Sources tell Digiday that Integral Ad Science has entertained suggestions of splitting from Publica, amid further speculation of take-private plans.

At the same time, there is consistent speculation that Criteo is considering a potential divestiture of its BidSwitch assets. This comes amid speculation of its own future on the public markets.  

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Welcome to the era of the ad network arms race. Over the past year, retail media and other ad networks have been pulling out all the stops to convince media buyers that they’ve evolved from performance-driven tools into full-funnel media ecosystems.

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With more than 250 ad networks — and counting — all fighting for the same ad dollars, the competition is getting stiff, and the RMN space is becoming increasingly crowded. Amid the so-called retail media gold rush, Kristi Argyilan, the global head of Uber Advertising, turns to her own RMN playbook.

Dubbed the “godmother” of retail media by AdExchanger, Argyilan has seen the ad network category from every angle — buyer, seller, publisher, and client. Argyilan’s retail media scorecard dates back to her stint as president of Target’s Roundel back in 2019, svp of retail media at Albertsons Media Collective in 2021 and global head of Uber Ads since last December.

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TV and streaming are one and the same in the eyes of today’s consumers, and, therefore, marketers. As a result, the majority of marketers are directing ad spend toward TV, with a focus on ads that drive impressions and branding.

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Advertisers aren’t feeling the direct blow of generative AI on traffic the way publishers are. But they see what’s coming. Tripadvisor, for one, is already adjusting its strategy as the foundation of search starts to shift. 

It’s not going full Dotdash Meredith – the publisher has openly braced for a future without Google traffic – but a recalibration is clearly underway. 

“Google’s AI mode in search is going to eat large chunks of search,” said Matthew Dacey, CMO at Tripadvisor. “It’s going to happen fast as they [Google] push it and more people subsequently adopt it.”

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Michael Silberman, evp of media strategy, Piano

Between AI search summaries and declining referrals from social media, publishers are feeling the pressure when it comes to site traffic.

Piano’s data backs this up: Between 2022 and 2024, benchmark data across Piano clients found that traffic growth was fairly flat — it increased by only 5%. The uncertainty in site traffic means that each unique visitor is now even more valuable.

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Faceless creators are taking over social media. Now, they’re coming for brands’ influencer marketing dollars.

Influencer and creator marketing is steadily gaining ground in ad budgets — Unilever, for example, plans to significantly boost spending on social channels in 2025. Amid this shift in priorities, advertisers are looking beyond high-profile, personality-led creators. They’re increasingly tapping into a broader ecosystem that includes faceless creators — accounts that build massive followings without a central on-camera figure. And these creators are raking it in. 

Over the past three months, AffiliateNetwork.com — a network of faceless creators across social platforms — has grown from 5,000 members to 21,000, according to numbers shared by its founder Roman Khaves, who said that top creators in the network had made an average of $30,000 to $40,000 per month in brand deals. Media buyers at Publicis and Dentsu also said that faceless creators represent an increasing share of their clients’ influencer marketing budgets, although they declined to share specific figures.

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Roblox is officially the home of the most popular video game of all time — but marketers are still unsure of the platform’s value as an advertising channel.

This is despite a recent boom in attention on the platform. On June 16, “Grow a Garden” — a Roblox experience in which users can feed and grow virtual plants and animals — surpassed 16.4 million concurrent active users, overtaking Fortnite’s 2020 Galactus event to become the most popular video game in history by peak concurrent players. Last week, the game shattered its own record, swelling to 21.6 million concurrent users.

The expansion of “Grow a Garden” has put a spotlight on the continued growth of Roblox, regardless of marketers’ demands for more transparency about the value of Roblox advertising.

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Today’s teens and twentysomethings are the future of TV audiences. So it’s always worth keeping current on what’s keeping — or has lost — their attentions.

At this year’s VidCon — the annual Comic-Con for the creator economy — more than a dozen Gen Z attendees weighed in on the video apps they are most and least likely to watch, including which two they’re addicted to, which one was described as “hell on earth” and which is only used for school or by their parents.

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Integral Ad Science, a publicly listed ad tech company with a market capitalization exceeding $1 billion, is the subject of a potential takeover by private equity, according to recent reports — but interest is wavering.

Today (June 30) marks the fourth anniversary of IAS’ initial public offering. Potential suitors sent out due diligence notifications to audit partners during the last quarter, albeit opinions are mixed as to the most likely outcome, according to Digiday sources.

KKR is out

Late last year, separate reports suggested that IAS was about to be taken private. Business Insider cited sources claiming that PE giant KKR was the firm, following an article from Bloomberg that reported it was exploring future options with Jefferies Financial Group.

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Two years after its launch, The Trade Desk’s Kokai tool has acquired a mixed reputation among the agency media buyers it was designed for.

Kokai was supposed to be the DSP titan’s next shield against the tech giants. The hope was that by making ad inventory on the web easier to invest in, brands and buyers would buy more ad inventory outside the walled gardens.

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While TikTok’s U.S. lifespan remains uncertain, the entertainment app is firmly focused on its future.

“When I met with TikTok last week, they were talking me through their product roadmap for the rest of the year,” said one Cannes Lions attendee, who asked for anonymity to speak candidly about what they discussed during their meeting with TikTok at the festival. 

A big part of that roadmap includes evolving their eight-month-old AI-campaign tool, Smart+, so marketers have more control over how it buys their ads.

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Golf is having a cultural moment — and golf creators are taking advantage by signing more brand deals than ever.

Once viewed as the territory of boomers and the rich, golf has surged in the past decade, with overall participation numbers in the sport increasing from 30 million in 2014 to 45 million in 2023, the most recent year available, according to data from the National Golf Foundation.

Golf’s moment in the sun for advertisers has paralleled the rise of the number of golf content creators. In 2024, PGA Tour videos averaged 85,000 views and 34 engagements per video on YouTube; conversely, the popular YouTube golf channel Good Good Golf averaged 545,000 views and 717 engagements per video during the same period. In April, the video for “The Duels,” a creator-focused golf event hosted by LIV Golf, accrued over a million views in under 24 hours.

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The Omnicom-Interpublic merger remains on track for completion later this year, following a qualified approval granted by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

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But it’s not a sure thing.

In melding Omnicom and IPG, the deal will create the world’s largest advertising group. In some countries, the new conglomerate will take on an enormous share of the media-buying and advertising market. In New Zealand, for example, the combined entity could gain a 55% market share overnight, according to industry advocacy group Independent Media Agencies New Zealand.

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This story was originally published on sister site, Modern Retail.

Last October, when Sam’s Club opened the doors to its first store without checkout lanes in Grapevine, Texas, chief finance officer Todd Sears was on site. He saw firsthand how the all-digital approach could push members to embrace its Scan and Go technology and give employees more time to teach shoppers how to use the technology hands-on.

“There was a couple, probably in their 70s, who couldn’t figure out how to do it; and so I approached them, and literally, the the guy handed me his wallet, his credit card, his phone,” Sears said at the Evercore Consumer and Retail Conference in New York City on June 11. “The smile he got on his face when he scanned and was able to just slide his finger and check out, it was priceless. That happens every single day in that club.”

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The latest round of U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics is expected next week (July 3), with more recent statistics indicating the upcoming numbers are unlikely to cause much positivity in the space, as the wider marketing industry goes through a period of unparalleled disruption. 

BLS numbers for May 2025 indicate the total number of jobs in the advertising, PR, and related services numbered 488,600, representing a monthly decrease of 2,100 roles compared to the previous month and (more alarmingly) a 9.9% decrease compared to 12 months beforehand.

For some, this marked drop, which represents 54,000 job losses in the last year, represents the necessary pain brought on by the disruption wrought by generative, or agentic, AI, with such optimists likely to point to BLS projects which forecast that employment in the sector will grow by 8% from 2023 to 2033, outpacing the 4% average across all occupations. Still, that’s not to say all, and to keep the champagne and rosé flowing, Cannes-style. 

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Melinda Spence, head of measurement and insights, Activision Blizzard Media

At a time when audience attention is increasingly difficult to hold, brands that incorporate gaming into their omnichannel strategies enjoy a significant advantage. A robust omnichannel approach meets consumers where they are with consistent, relevant experiences across devices, platforms and touchpoints. 

Gaming aligns naturally with this strategy because it offers a uniquely immersive, player-first environment. It integrates seamlessly into daily routines across platforms, reaches an influential audience with strong purchasing power and offers curated, brand-safe environments built for strategic partnerships.

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It seems the ad networks have finally hit their maturation curve, inking partnerships with ad tech and off-site platforms to prove their value beyond lower-funnel conversions. 

Last week, a flurry of product, measurement and partnership announcements came out of this year’s Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity from the likes of DoorDash Ads, Albertsons Media Collective and Walmart Connect. To media buyers, all signs point to a new, necessary — and more attractive — phase of growth for retail, commerce and ad networks.

“We’re seeing more convergence between commerce, media, and technology with new partnerships and capabilities designed to bring better targeting, measurement, and shoppability to every channel,” Chance Chapman, evp of innovation, growth and retail media at VML, said in an email to Digiday.

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TikTok still faces a ban in the United States. But based on the signals they’re getting from the platforms’ agency reps and their own risk calculations, media buyers and brand marketers are willing to bet it isn’t going anywhere.

In fact, despite caveats over the platform’s future, investment is rising. Rather than slow down in anticipation of a shutdown (which would have kicked in June 19, prior to President Donald Trump’s latest executive order), brand spending on TikTok increased from $542 million in April to $588 million in May, according to estimates shared with Digiday by MediaRadar.

Last month’s ad spend was 76% higher than in May 2024. Amazon, Comcast, Disney, Walmart and Intuit were the platform’s top advertisers between January and May, collectively spending $213 million — a 75% rise on the same period last year.

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The U.K.’s Competition Markets Authority is taking up publishers’ fight against Google’s search grip. 

The watchdog said on Tuesday that it wants to set more binding rules around how Google operates search in the U.K. and how publishers’ content is used, including AI Overviews.

That’s a monumental task. And let’s face it, a lot of regulatory scrutiny often lends more toward carrot than stick (with the exception of the DOJ’s ongoing Google antitrust actions, and the European Commission’s major antitrust fines to Google over the years). But the CMA is known as more of a negotiator than a hard-nosed regulator, according to industry experts who deal with them regularly. So what could this really change? 

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This week’s Media Briefing looks at how execs at BBC, The New York Times and Reuters are grappling with younger audiences turning to social platforms and news influencers for information.

• News publishing execs are working to meet audiences where they are and in the formats that they prefer, even though those social and video platforms aren’t driving traffic back to their sites.
• U.K.’s CMA wants to regulate Google search, BBC threatens legal action against Perplexity, and more

Publishers reckon with reaching audiences on platforms that don’t send back traffic

With traditional news outlets bleeding influence and search referrals drying up thanks to generative AI, publishers are focused on meeting audiences where they are: TikTok, YouTube and Instagram. But there’s a catch — those platforms rarely send readers back to publisher sites. 

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