize the value of their inventory,” notes Mimi Wotring, SVP of Publisher Sales and Client Services at DoubleVerify. “It’s important to remember that almost all content has a set of interested buyers, it’s just a matter of identifying them. Low scores doesn’t mean that publishers can’t sell inventory, it’s just that a narrower set of buyers are going to be their target audience.”

IAB Tech Lab announced the ads.cert 2.0, a standard introduced to enhance security in the digital advertising ecosystem by using industry-standard cryptographic security protocols. Developed by the IAB Tech Lab’s Cryptographic Security Foundations Working Group, ads.cert 2.0 establishes a common framework and guidelines for safe and transparent transactions across ad buying and selling through a number of security protocols. “ads.cert is intended to provide a consistent security framework for all use cases within digital advertising,” said Amit Shetty, Vice President, Programmatic Products & Partnership, IAB Tech Lab. “Ad dollars to CTV continue to accelerate and where the money goes, the fraudsters follow, which is why we have focused on CTV in this release. We recommend that all SSAI providers immediately implement “Authenticated Connections’ and all publishers and buyers require authenticated connections for buying CTV media.”

Amobee and identity solution provider ID5 have partnered to develop and deploy a cross-device graph, which will support Amobee’s identity capabilities in the EMEA region. The pairing of ID5’s universal identifier and cross-device graph improves audience addressability and reach across cookieless environments, driving more efficient performance, and greater transparency into campaign measurement.

ViacomCBS has partnered with VideoAmp for alternative currency for ad transactions. ViacomCBS will use VideoAmp’s data as an underlying currency to create and guarantee delivery of media campaigns against audience segments through Vantage, ViacomCBS’ advanced advertising platform. “We truly value ViacomCBS and their forward-thinking strategy when it comes to a new era of media transaction, measurement and, ultimately, the currency options that power it,” said VideoAmp CEO Ross McCray. “We want to unlock value for publishers in a privacy-safe way that keeps their audiences at the forefront, regardless of the channel they’re using.”

This year’s Xandr Relevance Report found that while this is the golden age of premium video content for viewers, it is also the height of complexity for advertisers. Key findings include:
· Data-driven linear is gaining momentum in the U.S., with 3 in 4 advertisers believing it gives marketers the best of TV and digital advertising and over half planning to increase DDL spending in the next year.
· OTT and CTV remain a top strategic priority among advertisers, with 4 out of 5 regions surveyed ranking it as a top priority among video types.
· There is work to be done to move people and technology to a converged future as a third of advertisers surveyed lack familiarity with the programmatic OTT buying process.

Influ2, a person-based advertising platform, announced that it helped One Door, a provider of cloud-based visual merchandising software, boost marketing performance and influence on its revenue pipeline by 70%. Influ2 boasts its targeting capabilities allowed One Door to more accurately reach the buying groups within its target accounts and filter out irrelevant contacts. Additionally, Influ2’s dashboard gave One Door insight into what ads key decision-makers engage with, helping the One Door sales team put their efforts toward engaged accounts.

Integral Ad Science announced the launch of its new brand safety solution for in-feed video ads on TikTok. Using proprietary technology that IAS designed for social environments, the offering gives marketers greater transparency and granular controls to ensure their ads appear next to brand suitable content on TikTok. “With increased engagement and ad spend on social platforms, our innovative brand safety solution now offers marketers greater transparency and precision for their campaigns on TikTok,” said Lisa Utzschneider, CEO, IAS.

Subscriber satisfaction with the amount of original content offered on Apple TV+, a key metric that links most strongly to retention, continues to rise and has closed the gap with Netflix that stood at 25% at launch in 2019, to 19% in Q2 2021, according to Kantar Entertainment on Demand. Still, churn for AppleTV+ is high (12% in August) when benchmarked against the competition, and future intention to cancel is still in double digits.

Sports content of all kinds – from live events to clips to classic games to documentaries to sports talk – drives the highest levels of interest and engagement and hold audience attention, especially for males ages 25-44. That’s according to “The Sports Streaming Audience, a Tubi study in partnership with consumer strategy firm Magid. The insights coincide with the recent launch of “Sports on Tubi,” and reveal that sports ranks as the fastest growing segment within the OTT ecosystem. There is a strong preference for ad-supported streaming for sports – more than half (56%) of the total sample prefer watching streaming sports with commercial breaks integrated into the event, if they can get it for free.

Redbox signed a promotional agreement with Roku to further attract multi-platform users. Beginning now through mid-2022, a $5 Redbox streaming credit will be offered on Roku players sold exclusively at Walmart. Consumers can redeem the codes by downloading the Redbox app via their Roku player and the credit will be immediately available to use towards movie rentals.

IMDb TV, Amazon’s premium free streaming service, is now available in the UK. UK Prime and non-Prime customers can access IMDb TV through the “IMDb TV – Popular Movies and TV – free with ads” carousel within the Prime Video app. In the coming weeks, the service will also be available via a standalone app on Fire TV.