Edition #537
One of my fav beers has a stellar (but not Stella!) World Cup ad, Roku acquired & Albertsons does Microdramas.
Peter Buckley had some nice framing on early vs late when thinking about brand vs performance. I liked that.
In his words, late is deteministic, someone has taken action, it feels efficient but can be dangerous. “The close an ad is to a sale, the less likely it caused it”.
And the more likely it is over claimed.
But early is probabilistic, reaching broadly before people signal intent or use models to infer who might be interested.
“This is why the old brand/performance split breaks down.”
I find this time and time again, we get pulled into measurement challenges, but most often it’s a business problem first, then a misalignment on the measurement.
Issues like bad data, are only making this worse.
For readers in Cannes, do let me know, love to say hi in person. I don’t want to make a prediction on my step count, especially with a heat wave on its way. But It’m sure it’ll be higher than normal.
Oh and for those who read last week, thanks Siri, Knicks in five it was!
Notable stories this week
- ‘Don’t walk past the Gutter Bar’: The unofficial Cannes Lions survival guide, written in hindsight.
- Substack hires Dan Robbins as head of brand partnerships.
- Teads launches its AI-Driven operating system, Teads EngageOS, to maximize publisher total revenue.
- P&G’s latest branded content microgram is built on Albertsons retail media data.
- How a German publisher JV is turning LLM visibility into a premium brand buy.
- CMOs are getting more responsibility without power.
- Mastercard’s former CMO says we’re entering a ‘golden era’ for marketing.
- Landmark German ruling declares Google’s AI Overviews are Google’s own words and makes it liable for false answers.
- ChatGPT ads gets measurement boost from new LiveRamp partnership.
- TAG loses ground as P&G drops mandate and Google, Trade Desk Ditch certifications.
- New York Times publisher A. G. Sulzberger on why (and how) news publishers should fight AI platforms.
- Snap debuts new consumer AR glasses Specs.
- Ad market reaches tits highest share of GDP.
- Electronic Arts makes push for ad dollars tied to sports. Includes branded content.
- Takeaways on Google’s New AI Ad features.
- McKinsey on the agentic advertising economy from attention to action.
- Agentic ad tech tries to take over the buying later as AI search budgets surge.
- Thrad announces partnership with Thoughtworks.
- Programmatic TV Home Screens and Gaming Ads for kids.
- MoveableInk launches Programmatic CRM with AI Agents for personalized content creation and customer engagement.
- Variety announces brand entertainment for fans events spotlighting leaders at Cannes Lions.
- Bose is becoming a media company.
- Big brands, Venture Capital and MrBeast put money behind short-video Clipping.
- News needs community models.
Deals/M&A
- Fox to buy Roku for $22b.
- Hightouch offers Publicis up to $1.2b for key LiveRamp assets.
- People Inc buys Austin food festival Hot Luck.
Campaign of the week
- Hawkstones World Cup TV ad, hard to make, easy to drink. A years graft in every pint.
Smartest commentary
- “If I’m reaching a billion people every day, to grow I’ve got to reach more than a billion — it’s quite simple,” Wakely said. “That is not going to change.” –Jane Wakely, Pepsico.
Datapoints of note
- Threads hits 500m monthly actives in less than 3 years.
- More than 1,400 brands have tested ChatGPT ads since launch.
- Nearly 80% (of CMOs) said bureaucracy commonly got in the way of decision-making, while 84% said it was at least “somewhat difficult” to align their management team, senior peers, and other stakeholders around a marketing vision. Fewer than half (44%) said marketing operated with high autonomy.
- Content driven advertising to reach $720b in 2026.
- Younger audiences haven’t lost news habits; they’ve had them. 56% of people aged 24 and under have never been in a regular habit of reading a newspaper.
Events
- If you’re in Cannes and want to touch base, let me know.
That’s it for this week.
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