Criteo 1Q24 Earnings: The Turn-Around Works
Criteo is turning a corner: strong, low double-digit percentage growth for three quarters in a row after anemic growth before. New products’ growth is now…
Google Will Blow Through New Cookie Deadline As Well
The new Google timeline for phasing out 3rd-party cookies -the first four months of 2025- is unrealistic as well. There are just too many issues…
Tesla Hits Reset Button as Reality Catches Up
Today was a rough day for Tesla and its CEO Elon Musk. The electric vehicle pioneer announced layoffs of around 10% of its workforce, or…
What HubSpot Acquisition Would Mean For Google – And For Salesforce And Adobe
In recent news, there have been rumors that Google is eyeing an acquisition of HubSpot, a cloud-based customer relationship management (#CRM) and marketing automation platform…
Will Proxy Fight Against Disney’s Board Succeed?
At tomorrow’s Disney shareholder meeting we will learn which course the company will take in the future. (The meeting takes place Wednesday, April 2, 2024.)…
Do Meta, Snap and TikTok Face Teen-Ageddon?
Meta, Snap, TikTok and others will face reduced teen audience reach, reduced traffic/inventory, reduced revenue, higher costs and tarnished reputations caused by this lawsuit filed…
Disney Loses Fight With Florida, But Can Now Focus On Fixing Itself
Though @Disney lost this fight, it rids CEO @RobertIger of one major distraction in his quest to right Disney’s ship. It will also accelerate short-term…
Will Apple Use Google’s Gemini LLM To Power Search And Siri?
I would find it surprising if @Apple decided to use Gemini as an extension to its $20B-a-year deal to license search from Google, or, beyond…
TikTok Will Stay After Likely Sale, Remain Channel Into Young Demos
At this point, the fracas over TikTok will likely play out like this: The bill forcing TikTok-owner ByteDance to either sell the service or be…
House passes bill To Force TikTok Sale Or Ban – What’s Next?
Today, the house passed a bill forcing the sale or ban of TikTok. Remarkably, this was a bipartisan vote. @AOC voted with @mattgaetz. A passage…
Google’s Gemini: What Is “True”? And Who Decides?
Critics of Google Gemini suggested that the chatbot should just simply “tell the truth” after it produced biased responses. Just tell the truth – fair…
What Will Google Do Next About Gemini – And Will It Be Enough?
Yesterday evening, @Google CEO @SundarPichai addressed the botched launch of the company’s @Gemini #chatbot in an email to employees. This was a message intended to…
Apple Abandoning Car Project, Focusing On AI
@Apple is getting two major advantages out of giving up on its #EV car project. 1. It allows Apple to divert billions of dollars into…
After The ‘Gemini’ Fiasco – What Can Google Do?
$67 billion lost from @Alphabet’s market capitalization today, with the stock down 3.8% at 3 ET. It took the market a while to figure out…
Business Implications of Google’s Botched Gemini Chatbot Release
About a week ago, Google released the version 1.0 Ultra and 1.0 Pro of its AI chatbot Gemini (nee Bard). Tech folks immediately took to…
Walmart is acquiring Vizio: Did Somebody Say “Retail Media Via CTV”?
The deal is a win-win for both partners. For Walmart, it means additional ad revenue from Vizio’s 500+ advertising clients. It also potentially adds Vizio…
Will Large Language Models Kill Search And Distribution?
Regarding Gartner’s take on LLMs eating into search via Search Engine Land today. Will large language models eventually eat into search traffic and content distribution?…
OpenAI’s Sora: 500K Ad and M&E Jobs At Risk From Generative AI Video?
Most posts on @OpenAI’s new text-to-video #generativeAI tool Sora today are technology punch-drunk. This post is on the impact it and similar products will have…
A Word To the Wise About Nvidia
Today, Nvidia overtook Alphabet in terms of market capitalization, making it the third biggest U.S. company behind Microsoft and Apple. There has been a lot…
The Top 6 Ad And Marketing Take-Aways From CES 2024
Google Privacy Sandbox: Signal Loss And Trepidation Nearly every conversation about advertising, marketing and media and entertainment at CES took place under the dread cloud…
Google Begins 3rd-Party Cookie Deprecation – Fallout And Mitigation
After numerous delays, Google is getting serious about deprecating third-party cookies in its Chrome browser. Beginning in January 2024, the company will test its alternative…
Top Impressions from Julia Boorstin’s full interview with @X’s CEO Linda Yaccarino
Here are the top Impressions from Julia Boorstin’s full interview with @X’s CEO Linda Yaccarino at the #Code2023 conference. Linda was visibly angry, perhaps because…
The Top 6 Advertising News From The 2023 Cannes International Festival of Creativity
After a 2-year hiatus due to the Covid pandemic, the ad industry’s 5-star luxury version of Burning Man, the Cannes International Festival of Creativity, finally…
The Top 5 Take-Aways From Disney’s Second Calendar Quarter Earnings
1. An OK second quarter. @Disney’s second calendar quarter (their third fiscal quarter) mixed progress with stubborn challenges. Revenue was up 4% quarter-on-quarter, not great,…
The Top 7 Take-Aways From Amazon’s Second Quarter Earnings
1. @Amazon had a good second quarter. Total revenue grew by 11% year on year – a welcome mild uptick after seven quarters of a…
The Top 5 Take-Aways From Apple’s 2nd Calendar Quarter Earnings
1. @Apple did not have a great quarter. For the third quarter in a row, sales declined year on year, this quarter, by 1%. At…
The Top 5 Take-Aways From Unity’s 2Q23 Earnings
1. Great second quarter. @Unity’s overall revenue grew by 80%, the Create segment by 17% and the Grow segment by 157%. The Create segment contains…
The Top 7 Take-Aways From Criteo’s 2Q23 Earnings
1. A good second quarter. @Criteo reported a good second quarter in today’s earnings before the market opened, indicating that CEO @Megan_Clarken’s turn-around efforts are…
The Top 5 Ad-Related Take-Aways From Uber’s 2Q23 Earnings
1. Probably around $175M in ad revenue last Q. They reported that they are at a $650m run rate in ad sales (read: annual run…
The Top 5 Take-Aways From Roku’s 2Q23 Earnings
1. Roku ad sales are up. First let’s look at ad sales. Worldwide revenue in the Platform segment (which includes ad revenue and license fees…
The Top 5 Take-Aways From Meta’s 2Q23 Earnings
1. The company had a great quarter: ad revenue increased by 12% y-o-y, compared to @Google’s 3.3%. This is across all properties, including Facebook, Instagram…
Elon Musk’s Rebranding Of Twitter To “X” – Good Or Bad?
Generally, in design, CI and branding, you never want to violate consumers’ and clients’ expectations. Habits and attitudes are tied to a brand, and so…
The Top 5 Take-Aways From Netflix’ 2Q23 Earnings
1. Steady growth. Overall, Netflix’ revenue is growing steadily. That’s mostly thanks to the company’s password-sharing crackdown. It helped the company gain 5.9 million subscribers…
The Top 6 Advertising News From The 2023 Cannes International Festival of Creativity
After a 2-year hiatus due to the Covid pandemic, the ad industry’s 5-star luxury version of Burning Man, the Cannes International Festival of Creativity, finally…
2023 Global Advertising Technology Universe
Here is the latest overview of the 80+ most essential AdTech vendors: https://wmediaresearch.com/portfolio/2023-global-advertising-technology-universe/… These are also the vendors tracked in the 2023 Global Advertising Technology…
2023 Global AdTech Forecast And Vendor Market Shares Model
W Media Research proudly announces: the 2023 Global AdTech Forecast And Vendor Market Shares Model – the industry’s first comprehensive advertising technology spending monitor. Are…
AppLovin: Slight Loss, Beats Revenue Expectations, Market Loves Outlook
AppLovin Corp (NASDAQ:APP) reported its first-quarter results for 2023 yesterday, which, on balance, were positive, with more good news to come this year. While the…
Disney Narrows Streaming Losses – But Market Is Unimpressed
Yesterday’s Walt Disney earnings report for its second fiscal quarter put the spotlight on its streaming service, Disney+. While the company struggles to make Disney+…
TL;DR: 2023 Google I/O – No Bard Chatbot Search Debut – Twenty-Five Billion Dollars At Risk?
Google announced dozens of new software, development, and hardware products and features at its annual Google I/O developer conference today. However, it is more remarkable…
FTC’s Khan’s First Stab At AI Regulation Ideas Benign, If Work In Progress
Lina Khan, Chair of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), published an opinion piece in the New York Times today, outlining her agency’s five main concerns…
TL;DR: 1Q23 Amazon Earnings: Advertising Is Now Half Size Of AWS
Sure, sure, sure: Amazon generally performed brilliantly in the first quarter. All numbers are up, up, up. But the most interesting aspect of Amazon’s first…
TL;DR: 1Q23 Meta Earnings: Ads Hold Their Own, Ill-Conceived Metaverse Adventure Seems Over
The 1Q2023 results for Meta Platforms are a mixed bag. On one hand, the increase in revenue, daily and monthly active users, and ad impressions…
TL;DR: Alphabet’s 1Q23 Earnings – Does GPT Bing Eat Into Google’s Search Ad Sales Already? Maybe.
Alphabet’s overall results came in better than expected, and the stock price was up more than 4% in after-hours trading. The results were good –…
Amazon Is Entering The AI Race – But Not With A Chat Bot
Today, Amazon announced its entry into the AI race – but not with a ChatGPT-like service that would improve consumers’ shopping experience. Instead, it is…
TL:DR: Elon Musk On Advertising, Free Speech At Possible 2023
The highlight of today’s 2023 Possible Event in Miami Beach – the Mobile Marketing Associations inaugural annual conference- was Elon Musk being interviewed by NBCU’s…
Google Reacting To Microsoft’s Bing GPT, Better Search Ads Ahead
Google, in panic mode according to the New York Times, is working on upgrading its existing search engine with AI features, trying to head off…
Time For Advertisers To Prepare Tiktok Alternatives
There is now a 50% : 22% majority of the U.S. population supporting a ban on @TikTok in the United States, according to a new…
Adobe FireFly: AI-Based Image And Video Creation Coming To Marketing
GenerativeAI tools that enhance the creative process, and make it faster and more productive, come online in advertising and marketing much faster than you think.…
Cleaning Up The Mess After SVB’s Collapse
The drama of the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank by breakfast on Friday and it’s last-minute rescue by Janet Yellen and President Biden on Sunday…
TL;DR: The Collapse of Silicon Valley Bank
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) has taken over Silicon Valley Bank and created a Deposit Insurance Bank of Santa Clara. Come Monday, clients will be able…
Highlights From RampUp 2023: Let’s Talk Retail Media, Not Data
You could be forgiven for thinking that @LiveRamp’s annual @RampUp conference in San Francisco would be about all about data and data technology. But it…
Mediaocean 2023 Roadmap: 47% of Ad Effectiveness Down To Creative
Forty-seven percent of advertising performance are down to its creative – it is 2x as important as audience reach, 3x as important as branding, and…
Disney May Sell Hulu to Comcast. That May Mean Worse Ad Products
In a bid to streamline its digital video business, it seems Disney intends to focus on optimizing Disney+ while selling off its share in Hulu…
Two Old Reads Help Chart the Future of Large-Language Models
As a follow up to my post from yesterday on @BainAlerts in essence distributing @OpenAi’s large language model #ChatGPT into enterprises (@WorldofCocaCola being one of…
Bain And OpenAI Partner To Bring AI Into Enterprises – Too Soon?
Bain & Company (@BainAlerts) entered an alliance with @OpenAI to bring the startup’s AI tools into enterprises. Bain targets three segments: One, retail banks, telcos,…
TL;DR: Walmart 4Q22 Earnings: Retail Media Thrive on Others’ Signal Loss
Where @Google’s 4Q ad revenue grew by only a little more than 6%, and @Meta’s sales declined by more than 1%, @Walmart Connect’s ad sales…
Faster, Cleaner, Cheaper: IAB Tech Lab Announces Clean Room Standard
@IABTechLab’s CEO @anthonykatsur announced its draft data clean room standard yesterday. A standardized way to operate clean rooms will greatly enhance all data work -…
Shifting TV Budgets into Digital? Prioritize CTV Over Mobile Video
If you are moving ad budgets from traditional TV into digital, you may want to emphasize connected TV (CTV) over mobile video because it is…
The Top 10 Tips On How To Engage Industry Analysts
A colleague of mine asked me today how companies best engage with industry analysts in order to be successful – here’re are a few pointers.…
Gpt Bing is not Ready – And Users Will be Awed anyway
A lot of talk in the industry about how @Microsoft launched the #ChatGPT even though it is not ready and gives false answers. Or how…
Standout Superbowl Ads
Here’re the standout #SuperBowlAds: Tubi pranked viewers by making them believe somebody took over their device and switched to Tubi and won the SuperClio. https://lnkd.in/giM_PE5w Google showcasing “remove…
TL;DR: Disney Earnings 4Q22 – New AVOD Subs Can’t Make Up SVOD Loss
Bob Iger’s first earnings call as its new and old CEO. Not much new on advertising, except that Disney+ subscriber numbers went down by 1.5%…
TL;DR: Meta Earnings 4Q22 – Recovers From IDFA Deprecation Shock
Great news for @Facebook. The big question is, how much of that recovery is thanks to FB measures, and how much a bounce-back of ad…
AWS For Advertising Clean Room Product Available In Preview
Amazon Web Services (AWS) clean room product is now available in preview. AWS for Advertising will be a major provider for SaaS ad tech in…
EU Rules Facebook Practice Illegal
Facebook just can’t get a break. The European Union fined it $400M for assuming users’ consent to collect their personal data by placing a provision…
Large Language Models Are Coming For Search
After playing with OpenAI’s #ChartGPT, I think the most immediate impact that this tech will have on advertising is that it will replace search ads.…
Highlights from day 2 of the IAB’s Annual Leadership Meeting
This is one spicy ALM! Conference opening speeches in our industry are usually rather bland affairs consisting of cobbeled together truisms of limited newsworthiness. But…
Yahoo! Restructuring: For Buyers and Pubs, Upsides and Downsides
For both buyers and publishers, Yahoo’s restructuring has upsides and downsides. For brands and agencies, it might increase Yahoo’s audience reach and amount of available…
TL;DR: Amazon Earnings 4Q22 – Shrinking The Echo Division
What got lost re. Amazon’s 4Q22 earnings: the 18K layoffs were focused on stores and on *devices* – meaning the #Echo division, which, according to…
LLM-Search Hybrids: So Far, Announceware Only
Just a TL;DR on where we are at with large language model-search hybrids: All we have so far is announcements and no products. Availability of…
What’s Missing In Retail Media
Great overview by AdExchanger’s Allison Schiff over what’s missing in the fast-growing #retailmedia segment: “better measurement, more transparency, and (…) standardization.” Standardization is an issue…