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Edition #462
Snaps new ad product ALA Gmail ads, AI prophecies and is black box models a bargain trade off?
Snap is set to offer branded content in the inbox, ALA Gmail ads. Or I guess Messenger ads (which now as I write this I don’t think I’ve seen in the wild). I have experimented with the Gmail ads and they did work well, except the click out was a double click, click into the message, read then a secondary click. That is the experience wasn’t as elegant. But for Snap that sounds promising, and a neat creative tool for campaigns.
Eric Schmidt’s AI prophecy is a good read on the trajectory of AI, a stand out quote from the piece that hits you in the face:
Say to your LLM, ‘Make me a copy of TikTok. Steal all the users, steal all the music, put my preferences in it, produce this program in the next 30 seconds, release it, and in one hour, if it’s not viral, do something different along the same lines.’
Each of those as ‘big’ asks or things to do, but it’s thought provoking. What if you adapted that for content:
‘Make me a HBR style thought piece, adhering to my brand values, distribute to the right influencers, and promote on social.’
Or even a layer deeper:
Using the insights from all my past content, as to which drove the best business results. ‘Make me a HBR style thought piece, adhering to my brand values, distribute to the right influencers, and promote on social.’
It’s a worthwhile exercise for each of us to do, to write down that LLM query for things we want to do, and/or that our clients might ask. And prepare for a future where that *may* be the case. Imagine where you have a brief from an AI agent for your branded content project.
It also brings me to a point around pMax and other AI models transforming advertising. Meta being the most recognizable at the moment. Despite the critiques of black box approach, it kind of is a fair ask. Think about it, do you want to auto optimize your ads, using the machine learning intelligence of hundreds of billions of dollars of ad spend, to drive performance for your campaign
The challenge with that, is not knowing how the black box is putting a finger on the scales, skewing more into their back pocket. Or selling you inventory that they know you don’t need but they can because you don’t know. Or is that just the cost of doing business to access that much media intelligence that would be impossible to leverage otherwise?
The wider opportunity is to extrapolate up a level, and have the brands develop their own models, at a more holistic level across the media mix.
A couple of events coming up late in September, Attention Happy Hour and some private drinks for leaders in media earlier in the week. If you’re in town, love to see you at either. Or if you’re hosting something, love to participate too.
Notable stories this week
- How publishers are experimenting with Reddit — even without a formal publisher program.
- Media vets launch new LGBTQ-focused outlet Uncloseted Media.
- Agencies continue to receive perks from media owners that aren’t disclosed to clients.
- WSJ offers advertisers a performance guarantee timed to the election.
- Microsoft Advertising shares six latest updates with new native options.
- Sam Altman indicated it’s impossible to create ChatGPT without copyrighted material.
- Gates-backed startup personalizes individual recommendations.
- Snapchat is going to put ads next to messages from your friends.
- Google reveals ad tech revenue in antitrust case. Lots of gems in there.
- IAB and MRC to collaborate on attention measurement accreditation.
- Omnicom & WPP picked up Amazon’s media account.
- LG launches native screensaver ads.
Deals/M&A
- Aditude acquires Hashtag Labs.
- BDG raises growth round.
- Odeeo raises $5m to expand global audio advertising in games.
- Outside acquires MapMyFitness from Under Armour.
Campaign of the week
- National Geographic with Royal Commission for Alula. Like the educational approach, which fits both Nat Geo but also Alula Tourism.
View all 2024 best campaigns.
Smartest commentary
- “Content wastage is costing marketers a fortune, but the good news is that it can be avoided. With greater focus on value, we can significantly enhance the effectiveness of brand content while also minimising resource expenditure.” –Irene Sarris, Prodigious.
Datapoints of note
- A new study suggests that more than 57% of the content available on the internet is generated content.
- Through custom recommendations, Likewise grew its newsletter subscriptions 300% in the past 12 months, driven by the launch and integration of Pix, the company’s AI-powered personal entertainment companion.
- YouTube is targeting watch time as its KPI, the longer the content we distribute, the greater the number of views. In 2020, the average length of suggested videos across our biggest channels was 15 minutes. Today, that is 90 minutes.
- Adtech market set to grow by 60%.
Events
- Attention Happy Hour, next one coming up end of this month.
View all 2024 datapoints of note.
That’s it for this week.
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