In the midst of the retail media network boom over the past two years, retailers including Walmart, Amazon and Target, have increasingly started trying to monetize their creator networks and affiliate programs, according to six agency retail media executives Digiday spoke with for this piece. RMN execs see those monetization efforts as a play to take in more ad revenue, especially the brand marketing dollars retailers have spent the last year vying for.

These tactics are formalizing their respective influencer programs as the demand for influencer marketing grows — even as RMNs still face challenges in incremental measurement. Notably, influencer marketing has become a vital part of the media mix with marketing spend in the U.S. influencer marketing ecosystem expected to reach $9.29 billion this year, per eMarketer.

“The impact creators and influencers are having on marketing strategies can’t be ignored, and retail media networks are well aware of the potential,” David MacDonald, evp and head of retail and commerce experience at marketing agency Razorfish, said in an emailed statement to Digiday.

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Despite all the fragmentation in the space, despite the political uncertainty, despite the inconsistent and ever-changing algorithms, social media remains an irreplaceable piece of brands’ and retailers’ marketing strategies. And within those strategies, Meta’s Facebook and Instagram platforms remain the examples of social marketing success.

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Two years after YouTube launched the YouTube Shorts revenue share program in February 2023, creators are finding that their payouts for short-form content are still dwarfed by the ad revenue they can glean from long-form videos.

Six creators who have traditionally focused on long-form content told Digiday that their RPMs (revenue earned per 1,000 views) for YouTube Shorts were consistently beneath $0.20, compared to average RPMs of between $3 and $6 for their long-form content. It’s worth noting that long-form YouTube videos can carry multiple ads, which would help to boost a video’s RPM, whereas YouTube Shorts revenue is shared among creators based on viewership.

“This month, I had an idea for a long-form video, worked on it all night, and after being live for one week, it had made more money than an entire months’ worth of shorts,” said the “Magic: The Gathering” video creator Maldhound, who asked to keep his real name private to protect his personal information. He told Digiday that his average RPM for 20-to-30-minute long-form videos was roughly $5.50, compared to an average RPM of $0.18 for Shorts.

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In January, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission finalized an updated version of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act. And for as much attention as the update may have received, it probably merits more.

“It is a big deal. And I think because there’s been so much other activity in the news, people haven’t really paid attention to it,” Debbie Reynolds, a privacy expert and founder, CEO and chief data privacy officer at Debbie Reynolds Consulting, said on the latest Digiday Podcast episode.

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Marketers have begun to turn back toward brand-building strategies in recent months. But that doesn’t mean they’re totally abandoning the ideas underpinning performance marketing.

One sign that’s the case is the rise of alt-measurement companies like System1, iSpot and EDO, each of which offers solutions that promise to help marketers track the impact of brand creative. Their testing solutions are used to optimize — and ultimately justify — the media and creative budgets put aside by advertisers for TV tentpole events like the Super Bowl.

Despite the turn back toward “market-leading creative” by brands such as Kimberly-Clark and Nike, marketing budgets across the industry have shrunk in recent years. Gartner’s 2024 CMO survey found that on average, marketing budgets represented 7.7% of overall company revenue, down from 10.5% in 2019. In short, marketers are pursuing brand-building strategies with weaker hands than they’ve had in previous years.

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Today (Feb. 25) marks the half-way point of the 75-day extension TikTok was afforded by President Trump.

While a lot’s happened over the past month, the entertainment platform still doesn’t seem any closer to knowing its fate in the U.S.

Which is why Digiday has checked in on the platform to see exactly where it’s at right now, with just 37 days left to go until the deadline.

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The marketing playbook continues to be rewritten. In an increasingly fragmented cultural landscape, that reevaluation is coming to celebrity partnerships which has marketers rethinking who they partner with and how.

Take Nike’s new partnership with Kim Kardashian, on a new women’s activewear brand called NikeSkims. The New York Times’ likened it to that of Michael Jordan and Nike, which long has been seen as the creme de la creme of brand partnerships and celebrity endorsements as it allowed Nike to not only enter a new market (basketball) but to cement its brand within culture. Could Kardashian’s shape wear brand be the next?

This is a member-exclusive article from Digiday. Continue reading it on digiday.com and subscribe to continue reading content like this.

Private equity investor’s partner says the region’s market ‘isn’t as crowded as in the US’

Fearful employees have done little to protest against the rightward shift of leaders such as Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg

Billy McFarland is back, with Fyre Festival 2. Scheduled to take place in Isla Mujeres, Mexico from May 30 to June 2, tickets just went on sale, ranging from $1,400 to a truly brazen $1.1 million — even though no artists have been confirmed, and McFarland himself isn’t sure if he can legally leave the […]

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WordPress.com owner Automattic last year acquired the multi-service messaging app Beeper for $125 million and said it would merge it with Texts.com, an earlier acquisition in the same category. Now, Beeper is releasing the first set of redesigned apps for iOS and desktop in beta after the merger. In a blog post, Beeper said that […]

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

It makes DBS one of the first major banks to offer details on how AI will affect its operations.

The SEC's 2023 lawsuit formed part of a crackdown on crypto firms which President Trump pledged to reverse.

When Nvidia originally confirmed that some of its new RTX 50-series graphics cards had a “rare” manufacturing issue that left them missing some promised render units and a slight amount of performance as a result, it only named three affected cards: the RTX 5090, RTX 5090D, and RTX 5070 Ti. But now, Nvidia has confirmed to us that RTX 5080 production was affected by the same issue as well.

“Upon further investigation, we’ve identified that an early production build of GeForce RTX 5080 GPUs were also affected by the same issue. Affected consumers can contact the board manufacturer for a replacement,” Nvidia GeForce global PR director Ben Berraondo tells The Verge.

In response to The Verge’s questions, Berraondo adds that “no other Nvidia GPUs have been affected” — we specifically asked about the upcoming RTX 5070, and he says it’s not affected either. Nor should any cards be affected that were produced more recently: “The production anomaly has been corrected,” he says. In case you’re wondering, he also told us that Nvidia was not aware of these issues before it launched these GPUs.

Here’s the company’s full amended statement:

We have identified a rare issue affecting less than 0.5% (half a percent) of GeForce RTX 5090 / 5090D, RTX 5080, and 5070 Ti GPUs which have one fewer ROP than specified. The average graphical performance impact is 4%, with no impact on AI and Compute workloads. Affected consumers can contact the board manufacturer for a replacement. The production anomaly has been corrected.

One specific Redditor was the one to discover that their RTX 5080 also demonstrated the issue; he’s since said he’s worked out a deal to hand that card to GamersNexus, which is investigating the RTX 50-series issues, for more study.

While it doesn’t seem like a lot of GPUs were affected, given how few of these GPUs have shipped so far, and Nvidia is also promising replacements, it’s the latest in a line of annoyances with Nvidia’s new cards.

It’s been a long time since Jony Ive left Apple to found his own design firm, but his work in technology will never be forgotten. Last weekend, Ive talked to the BBC’s Desert Island Discs about his experience working on big projects at Apple and remembered his relationship with Steve Jobs.

more…

In the past week, Google Messages users have noticed that RCS read receipts are not working properly.

more…

After months of preparation, Epic Games will finally take on Apple in court in a trial that could fundamentally change the makeup of the App Store. The fight dates back to August, when Epic added a direct payment mechanism to its hit battle royale game Fortnite in violation of Apple’s rules. The iPhone maker quickly removed the game from the App Store, and Epic responded shortly after with an antitrust lawsuit aiming to establish the App Store as a monopoly. The case will finally be brought to trial starting May 3rd.

The trial promises to deliver huge revelations about the inner workings of one of the biggest and most influential companies in the world, with testimony from Apple CEO Tim Cook, Craig Federighi, Phil Schiller, Epic CEO Tim Sweeney, and more. We’ve already made some fascinating discoveries from documents published ahead of the trial, and there’s sure to be a lot more news ahead.

You can follow along with everything right here.

• New App Store details from Phil Schiller testimony.
• Tim Sweeney says his Epic lawsuits are all about freeing the youth:
• Apple’s homework is due Monday no matter what, says judge
• Why Epic’s lawsuit against Apple just won’t quit
• Only 38 of 65,000 developers have applied for Apple’s outside payment links.
• The judge in Epic v. Apple thinks Apple’s being shady about buttons and links
• Epic says Fortnite is returning to EU iPads.
• Apple and Epic are going back to court.
• Apple files its response to Epic’s latest court accusations.
• Epic asks judge to enforce the Apple App Store injunction
• Apple kills Epic’s iOS game store plans over App Store criticism
• Epic preps its challenge to Apple’s ‘bad-faith’ outside payments changes
• Apple thought it dealt with Epic v. Apple — has it really?
• Apple offers Epic “extremely generous” discount on $81,560,362 legal bill.
• Apple’s App Store policies now let US developers link to outside payments
• Supreme Court rejects Epic v. Apple antitrust case
• Apple also wants the Supreme Court to rule on its antitrust case vs. Epic Games.
• Epic Games asks the Supreme Court to hear its case against Apple’s App Store rules
• Supreme Court says Apple can keep its App Store payment rules for now
• Apple can delay App Store changes to file Supreme Court plea
• Apple is going to ask the Supreme Court to hear its appeal of the ruling in Epic Games v. Apple.
• Apple’s App Store can stay closed, but developers can link to outside payments, says appeals court
• Epic largely lost to Apple, but 35 states are now backing its fight in a higher court
• Epic pushes to overturn App Store ruling in opening appeal brief
• Epic v. Apple ruling put on hold after appeals court grants a stay
• Judge orders Apple to allow external payment options for App Store by December 9th, denying stay
• Apple is appealing the Epic Games ruling it originally called a ‘resounding victory’
• Apple won’t let Fortnite back on iOS until the Epic v. Apple verdict is final
• Tim Cook tells Apple employees he’s ‘looking forward to moving forward’ after Epic ruling
• What comes next for the App Store?
• A comprehensive breakdown of the Epic v. Apple ruling
• Apple and Epic both lost today
• Judge says Apple may be ‘stretching the truth’ on Mac malware concerns
• The Apple App Store: a brief history of major policy changes
• The future of the App Store depends on the difference between a ‘button’ and an ‘external link’
• Epic will appeal the Epic v. Apple decision
• Will Fortnite return to iOS? Probably not any time soon
• Epic v. Apple judge rules Fortnite’s Peely can appear naked in court
• Eight things Apple could do to prove it actually cares about App Store users
• Elon Musk calls Apple’s App Store fees a ‘de facto global tax on the Internet’
• A courtroom artist’s view of the Epic v. Apple trial
• Apple stayed on message while Epic filled out the record
• Tim Sweeney concludes Epic v. Apple trial by repping fried chicken
• Tim Cook’s Fortnite trial testimony was unexpectedly revealing
• Tim Cook faces harsh questions about the App Store from judge in Fortnite trial
• Apple wants users to trust iOS, but it doesn’t trust iOS users
• The level of Mac malware is not acceptable, says Apple’s Craig Federighi at Epic trial
• Apple asks court to rule iOS is not an ‘essential facility’
• At the Epic trial, Phil Schiller got away clean
• Apple’s Phil Schiller gives Epic iPhone testimony
• Apple wants you to know it chose not to take a cut of $400 billion in physical goods
• Apple said Roblox developers don’t make games, and now Roblox agrees
• Epic fights Apple in court by playing Candy Crush
• Apple needs to show iOS allows competition… while justifying locking it down
• Epic v. Apple keeps coming back to the gap between ignorance and inconvenience
• Epic and Apple are now fighting over a naked banana
• Apple is using Itch.io’s ‘offensive and sexualized’ games as a cudgel against Epic
• In Epic v Apple, everybody is losing at the game of defining games
• After Xbox testimony, Apple tells Microsoft to put up or shut up
• Epic needs to tarnish Apple’s App Store halo
• Why the bad iPhone web app experience keeps coming up in Epic v. Apple
• Internal emails reveal how badly Apple wanted to keep Netflix using in-app purchases
• Epic v. Apple turns into Windows v. Xbox
• Epic says there’s an App Store payment lockout — but Apple just sees friction
• Tim Sweeney emailed Tim Cook personally to call for open app sales after WWDC in 2015
• Epic pushed Xbox chief to open free multiplayer just ahead of Apple Fortnite battle
• I watched the Epic v. Apple trial on Discord
• Walmart’s unannounced cloud gaming service detailed in confidential Epic emails
• Apple exec suggested cutting App Store commission to 20 percent as early as 2011
• Epic spent at least $11.6 million on free games and gained 5 million new users in return
• Apple antitrust trial kicks off with Tim Sweeney’s metaverse dreams
• Fortnite made more than $9 billion in revenue in its first two years
• Here are Apple’s and Epic’s full slideshows arguing why they should win at trial
• Fortnite is planning skins for LeBron James and The Rock, documents show
• The Epic Games v. Apple trial kicks off with kids screaming ‘free Fortnite’
• Why Epic is burning its own cash to cook Apple
• Epic-backed expert says Apple’s app store profit is as high as 78 percent
• Microsoft’s app store changes crank up the Apple pressure
• Next week’s Fortnite trial could upend Apple’s App Store model — even if Epic loses
• Microsoft shakes up PC gaming by reducing Windows store cut to just 12 percent
• Here’s who Apple and Epic are calling to testify in next week’s trial
• Fortnite’s cash cow is PlayStation, not iOS, court documents reveal
• Fortnite isn’t on Microsoft’s Xbox Cloud Gaming service because Epic won’t allow it
• Eddy Cue wanted to bring iMessage to Android in 2013
• Epic Games Store expands to carry Windows apps like Brave and Discord
• Three reasons why Epic Games can give away $17.5 billion worth of games for free
• Epic antitrust case versus Apple in Australia gets three-month stay
• Apple says iMessage on Android ‘will hurt us more than help us’
• Apple’s 20-year head of developer relations retires ahead of Epic App Store trial
• Apple and Epic’s top execs plan to testify live and in person this May in the Fortnite app store trial
• Epic expands app store fight even further with new legal claim against Google in Australia
• Apple lawyers are fighting for Steam sales data on hundreds of games
• Epic Games brings Apple fight to the EU with new antitrust complaint
• Apple won’t have to allow App Store alternatives on iOS after North Dakota bill fails
• Epic Games Store now offers Spotify, signaling app store ambitions beyond just games
• Apple’s biggest App Store critics are not impressed with its new fee cut for small developers
• PSA: Epic will honor V-Bucks trapped on Apple platforms
• Epic says Apple ‘has no rights to the fruits of Epic’s labor’ in latest filing
• Epic judge permanently restrains Apple from blocking Unreal Engine, but won’t force Fortnite
• Microsoft hits out at Apple with its new Windows app store policies
• Epic’s decision to bypass Apple’s App Store policies were dishonest, says US judge
• Fortnite: Save the World for Mac is shutting down because of Epic’s battle with Apple
• Apple accuses Epic of ‘starting a fire and pouring gasoline on it’ in new Fortnite filing
• Epic says ‘Sign In with Apple’ will keep working for Fortnite after all
• Epic Games accounts won’t be able to use Apple’s sign-in system as soon as September 11th
• Apple will seek damages from Epic Games for breach of App Store contract
• Read Epic’s new, full argument why a court should force Apple to reinstate Fortnite
• Why you can no longer install Fortnite on iOS
• Hope you didn’t delete Fortnite or Infinity Blade because Apple just terminated Epic’s dev account
• Fortnite on iOS already feels empty and dated
• Fortnite is splitting into two different games because of Epic and Apple’s fight
• Epic confirms Fortnite’s new season won’t be on iPhone, iPad, or Mac
• Why Epic can’t afford to lose the Unreal Engine in its legal fight with Apple
• Apple and Epic have to win over more than just a judge
• Epic judge will protect Unreal Engine — but not Fortnite
• ‘Developers are fleeing the Unreal Engine,’ Epic tells court
• Apple is holding the Unreal Engine hostage, Epic says in new motion
• Read the emails between Epic and Apple that led to Fortnite’s App Store ban
• Apple says Epic is ‘putting the entire App Store model at risk’
• Fortnite teases Marvel-themed season, but iPhone and iPad players could miss out
• Epic to host a #FreeFortnite tournament with anti-Apple prizes
• Epic used its playbook for Fortnite events against Apple and Google
• Apple fires back at Epic: ‘We won’t make an exception’
• Epic says Apple threatens ‘catastrophic’ response in two weeks if Fortnite doesn’t comply with rules
• Epic’s Fortnite standoff is putting Apple’s cash cow at risk
• Apple stumbled into a war with the gaming industry, and the future of iOS is at stake
• Epic CEO Tim Sweeney says Apple fight is about ‘basic freedoms of all consumers and developers’
• Apple has finally met its Fortnite match
• Fortnite vs Apple vs Google: a brief and very incomplete timeline
• Epic is suing Google over Fortnite’s removal from the Google Play Store
• Epic rallies Fortnite players against Apple with a warning that they’ll miss the next season
• Watch Epic’s Nineteen Eighty-Fortnite short mocking Apple right here
• Epic Games is suing Apple
• Epic will mock Apple’s most iconic ad as possible revenge for Fortnite’s App Store ban
• Apple just kicked Fortnite off the App Store
• Epic offers new direct payment in Fortnite on iOS and Android to get around app store fees
• Apple’s App Store fees are ‘highway robbery,’ says House antitrust committee chair
• Epic Games and Match Group join Spotify in protesting Apple’s App Store fees
• EU opens Apple antitrust investigations into App Store and Apple Pay practices
• Apple faces another EU antitrust complaint as App Store pressure grows
• Epic gives in to Google and releases Fortnite on the Play Store
• Why Amazon got out of the Apple App Store tax, and why other developers won’t
• Amazon Prime Video now allows in-app rentals and purchases on the iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV
• Google says it won’t grant Fortnite an exemption to the Play Store’s 30 percent cut
• Apple to be formally investigated over Spotify’s antitrust complaint, says report
• Epic’s PC game store is live now

Chinese company improves ‘yield’ of latest semiconductor, despite US efforts to prevent manufacturing advances

The U.K. government is pushing forward with plans to attract more AI companies to the region by changing copyright law. The proposed changes would allow developers to train AI models on artists’ content found online — without permission or payment — unless creators proactively “opt out.” Not everyone is marching to the same beat, though. […]

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Our first major look at Andor's return gives us plenty of intriguing details to chew on.