Whenever ad dollars swell around new channels — search, social, email — the industry reaches for the same playbook: cut out the middle, get closer to the source, and stop paying for junk reach. The creator economy is no different.

Marketers aren’t just experimenting with creators anymore, they’re institutionalizing them. As that happens, conversations about them have moved upstream, from community managers to CMOs. And so has the strategy. Affinity is no longer enough.

What matters now is control, consistency and minimizing risk.

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Publishers have always had a love/hate relationship with digital transformation. It’s given them more ways than ever to reach readers and potential subscribers, while at the same time it’s brought on challenges related to site traffic and AI.

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Google’s AI ambitions are moving fast, and the old architecture of search advertising is starting to show its age. As user behavior shifts toward more conversational, visual queries, the need for automation is growing. But automation comes at a cost: marketers still want control. Google’s latest update — with AI Max — is an attempt to square the circle.

Rolling out this summer, this suite of ad tools is Google’s latest effort to thread the needle, letting automation do more without cutting marketers out of the process. Unlike Performance Max — Google’s full-throttle, AI-everywhere product — AI Max is being positioned as a more flexible tool, giving advertisers more say in where and how AI shows up in their campaigns.

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This week’s Future of TV Briefing previews next week’s CTV Advertising Strategies event that I’ll be hosting with top brand and agency executives in New York City.

• Must-CTV
• TikTok’s U.S.-only app, A+E Global Media’s for sale, Netflix’s Spotify collab, VTubers’ takeover and more

Must-CTV

The future of TV advertising will not be televised. It will be live — in New York City, next Tuesday.

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The Programmatic Marketer

To reduce auction duplication, buyers start to enforce sellers.json Read More

On the face of things, request duplication, or “bid duplication” as some might term it, is pretty self-explanatory for those familiar with the quirks of ad tech, although, as with most things in ad tech, it comes with nuance.

And so, for those eager to stay informed about how their company’s or clients’ money is being spent in the online advertising bidstream, it’s worth taking a step back to better understand the dynamics at play, especially given the rapid rate of change in ad tech. 

Since the dawn of monetizing online advertising, the sector has been regarded as synonymous with complexity, with the industry’s “Mad Men” seemingly content to let the “Math Men” do their thing.  

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This WTF guide, sponsored by Fluent, explores what exactly non-endemic commerce media is and what these ad placements look like; why non-endemic commerce media is beneficial for advertisers as well as retailers, merchants and publishers; the role of first-party data in non-endemic commerce media — and its impact on revenue; and what to look for in a commerce media partner (whether you’re an advertiser or a merchant).

In a performance-driven era where acquisition costs are climbing and the ROI from traditional channels like paid social and search is on the decline, brands are feeling the pressure to do more with less.

At the same time, e-commerce brands across retail, travel, ticketing and financial technology have what most advertisers want: an untapped goldmine of high-intent traffic and first-party data, waiting to be monetized.

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LinkedIn is stepping up its pitch to creators and advertisers with a new update launching today. For the first time, creators can plug LinkedIn performance metrics directly into the third-party tools they already use to manage and track content. 

LinkedIn’s new Member Post Analytics application programming interface (API) is now available to creators using 11 third-party tools and platforms, with more integrations planned in the coming year, according to LinkedIn director of creator products Sam Corrao Clanon. Currently, the full list of vendors that have access to the new data API includes Hootsuite, Buffer, Sprinklr, Metricool, Oktopost, Zoho, mLabs, Social Pilot, Later, Publer and Vista Social. Third-party vendors do not have to pay LinkedIn for access to the new API, with a free approval form available on LinkedIn’s website.

“What this will do on the creator side, and specifically with regard to their relationship with advertisers, is give a more complete picture of what their reach looks like across platforms, from whatever tool they use,” Clanon said.

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Member Exclusive

Media Briefing: ‘Cloudflare is locking the door’: Publishers celebrate victory against AI bot crawlers  Subscribe To Read Read More

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: publishers are eyeing an uptick in their commercial fortunes in an initiative aimed at more fairly rewarding their painstakingly-assembled (not to mention expensive) content. 

The above is a line we’ve all heard before, particularly during the prolonged (but never realized) saga of the decline of the third-party cookie, and the theoretical upside for publishers rich with first-party data.

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Now that we’ve reached halfway through 2025, retail media remains one of the industry’s biggest growth stories, pulling in more ad dollars and attention.

But what started as a rush toward retail media’s on-site ads is evolving into media buyers chasing the channel’s full-funnel strategies across programmatic, CTV and social. If the first half of 2025 was about retail media networks’ growth spurt, advertisers say the second half will be make-or-break.

Either RMNs deliver or advertisers pull back spend.

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Independent publishers say Google’s AI Overviews have left them in a no-win bind — and they’re taking the fight to EU regulators.

The Independent Publishers Alliance, which has 45 members, non-profit big-tech watchdog Foxglove Group, and U.K.-based non-profit advocacy group Movement for an Open Web, have filed a joint complaint with the European Commission and the U.K.’s Competition Markets Authority (CMA), requesting they take immediate action against Google to prevent what they describe as irreparable harm caused by Google’s AI Overviews.

Currently, publishers using Google search claim they are unable to opt out from their material being ingested for Google’s AI large language model training and/or being crawled for summaries, without losing their ability to appear in Google’s search results.

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TikTok is reportedly developing a separate version of its app for the U.S. — a contingency plan as pressure builds for ByteDance to divest. But for marketers, it raises more questions than answers.

“I’d be curious to learn more about how the user data and ad stack and process will evolve, which certainly has the potential to be the bigger disruption (as compared to usage numbers),” said Chris Mele, managing partner at marketing agency Siberia. 

To recap: the platform’s staff are currently beavering away on a new version of TikTok currently codenamed “M2”, apparently due to hit app stores Sept. 5. According to The Information, the company expects to discontinue the current app in the U.S. in March 2026, and hand it over to M2 from that point. TikTok didn’t respond to a request for comment by time of publication.

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Michelle Khare has done everything from Houdini’s deadliest trick to the Secret Service’s training academy all in the name of content on her “Challenge Accepted” YouTube channel. 

Perhaps though, the content creator’s biggest challenge will be nabbing a Primetime Emmy Award this year after earning a place on the nomination ballet. Should the win come through, it’ll prove Khare and other YouTubers offer quality programming worthy of Hollywood (and the ad dollars that flow through it). 

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As holding companies look to acquire each other to get even bigger, and private equity firms seek out independent agencies to buy and merge with others, there’s another direction some agencies have taken: the ESOP route. 

Employee Stock Ownership Plans, boiled down to their essence, are when an owner or founder sells his or her stake in an agency to the employees who all receive stock in the company, most often held in a trust. The employees are often fully vested within a few years of the transaction — and usually (but not always) cash in their value if they leave the company.

ESOPs have gained some favor in the media agency community since the pandemic, for a few reasons. For one, it’s a way of literally giving employees a stake in the health and future of their shop. It’s a way of trying to ingrain whatever culture has developed, as well as a retention and hiring tool. And for private owners, it’s a means of succession — a way of selling the agency without selling out to PE or a holdco. It can even be used as a shield against an unwanted acquisition. And it can have tax benefits too for the owner looking to cash in.

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The first half of the year brought no shortage of bluster: Amazon gunning for DSP dominance, Google locked in an antirust staring contest, publishers scrambling to offset traffic losses to generative AI, and Publicis staking up wins like its trying to corner the market. But somewhere between the sizzle and spin, fault lines are forming. Now’s a good moment as any to take stock — and make a few bold calls about what’s coming next. 

Google will start to soften its stance with third-party ad tech to appease the U.S. Government, as the Justice Department readies its regulatory scythe

The U.S. Department of Justice is pursuing a potential breakup of Google’s advertising technology business, alleging it holds an unlawful monopoly over the digital advertising supply chain, with the remedies phase of its ad tech trial due to start in September. 

Of course, this follows Justice Brinckema’s ruling in favor of the DOJ, and although Google has signalled its intention to appeal the decision, a process that would prolong the case by a matter of years, in anticipation of or response to such a remedy, Google is likely to offer several olive branches. 

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Marketers are waking up to the sea changes in consumer behavior triggered by the emergence of “zero-click” AI search. Some are moving faster than others, though.

B2B advertisers and brands that use a direct to consumer (DTC) sales model — and which often rely on organic and paid search as a means of dragging customers to the digital till — are taking preventative action now, rather than waiting for ChatGPT, Perplexity or Google’s AI Overviews to put a dent in their marketing strategy.

Consider the case of business travel company Amex GBT. To date, according to CMO Alisa Copeman, it’s relied heavily on paid search as a means of drumming up leads. Its customers — companies needing to arrange travel for staff on a regular basis — often do their research before committing, inevitably using search. “We have a buying journey that is very lengthy,” said Copeman.

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As Yahoo’s creator program matures, the company is increasingly evolving from a publisher into a creator platform in its own right.

Yahoo launched Yahoo Creators, a creator publishing platform, in March 2024. In the year and three months since, creators have taken on a more visible role on Yahoo’s homepage, with a dedicated creator vertical and creator content appearing alongside traditional publisher content on the Yahoo app and in the company’s newsletters. 

The OG internet giant is looking to secure its piece of the creator economy, and it’s brought on big-name creators such as Nick DiGiovanni to help accomplish the task. Yahoo now has 135 lifestyle-focused creators in its program. 

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For most of the last 50 years since the upfront was an integral part of marketers’ plans to advertise on TV, the buying bonanza usually wrapped up business between TV sellers and buyers before the July Fourth break. That is definitely not the case this year, for a few reasons. 

According to three heads of investment at major agency groups, the multi-billion dollar marketplace is being slowed down for three reasons: its increasing complexity, discrepancies with Nielsen’s latest ratings system, and lingering confusion over which agency is responsible for upfront negotiations with clients that have recently moved their business from one holdco to another.

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As brands step up their podcast marketing spend, podcast companies are putting on more live events to meet the growing demand.

In 2024, SiriusXM dipped its toes into live podcast events for the first time, organizing 10 live podcast events over the course of the year. So far in 2025, the company has already held 18 live podcast recordings, with plans to double or triple its overall number of live podcast events by the end of the year.

SiriusXM’s live podcasts, whose audiences can range from 40 to over 450 fans, are not ticketed events. However, they represent a growing revenue stream for the company thanks to sponsorships by advertisers such as Hershey’s and Macy’s, with SiriusXM holding the events at both the company’s in-house recording studio in its New York City headquarters and at venues such as Avalon Hollywood. So far this year, SiriusXM Media has more than doubled the number of sponsors and corresponding ad revenue for its live podcast events, according to svp of strategic solutions Karina Montgomery, who declined to give exact figures but said that “ad revenue from these events is already up 160 percent as of June 2025, compared to all of 2024.”

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This article was first published by Digiday sibling Modern Retail.

In 2025, influencer marketing is nothing new. Nevertheless, some major big-box retailers just launched creator programs in response to the evolution of how people interact with social content and creators.

Best Buy in April launched the Best Buy Creator program, which gives creators the ability to create a storefront to highlight their content and earn a commission on sales of products in their tailored collections with no commission cap. Some of the first influencers to join the program have included Linus Sebastian of YouTube channel Linus Tech Tips, Judner Aura of UrAvgConsumer, and tech and lifestyle creator Jenna Ezarik.

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Rising demand among marketers for AI search expertise is driving more agencies to create specialist units intended to help clients navigate the tech and its impact on consumer habits.

In recent months media shops like Jellyfish, Wpromote and Kepler have each launched or expanded AI search services that offer clients a means of partially gauging how applications like ChatGPT and Gemini represent and understand their brands.

Among the advertisers attempting to measure the “share of model” (as opposed to their share of market) within large language models (LLMs) is consumer healthcare firm Haleon. The company is currently testing how Meta’s Llama model represents its Advil and Emergen-C brands in user-generated search results.

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