Drip Sequence💧

In case you missed it:

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Headline Overviews

• Billionaire Frank McCourt says he's putting together a consortium to buy TikTok Billionaire Frank McCourt plans to lead a consortium to buy TikTok's U.S. business, aiming to benefit from a new law requiring its China-based parent company to sell or face a ban. McCourt aims to restructure TikTok to prioritize user data empowerment and transparency, potentially migrating it to an open-source protocol. Despite interest from investors like former Treasury Secretary Mnuchin, ByteDance, TikTok's parent company, has stated it does not plan to sell, and the Chinese government may not approve a sale. McCourt, worth $1.4 billion, sold the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2012 and owns the French soccer club Marseille.

• Google And The Trade Desk Appeared to Block a Supply Side Platform Over User ID Mismatch Issue A report by Adalytics suggests that Colossus, a supply-side platform, provided The Trade Desk with mismatched user IDs, raising concerns about ad fraud. Google and The Trade Desk both appeared to block Colossus due to this issue, although Colossus denies any wrongdoing. The Trade Desk took action to block Colossus from its platform unless advertisers specifically requested to transact through it. Procter & Gamble is among the advertisers that continue to use Colossus despite these issues. The situation underscores challenges in digital advertising verification and raises questions about the effectiveness of current systems in preventing such discrepancies.

• TV upfront presentations clouded by digital video ad supremacy TV upfront presentations in New York are grappling with the rise of digital video advertising, which now surpasses traditional TV ads. Companies like Disney and Warner Bros Discovery are responding by combining streaming services, while Amazon and Netflix are aggressively vying for ad dollars with their own presentations. Media companies are adapting with new ad tools and partnerships with tech giants like Google, reflecting the industry's shift towards digital and streaming platforms.

• Prime Video’s ad tier entry makes immediate impact on ad-supported streaming Only 15% of US Prime Video users have opted for the ad-free streaming option, while 85% have remained on the ad-supported tier, making Prime Video the SVOD service with the highest proportion of subscribers on its ad-supported tier. This move has boosted the overall proportion of US streaming customers using subscription ad tiers by ten percentage points in just one quarter, with analysts predicting that Amazon's strategy will disrupt both AVOD players and non-top 20 linear cable networks.

• Spotify Is Ready to Compete for Video Advertising Spotify made its debut at NewFronts week to showcase its growing inventory of digital video and attract more advertising. While primarily known for music and podcasts, Spotify has seen an increase in video content, including video podcasts and music videos. Ann Piper, head of North American sales, highlighted the platform's potential as a video ad supplier, signaling Spotify's intention to compete in the video advertising space.

• Social media becomes the world’s largest advertising channel Social media has become the world's largest advertising channel, with forecasted investment expected to rise 14.3% to $247.3 billion by the end of 2024, according to Warc Media. Meta, which includes Facebook and Instagram, is projected to earn $155.6 billion in advertising revenue this year, representing a 63% share of global social spend, and is set to overtake global linear TV in advertising spend terms in 2025. The rise in social media advertising spend is attributed partly to the popularity of artificial intelligence tools and investment from Chinese exporters in the European and US markets.

Google I/O 2024

Yesterday's Google I/O event primarily focused on introducing new AI-powered tools and models, particularly Gemini and Gemma, aimed at developers. These tools aim to enhance various aspects of app development, from providing relevant suggestions to users to enabling developers to create more personalized and innovative experiences. Additionally, there was a strong emphasis on responsible AI practices and how Google is addressing potential risks while maximizing the benefits of AI for society, which we have really yet to see beyond maximizing shareholder value.

The whole event can still be viewed right here, if you don’t want to sit through 2 hours of it here are the things you need to know below:

Gemini Nano and Gemini in Android Studio: 

1. Gemini 1.5 Pro and 1.5 Flash: These are models available for developers, which could impact the functionality and capabilities of apps, potentially influencing marketing strategies.

2. Gemini Models for Learning: The introduction of LearnLM, a family of models based on Gemini fine-tuned for learning, could be relevant for educational marketers or those targeting educational content.

3. YouTube Interactive Educational Videos: The feature that uses LearnLM to make educational videos more interactive on YouTube could be of interest to marketers looking to engage audiences through educational content.

4. Responsibility in AI: Google's approach to responsible AI, including measures to prevent misuse of AI-generated content, might interest marketers concerned about brand safety and ethical considerations in advertising.

Now how does any of that relate to us as the average person in marketing and advertising?

1. Enhanced User Experience: Tools like Gemini Nano and Gemini in Android Studio aim to improve the user experience within apps by providing relevant suggestions and functionality. This can lead to increased engagement with the app, potentially driving the one thing we seek the most, ROAS.

2. Improved App Functionality: Gemini models like 1.5 Pro and 1.5 Flash can enable developers to create more sophisticated and feature-rich apps. What that simply means for us is better targeting capabilities, a smoother UI for audience retention, and more theoretically more “engaging ad placements.”

3. Educational Content: The introduction of LearnLM and interactive videos on platforms like YouTube can create opportunities for us to incorporate educational content that the audience can engage with in our content strategies. This can be particularly useful for incumbent brands looking to position themselves as thought leaders or provide value-added content to their audience, or an upstart brand positioning new information to penetrate the market SOV.

4. Brand Safety: Google's efforts in responsible AI, including measures to prevent the misuse of AI-generated content, can help ensure brand safety for advertisers. Let’s see how this will work out lol.

A New Era of Personalized Content (Black Mirror Style)

There was a mention of Gemini's capability to understand conversations and offer relevant suggestions, such as finding pickleball clubs nearby. This functionality extends across various apps on the phone, implying that Gemini can integrate with different applications to provide personalized recommendations based on user conversations. For advertisers, this means the potential to leverage Gemini's AI capabilities to deliver targeted ads or promotions based on users' interests and conversations, enhancing the effectiveness of advertising campaigns.

The presentation suggests that Gemini is designed to understand both phone and text conversations. It mentions Gemini's ability to automatically understand conversations and provide relevant suggestions, indicating that it can process both spoken and written interactions. This implies that Gemini could potentially mine data from both phone conversations and text-based interactions to generate personalized content and recommendations.

I’m probably going to stick with my iPhone.

The Bumble Fumble

Bumble recently apologized for an ad campaign that appeared to shame women for not being sexually active and mocked celibacy which is a totally good idea when many women across the United States are seeing the Supreme Court restrict their reproductive rights. The company faced backlash for delegitimizing celibacy as a valid choice and apologized, removing the ads and donating to support women. Critics noted the campaign contradicted Bumble's mission to create a welcoming dating environment for women and accused it of dismissing those who choose celibacy. The controversy adds to Bumble's challenges, including layoffs and declining share prices as young adults prefer meeting in person or through social media over dating apps.

I am banned from dating apps, so I am not going to write an editorial on this, but many of you are not banned from dating apps (good job!) so here are your thoughts:

• “I understand dating is scary these days - trust - but how many single girls of a certain age can honestly tell me that they’ve never been talking with their girlfriends and say they are becoming a nun/are going celibate. I do literally every time I swipe. I wish people could stop seeing/forcing the negative in literally everything and let themselves realize not everything is for them if they cannot or do not relate to this.”

• The whole isolation of the modern digital age is a real problem, where the male loneliness thing is a growing problem while women are faced with what seems to be increasingly shittier dating options.
  
  The nuance comes in where it’s mostly the shit bags guys that are regularly putting themselves out there in dating scene, while a growing number of males are not doing that. But that growing number of dudes in isolation is not seen. So combined together it creates a skewed perspective.
  
  Lot of dudes are probably on the same page regarding Women’s bodily rights, but they’re in their isolation boxes. I’d caveat with the question: “when the fuck is the last time Congress was in touch with what the general populace wanted or cared about?”
  Pretty sure the vast majority would agree with the statement “they don’t speak for me”.

• Bumble ad had a harsh reaction but regardless, I don’t think it was very good

• They’re out of touch but there’s been worse in the past few years. Just the match on the powder keg.

• Maybe I’m dead inside. I just lol’d at the weird ad campaign and carried on like a sociopath.

• That Bumble campaign seems like it was created by the Vice Magazine team from 2016.

• The Bumble ads sucked. They’re PR response though…*chef kiss* better.

• Cyberbullying advertisers is good actually, said a tech SEO consultant

• I don’t even understand the intended message?? Am I too European to get the reference?

• In-housing can be an echo chamber (eg Pepsi Kendall ad)

• Would’ve worked if Tinder did it, doesn’t fit the vibe of Bumble.

• You’re not going to see great creative that has no critics. The tension is part of the point.

• People are too weak for modern ads

• This is what happens when you in-house creative, you NEED outside opinions.

• Maybe algos make it hard to avoid controversy? Harder to miss stuff you feel strongly about.

• Ragebait is a very effective brand awareness strategy.

• Stop telling women what to do with their bodies.

• “You know full well” language was CRAZY and sounds so gas lighty.

• We’ve been inside too long - no one knows how to be relatable anymore lol.

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