One big thing
No one big thing this week — it’s the turn in the quarter where the rush is on pre thanksgiving. At least that’s what I’m telling myself? Enjoy this weeks edition.
Notable stories this week
- NBCU makes cutbacks laying off 50 in their ad sales team.
- Programmatic’s legacy pricing structure penalize premium.
- ^ Related, media companies scramble to meet annual goals.
- LinkedIn integrates with Google Ads and Vimeo.
- Does programmatic encourage clickbait and fake news? A discussion from The Drum.
- BuzzFeed’s own use of ecommerce is fueling demand from brands to include ecommerce in their branded content executions.
- With a heavy marketing push, The New York Times passes 3 million mark in paid digital subscribers.
- [Long read] Nancy Dubuc’s plan to course correct Vice.
Deals/M&A
- Influencer platform Mavrck raises $5.8m.
- Scroll has raised $7 million in new funding for its planned hiring. By the end of 2019, Scroll plans to employ roughly 40 staffers, up from its current 10.
Campaign of the week
- Decoding images from the Golden Record. The US Army with TheVerge on decoding the records in space. Bringing a different lens from the army than you’d normally expect. Be keen to see the brand metrics on this one.
- Submit your own and then view all 2018.
Smartest commentary
- “D2C in 2018 feels like programmatic in 2009,” Kawaja says. That includes “rapid company formation, fragmented ecosystem, rampant venture funding, nascent consolidation and a sector poised for huge growth.” – Terence Kawaja, Founder & CEO at LUMA Partners
Datapoints of note
- Less than a third of marketers and agencies are requiring performance guarantees for branded-content campaigns.
- Half of the marketers in this survey discard at least half of their data.
- 70% of users who feel a connection to a brand spend twice as much as those who don’t.
- 74.5% of communications professionals rely on branded content in their campaigns. According to a USB Annenberg survey.
- Rockstar games launches Red Dead Redemption by buying and removing all ads – to then notify users ( who often have Adblock on). Apparently 60-70% of Imgurs desktop users use ad blockers. Wow.
Events
- Native Institute is hosting Native Days this November in Berlin, Germany. Use code NAIFRIENDBEN to save.
That’s it, Happy Friday.
-Ben
To guarantee content performance, you need the proper tools.
Nudge is a content marketing analytics platform that drives performance for leading brand advertisers and premium publishers.
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