Category: Commentary

Commentary

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

May 3, 2024

Commentary

Dead internet

Edition #446 Whopper of a week on news, third party cookies, TikTok, and the return of the dead internet theory. A massive week for news, still digesting but we’ll get into it. If you haven’t played with Llama3 at all, you should, it’s pretty good (on par with the others) and fast. I’d say Meta is in the AI race. Not that they weren’t, but this is good, and open source. You can play with it over at Meta.ai… Continue reading

Ben Young

April 26, 2024

Commentary

Comments

Edition #445 Is Airchat the hot new thing? Collectively we all broke ground on new advertising highs and comments as a media channel. A topic I’ve had on my list to talk about is trust environments, places where data can be stored safely, or exchanged. It works, when there is a LOT of data and both parties want to work together, but keep their respective value. But outside that? It seems too fragmented for most other situations though. Look at… Continue reading

Ben Young

April 19, 2024

Commentary

Zero cost

Edition #444 Is Robinhood’s Sherwood News all about zero cost acquisition? CitiGroup appoints a Chief Marketing & Content Officer, and Uber adopts TikTok style content. Big week of stories ahead, first up I discuss Robinhood’s foray into brand publishing. Robinhood’s Sherwood News launched this week, and it seems to be about finance culture in general. They even had launch advertisers! See campaign of the week. They said they want to staff up to 40 folks by end of year. Continue reading

Ben Young

April 12, 2024

Commentary

Yahoo Creators

Edition #443 Yahoo gets into the creator game with a savvy proposition, happy hours and programmatic finds new data. I got a text this week, it was from Wayne Blodwell. Hey, do you think folks would want to come to an Attention Happy Hour? An event for those interested in the attention space. Why not? If you’d like to join in New York, 25th of April. Leave your details. Location TBD. First one is informal, if demand will… Continue reading

Ben Young

April 5, 2024

Commentary

AI contracts

Edition #442 Agencies restricting AI use in contracts, LinkedIn goes TikTok? And the traffic firehose isn’t coming back. Amidst news about Accenture booking an insane amount of GenAI projects, AdAge shared how advertisers are placing more restrictions on their partners when it comes to AI in their work. Which makes sense, remove that risk by specifying in the contract. Am I surprised? Not really, I can see easier to say blanket no, and remove the risk, then over… Continue reading

Ben Young

March 29, 2024

Commentary

Dull advertising

Edition #441 Dull advertising, overexposure and the space economy. Overexposure and dull ads. Two topics that don’t come up often but are in this weeks note. Edward Cotton shared: “Working with System1 data, Adam showed that 75% of ads in System 1’s US database could be classified as dull, doing the math to calculate how many $ are being wasted, he emerged with the figure of $46 billion.“ His takeaway was that it “fires off a warning to those… Continue reading

Ben Young

March 22, 2024

Commentary

Grand opening

Edition #440 Even sandwich shops need adtech? Tailoring with Monocle and music videos are back.  The week before last was the grand opening of a new sandwich shop around the corner. I learnt about it, by cycling past, and saw them taking a grand opening sign being taken in. Then that Friday, on Threads, I follow @nyc_forfree, which announced that yes indeed it was opening, and they were offering free sandwiches that day! It was torrential with rain. Continue reading

Ben Young

March 15, 2024

Commentary

Predictions

Edition #439 Learning to ride again, predictions and Ikeas wonderful partnership with Annie Leibovitz. I’ve been teaching my eldest to ride a bike, which is pure joy. And we’re at the part where you feel they have the balance, so let go at the back of the bike, and off they go for a bit. And each time just trying to extend and getting a bit further. You’re getting that intuitive feel, and go! This got me thinking… Continue reading

Ben Young

March 8, 2024

Commentary

Q4 Part2?

Edition #438 LVMH launches a brand entertainment division, adtech surveillance, AI rights on platforms. This week Wired has a couple of stories about Adtech being used to triangulate folks and a small Iowa newspapers domain being acquired and hijacked with AI content. The former capitalizing on the excess data from every ad auction. Turns out even if you lost the auction you could still get the data, so firms have packaged this up and sold it. Continue reading

Ben Young

March 1, 2024