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Life Beyond the Cookie

Google’s latest Chrome update leaves third-party cookie phase-out as unclear as ever Read More

The fate of third-party cookies is arguably the ad tech story of the 2020s, particularly how the industry’s most popular web browser (Google Chrome) will permit third parties to track its three billion-plus users. 

However, the online behemoth’s recent policy update, particularly around the timings of its rollout of a much-anticipated user consent prompt, hints at the continuation of the status quo for much of the remainder of the decade.

Of course, an undercurrent to this has been device fingerprinting, an issue that has generally been frowned upon by the sector, given concerns over the ethics of collecting user attributes such as a device’s operating system, language setting, and (more pertinently) IP address — see video below.   

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Content creators’ side businesses are feeling the heat of the Trump tariffs.

Many creators bolster their advertising and brand partnership income by selling goods and products that are relevant to their niche or audience. These businesses often rely on foreign materials or manufacturing to stay afloat — and thus the Donald Trump administration’s tariffs, which impose an additional 10 percent duty on Chinese imports, have led to an increase in creators’ business costs.

Last month, video creator Matt Steffanina pushed back the launch of his apparel brand MadChill due to uncertainty over the future of TikTok Shop. Following the institution of Trump’s tariffs, Steffanina had to delay the launch further in order to find a new — and more expensive — manufacturer that operated entirely outside of China. 

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Brand advertisers are reviewing their organic and paid search strategies in response to web users turning away from Google.

According to an estimate from Statcounter, Google’s share of the search engine market dropped to 89% at the close of 2024, the first time it had fallen below 90% in 10 years.

Google’s market share decrease belies big changes in the way that users search for information online. Today’s consumers use a wider variety of search tools than they did in previous years, from TikTok to Perplexity to Amazon, depending on their goals. Research published by Omnicom in January suggested clients accordingly consider investing their search across a more diverse set of channels.

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Amazon plans to more transparency tools for its advertising offering, updates that come just weeks after its demand-side platform was among the high-profile firms publicly rebuked by lawmakers for ad tech’s role in monetizing child sexual abuse material (CSAM) and other problematic content.

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Brand Safety

Amazon, Google and verification vendors among ad tech cohort under fire from U.S. senators over child safety shortcomings Read More

Updates to Amazon’s DSP include new page-level reporting through its Traffic Events API. The goal is to further strengthen its brand safety controls using internal systems and third-party integrations, according to parties familiar with the updates.

An Amazon Ads spokesperson confirmed the changes to Digiday, noting the company already provides site-level (domain-level) transparency through its Inventory Report available through its DSP and through Amazon Marketing Cloud.

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Omnicom CEO John Wren and IPG’s Philippe Krakowsky haven’t exactly been shy about their stance on the proposed deal between both groups since it was unveiled last December.

So when the two met with ad consultants for two hours earlier this week (Feb. 19) in New York, the room knew this was their shot at getting some long-awaited clarity on the flurry of questions, concerns and hot takes sparked by Omnicom’s potential acquisition of IPG.

“They [Wren and Krakowsky] see us as representatives of advertisers so the meeting was very much about giving us the floor to raise the many questions and concerns they have,” said one exec, who exchanged anonymity for candor on what went down.

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This State of the Industry report, sponsored by Clinch, explores how brands and agencies are refining their approaches to ad serving and unlocking new opportunities.

While the ad server has always played a critical role in the digital marketing ecosystem, these tools have continued to evolve across delivery, tracking and reporting. In 2024 and 2025, technology is advancing in lockstep with increasing investments in dynamic creative optimization and personalization at scale — allowing brands and agencies to deliver more relevant ad experiences and maximize ROI.

In this new State of the Industry report, Digiday and Clinch polled 85 brand and agency respondents to learn more about the pivotal role of ad serving as they refine their strategies and drive business outcomes. For example, 63% of our respondents expected ad serving to generate at least 41% of their revenue in 2024. This is up from 2023 when 16% of our respondents reported that ad serving accounted for at least 41% of their revenue.

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Reformation recognizes the power of a viral moment. The sustainable, direct-to-consumer fashion brand is on the heels of another such moment after its Valentine’s Day campaign featuring comedian Pete Davidson as the brand’s “official boyfriend” made the proverbial internet rounds last week. But that doesn’t mean the brand is in the business of virality for the sake of virality.

Brands are finding it more difficult to find virality as the social landscape continues to fragment. What works on one platform could die on the vine on another. And it’s a trickier time for brands on social in general as the fate of TikTok continues to hang in the balance, and amid content moderation rollbacks and brand safety concerns.

Reformation’s Davidson campaign followed a different viral hit last spring after it hired activist Monica Lewinsky on its “You’ve Got the Power” campaign, which featured Lewinsky, encouraging voter registrations. It was an inflection point for the brand as a way to grow brand awareness among new audiences, said Lauren Cohan, chief creative officer at Reformation.

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Amazon may not be the go-to for programmatic ad buys. But with each passing quarter, that assumption is looking shakier. 

Just look at its latest earnings: $17.3 billion in ad revenue, a 17% jump from the same period last year. Driving that growth is the Amazon Demand-Side Platform (DSP), which lets advertisers tap into its rich data to buy ads both within its walled garden and beyond. 

While that premise isn’t new — it’s been pitched as a full-scale programmatic solution for years. But a steady stream of updates, partnerships and strategic moves has made it more compelling than ever. 

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As the release of “Grand Theft Auto VI” grows closer, brands’ interest in the game is increasing, even if the specifics of its marketing opportunities remain unclear.

In recent years, video games such as “Roblox” and “Fortnite” have evolved into creator platforms — and, accordingly, have welcomed brands and advertisers to play inside them. “Grand Theft Auto” has remained intentionally devoid of real-life brands since its release in 1997. But Digiday recently reported that “GTA” developer Rockstar Games is pursuing a user-generated content approach for the upcoming release of “GTA 6” later this year, which has renewed marketers’ interest in the series.

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The Creator Economy

Rockstar Games talks with top metaverse creators, with an eye on making ‘Grand Theft Auto’ the next creator platform Read More

With “GTA 6” on the horizon, brands’ inquiries about the game have steadily increased, according to five agency executives who spoke to Digiday for this article. (Rockstar Games representatives did not respond to requests for comment.)

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Publicis on Tuesday said it plans to acquire Brazil-based influencer marketing company BR Media Group, and its network of some 500,000 creators.

With another holding company acquiring an influencer marketing shop, it seems the creator mergers and acquisitions market is still hot. WPP bought influencer agencies Village Marketing in 2022 and Goat in 2023; Stagwell purchased Leaders last year and rolled the agency into Stagwell Marketing Cloud’s tech suite.

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Member Exclusive

Media Buying Briefing: Some creator shops are ripe for agency M&A as market consolidates Subscribe To Read Read More

Pending regulatory approval, the Publicis deal is expected to close in late March 2025. While financial terms were not made available, this acquisition would build on a growing influencer division for Publicis, which also acquired influencer company Influential last year.

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This week’s Media Briefing looks at a hot topic at this year’s annual podcast business summit On Air Fest: podcast subscriptions, and how to grow them as a complement (or alternative) to advertising revenue.

• Podcasters discuss testing different subscription offerings at the On Air Fest podcast business summit.
• Hearst CEO’s predictions for a challenging 2025, The New York Times approves usage of some internal AI tools, and more.

Testing different podcast subscription offerings

Podcasters are testing a variety of audio subscription offerings to grow recurring revenue as a complement (or alternative, in some cases) to advertising.

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When ad agencies first began signing up to the B Corp movement, execs hoped the climate-friendly status would appeal to new clients and draw industry recruits (as well as further environmental causes).

Agency leaders still cling to that hope, but they do so in a changed political environment.

Last week, Stagwell media agency Assembly certified its European and Asia-Pacific businesses as B Corps. Its U.S., African and Indian businesses are also going through the certification process. At the same time, global full-service agency Dept re-certified its B Corp status — expanding its climate and social commitments beyond its European base and across its global network.

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This week’s Future of TV Briefing features an interview with Roku’s vp of ad marketing and measurement Sarah Harms about the streaming ad measurement landscape.

• Q&A
• Nielsen’s January 2025 Gauge report
• YouTube’s farm league for streaming shows, ESPN’s F1 exit and more

Q&A

This year’s TV and streaming advertising upfront market is — somehow — just around the corner. I know. 

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Much has been written in the last year about how principal media has grown in use among major holding company agencies — and how little clients seem to know about the practice. Even though it’s been going on for years, the topic has grabbed headlines as it has had a significant role in profit generation for some of the leading holding companies.

One overlooked aspect — but symbolically important — is the increasing avoidance of the word “agency” in contracts being struck between those agencies and clients, according to five people who spoke to Digiday for this story.

The pursuit of principal media has ended up affecting how holding company agencies draft contracts with sizable clients, said Steve Boehler, who runs agency consultancy Mercer Island Group. Agencies that buy inventory directly from media sellers, then sell that inventory to its clients, are in effect no longer working as agents for those clients, he and many others argue.

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LinkedIn is encouraging publishers that are part of its pre-roll video advertising program to post more on the platform, and publishers are meeting that demand with little additional effort, in part by clipping videos taken at their conferences and other events.

According to Adam Banicki, Fortune’s head of video, Fortune has signed three brand deals for the Wire program, which launched last summer and lets publishers sell 3- to 15-second-long pre-roll ads on their editorial videos. Both the publisher and LinkedIn can sell that inventory.

Videos from live events in particular have been part of those deals, including one to two minute clips from Fortune’s conferences. A fourth campaign is being developed to go live later this quarter, and will include both video series and video clips from events, he said. 

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It’s been a month since President Trump signed an executive order targeting diversity, equity and inclusion policies, seemingly sending the backlash toward DEI into hyperdrive. Professionals across the board are feeling the ripple effects.

Multicultural marketing agencies braced for shrinking diversity budgets. Black-owned brands were caught in the crosshairs of retooled retailer DEI policies. Diverse publications questioned if media spend commitments will remain intact. Now, one communication professional says clients and sources that have agreed to press interviews about DEI in the past have suddenly gone quiet on the topic.

“I have never been shut down so fast by so many people. That’s never happened to me before, ever,” said a C-suite executive at an independent communications agency who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “I usually can find somebody to talk about this type of stuff and just gag orders all around.”

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Nate Carter, vice president global sales, Dun & Bradstreet

Ad spending in retail media continues to exceed expectations, representing one of the fastest-growing media opportunities on record. However, continued growth and maturation in this space aren’t a given. It will take a dedicated focus among retail media networks and their advertisers to overcome data challenges and realize the true potential of this space. 

U.S. retail media will be the fastest-growing ad channel through 2027, when it is forecasted to reach $109.4 billion. By 2027, retail media is expected to be bigger than connected TV, digital audio and traditional television advertising combined.

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The backlash to diversity, equity and inclusion seems to have reached a fever pitch after President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Jan. 22 taking aim at DE&I programs on a federal level. It’s the latest indication that “DE&I” is now seen as the word “woke,” a politicized phrase that has marketers hesitant to even acknowledge “diversity,” in everything from corporate titles and hiring practices marketing messages and social impact commitments, according to three marketing execs Digiday spoke with for this story.

The word and therein values associated with diversity seem to be a point of contention and are being stripped from the concept of equity and inclusion, forgoing the goal to better represent historically marginalized communities and leaving a “watered down and blended” version of DE&I, Liv Lewis, an executive marketing communications consultant, told Digiday.

The executive order felt like a long time coming under Trump’s second term with pressure mounting from conservative activists and right-wing voices, pushing companies like Target, Walmart, Ford Motors, John Deere, Molson Coors (and the list goes on) to back away or retool their DE&I commitments. Notably, many of these commitments were created in response to the Black Lives Matter movement of 2020 following the murder of George Floyd.

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Even with the third-party cookie still kicking, the digital ad market has become overrun with various identifiers. That can create its own kind of identity crisis without a way to connect those disparate IDs.

But there is a way. It’s called identity resolution, which may be the industry’s most plainly named jargon. As the name suggests, identity resolution is a method for reconciling different identifiers to create a coherent picture of a person’s identity. But that reconciliation process is where things start to get a bit more complex, with the introduction of identity graphs and identity spines.

In the video below, executives from EDO, Future Today, ID5, LiveRamp, Ogury, OpenX, The Weather Company and Yahoo help to break down the identity resolution process.

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Subscribe: Apple Podcasts • Spotify

The house built around diversity, equity and inclusion is coming apart brick by brick. Since last summer, brands, retailers, holding companies and, most recently the federal government, have been dismantling (or retooling) DEI initiatives, many of which were built up after the murder of George Floyd and subsequent Black Lives Matter Movement of 2020. 

The “diversity” portion of diversity, equity and inclusion has become divisive, impacting multicultural marketing agencies, Black-owned brands and diverse publications. And they’re starting to feel the ripple effects, according to Kirk McDonald, CEO of Sundial Media Group, holding company for brands like Essence magazine, Afropunk festival and Refinery29.

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