THE POT CALLING THE KETTLE “LEGACY”: Did you ever think you’d see one of the Big Four TV Networks calling out someone else as being too attached to its legacy business? That’s exactly what happened during an interview on Friday with Linda Yaccarino, NBCUniversal’s head of sales, as described in the attached Business Insider link. Ms. Yaccarino called out the agency Holding Companies for being slow to adopt programmatic buying from the TV Networks because they’re trying to preserve their incumbent buying structure. Yaccarino’s complaint comes from the slowness of agencies to take advantage of NBCU’s newly-released data platform and programmatic buying tools. On a certain level this seems ironic since the TV networks benefit most from old school media buying. But if you play this forward a few years it’s probably a savvy move. Because if the entire media buying universe shifts to programmatic, legacy players like NBC could get left behind if they don’t transform now. The other thing this example teaches is that you can be seen as more cutting edge just by saying the other guy isn’t keeping up with the times.
THE IMPORTANCE OF ADS.TXT: This past May the IAB launched a transparency initiative in digital media called ads.txt. The concept is a simple text file that’s included within each publisher’s digital profile, which lists the names of all the third party networks/exchanges who are authorized to sell that site’s inventory. Brands can check to make sure the 3rd party they’re buying a publisher’s impressions through appear on the list to make sure the seller is legit. In theory ads.txt should cut down on fraudulent “site spoofing” sales where an unauthorized broker claims they’re selling a premium publisher’s inventory but then burns the impressions on a dummy site and pockets the purchase price. Although ads.txt adoption by publishers initially got off to a slow start things are now picking up speed. According to the attached Digiday link, 44% of the top 10,000 publishers now have ads.txt disclosures in their profiles. I’m guessing this will get up close to 100% within the 12 months, since it’s hard to think of a valid reason not to implement ads.txt. Such an easy an effective way to clean up our industry.
GETTING INTO THE DETAILS ON RUSSIAN POLITICAL ADS: It’s official . . . Hillary Clinton is the devil! At least that’s the comparison being drawn in the Facebook ad (image below), which was purchased by Russian operatives during last year’s Presidential campaign. This example and dozens more like it were released by the House Intelligence Committee last week, as summarized in the attached Business Insider link. While the subject matter of the ads vary, the one common denominator is the goal of spreading divisiveness (one group against another) ahead of last November’s election. The ads are generally pro-Republican/Trump, but there was also a Black Panther themed ad posted by a group going by the name “Blacktivist”, so it seems like the inflaming was happening across party lines. These ads ran across many of the major Search and Social players, including FB, Google, YouTube, Twitter, etc.. These publishers have vowed to release targeting data behind specific ads which will allow us to connect the dots on who Russia was attempting to influence with specific creative messages.
Have a great Monday guys!