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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 do more! Hope to see you there.
We also saw Yahoo launch Yahoo for Creators, Like Forbes Contributors mixed with Medium. Seems neat, tap into in the massive distribution Yahoo already has, and they’ll share the revenue with you. They also acquired Artifact, the AI content recommendation app, which I quite liked. Started by the founders at Instagram, they felt it wasn’t going to be a big business so decided to shut it down. And looks like Yahoo has picked up the asset.
Great to see Yahoo out there building, and bringing new things into the fold. You have to say Yahoo.com has remained pretty anti-fragile, to use a Nassim Taleb’ism. It makes sense to find new innovations or models that are working elsewhere, enhanced by their massive distribution potential.
Medium iirc is on its path to profitability, so this could be quite meaningful for Yahoo. Maybe it sets up for a Substack acquisition, thoughts? What would you do to test that, maybe Creators, but also doing a distribution deal with them. Or one of the others.
Catherine Perloff at Adweek also wrote on how meta data is helping in the shift away from cookies. It’s uncanny to have such a shift from third party cookies, amongst the greatest acceleration in machine learning and AI tools, platforms & techniques. It’s good though, it shows how the open web is finding the right data and signals that don’t require overt targeting. The right ad, in the right place at the right time.
Notable stories this week
- Brands paid for Ads on Forbes.com. Some ran on a copycat site instead.
- Yahoo launches Yahoo for Creators.
- Gen-AI Search Engine Perplexity has a plan to sell ads.
- How the ad industry is making AI images look less like AI.
- Mobile Game Ads are boosting podcast follower counts.
- Instagram is testing new cash bonuses that pay creators to post engaging photos, reels, and more.
- Apple muscles in on subscription podcasts.
- How The Atlantic went from broke to profitable in three years.
- NYT to soon offer most articles via automated voice.
- YouTube announces enhanced audience retention analytics tools.
- Outbrain launches OnyxGreen powered by Scope3 data. Outbrain launches OnyxGreen powered by Scope3 data.
- Marketers find new ways to buy programmatic ads without relying on user data.
- For data-guzzling AI companies, the internet is too small.
- Google to delete records from Incognito tracking.
- Meet the digital David taking on the Google Goliath.
- State of digital advertising attention.
- Why performance marketers are shifting their priorities to build the brand.
- Tracking publishers relationships with generative AI companies.
- eMarketer & Adelaide released some AU benchmarks.
- Ad tech’s movers and shakers are reading a resurgence of M&A activity.
- [From us] Building your measurement strategy.
Deals/M&A
- Cadent acquiring AdTheorent, taking them private.
- Britain’s The Independent signs deal to take control of BuzzFeed UK.
- Yahoo is buying Artifact, the AI news app from the Instagram co-founders.
Campaign of the week
- NBC’s Law & Order celebrating their 25th anniversary with a special metro card in New York. Thanks @andrewgiambrone.
- ^ Imagine doing this, with some ongoing utility (beyond the collectible). Surprised more brands don’t leverage this.
View all 2024 best campaigns.
Smartest commentary
- “Metadata is emerging as a new signal to find audiences as cookies expire on the web this year. It helps buyers find quality media programmatically—a growing priority for those experiencing traditional adtech methods result in too much long-tail, poor quality inventory. Exemplifying this pendulum swing away from pure audience targeting, The Trade Desk’s forthcoming SP500+ solution lets buyers target across a group of premium publishers.” –Catherine Perloff, Adweek.
Datapoints of note
- Home Depot uses more sponsored product placements across their site than even Amazon and Walmart!
- The Atlantic said 100,000 users who read the magazine through Apple News+, a product that charges a discounted price for access to a number of magazines and news publishers. Thompson said the Atlantic gets roughly the same amount of revenue from everybody Apple counts as an Atlantic subscriber as it gets per direct subscriber.
- 1/3 of the US population has never listened to a podcast. 1/3 of the US population listens to a podcast every week.
- 50% of consumers can spot AI-generated copy.
View all 2024 datapoints of note.
That’s it for this week.
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