Today's Advertising Pulse
X’s ad revenue plummets to $2.3 bn, far below Twitter’s peak
X reported advertising revenue of $2.3 bn in 2023 and projects $1.7 bn for 2024 and $1.8 bn for 2025, a sharp decline from the $4.7 bn generated in Twitter’s final public year. Its share of the U.S. digital‑ad market slipped to roughly 1% in Q1 2026, down from a near‑10% peak in 2016, and former NBCUniversal sales chief Linda Yaccarino exited the CEO role in July 2025 after modest performance.
Partners in Driving Brand Growth with Kroger Precision Marketing's Barbara Connors & Brian Dowey
In this episode, Barbara Connors and Brian Dowey of Kroger Precision Marketing discuss the newly unified KPM portfolio that combines insights, media, and loyalty to break down silos and drive brand growth. They explain how genuine alignment between CPG brands and retailers hinges on understanding merchandising strategy, focusing on trips and basket size, and using data to tailor proposals to Kroger’s objectives. Brian’s experience on the merchandising side highlights the importance of speaking the retailer’s language and timing, while Barbara emphasizes leveraging the integrated portfolio to move from insight to activation. The conversation underscores that brands must shift from internal KPIs to retailer‑centric metrics to succeed in today’s competitive, data‑driven environment.
Dollar General Is Quietly Building an Ad Powerhouse | Fast Five Shorts
Dollar General has teamed with The Trade Desk and retail‑media platform Kevil to launch a unified ad network that merges on‑site, in‑store, and off‑site inventory—allowing brands to run full‑funnel campaigns across CTV, digital audio, and retail displays with a single...
Meta Opens Ad Ecosystem to Third‑Party AI Tools via New Connectors
Meta announced new Meta Ads AI connectors that let third‑party AI platforms plug into its ad campaign management system. The move shifts Meta’s ad stack from a closed, platform‑controlled model to a more open, connected workflow, raising both opportunities for...
Why Every Brand Is Now Its Own Media Company, Featuring Prince Street Pizza
Brands are turning into media companies, launching original video series to meet the relentless demand for vertical, viral content. Gap appointed a chief entertainment officer, David’s Bridal debuted “Breaking Bridal,” and New York‑based Prince Street Pizza rolled out the YouTube...
Netflix Scales Ad‑supported Tier to 250 M Users, Adds 15 Markets and AI Tools
Netflix announced that its ad‑supported tier now serves over 250 million monthly active users and will roll out to 15 additional countries in 2027. The company is pairing the expansion with AI‑powered advertising tools and a slate of new originals, live...
Zeta Global and Snowflake Launch Open Semantic Interchange Standard for AI Marketing
Zeta Global and Snowflake announced a partnership to develop an Open Semantic Interchange (OSI) standard that will serve as a universal data language for AI‑powered marketing. The initiative seeks to break down data silos, streamline governance, and accelerate the deployment...
YouTube Upfront 2026 Rolls Out Custom Sponsorships and Creator‑Led Shows, Expanding Ad Revenue
YouTube unveiled custom sponsorship options and a slate of creator‑led series at its Brandcast Upfront, with CEO Neal Mohan and top creators like Alex Cooper and Trevor Noah fronting the announcements. The moves aim to lock brands into direct partnerships...
Google Rolls Out AI‑Powered Bidding and Budgeting Across Search, Shopping, and Performance Max
Google announced AI‑powered bidding and budgeting for its Search, Shopping and Performance Max campaigns. The new features—Journey‑aware Bidding, Smart Bidding Exploration, and Demand‑led Budget Pacing—aim to automate spend decisions and boost conversion volume by up to 27%. Advertisers will see...
TikTok World 2026 Rolls Out AI-Agent Ads Platform and Premium Formats
TikTok announced the TikTok Ads Model Context Protocol (MCP) Server, an AI‑agent infrastructure that lets external AI tools create, manage and optimize campaigns without manual input. The company also launched premium ad placements, including TopReach and Branded Buzz, to boost...
TikTok Unveils Ad Updates at TikTok World Including Search Hubs, Branded Buzz, and MCP Integration with Claude and ChatGPT
TikTok announced a suite of ad‑product upgrades at its sixth TikTok World event, merging TopView and TopFeed into a unified TopReach daily reach buy and introducing Search Hubs, a brand‑controlled slot at the top of TikTok Search results. The new...
Why CTV Strategy Needs a Reset in an Agent-Driven Ecosystem
Connected TV (CTV) is poised to move from a branding‑only role to a performance engine as AI‑driven agents compress the consumer journey. The article argues that fewer clicks and impressions make traditional digital signals less reliable, while CTV still captures...
AI Ads Match Human Performance—Unless Consumers Detect AI
AI-generated ads perform roughly as well as human-created ads, unless consumers suspect they were generated by AI. Researchers from the Technical University of Munich, Columbia Business School, Harvard Business School, and elsewhere analyzed more than 16 billion ad impressions and 116...
To Sell TV, The New ‘Premium’ Is ‘Fandom’
At the 2026 TV upfronts, major networks and streaming platforms highlighted performance, AI, and especially fandom as the new premium. Executives from Disney, NBCUniversal, Netflix, Amazon, Warner Bros., and others argued that advertisers should chase passionate, highly engaged fanbases rather than...
Andy Jassy Unveils $200 B AI Push to Power Amazon’s Ad and Commerce Platforms
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy announced a $200 billion AI spending plan, including $50 billion for OpenAI and a $13 billion stake in Anthropic, to embed generative AI across Amazon Advertising and its e‑commerce ecosystem. The move aims to give advertisers hyper‑personalized targeting while...
AIEthos Debuts Next-Gen Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) Platform to Measure Brand Visibility in ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini
AIEthos has launched its AI‑Readiness platform, a Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) solution that lets brands measure and boost visibility within large language model outputs such as ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini. The platform introduces proprietary scoring, semantic patching and citation‑engine tools...
7 New Things at Cannes Lions 2026
Advertising’s premier Cannes Lions Festival returns June 22‑26 on the French Riviera, drawing 15,000 delegates from 90 countries. This year introduces seven notable changes, including stricter entry rules for submissions, a brand‑new AI award that spotlights machine‑generated creativity, and PMG...
Taboola Finds 76% of Advertisers Seeing Gains From Agentic AI, Signals Shift to Open Web
Taboola released a survey of 200 senior performance marketers showing 76% of advertisers already see gains from agentic AI tools on search and social. Four in five would increase spend on the open web if comparable automation were available, and...
TikTok Rolls Out Attribution Portfolio to Expand Beyond Last‑Click Measurement
TikTok announced on May 13, 2026 a new Attribution Portfolio inside Ads Manager that adds first‑touch and assisted‑conversion tools and links directly to Google Analytics 4. The suite targets the long‑standing gap where last‑click models understate TikTok's impact, a gap...
Seizing the World Cup 2026 in APAC: Why Context and Emotion Will Shape Advertising Strategies
The 2026 World Cup will dominate APAC media consumption, offering brands a massive, emotionally charged audience across OTT, short‑form, and connected‑TV platforms. Traditional keyword blocklists are wiping out valuable football inventory, especially as digital ad spend in the region is...
Upfronts: WBD Expands Advanced Ad Capabilities and AI Ad Tech
Warner Bros. Discovery used its upfront to unveil a suite of AI‑driven ad technologies, including Scene‑Level Moments that target individual scenes, Shoppable Pause Ads that let viewers shop without interrupting playback, and Dynamic Creative that tailors headlines in real time....
Netflix Targets $3B Ad Revenue with AI Agents and 15 New Markets
Netflix announced its 2026 advertising upfront, revealing a reach of over 250 million monthly viewers, the rollout of AI agents to manage ad purchases, and expansion of its ad‑supported tier into 15 new countries. The company set a $3 billion advertising revenue...
Richer Contextual Signals in the Bidstream Help Agencies and Publishers Alike
Seedtag is introducing richer contextual signals—intent, tone, and emotional cues—into the programmatic bidstream. This granular data allows agencies to match ads to real‑time content nuances, while giving publishers a way to monetize previously over‑blocked news inventory. By integrating these signals...
ADWEEK Commerce Advantage: Retail Media Is About To Take Even More TV Ad Spend
Retail media ad revenue has already eclipsed linear TV, and the gap is widening as retailers capture a larger slice of TV ad spend. Amazon and Walmart are leading the charge by leveraging their smart‑TV ecosystems to sell data‑rich video...
Bouygues Telecom Cuts Acquisition Costs 34% with Perion’s Outmax AI Agent
Bouygues Telecom has deployed Perion Network’s Outmax AI agent across its always‑on fiber‑to‑the‑home campaigns, achieving a 34% drop in customer acquisition costs and a 51% reduction in campaign carbon intensity. The partnership showcases how AI‑native execution can boost B2B marketing...
Advertisers Are Missing The Top World Cup Opportunities
The 2026 World Cup will be a multi‑week, streaming‑first spectacle, extending far beyond the 90‑minute live matches. Advertisers traditionally treat the tournament as a single, high‑priced spike, but fan engagement now spans pre‑match analysis, betting, and post‑match highlights across connected...
Iridio Expands Social Media Marketing Portfolio with New Platform Integrations to Boost Multichannel Performance
Iridio, the RRD‑owned social media marketing platform, has added integrations for Reddit and LinkedIn, expanding its multichannel reach. The solution leverages RRD’s proprietary Consumer Graph and Household Connect technologies to target 130 million anonymized household personas without cookies. An internal study...
Digital Audio Proves Its Full Funnel Credentials in Audion & Happydemics Study
Audion has unveiled its Audio Performance Index, the first benchmark that quantifies digital audio advertising across the full marketing funnel. Analyzing 423 brand‑lift campaigns in the UK, France, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands, the study finds audio lifts brand image...
Co-Op Expands Retail Media with Digital OOH Network
Co‑op Media Network has launched a nationwide digital out‑of‑home (DOOH) network, positioning the retailer as the UK’s fourth‑largest digital outdoor advertiser behind JCDecaux, Global and Bauer Media Outdoor. The estate comprises roughly 1,000 front‑of‑store screens in stores and 23 new...
Aceex Expands Programmatic Capabilities Through Collaboration with Media.net
Aceex announced a strategic collaboration with Media.net to enhance its programmatic advertising platform. The partnership focuses on delivering higher‑quality inventory, greater supply‑path transparency, and more efficient campaign execution. By integrating Media.net’s extensive ad network, Aceex aims to strengthen its infrastructure...
The AI Chat Ad Frontier: What LLMs Change About Brand Safety And Control
OpenAI has launched ChatGPT ads, marking the first true advertising channel inside large language models. Unlike traditional digital media, the ad environment is generated in real time, with the surrounding conversational context evolving dynamically as users interact. This shift introduces...
The AI Chat Ad Frontier: What LLMs Change About Brand Safety And Control
ChatGPT ads are emerging as a new advertising channel, shifting impressions, searches and transactions into the conversational windows of large language models (LLMs). Unlike static web or social media placements, LLM responses are generated in real time, making the surrounding...
‘We Should Own It’: Hershey’s Programmatic Chief on AI Agents and Media Mix Modeling
Hershey’s VP of Consumer Connections Vinny Rinaldi says the confectioner spent a year building a suite of AI‑driven media‑mix‑modeling agents that shrink reporting cycles from months to weeks. The new system lets Hershey prioritize relevance over reach, steering spend toward...
Marketers Put up Guardrails as AI Agents Reshape Programmatic Buying
AI agents are rapidly entering programmatic ad buying, promising autonomous campaign creation and real‑time optimization. Marketers, however, remain wary, citing hallucinations and budget‑blowout risks, and are installing guardrails to retain control. Companies like Kelly Scott Madison and Bayer have built internal gatekeepers...
Netflix Ramps up Global Ad Push with AI Tools and 250M Monthly Viewers
Netflix announced that its ad‑supported tier now reaches over 250 million monthly active viewers worldwide, signaling a major scaling of its advertising business. The company unveiled AI‑powered tools that can manage ad purchases and dynamically adapt creative assets, as well as...
Everything We Announced at YouTube Brandcast 2026
YouTube Brandcast 2026 unveiled a slate of exclusive creator‑driven shows and a suite of AI‑powered advertising tools designed to blend brand building with direct performance. New features include Custom Sponsorships that auto‑match videos to brand moments, a Masthead with a...
Check Out the Latest News From YouTube’s Brandcast 2026.
YouTube’s Brandcast 2026 unveiled a suite of AI‑enhanced advertising tools, including Custom Sponsorships that dynamically match videos to brand moments and a Masthead with a Custom Content Shelf for richer hero placements. The platform introduced Buy with Google Pay, letting CTV...
YouTube Is Courting Creators — and Sponsors — with Streaming Shows
YouTube announced a slate of exclusive, creator‑driven streaming shows at its annual advertiser event, featuring personalities like Trevor Noah and Alex Cooper. The platform is positioning itself as a bridge between creators and brands, bundling original series with AI‑powered tools that...
Amazon's AI Chips Power Programmatic Ad Growth, Targeting $50B Run Rate
Amazon says its in‑house Trainium AI chips deliver 30% better price performance and could drive a $50 billion annual run rate for its advertising cloud within two years, tightening margins and expanding programmatic capabilities for marketers.
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The traditional TV Upfront—an annual ceremony where networks sell future ad inventory—has survived streaming, cord‑cutting and programmatic, but 2026 is a pivotal test as advertisers demand both premium placement and real‑time agility. Horizon Media’s Samantha Rose argues the Upfront must...
Netflix Boasts 250 Million Global MAUs, Adding 15 New Ad-Supported Countries, ‘KPop Demon Hunters’ World Concert Tour in 2027
Netflix announced it now has 250 million global monthly active users, with 60 % of new sign‑ups opting for the ad‑supported tier. The company will add 15 additional ad‑supported countries in 2027, bringing the total to 27 markets for its $7.99 plan....
Upfronts Day Two: Dancing And Data
TelevisaUnivision used Day Two of the TV upfronts to spotlight its Hispanic‑focused strategy, emphasizing data quality and unveiling a household graph it says reaches 98% of U.S. Hispanics. The broadcaster warned that third‑party measurement often underrepresents this audience, creating a...
Taboola Data Reveals 76% Advertisers See Improved Performance From Agentic AI
Taboola’s new research shows 76% of advertisers experience performance gains from agentic AI, mainly on search and social platforms. The study finds 80% would boost open‑web ad spend if comparable AI tools existed, with 86% ready to allocate up to...
Warner Bros. Discovery’s Upfront Was All About Performance
Warner Bros. Discovery used its upfront to unveil two ad‑measurement initiatives. It joined OpenAP’s conversion‑API effort, allowing advertisers to match outcomes data with first‑party data across major TV publishers. The company also launched an Always‑On Measurement & Attribution Dashboard that...
The State of Agentic Advertising
The Digiday‑Optable State of the Industry report surveyed 180 agencies, publishers, brands and retailers on agentic advertising. While 89% of advertisers are already using or building AI agents, most publishers remain in early or fragmented stages, with 42% not prioritizing...
AI Advertising Splits Into Creation, Management, Targeting, Measurement
Components of AI-enabled advertising From my perspective, AI-enabled advertising pertains to the AI-enriched mechanisms used to generate advertising creative and to serve it to users: in other words, how ads are created, how ad campaigns are managed and optimized, how ads...
Netflix’s Nicolle Pangis on Measurement, AI, and the Future of Streaming Advertising
Netflix’s advertising chief Nicolle Pangis says the next wave of streaming ads will hinge on unified data, interoperable measurement and AI‑driven infrastructure. She argues that siloed metrics limit advertisers’ ability to assess performance across streaming and retail channels. Netflix is...
Adform Opens Full-Stack Infrastructure for Agentic Advertising
Adform has opened its entire FLOW platform—DSP, ad server, DMP and ID Fusion—to external AI tools via a new Model Context Protocol (MCP) server. The MCP gateway provides over 800 agentic capabilities, letting advertisers and agencies control campaign planning, optimisation...
Flightpath Introduces Revenue Optimizer, Giving Publishers Greater Control Over Revenue, Inventory, and Campaign Performance
Flightpath announced Revenue Optimizer, a managed traffic service for podcast and digital‑audio publishers that builds on its predictive forecasting and flight‑simulator technology. The solution is designed to increase revenue, improve campaign delivery and give operations teams greater flexibility, with an...
MrBeast Unveils AI‑Driven Creator Marketplace, Pushing Programmatic Ads to Influencers
Jimmy “MrBeast” Donaldson announced that Beast Industries is launching an AI‑powered creator marketplace that connects vetted micro‑creators with Global 1000 advertisers. The platform, built around the Vyro distribution engine and a new intelligence layer, aims to make creator inventory as...
House Republicans Unveil SECURE Data Act, Targeting Big Tech's Ad‑Tech Practices
House Republicans introduced the SECURE Data Act, a federal privacy bill that grants users rights to access, correct, delete, and transfer their data while limiting companies’ ability to sell it. The legislation could upend the data‑driven foundations of targeted advertising...