Author: Geek Planet

[ad_1] This article is a WTF explainer, in which we break down media and marketing’s most confusing terms. More from the series → AI-powered chatbots are scary smart, thanks to the large language models undergirding them. But they’re only as smart as the data they’re trained on. Two major factors can inhibit the AI chatbots being created by brands and publishers: the timeliness of the bots’ training data and the inclusion of proprietary information in that data set. In the first case, a company would need a way to pass information in real time to an LLM powering its chatbot.…

[ad_1] Marketers are adding yet another item on their growing honey-do list for smaller and mid-sized retail media networks. They’re pushing for real-time bidding, a form of programmatic advertising that allows ads to be bought and sold in real time. Instead of retailers setting a fixed cost-per-click or CPM, marketers bid on individual ad impressions and the winner gets the ad space. It’s a push for more control in the retail media ecosystem. Marketers have been spending more and more on retail media, even in light of economic uncertainty. By the end of 2025, retail media is expected to account…

[ad_1] There’s new leadership at the industry’s top agency trade association. Starting today, Justin Thomas-Copeland will succeed Marla Kaplowitz as the 4As’ CEO. Throughout this month, Thomas-Copeland will work alongside Kaplowitz, who has been CEO of the 4A’s for the last eight years, to transition the leadership of the association before her departure at the end of the month. Prior to taking the top leadership role at the 4A’s, Thomas-Copeland founded and ran the marketing consultancy Kindrd Global. Before that, he was the CEO of DDB in North America, global CEO of Omnicom’s healthcare agency OPMG Health and president and…

[ad_1] Subscribe: Apple Podcasts • Spotify Google’s search engine isn’t the only one in town, and marketers are taking notice. Increasingly, people are shifting search behaviors to AI chatbots, like ChatGPT and Perplexity. This means marketers’ search engine optimization playbook might soon need to be revamped to account for AI-generated product discovery, recommendations and more. At Digiday’s Programmatic Marketing Summit in Palm Springs, California, Elena MacGurn, svp of search at Digitas, broke down how the agency is adapting its search marketing strategy for clients amid the AI boom. Live from Palm Springs, Tim Peterson, Digiday’s executive editor of video and audio,…

[ad_1] It’s upfront week, and YouTube’s influence looms large over every pitch and negotiation. No better moment to revisit how, over the past 20 years, it’s become the tip of the spear in the transformation of how people watch TV. Watching YouTube on TV screens isn’t new but the pace of its monetization is accelerating fast. In the first quarter of 2025, YouTube ads served on TVs rose 88% year-on-year, according to Tinuiti’s latest benchmark report. TV screens now command 43% of YouTube video ad spend nearly doubling from 24% last year. Mobile slipped to 42%, down from 51% while…

[ad_1] WPP has retained its account with Coca-Cola, one its largest clients, according to the global beverage giant’s chief marketing officer Manuel Arroyo. Writing on LinkedIn, the CMO said Coca-Cola had renewed its partnership with WPP and credited it with delivering “significant value” to the firm, which is one of the world’s largest advertisers. “I’m happy to share that The Coca-Cola Company has renewed its partnership with WPP Open X as its global marketing partner,” he wrote. “We are living a special moment in marketing at The Coca-Cola Company, and I’m glad to have WPP Open X on our team…

[ad_1] This research is based on unique data collected from our proprietary audience of publisher, agency, brand and tech insiders. It’s available to Digiday+ members. More from the series → Interested in sharing your perspectives on the media and marketing industries? Join the Digiday research panel. There are a lot of questions in this year’s upfront market negotiations: Will ad prices come down after last year? How will TV networks and streaming platforms price sports inventory? How will Amazon and Netflix play into the allocation of upfront dollars? Here’s two more: How many marketers are actually planning on spending in…

[ad_1] Digiday editors asked the Digiday+ community for any questions it had during their first Ask Our Editors event on Thursday, which covered off expectations for the Google trial, updates on M&A activity and privacy workarounds. Digiday editor in chief Jim Cooper kicked off the conversation between Seb Joseph, executive director of news and Ronan Shields, senior editor, discussing the potential outcomes between Google’s trials concerning Search and its ad tech business. Google trial outcomes On whether the trials would result in Google breaking up — both Joseph and Shields poked at whether it was too late. For publishers’ reliance…

[ad_1] Accenture Song is in for change, as its leader and creative power, David Droga, steps upstairs to the parent company Accenture’s corner office as vice chair. Droga, considered by many to be one of the last of a generation of creative agency leaders, is being replaced by Ndidi Oteh, who’s been running Accenture Song’s Americas unit for the last 17 months but is a longtime Accenture vet.  The immediate question is how will Droga’s absence from Song affect that company’s creative chops? For one, Nick Law, a creative exec who joined Song a little over three years after a…

[ad_1] For years, Amazon’s advertising playbook was all about keeping advertisers in-house — using its data to target shoppers within its own ecosystem. Now, it’s shifting gears, urging advertisers to take that data on the road to reach those same people, or ones just like them, elsewhere.The shift isn’t exactly a surprise. Its ad chief has been signaling the suggested strategy for a while, and advertisers have been reading the tea leaves. Still, without something concrete, it’s been tough for marketers to plan around. That’s what makes the latest pitch deck for its demand-side platform so telling: it puts Amazon’s…