Google's Adding New, Advanced AR Masks to YouTube Stories

Social Media Today | March 09, 2019

With everyone jumping onto the social stories train, the next step is to differentiate and make your stories offering more appealing, in order to boost usage.Facebook has been working on a range of different tools on this front, including its various music options which take advantage of the platform's music licensing deals. And now, Google's looking to use its advanced capacity to take its AR effects tools to the next level, which it plans to roll out in YouTube Stories, which first launched in November last year. As detailed on the Google Research blog, the new AR effects will utilize improved "anchoring" processes to make them more realistic, and more responsive to real-world cues and movement. And interestingly, Google's improved AR system "doesn't rely on additional depth input, so it can also be applied to pre-recorded videos". That could see it used across a wider range of inputs and sources.

Spotlight

IAB Europe has released an initial ‘Guide to Improving Sustainable Business Decision-Making’ to assist businesses in the digital advertising ecosystem navigate the ever-evolving landscape of sustainability and responsible business practices.

In recent times, terms such as ‘sustainable’, ‘green’, ‘net-zero’, and ‘carbon-neutral’ to describe technology, services, and products in the digital advertising industry have increased in traction making it increasingly important for businesses to understand the validity of such claims.

With the rise of greenwashing practices, where false or misleading claims are made regarding environmental efforts, it is crucial for businesses to exercise due diligence when evaluating sustainability claims and when looking to choose the partners they wish to work with. Government regulators are also intensifying their focus on combating such practices, and businesses need to ensure that their decisions align with genuine sustainability goals.

The guide was written by members of IAB Europe’s Sustainability Standards Committee and offers valuable insights and practical tips to help organisations make more informed choices when looking to achieve sustainability in the digital advertising industry.

Spotlight

IAB Europe has released an initial ‘Guide to Improving Sustainable Business Decision-Making’ to assist businesses in the digital advertising ecosystem navigate the ever-evolving landscape of sustainability and responsible business practices.

In recent times, terms such as ‘sustainable’, ‘green’, ‘net-zero’, and ‘carbon-neutral’ to describe technology, services, and products in the digital advertising industry have increased in traction making it increasingly important for businesses to understand the validity of such claims.

With the rise of greenwashing practices, where false or misleading claims are made regarding environmental efforts, it is crucial for businesses to exercise due diligence when evaluating sustainability claims and when looking to choose the partners they wish to work with. Government regulators are also intensifying their focus on combating such practices, and businesses need to ensure that their decisions align with genuine sustainability goals.

The guide was written by members of IAB Europe’s Sustainability Standards Committee and offers valuable insights and practical tips to help organisations make more informed choices when looking to achieve sustainability in the digital advertising industry.

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Social Media Advertising

Food52 and Chicory Form Strategic Partnership To Drive Revenue and Enhance User Experience on Food52 Site

prnewswire | August 22, 2023

Food52, a leading innovator in the food, cooking, and home space, and Chicory, the leading contextual commerce advertising platform, today announced their strategic partnership aimed at enhancing the site's revenue generation capabilities and elevating the shopping experience for Food52's recipe enthusiasts. Chicory's contextual advertising and shoppable technology solutions seamlessly integrate with digital recipe content, empowering Food52's audience to discover, purchase, and enjoy culinary products with unparalleled convenience and efficiency. "Food52 has a goal of building community and making it easier for people to discover great content and shop for the items they need in their kitchen and home," said Matt Greenberg, SVP, head of B2B at Food52. "Partnering with Chicory helps us deliver on that promise and helps our community of 30M shop the best ingredients across our vast library of recipes. For our brand partners, it gives us another opportunity to meaningfully connect with our community as they shop and buy across our platform." As part of this partnership, over 50,000 Food52 recipes are now powered by Chicory's signature shoppable ingredients button. The shoppable technology allows site visitors to purchase the ingredients for their favorite recipes in just a few clicks. Chicory's integrations with more than 60 leading retailers enable visitors to complete their checkout at their preferred retailer in their area. In addition to deploying Chicory's shoppable ingredients button, Food52 will monetize its recipe cards using Chicory Premium, a solution consisting of contextual in-recipe advertisements. Chicory's proprietary natural language processing algorithm ensures that the featured ads are hyper-relevant to the recipe content on the page, improving the overall user experience for site visitors and driving incremental sales for brands and retailers. The partnership also allows Food52 to leverage Chicory's advertising sponsorship tactics, including Branded Cart and Featured Retailer, directly with its advertisers. This further enhances Food52's revenue generation capabilities and provides additional opportunities for brands and retailers to win the digital shelf via the Food52 site. "We are excited to partner with Food52, a prominent and innovative player in the culinary industry," said Joey Petracca, co-founder and COO of Chicory. "Chicory's contextual commerce solutions will empower Food52 to monetize its content effectively while enabling CPGs to connect with high-intent shoppers, increase brand affinity, and drive products to cart. Together, we aim to elevate the online shopping experience for at-home chefs." The partnership between Food52 and Chicory is helping propel the grocery e-commerce industry forward, providing a seamless and personalized shopping experience for the everyday cook and enhanced visibility and engagement opportunities for CPG brands. For more information about Food52 and Chicory, please visit food52.com and chicory.co, respectively. About Food52 With a monthly reach of more than 30 million, Food52 is a leading innovator in the food, cooking, and home space. Food52 believes that the kitchen is the heart of the home, and food is the center of a well-lived life. It has been named one of the most innovative companies in the world, one of the fastest-growing companies in America and New York City, and one of the hottest food voices on the internet. Food52 has garnered widespread media attention for its unique content-commerce-community model and best-in-class kitchen and home products, from The New York Times, the TODAY Show, The Wall Street Journal, Bon Appétit, and NPR, just to name a few. The team has been recognized for their leadership and industry-changing innovation by Fast Company, Digiday, and Folio:, among others. AboutChicory Chicory believes in the power of recipes to inspire consumers and drive commerce. As the leading contextual commerce advertising platform, Chicory transforms recipe content into commerce media. Its platform powers a network of recipe publishers and retailers that CPG brands use to reach 110 million high-intent grocery shoppers each month. Chicory's contextual advertising and shoppable recipe solutions can be found on 5,200+ websites and food blogs, including the Food Network, Delish and LandOLakes.com. Sites enabled with our technology take grocery shoppers from inspiration to checkout in just a few clicks, driving products to cart for 60+ leading retailers.

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Ad Networks

Improving economic conditions are beginning to spur digital ad spending growth

prnewswire | August 09, 2023

Skai, an omnichannel platform for performance marketing, published its Q2 2023 Digital Marketing Quarterly Trends Report, an in-depth analysis of the digital marketing trends that defined the second quarter of this year, along with an interactive infographic detailing key analysis. While the pattern of more ads at lower prices mostly continued to affect year-over-year (YoY) trends, comparing Q2 2023 to the previous quarter suggests an improving economy on numerous fronts. Retail media growth accelerates while other channels hold Year-over-year (YoY) spending grew 35% for retail media, up from 30% last quarter, while paid search and paid social only varied slightly from last quarter's trend. Paid search spending increased 3% YoY while paid social spending declined by 4%, both down one percentage point from Q1 YoY levels. Virtuous cycle drives retail media, paid search Retail media and paid search cost-per-click (CPC) both grew 11% quarter-over-quarter (QoQ) while conversion rate (CVR) was up 8% in retail media and 10% in search. Higher conversion rates translate to fewer clicks leading to a purchase, which then offset the higher click costs without negatively affecting return on ad spend (ROAS). Higher CPC then also allows for higher-quality placements on search results or product description pages. Bright spots in paid social While overall social spending was down, several segments saw YoY growth over Q2 2022. Video ads grew 12% and both Instagram ads and Awareness & Engagement campaign objectives were up 5% over last year. Expansion of formats and placements for commerce ads In each channel, commerce ads that are taking new forms and reaching new audiences showed robust QoQ growth. Amazon DSP spending increased 56% from Q1 to Q2, while Google Performance Max campaigns and Meta Advantage Shopping Campaigns+ grew 34% and 38%, respectively. "Retail media is already showing signs of accelerating spending growth, while both paid search and paid social look like they are hitting the end of recent deceleration trends. This all bodes well for a strong H2 for digital marketing spend as economic conditions improve," said Chris Costello, Senior Director of Marketing Research at Skai. "Meanwhile, digital publishers are consolidating disparate elements of campaign management and then expanding those campaigns to new audiences and properties to reinforce their value to advertisers." For more information and to view the infographic, visit skai.io/digital-marketing-trends/. Methodology Analysis is drawn from a population of approximately $9 billion in advertising spend over five quarters, comprising more than 3,000 advertiser and agency accounts across 40 vertical industries and more than 150 countries running on the Skai™ platform on Google, Microsoft, Baidu, Yandex, Yahoo! Japan, Verizon Media, Amazon, Walmart, Instacart, Criteo, Kroger, Apple Search Ads, Pinterest, Snapchat, Facebook, and Instagram. Except where noted, only advertisers with 15 consecutive months of performance data are included. Some additional outliers have been excluded. Ad spending and pricing have been translated to USD at the time the spending was incurred, where applicable. About Skai Skai (formerly Kenshoo) is a leading omnichannel marketing platform that uniquely connects data and media for informed decisions, high efficiencies, and optimal returns. Its partners include Google, Meta, Amazon Ads, TikTok, Snap, Walmart Connect, Instacart, Roundel, Criteo, CitrusAd, Pinterest, Microsoft, Apple Search Ads, and more. For over 15 years Skai has been trusted by an impressive roster of brands including Pepsico, Michaels, Reckitt, Daimler, LG, and Vodafone. The company is headquartered out of Tel Aviv, with seven international locations, and is backed by Sequoia Capital, Arts Alliance, Tenaya Capital, Bain Capital Ventures, Pitango, and Qumra Capital.

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Advertiser Campaign Management

LG Ad Solutions Announces Michael Hudes as New Chief Executive Officer

Business Wire | September 11, 2023

LG Ad Solutions, a global leader in connected TV (CTV) and cross-screen advertising, today announced the appointment of Michael Hudes as its new President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Hudes will also serve as a member of the company's board of directors. Hudes is a visionary leader with a distinguished career spanning multiple companies in the digital and CTV advertising ecosystem, bringing to LG Ad Solutions an unparalleled breadth and depth of industry expertise across all digital screens. Prior to joining LG Ad Solutions, Hudes was a co-founder and Chief Commercial Officer at Zenapse. He has also held prominent roles in several leading organizations including Lyft, YuMe/RhythmOne, Clear Channel, and Organic, marking a significant impact in the digital and advertising landscape during the course of his career. “Michael's rich experience and proven track record in the digital and CTV advertising sphere makes him an invaluable addition to the LG Ad Solutions leadership team,” said LG Ad Solutions Board Chairman Matthew Durgin, Vice President at LG Electronics USA. “We've witnessed the strides the company has been making under the existing executive leadership team and we expect to accelerate this momentum even further with Michael at the helm.” Hudes’s appointment comes at a crucial juncture for LG Ad Solutions as the company continues to solidify its position as a CTV industry leader. “I am both thrilled and honored to join LG Ad Solutions during such a transformative period for our industry,” said Hudes. “The opportunities ahead for LG Ad Solutions are vast, and I am deeply committed to steering the company into its next chapter of scale, innovation and industry leadership. Working alongside the talented team here, I am confident we can architect a future that defines success in the CTV and cross-screen advertising domain.” Prior to Hudes taking this CEO appointment in a permanent capacity, Adam Sexton was Acting CEO and COO. For more information on LG Ad Solutions, please visit https://lgads.tv/ About LG Ad Solutions LG Ad Solutions is a global leader in connected TV and cross-screen advertising, helping brands find hard-to-get unduplicated reach at optimal frequency across the fragmented streaming TV landscape. We bring together LG’s years of experience in delivering world-class smart TVs to consumers worldwide with big TV audience data and Video AI designed to connect brands with audiences across all screens.

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