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IBM | June 24, 2021
IBM Watson Advertising (NYSE: IBM) today announced a research initiative that will apply open-source AI technology, developed by IBM, to better understand how prevalent unwanted bias is in advertising, while simultaneously laying the foundation for potential mitigation. This work aligns with IBM Watson Advertising's overarching mission to make AI the catalyst for improving solutions, services and trust in the advertising ecosystem, and builds upon IBM's leadership in transforming business across industries with AI.
The advertising industry is undergoing a major transformation, with changes to privacy regulations and increased demand for transparency fueling the emergence of AI as the industry's new technology backbone. As brands rebuild amidst this transformation, the timing is ideal to address the persistent problem of unwanted bias in advertising, evidenced by a study conducted by the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media, which found male characters appeared in advertisements 12% more than females. This while women-led and gender-balanced videos yielded 30% more views than other videos, revealing a demand for more inclusive content.
Unwanted bias in advertising has the potential to negatively impact consumers who may miss out on an economic opportunity or feel targeted based on stereotypes, while also negatively impacting brands that may experience poor campaign performance. The aim of the IBM Watson Advertising research is to drive a deeper understanding of the factors leading to unwanted bias in advertising and how AI can help, spanning audience segmentation, creative messaging, performance optimization and campaign impact. Armed with this information, marketers and IT vendors may be able to develop a roadmap for the responsible use of AI to reduce unwanted bias and more effectively create and execute campaigns.
"We find ourselves at a moment in history where a long-overdue discourse on socioeconomic inequalities is dominating the national agenda and compelling action," said Bob Lord, Senior Vice President, Worldwide Ecosystems at IBM. "Our hope is that AI can be the catalyst for reducing unwanted bias in advertising, just as it is helping to transform the advertising industry as it rebuilds for an era without third party cookies. Through this research we are taking an important first step toward that goal, applying scientific rigor to determine just how big of an impact AI can have."
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Nielsen | May 23, 2022
Nielsen's monthly total TV viewing snapshot, The Guage, reported April as another month of high records for streaming. Streaming captured 30.4% of full TV viewing and surpassed its previous record of 29.7% set in March 2022. While overall TV viewership fell by 2.1% in March, streaming volume remained nearly unchanged, helping to boost its share by over 0.6%.
Even though Netflix said it lost 200,000 subscribers in the first quarter, which sent its shares into a tailspin, its share price stayed at 6.6%. YouTube had a 6.1 %, which is up from a 6.0 %. Hulu had a 3.3 %, which stayed the same. Amazon Prime Video had a 2.5 %, up from 2.3%, and Disney Plus had a 1.7 %, which is down from 1.8 %. Other streamers had 9.2% of the market, less than the 9.8% they had before.
Nielsen said that a significant drop in sports viewing and the end of seasons and series of dramas hurt the share of broadcast. With the NBA playoffs and the final games of the Final Four, people were watching sports on cable. However, 16.9% fewer people watched cable news.
The Gauge also showed that HBO Max reached a 1% share of streaming for the first time. This achievement allowed it to move out of the "Other Streaming" category and join other streaming services that have already passed the 1% share mark. The "Other Streaming" category, which includes all high-bandwidth video streaming on TV that isn't broken out separately, has grown by more than two share points since The Gauge was first released in May 2021. According to Nielsen's State of Play report, this category's steady growth shows that audiences are becoming more interested in the growing number of streaming platforms.
The Gauge, the monthly total TV viewing snapshot from Nielsen - April 2022
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Kubient | November 01, 2021
Kubient, a cloud-based software platform for digital advertising, today announced a mutually beneficial partnership with Verve Group, a privacy-first omnichannel ad platform connecting advertisers and publishers to people in real time. The partnership opens up premium inventory for advertisers working with Verve Group, and enables Kubient's publishers the ability to access additional premium inventory from Verve Group, ultimately creating more transparency and efficiency for brands and agencies.
"We hear from our brands and agencies that they want more transparency throughout the bidding process, but are continuously faced with partners that have multiple vendors. This can impact the price of inventory and raise questions around the quality of inventory being sold and purchased. By partnering with Verve Group, we're providing a seamless process for our advertisers to access quality inventory that's specific and relevant to the audiences they are trying to reach. This partnership will also tremendously impact our supply side partners, by expanding the number of advertisers that can bid on their inventory, which benefits all parties."
Ryan Adams, SVP of Partnerships at Kubient.
The partnership with Verve Group will rapidly expand Kubient's direct selling offerings, allowing for the team to continue building out a robust demand side of the business. Kubient looks to create greater revenue opportunities by opening up its publisher's inventory to Verve Group.
"Kubient is a great partner for Verve Group, as we continue to evolve as a business and disrupt the ad tech landscape for both demand and supply partners," said Sameer Sondhi, Co-CEO at Verve Group. "Our team is always looking at ways to expand the breadth of inventory we can offer brands. By making Kubient's inventory available through Verve Group, our advertisers can expand the types of audiences they engage through campaigns. Additionally, we are also excited to offer Verve Group's high-quality inventory for Kubient partners."
Kubient leverages Kubient Artificial Intelligence (KAI), a pre-bid ad-fraud prevention tool that catches fraud before it happens through pattern recognition and device scoring. The algorithm is trained to analyze the behavior, consistency, and quality to determine its credibility - accurately flagging fraud in less than 10ms of an ad bid, faster than any other tool on the market.
About Kubient
Kubient is a technology company with a mission to transform the digital advertising industry to audience-based marketing. Kubient's next generation cloud-based infrastructure enables efficient marketplace liquidity for buyers and sellers of digital advertising. The Kubient Audience Cloud is a flexible open marketplace for advertisers and publishers to reach, monetize and connect their audiences. The Company's platform provides a transparent programmatic environment with proprietary artificial intelligence-powered pre-bid ad fraud prevention, and proprietary real-time bidding (RTB) marketplace automation for the digital out of home industry. The Audience Cloud is the solution for brands and publishers that demand transparency and the ability to reach audiences across all channels and ad formats.
About Verve Group
Verve Group's consumer-first advertising suite is a leader in consolidating data, demand and supply technologies to create better business outcomes for advertisers and publishers. With a privacy-first approach, Verve Group's full-stack programmatic solutions are built for brand-safe environments. The global group is trusted by top 100 advertisers with direct connections to 4,000+ publishers and apps globally. Verve Group is part of Media and Games Invest (MGI) and has an international presence with 20+ offices worldwide. Learn more at www.verve.com.
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