Ad Tech
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Marketers
Trump’s Tariffs Are Bad News For Anyone Who Relies On Ad Revenue
The Trump tariffs are official – and the impact on ad spend could be even more grim and wide-ranging than expected. On Wednesday, President Trump announced 10% baseline tariffs on just about every country, including a few uninhabited islands. Certain countries, including China, Vietnam, Taiwan and the EU got slapped with even higher tariffs. The […]
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The Big Story
Bots And Games Are Back (For Ad Tech)
What’s old is new. Time is a flat circle. Trends are cyclical. Choose your idiom, because this week’s episode grapples with two topics that are not new to online advertising, but have both roared back into the public consciousness. The first is the scourge of bot traffic, scrutiny courtesy of a recent Adalytics report, and […]
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Online Advertising
WPP Acquires Data Clean Room Startup InfoSum
WPP has bought InfoSum, a data clean room and collaboration startup. Terms of the deal, announced on Thursday, were not disclosed. This acquisition reunites InfoSum with Brian Lesser, its former CEO. InfoSum will sit within GroupM, now led by Lesser, who was chairman and CEO of InfoSum until he joined WPP in September.
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Data-Driven Thinking
Less Is More: Why Excluding Audiences Leads To Stronger Campaigns
Advertisers and their agency partners are well-versed in assembling audiences based on who they want to reach. Yet effective audience composition isn’t simply about deciding who is ideal; it’s also about determining who should be excluded. Audience suppression is a superpower that many advertisers don’t realize they have. When used effectively, it can be the […]
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Data-Driven Thinking
The AI Tradeoff: How Marketers Can Balance Efficiency And Authenticity
It started with a backlash. Mango’s AI-driven campaign, featuring hyper-realistic AI models that didn’t exist, sparked online outrage. Comments like “False advertising!” flooded social media. Consumers felt deceived, and Mango’s attempt to save time and money came at the expense of something far more valuable: trust. Meanwhile, Dove was making waves for the opposite reason. […]
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Marketers
Keeping It Simple At The 2025 ANA Media Conference
Why is programmatic media buying so dang complicated? That question was an ever-present topic at the 2025 ANA Media Conference in Orlando, Florida this week.
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The Big Story
In The Room Where (The Ad Auction) Happens
The IAB Tech Lab is proposing that ad auctions move to a Trusted Server from the browser. Why its prototype attracted controversy. Plus, should data privacy be viewed as a badge of honor, or a baseline standard?
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CTV Roundup
Exploring The Science Of Eye Tracking And Ad Attention
Attention is not always a good thing. Just ask Barbara Streisand.
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Data-Driven Thinking
Avoiding CCPA Privacy Pitfalls: Lessons From The Honda Settlement Order
We all know it is difficult for participants in digital advertising to enter into contracts with every company to which they disclose personal information. However, difficulty is no longer an acceptable excuse, especially after the California Privacy Protection Agency’s recent enforcement action against American Honda Motor Co. That case highlights a critical compliance reminder for […]
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Data-Driven Thinking
Google’s Fingerprinting Update Might Trigger The Next Battle For Digital Privacy
In much the same way as Google decided not to kill off third-party cookies in Chrome, the company’s recent announcement of a more relaxed stance on fingerprinting has certainly raised some eyebrows. With the ad policy update, which came into force in February, Google has adopted a more lenient approach to how advertisers, vendors and […]