Seventy-four percent of X’s most viral pushers of misinformation about the Israel/Hamas conflict during the war’s first week were verified blue check mark accounts, according to a report from NewsGuard. “Collectively, posts advancing these myths received 1,349,979 engagements and were cumulatively viewed by more than 100 million times globally in just one week,” said NewsGuard, which called X’s revised verification program, allowing users of $8/month X Premium to get verified status, “a boon for bad actors sharing misinformation.” NewsGuard found false information on other platforms as well, but noted fake news about the war would go viral on X before spreading to the likes of Instagram or TikTok. Posted X owner Elon Musk in response to the report, “What a scam! ‘NewsGuard’ should be disbanded immediately.”

In more Twitter, er, X news, Elon Musk posted that the platform is testing a new subscription tier for users in the Philippines and New Zealand. The “Not a Bot” plan will cost $1/year and allow subscribers to post content, Like posts, Reply, Repost and Quote other accounts’ posts, and Bookmark posts.” Those who don’t pay will be restricted to read-only actions. “This won’t stop bots completely, but it will be 1000X harder to manipulate the platform,” posted Musk.

Kantar Public and Faculty AI have partnered to develop a secure and ethical AI based data synthesis tool, Smart Matrix Analyser. The joint team said it initially expected that AI could primarily add value in the first stage of the qualitative analysis process, where the data synthesis takes place, but found that as well as speeding up this first stage, the AI tool further enhanced the level and focus for the second stage of the process, where the value add of human and expert interpretation of the data takes the lead. “We’re really excited by the possibilities that are now available through the appropriate, secure and responsible application of artificial intelligence, alongside our existing leading research methodologies,” said Lucy Joyce, Client Services Director at Kantar Public UK. “What was really important to us through the development of the Smart Matrix Analyser is that the AI tool is not a replacement for human expertise. Rather it allows us to be more focused on the interpretation and analysis of the data, whilst simultaneously, enabling our researchers to stay connected to the raw data inputs at every stage as they develop and evaluate their insights.”

ADVERTISING

GroupM is collaborating with Amazon Ads to introduce creator-led shoppable content to the Amazon advertising suite of services available to its clients. Key features of the ad formats, developed by The Goat Agency, include:
* Off-site DSP amplification: The Goat Agency’s proprietary creator ad format will be enabled across the Amazon DSP in every market where it’s available.
* Sponsored Brands integration: Sponsored Brands, an “above the fold” Amazon.com ad placement, will now feature creator content developed by The Goat Agency, exclusive to clients of GroupM and Goat.
* Advanced programmatic creative optimization: Insights from campaigns run with Amazon Ads will be used to cyclically inform The Goat Agency’s creative and sharpen audience targeting.
* Product Pages & Brand Store Enhancement: Creator content can be uploaded onto Product Pages and Brand Stores.“The development of this new capability is an important step we’re taking to better connect the creativity and engagement of creator marketing with the scale and sophistication of GroupM Nexus’s commerce capabilities,” said Samantha Bukowski, Global Head of Commerce, GroupM Nexus.”

Netflix is rolling out new ad offerings, including title sponsorships like the one Lay’s Smartfood has signed on for the upcoming season of “Love is Blind.” Smartfood will serve as title sponsor. “We know that brands want to align with specific shows that are contextually and culturally relevant to their marketing objectives,” said VP of Global Advertising Sales Peter Naylor during an Advertising Week New York keynote. Also in the pipeline: a new format that lets viewers watch a new episode of a series ad-free, courtesy of a brand, after bingeing a few episodes in a row and watching a marketing message.

IRIS.TV announced that TV buyers can now access Oracle Advertising’s video-level contextual and brand-suitability data for pre-bid targeting on The Trade Desk. The solution is aimed at helping advertisers effectively use enriched video-level content signals to reach their desired audiences and ensure their ads run alongside relevant programming.

Canoe Ventures has partnered with DIRECTV Advertising and DISH Media to expand its addressable advertising footprint onto satellite. AMC Networks and Warner Bros. Discovery are the launch partners for addressable enablement. AMC Networks is currently selling addressable spots in every hour of its live linear programming and VOD inventory across AMC, WE tv and BBC America.

Cadent unveiled Aperture MX, a new marketplace that delivers curated audiences and content across premium CTV, OLV, DOOH, mobile app, and desktop advertising. Aperture MX prioritizes high-quality omnichannel inventory in its marketplace through:
· Verified audiences curated to match advertisers’ objectives
· Direct connections to unique supply
· Full transparency into supply mix and bidding activity

LiveRamp has launched its new partner solution for AWS Entity Resolution by Amazon Web Services. LiveRamp’s identity resolution capabilities now support additional identifier types and are available natively within AWS Entity Resolution. The integration enables marketers, publishers, tech platforms, and agencies to extend interoperability of data in the cloud to marketing and advertising destinations using RampID™, LiveRamp’s privacy-centric identifier connecting clients to the digital and martech ecosystem.

LiveRamp also struck an expanded partnership with Yahoo that enables publishers using LiveRamp’s Authenticated Traffic Solution to take advantage of cookieless identity solution, Yahoo ConnectID. “We strongly believe in authenticated addressability, and this partnership enables greater reach that will endure beyond third-party signal loss,” said Elizabeth Herbst-Brady, Chief Revenue Officer at Yahoo. “We’re making it easier for marketers and publishers to leverage these solutions and maximize results, while simultaneously supporting more seamless transactions across the open Web.”

At its partner day event, Teads announced a suite of new AI-powered solutions across CTV, Performance and Contextual, aimed helping advertisers reach their target audiences more effectively and efficiently. Offerings include an expansion in CTV, granting advertisers access to its genre-targeting segments, derived from users’ online content preferences; an expansion of its current performance suite of acquisition and commerce capabilities to become a true full-funnel solution with Teads Conversions; and its AI-powered Data Suite, a toolkit of data powered solutions.

Samba TV announced the integration of Affinity Solutions’ Purchase Media Metrics. The partnership will leverage Samba TV’s first-party data from opted-in televisions to provide advertisers and media companies a unified view of the entire consumer journey. “Historically, advertisers had limited visibility into their ad investments’ true value,” said Samba TV Chief Commercial Officer Aden Zaman. “Combining Samba TV data with Affinity Solutions data is game-changing. By aligning media strategies with actual purchase and viewing behaviors, we’re ensuring every ad dollar creates impact and drives measurable results.”

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MEASUREMENT

Social incremental audiences are now available within Comscore Media Metrix Multi-Platform. The capability measures incremental traffic across social platforms and provides deduplicated, person-level reach across desktop, mobile and social. For publishers who have subscribed to Social Incremental, their Total Digital Population unique visitors will now include the incremental traffic from authenticated social handles across Facebook, Instagram and X (formerly Twitter).

Allen Media Group’s The Weather Channel Television Network is the first network to achieve across-the-board acceptance from the advertising community to use VideoAmp as its new ad currency, said Byron Allen, Founder/Chairman/CEO of Allen Media Group. “The Weather Channel is very proud to be the first network to transition to VideoAmp, proving that reliable big data measurement is the future of the television industry,” said Allen. “We made the move at the start of the Upfronts because our clients deserve much stronger data. VideoAmp allows us to better serve our clients by showing the efficacy and return on investment our audiences and content deliver.”

STREAMING

Xumo, a joint venture between Comcast and Charter, announced cable operator Mediacom Communications will begin offering Xumo Stream Box to its Xtream Internet customers in the coming months. “Mediacom’s decision to partner with Xumo further validates the unique value proposition we can offer to operators looking to maintain an entertainment-centric relationship with customers as they migrate to streaming video,” said Michael Gatzke, SVP, Affiliate Development, Xumo. “By partnering with Xumo, Mediacom can offer its broadband customers a great 4K streaming device with award-winning voice navigation so they can stream more, easily finding what they want to watch.”

MuxIP, provider of automated solutions for ad-supported streaming, has launched EQUUS Television, an equestrian destination, across FAST platforms globally, available to Samsung TV+, LG Channels, Amazon Freevee, and others. MuxIP’s FASTHub for OTT platform will deliver EQUUS Television’s 200+ hours of content.

Factual specialist Autentic and film production company Terra Mater Studios have announced the launch of Terra Mater WILD, a joint nature and wildlife FAST channel. Terra Mater WILD features Terra Mater Studios wildlife productions as well as selected third party wildlife and nature content.

Three of All3Media International’s lifestyle FAST/Live TV channels have launched on Amazon Freevee: “Gardening with Monty Don,” “Great British Menu,” and “Fifth Gear.” The FAST channels are also distributed on other streaming services in the US.

Blue Ant Media has expanded its partnership with Samsung TV Plus as part of a broad deal that includes the launch of three free streaming channels – Homeful, HauntTV and Love Pets – as well as hundreds of hours of actual content from Blue Ant Media’s international distribution arm headed to the platform.

While about 5% of U.S. cable/satellite households stopped viewing through satellite and cable TV inputs 2Q23, households who have sharply reduced their cable/satellite viewing time were more prevalent – 9% reduced their cable/satellite viewing by 75% or more when compared to the same period in 2022, according to Inscape’s latest viewing trends report, Additional findings include:
· 8.4% of U.S. cable/satellite households had a drop of 50-75% in cable/satellite viewing time in 2Q23 from 2Q22.
· The sports and news genre are helping buoy traditional sources. While streaming commands 56.5% of overall TV viewing time, that falls to 23.1% for sports and 14.7% for news.
· Cable/satellite/antenna, meanwhile, accounts for 43.5% of overall TV viewing time, but dominates in sports (76.9%) and news (85.3%).

Cynopsis Team