The Big Story
Netflix and Roku to Possibly Join Forces
In Q1 of this year, Netflix reported to lose subscribers for the first time in over a decade, causing its stock to plummet. As a result, Netflix has been toying with the idea of possibly ditching their completely ad-free subscription model that we all got to know and love over the years to introduce an ad-supported, lower tier option. Getting into the advertising game would provide Netflix with a much-needed new source of revenue. However, this would also require the company to quickly build out their ad tech infrastructure. This is where a potential acquisition of Roku, who has also been experiencing a decrease in stock value, would come in to play and help both companies meet the demands of the changing CTV market.
Roku’s OneView ad platform could serve as the foundation of Netflix’s ad stack by enabling them to solve for targeting, measurement, attribution, and identity resolution capabilities that are the pillars for digital ad platforms. This potential acquisition would also benefit Roku by helping to maintain their competitive edge in the everchanging CTV space against smart TV manufacturers like Samsung, LG, Amazon and Vizio.
CTV has become a dominant player in the advertising space. For advertisers this potential acquisition could give them a boost in the streaming space by opening up advertising opportunities on one of the most elite streaming services. In addition, this would also allow advertisers to make smarter decisions with all of the new rich data and consumer insights that are available through CTV that do not rely on third party cookies.
Social Updates
LinkedIn Debuts Business Manager
LinkedIn recently introduced Business Manager, which will be rolling out to all marketers this month LinkedIn’s Business Manager is set to be a centralized platform that will allow agency folks to better manage ad accounts, businesses they work with, pages and people. This new feature will ultimately free up time spent on administrative tasks like billing and user permissions in order to put more of the focus on campaign management and performance.
Twitter’s new Product Drop feature lets advertisers and merchants tease new products and provide more details natively while also allowing interested shoppers to set reminders via Twitter. Product Drop Tweets provide users with information like product descriptions, pictures, prices and also a clickable hashtag where users can read through conversations about the product. These Tweets will also have a “Remind me” button, which will give the user a notification reminder 15 minutes before and at the time of the drop and will direct them to purchase on the merchant’s website.
Pinterest Introduces Two New Ad Options
Pinterest steps up their paid advertising game with the introduction of Idea Ads and a new paid partnership tool. Idea Ads are described as an immersive, multipage format that allows brands to showcase their ideas in action and can direct users to take a set of different actions like visiting the brand’s website. According to an internal brand lift study, Pinterest stated that users that viewed idea ads are 59% more likely to recall the brands behind those ads. In addition to this, Pinterest also introduced their new paid partnership tool that facilitates the connection process between brands and creators and also lets advertisers tap into the platform’s creator community. Pinterest stated that brands that worked with creators saw 38% higher brand awareness and 37% higher pin awareness during Q4 of 2021 and Q1 of 2022.
Digital Updates
The My Body, My Data act, proposed by Rep, Sara Jacobs (D-Calif.), aims to limit the amount of personal reproductive health data that firms can collect, store and share. Under this act, tech companies and app developers are held accountable to give people the right to access or delete their own personal data and also openly share how their data is being collected and used. As a result, social media platforms would be required to implement an additional user consent layer, which could affect ad revenue and advertisers by limiting data making targeting more difficult.
The US Continues to Make Strides Towards a Federal Privacy Law
Committee leaders from the House and Senate have released a bipartisan draft this month further cracking down on online data privacy. If passed, The American Data Privacy and Protection Act would ban targeted advertising to children under 17 years old and would allow people to sue companies for violations, like deceptive practices under the FTC. Furthermore, this legislation would require companies to allow online users to opt out of targeted ads and tasks the FTC with creating a way for people to opt out of ads and data collection practices across websites by adding a “Do Not Collect” feature.
Reddit Partners with DoubleVerify
Reddit has recently partnered with DoubleVerify, the digital media measurement software and analytics company, which should shape up as a big advantage for advertisers and further step-up brand safety measures. Under this partnership, DoubleVerify will help ensure that media buys are not placed next to objectionable or harmful content, which has been an ongoing issue for advertisers across various social platforms like Facebook and Twitter. It will also work to provide media verification by ensuring that campaigns are being seen by real people rather than bots or other fraudulent accounts. In addition, DoubleVerify will help to make sure that ads are not only being seen under their comprehensive viewability measurement, but that they are also being delivered to the right location and blocking any ads that may appear outside of the intended target.
