AdTech: Week in Review
Timeframe: 2nd January, 2023 - 8th January [Week 1]
Welcome!
I came across an remarkable coincidence today.
It was on 10th January 1946, when the first UN General Assembly met in London. What’s interesting is that, it was exactly on this date in 1920 when the League of Nations was formed in Geneva after WW-I.
Tweet of the Week!
The Top Three
Covering the biggest happenings of the week ad rem to AdTech
<1> Meta’s Ad practices ruled illegal under E.U. law
Meta suffered a major defeat that could severely undercut its Facebook and Instagram advertising business after European Union regulators found it had illegally forced users to effectively accept personalized ads.
The decision, including a fine of 390 million euros ($414 million), has the potential to require Meta to make costly changes to its advertising-based business in the European Union, one of its largest markets.
The ruling is one of the most consequential judgments since the 27-nation bloc, home to roughly 450 million people, enacted a landmark data-privacy law aimed at restricting the ability of Facebook and other companies from collecting information about users without their prior consent. The law took effect in 2018.
<2> Trade Desk announces Galileo
The Trade Desk announced a new product, called Galileo, that consolidates the company’s existing first-party data solutions. The free-to-use hub includes data clean room services, onboarding and identity plug-ins for Unified ID 2.0.
In an interview with Adweek, TTD Chief Strategy Officer Samantha Jacobson compares Galileo to walled-garden-based clean room products – which she doesn’t cite, but that where walled garden versions spit out only results, with no transparency into user or impression-level campaign data, Galileo still reports log file data.
<3> Shopify in advertising push to fill void left by Apple privacy crackdown
The new tool aims to help retailers navigate the challenges posed by Apple’s privacy rules, which require mobile developers to obtain consent to track users between apps and websites. The new Audiences tool enables retailers to gather up their customer data and upload it to Meta and Google’s advertising platforms. That data can then be used by marketers to find customers that are more likely to buy their products because they previously purchased something similar from other retailers.
The Usual Suspects: Big Tech
Highlighting the whereabouts of Big Tech with reference to AdTech
YouTube has begun running a new experiment that will suggest relevant hashtags that creators can add to their Shorts during the uploading process. LINK
Google will ask federal judges to reconsider a recent decision that revived a class-action privacy lawsuit brought by parents of young YouTube users, the company disclosed in papers filed this week. LINK
Google is working on a media playback feature that will enable consumers to jump from one device to the next as they move throughout their day. LINK
Retailers using Meta’s Instagram and Facebook platforms will now have access to a tool from IRI that provides brand and product sales results. LINK
Google has agreed to pay $23 million to settle a 13-year-old lawsuit alleging that the company's search engine leaked consumers' personal information by transmitting their search queries to publishers. LINK
Microsoft is developing a version of its Bing search engine that uses the artificial intelligence behind ChatGPT. LINK
Working through its business unit Jigsaw, and with the UN-backed initiative Tech Against Terrorism, which helps tech companies police online terrorism, Google has developed a free moderation tool for smaller websites. LINK
Apple was hit with an 8 million euro fine in France (just under $8.5 million) for failing to collect tracking consent from French iPhone users. LINK
Launches, Partnerships and IPOs!
Simply put, articles around the innovations, partnerships and new launches that took place over the last week.
Sqoop, a service that provided research tools and email news alerts for journalists, is closing after almost a decade in business. LINK
TikTok has announced that it is licensing data from film and TV database IMDb for a new feature that will allow users to easily tag TV shows and movies in their uploads, linking viewers directly to an in-app IMDb page for further information. LINK
Pinterest will partner with the LiveRamp to pilot clean rooms for select advertising partners. Albertsons becomes the first advertiser. LINK
Streaming distribution platform Roku says its global active accounts have grown by 17% year-over-year to now total 70 million. LINK
DoubleVerify announced that the company has received Media Rating Council (MRC) accreditation for its DV Authentic Attention® metrics, DV’s attention-based analytics and performance solution. LINK
Yahoo announced an integration with Scope3 to offer carbon neutral private marketplace (PMP) media in the Yahoo SSP. LINK
Criteo announced a preferred relationship that will enable Criteo’s global retailer partners to leverage Connected TV (CTV) through Magnite. LINK
Assembly debuts Clean Media Lab to help clients decarbonize their media investments. LINK
Global fashion brand H&M has announced the launch of the “Loooptopia Experience” on popular Metaverse computer game Roblox. LINK
Twitter, struggling to raise revenue as many major advertisers continue to avoid the platform, says it will soon lift its three-year-old ban on political advertising. LINK
Warner Bros. Discovery has struck an agreement with VideoAmp to measure cross-screen campaigns across all its networks and media platforms. LINK
Nielsen announces first module for cross-screen audience measurement platform. LINK
Ampersand automates Addressable TV Planning. LINK
Mergers and Acquisitions
M&A in and around AdTech
WPP has kicked off the New Year with the acquisition of digital transformation Fenom Digital. LINK
Moore has acquired Merkle Response Management Group (Merkle RMG) from Merkle Inc. LINK
Recommended Reads & Listens
That’s all for today folks! Will be back next week with more curated stories and scoops.