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Category: Commentary

Commentary; our thought leadership, newsletter notes and long form pieces.

Browser Wars

Edition #457 The Browser Wars are upon us, Olympics are here – what brands can and can’t do & Netflix Stories. I’m a sucker for the Olympics, so it’s no surprise a brand activation made the cut this week. Kind of looking forward to seeing what else we get through the games. Long time readers might remember the last Olympics how we spoke on the brand guidelines around the Olympics, worth taking a peek at this years guidelines. They’re… Continue reading

Ben Young
Ben Young
July 25, 2024

Underpriced Attention

Edition #456 We have a guest open this week, underpriced attention, Taboola & Apple partner and Chrome/Safari at loggerheads. Back on schedule. This week we have a guest opening from Wayne Blodwell of Impact Media, they’ve been making waves in the attention space. I asked him what he was seeing at the moment in the attention space. Over to him.  Wayne here, at Impact Media we work with agencies and brands to guarantee attention with ads… Continue reading

Ben Young
Ben Young
July 18, 2024

Oslo

Edition #455 From who won Cannes to Oslo with their campaign and closed pilots on attention. This week I promised some data on who won Cannes? Using our attention model on earned media, we took a look. With attention metrics getting adoption in the advertising mix, PR is also looking to adopt better measures of impact and quality.  The idea is that, getting a mention isn’t enough, you want earned media that has impact. And in that regard Elon… Continue reading

Ben Young
Ben Young
June 27, 2024

Cannes

Edition #454 What was the biggest story at Cannes? Sherwood and Publicis’s take on AI. The was some major ad festival on this week, maybe you’ve heard of it, Cannes? I suspect the bulk of write ups will come next week once everyone gets back to their desks. I thought I’d take a peek at – who won Cannes? Not as in the award winners. But from a media/tech/agency POV and exploring that through the lens of the earned media. Continue reading

Ben Young
Ben Young
June 20, 2024

One trillion

Edition #453 The ad market is going to reach one trillion faster than expected, LOADS of deals & Artifact lives on at Yahoo. In a shock announcement to the market Oracle appears to be breaking up with Moat. If we roll back the clock, at the time it was a good acquisition, with the market going, hey if we get the CMOs attention, they help dictate digital transformation which drives cloud & tech spend. So if we buy… Continue reading

Ben Young
Ben Young
June 13, 2024

Video comeback

Edition #452 Is video making a comeback? Meme account acquisitions and lots of attention updates. Email is a bit late today, it’s been a busy week and hosting the Attention event kept me from putting the finishing touches! Thanks to all who came along, a good group of folk. It’s such early innings in the attention space, it’s neat to see what everyone is building and how they’re learning. Including us. X announced they are going to do a… Continue reading

Ben Young
Ben Young
June 7, 2024

Group chats

Edition #451 On how group chats have been a big plus in our digital social lives, the open internet is growing and branded condos? I liked this Twitter post on how good group chats are and how to run them. At this stage we’re all in a few, and I just liked the summary, as it highlighted the exact things the best group chats do. Including having sub-rooms or chats for specific topics, or the one or two folks… Continue reading

Ben Young
Ben Young
May 30, 2024

Disappearing content

Edition #450 How can search get better when old content disappears, NewsCorp & OpenAI partner, and unlicensed music. As thunder rolls overhead here in NY, I’m reviewing the stories this week. And the research on how much content disappears over time stands out, 38% of content from 2013 is no longer online. What that means is, every Google Search, is searching off an ever-changing index. And I think we know that, but we tend to think about how new… Continue reading

Ben Young
Ben Young
May 24, 2024

Google zero

Edition #449 When the Google tap finally turns off, growing brands authentically and a shout out. The solid theme in new stories this week are OpenAI, and Google and what it means for publishers. The joke is, expect everyone to launch or acquire their own Wordle, to help bring in the daily visitors. I’m not sure what to add (or what could really be added) other than the best way through change is straight through it. But I don’t… Continue reading

Ben Young
Ben Young
May 17, 2024

Hand wringing

Edition #447 On adtech twitter getting their knickers in a twist, Spotify and TIkTok?! And the battle for attention. Another super interesting week for developments, the marketplace feels very active, with lots happening. Musicly way back, became TikTok, and now with UMG and TikTok at odds, Spotify is launching TikTok-like clips. Last year it was rumored that they were going to launch something like this, but is there even a thought of they could chip away at TikTok’s share. Continue reading

Ben Young
Ben Young
May 3, 2024