Edition #551
TikTok is getting into Live Sports, Apple is opening access to Siri AI and loads of M&A.
I can’t just have each week a discussion about the latest Christmas ad. But the John Lewis one is pretty good. As my youngest said to me, Dad it’s turkey season, stop getting ahead of yourself. But do check out the Rimowa stop motion campaign of the week 😉
Back on topic. I bet, there’s a fair few CTV companies this week, closing early, or holding a big party after the midterms! Given the amount of spend that was flowing. They’ll be quickly swapping to Black Friday/ Cyber Monday though. Especially with AppLovin now making forays into the space.
But in all the CTV noise, it’s about, where is the consumer. What are they watching, and how can I reach them. Should I try get them in the big shows, or across a collection of niche interests. Which sounds very web coded.
Microsoft Bing, is first, with expanded options for including content in training. I’d anticipate Google will follow, with similar options.
TikTok is also starting to get into live sports. Watch this space.
Apple started giving Siri AI access to third party apps, which I think is going to be a strong vector for growth. On desktop, they’ve also opened up their worksite to agents via MCP. Just quietly, they keep marching on helping unlock agent access.
And I think this is what consumers want, meet them where they are, with their 100+ apps on their phone, with existing data & permissions. All of the personal agents have grown, without a solution in market, but with competition, who will win the mainstream consumer?
And Uber said basically no one uses agents to book their Ubers. Four rides in during Halloween were booked through an AI agent.
The fight for the consumer continues.
Notable stories this week
- Why AI agents need external grounding.
- Lenny launches a print version of his newsletter to order.
- OpenAI taps SSPs for demand.
- Apple starts giving Siri AI access to third party apps.
- Optimizely launched their own microdrama, Murder in Marketing.
- Criteo is a survivor, but expanding beyond retail media will be its toughest challenge yet.
- Cloudflare announces personal agents analytics.
- Microsoft Audience ads gain option to show only to chosen LinkedIn job roles.
- The zero click panic is missing a bigger shift.
- Microsoft expands publisher choice with training and grounding.
- Contentstack best on content as the core of agentic marketing.
- Taboola faces Yahoo mediation over its 30 year native ad deal.
- Netflix launches first AI-Branded content recommendations feature on TVs.
- Google expands ads in AI mode to new countries.
- How Front Office Sports built a $4m events business.
- The New York Times sues Brave web browser for Ai scraping and bypassing paywalls.
- Live Sports coming to algorithm driven feeds on discovery platforms.
- The podcast boom is hitting a messy reality for CMOs.
- Why I’m wary of a Publicis owned LiveRamp and your CMO should be too.
- The internet’s free ride is over.
- Barry Diller’s advice for Hollywood: Stop chasing Netflix.
- Netflix hires Darshan Karnak to lead ads platform.
- Can an AI Agent be your next CMO?
- AppLovin reports record Q3, expands into CTV.
- The Ad Industry’s antidote to AI: Pencils, Clay and Stop-Motion.
- Goodbye from Salon.
- Reddit testing ad placements in search pages.
- The Trade Desk and Dstillery link Ai agents to reshape audiences mid-campaign.
- OpenAI says ChatGPT is catching up to Google in search.
- People Inc is building custom APIs to make its journalism easier for AI agents to use.
- What could the Times buy with its AI bucks?
- Age of instability.
Deals/M&A
- Rembrand and Whisper World merge.
- Perion enters into merge agreement with Affle.
- Titan OS raises $46m.
- New York Times in advanced talks to buy Letterboxd.
- Alphabet in talks to acquire assistant startup Howie AI.
- Ad industry dealmaking is heating up. M&A pros think these 9 companies could be the next big buyers.
Campaign of the week
- Rimowa went with stop motion for their holiday campaign.
Smartest commentary
- “Client procurement departments agonise over the tail, or the 10% or 15% or 20% they spend on “non-working” media costs (author’s credit to Keith Weed — a phrase I hate, as we work very hard for our money). However, they should focus on the dog: the 80–90% that they spend on media, along with the opacity of the media supply chain, discounts, margins on proprietary trading and media take-rates.“ –Sir Martin Sorrell.
Datapoints of note
- Amazon Ads nears $20b in Q3.
- ChatGPT’s search volume is roughly 20% of Google’s.
- After the introduction of ads, organic ChatGPT referrals fell by 6 to 8%.
Events
- Whiskey tasting getting penciled in, if you want to join, let me know.
That’s it for this week.
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