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Edition #469
On my surprise in finding which industry this vernacular has gone into, branded content announcements & dark traffic.
I spent some time looking at food ads this week, that is DoorDash & Uber Eats and co-incidentally was able to speak with a restauranteur about it.
One thing that surprised me was about this space is, the vernacular! As long as your CAC is below your LTV, you’re gravy! Wait, what. Restaurants now think about customer acquisition cost and lifetime value?!
I mean it makes sense, with all the technology used by restaurants. But was just a moment to go wow everyone’s thinking about this now. Digital marketing is truly pervasive.
If software is eating the world, which it still is, then digital marketing follows quickly, to help get consumers to act. It truly is the argument for advertising at a macro level, that is healthy economies have a percentage of spend in advertising, as it helps consumers find and pick the right products.
I enjoyed Rory Sutherland’s piece on are we too impatient to be intelligent? It came out last month but has been doing the rounds. Just a good reminder, to stop, think, let’s not rush to conclusions, what is most important here, what are we trying to achieve.
Notable stories this week
- Welcome to Branded Content 3.0.
- Amazon launches its first YouTube original branded content series.
- Morning Brew rebrands as its B2B products grow.
- Future launches branded content studio to tap new budgets.
- Reflections on Newcomer four years in.
- Threads rolls out mobile analytics.
- Razorfish offers clients real world AI use cases through Beta Labs. Including a ‘Virtual AI’ content studio.
- Dark traffic monetization for publishers rise under Google Partner Program.
- Spotify launching an ad exchange, will partner with Trade Desk.
- Apple releases more info on Branded Mail. Has anyone tried this?
- Dow Jones has filed a lawsuit against Perplexity.
- Omnicom believes it’s built an unbeatable measurement offering.
- Inside AI’s growing role in agency reviews. How it is transforming the pitch process.
- Can the media survive?
- Carrie Drinkwater, Carat’s new Chief Investment Officer interviewed by AdExchanger.
- From the outside, you look great.
- The ongoing debate over Principal Media.
- Amazon lays out its next $50b opportunity in advertising.
- Amazon will stream election night coverage hosted by Brian Williams. And Google will block election ads after polls close.
- Netflix beats subscriber estimates as ad tier grows.
- Are we too impatient to be intelligent?
- The evolution of the great ‘curation’ tussle in ad tech.
- [Smart take] TikTok Shop and the end of content as we know it.
- [Long read] Generative AI’s Act o1.
- ^ Not right in the zone of the newsletter but worth a read, to have a think about how AI might change your own corner of the industry. And at least, understand how one of the world’s top VC firms is thinking about it.
Deals/M&A
- G/O Media agrees to sell car culture site Jalopnik.
- Passionfroot raises $3.8m funding. Congrats team!
- Creator ads platform Ramdam raises $3.15m.
- AI startup TollBit raises $24m Series A. <- helping on publisher/AI licensing.
Campaign of the week
- NBA Emirates Cup Oceans Eleven inspired launch video. Just nice seeing the players getting involved.
- LeBron James with Nike. Again, just good fun.
View all 2024 best campaigns.
Smartest commentary
- “What is content when everything is an ad; what is an ad when it’s just content? Ask TikTokers whose strategy is the TikTok Shop” –Julia Alexander.
Datapoints of note
- Morning Brew’s multimedia products are on pace to do well over $10m in toppling revenue for 2025.
- Newcomer is on track to generate more than $1 million in profit on more than $2 million in revenue this year.
- As of the end of September, Netflix said it had 282.7m global paid subscribers.
Events
- Watch this space!
View all 2024 datapoints of note.
That’s it for this week.
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