Today in Digital Marketing - The ‘Bad’ Digital Ad Takeover

Starting point is 00:00:00 It's Monday, February 13th. Today, what's driving scammy digital ads? Another round of layoffs for a marketing software maker, a sneak peek at how ads will appear on the new Bing interface powered by ChatGPT, Netflix is giving advertisers their money back, and Elon Musk has reached the bargaining stage of grief. I'm Steph Gunn filling in for Todd Maffin. That's ahead today in digital marketing. It's the season for new styles and you love to shop for jackets and boots. So when you do, always make sure you get cash back from Rakuten. And it's not just clothing and shoes. You can get cash back from over 750 stores on electronics, holiday travel, home decor, and more. It's super easy. And before you buy anything, always go to Rakuten first. Join free at rakuten.ca. Start shopping and get

Starting point is 00:00:53 your cash back sent to you by check or PayPal. Get the Rakuten app or join at rakuten.ca. R-A-K-U-T-E-N.ca. Do you have business insurance? If not, how would you pay to recover from a cyber attack, fire damage, theft, or a lawsuit? No business or profession is risk-free. Without insurance, your assets are at risk from major financial losses, data breaches, and natural disasters. Get customized coverage today starting at $19 per month at zensurance.com. Be protected. Be Zen. Scammy and poor quality ads are not only annoying for consumers,

Starting point is 00:01:34 but also risk running alongside your brand's campaigns. Most advancements in digital advertising technology were designed to improve the user experience. People interested in shoes, for instance, are intended to be shown ads for sneakers, not male enhancement drugs. One of the purposes of ad tech is to filter out misleading or dangerous pitches. Lately, however, the opposite seems to be happening. A recent piece from the New York Times looks at why you are seeing so many bad digital ads now, particularly on social platforms. One reason for this is the slowdown in the overall digital ad market. As big advertisers have pulled back on spend, several platforms have lowered their ad pricing, creating opportunities for smaller advertisers. According to advertising experts,

Starting point is 00:02:17 other potential causes for the increase in crummy ads include internal turmoil at tech companies, weak content moderation, higher tier advertisers are exploring alternatives, and privacy changes by Apple and other tech companies. Then there's the economy. A recent survey of more than 40 multinational companies found that almost a third plan to shrink their budgets this year. Despite growing overall, digital ad spend has quickly decelerated, according to Insider Intelligence's analysis last month. As the piece points out, Twitter seems to be faring the worst. Since the takeover, the company has struggled to retain

Starting point is 00:02:56 top-tier advertisers due to fear of hate speech and misinformation. According to research firm Sensor Tower, its 10 biggest advertisers spent 55% less under Musk last year, with the majority of them spending nothing so far this year. As a result, media buyers said that Twitter has offered buy-one-get-one free deals, discounts, and bonus incentives to lure back advertisers. Nevertheless, advertising troubles have hit the biggest publicly traded social networks as well, including Snapchat, YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram. Consequently, experts noted that the pressure from shareholders, driven by years of big profits, has pushed these companies to generate revenue wherever possible,

Starting point is 00:03:39 including selling low-quality ads. Marketing software maker Twilio said it will lay off about a fifth of its staff, according to an internal email sent to employees today. Business Insider reports that employees anticipated changes after the company's CEO scheduled a meeting with other top executives an hour before the Super Bowl started yesterday. The email also said that the company is restructuring to create new business divisions, including Twilio Data and Applications and Twilio Communications. Both will include sales, research and development,

Starting point is 00:04:16 and operational resources. This is unfortunately the second round of major layoffs for the tech company in five months. We are starting to see how Microsoft ads will make their way into the new Bing interface powered by ChatGPT. Search Engine Land recently spotted an ad within its new search results. When they searched how to cope with depression, the screenshot shows that when you hover your mouse over the AI citation, it displays the sites it retrieved the answer from. But above those links, it also shows an ad for treating major depression. Meanwhile, when they asked about vacation planning and asked Bing, what's a good three-day itinerary for NYC in March, the AI did provide a full itinerary. However, Search Engine Land reported that a much better experience would have been if it had provided direct links to purchase tickets to its recommended activities. All in all, the report suggests there's still a long way to go.

Starting point is 00:05:21 Do you have business insurance? If not, how would you pay to recover from a cyber attack, fire damage, theft, or a lawsuit? No business or profession is risk-free. Without insurance, your assets are at risk from major financial losses, data breaches, and natural disasters. Get customized coverage today, starting at $19 per month at zensurance.com.

Starting point is 00:05:43 Be protected. Be Zen. It's the season for new styles, and you love to shop for jackets and boots. So when you do, always make sure you get cash back from Rakuten. And it's not just clothing and shoes. You can get cash back from over 750 stores on electronics, holiday travel, home decor, and more.

Starting point is 00:06:03 It's super easy. And before you buy anything, always go to Rakuten first. Join free at rakuten.ca. Start shopping and get your cash back sent to you by check or PayPal. Get the Rakuten app or join at rakuten.ca. R-A-K-U-T-E-N.C-A. Netflix overpromised.com subscriptions and an absence of an established product are all blamed for the underwhelming performance, according to The Drum. However, it's not just Australia where the ad subscription model has failed to live up to expectations. Last year, reports suggested that the offering was off to a slow start due to a lack of inventory and subscribers. That said, some media analysts

Starting point is 00:07:01 say the service is showing signs of rebounding and forecasts for the next few months are improving. A joint venture between four large European carriers to build a cross-net platform that they claim will use affirmative consent to target subscribers with personalized ads across participating brands and publisher sites. The commission concluded that the transaction would raise no competition concerns. However, the press release stresses that approval does not guarantee the project will pass European data protection regulations. Following the Commission's green light, the companies announced they would form a joint venture for the implementation of a privacy-by-design digital marketing technology platform

Starting point is 00:07:54 in Europe that could benefit consumers, advertisers, and publishers alike, each taking a 25% stake. Finally, Elon Musk seems to have a new strategy to increase the engagement of ads on Twitter, asking for likes. Musk recently commented on a Hyundai ad featuring Kevin Bacon in what appears to be a desperate attempt to boost interaction. He tweeted, Press the heart. The ad only has about 3,000 likes. Interesting to

Starting point is 00:08:27 note, manipulating ad engagement is technically against Twitter's terms and conditions. Do you remember your very first boss? Would you say hi to them if you ever saw them out in public? So I had kind of an awkward encounter over the weekend. My husband and I were sitting and having lunch. It was a takeout spot and it was really busy. So a couple came up to us and asked if they could sit beside us at our table. We obliged and I looked up and it was my very first boss from Build-A-Bear. The last time I saw her, I think I was probably like 16 years old. I did say hi and then we ended up having lunch together. Thankfully, it didn't end with her giving me a sales and smiles evaluation like it did back in my Building Bear days. Thanks for listening. I'm Steph Gunn. Todd will be back tomorrow.

Today in Digital Marketing - The ‘Bad’ Digital Ad Takeover

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