Digiday

As of January, alternative identifiers are now present in 70% of cookie-less bid transactions, up from 65% in October, according to data from ad tech firm Bidswitch. In other words, most impressions available to buyers are indexed against at least one alternative to third-party cookies. “Naturally, usage will follow availability,” said Mathieu Roche, co-founder and CEO of ID5.io. Still, there’s a “lag” between ad tech firms and publishers making impressions with alt-IDs available and buyers and advertisers actually using them, Roche said. In this piece by Sam Bradley, we also speak to Kyle Hollaway of Acxiom, Rory Latham of GroupM, Alex Block of Jellyfish, and Harry Browne of Tinuiti.

YouTube's Shows will allow creators to structure their content on their channels as though they were fully-fledged, episodic TV shows. Think of it like any major TV series on Netflix or Amazon Prime – once a user clicks through to their favorite show, they’re able to flick through its various seasons and see all the episodes for each in chronological order. Plus, whenever they’ve finished an episode, the next one plays automatically. 

The result of a €400 million ($433 million) investment in AI made across newly spun-off Havas, Converged has become a key part of the company’s go-to market approach. According to chief data and product officer Laura Kell, pitch presentations now include live demonstrations of the Converged tool. The system itself takes audience attributes and cohorts based on things like media behavior, demographics and psychographics and matches them with individuals on platforms using an AI “propensity model.” The setup avoids relying upon third-party cookies, while “[identifying] the audiences that will be most responsive,” said Kell. Clients can bolster the audience datasets created by Havas with their own first-party data, a function aided by data clean room partners LiveRamp in the U.S., and InfoSum in the U.K.

For the first few months of 2025, Target has been caught in a media frenzy due to its moves involving diversity, equity and inclusion policies and subsequent boycotting, on top of missing its revenue expectations last November. Media buyers and commerce executives say they don’t expect to put a dent in the retailer’s audience data, making it unlikely to impact its ad business — at least for now. Ask any media buyer or commerce exec to list the top retail media networks in what’s become a saturated field and they’re likely to name Target’s Roundel in the top five. Still, the retailer is playing catch-up with the biggest retail media players. At this point, there are more than 250 retail media networks across which advertisers have to divvy up their dollars, making Target’s fight for ad spend that much more contentious.

Media agencies, long reliant on The Trade Desk’s platform, have begun voicing frustrations that had previously been contained to whispers. The growing sense isn’t the trusted partner it claims to be, but rather a frenemy — one that plays nice while consolidating more control over the ad dollars agencies once commanded. A prime example: The Trade Desk publicly reports a 20% take rate, but agencies and other platform users suggest the real number is closer to 30%. 

For emerging brands, launching in big-box retail is often the ultimate distribution goal. But launching in thousands of Walmart or Target doors at once also comes with expensive operational challenges. In fact, some brands are saying no when these retailers come knocking, choosing to focus on growing more sustainably, and at their own pace, given the current economic and fundraising environment. Not only do these big launches come with additional manufacturing and marketing costs, but they can also impact a small brand’s entire supply chain. In this piece by Gabriela Barkho, we speak to Ross Goodhart of Jupiter, and Anna Reid of Nimbi Supply.

Digiday’s survey found that the top three social platforms among marketers this year are Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and TikTok (yes, I know that’s four — stay with me). Instagram is the No. 1 social platform for marketers as of Q1 2025, with 93% of marketer pros saying their companies currently use the platform, followed by its Meta sibling Facebook, at 84%. YouTube and TikTok tied for third place, with 65% of marketers saying their companies currently use each platform. It’s a slightly different picture from what social media marketing looked like six months ago, but the key word here is slightly. Story by Julia Russell Tabisz

2025 is shaping up to be a brutal year for publishers hoping programmatic ad auctions would keep the cash flowing. Things are so bleak that not one would speak on the record about their dwindling fortunes. Better to suffer in silence than to become the industry’s next cautionary tale. “There’s still quite a lot of softness in money coming from the open auction,” said the revenue lead of a publisher in North America. “Still” being the operative term. The slump that took hold last fall hasn’t just lingered — it’s deepened. What started as a downturn largely confined to ads sold through Google’s ad exchange has spread like contagion, dragging down auction prices across the board — no matter which ad tech vendor is running the sale.  Story by Seb Joseph

The media industry is experiencing a significant transformation driven by ad tech. That sentence is as relevant in the mid-2020s as it was in the mid-2010s and the prior decade, although it begs the question: Is there anything different this time around? The short answer is, “Well, some things…” But for a more thorough examination of the matter, let’s revisit what sources have been telling Digiday in recent weeks. Story by Ronan Shields 📧 This is the first edition of Digiday's new Ad Tech Briefing. Sign up here to get it right to your inbox each week: https://lnkd.in/e_AHRZjf