AdTech News Round-up

AppsFlyer And Unity Integrate With The Android Privacy Sandbox To Avoid Another ATT-Style Disaster

With all the drama swirling around Chrome’s now-scrapped plans to deprecate third-party cookies, it’s easy to forget that the fate of Google’s mobile advertising ID (GAID) still hangs in the balance.

But Google hasn’t shared a concrete timeline for GAID deprecation, and so mobile marketers are under pressure to get acclimated to the Android Privacy Sandbox.

On Thursday, mobile measurement platform (MMP) AppsFlyer announced its integration with the Attribution Reporting API in the Android Privacy Sandbox and released a related dashboard, available now, that surfaces insights for campaign optimization.

DirecTV Slams Disney’s “Growing Pattern of Anti-Competitive Actions” in Latest Pay-TV Blackout

On Sunday, Disney-owned channels – including ESPN, ABC, Freeform, FX and National Geographic – went dark on DirecTV, as carriage negotitations between the media giant and pay-TV distributor fell through. The blackout saw almost 11 million US homes lose access to the channels in the middle of ESPN’s US Open coverage, and before kickoff in a highly anticipated college football game.

The impasse follows weeks of discussion between the firms over payment terms for carrying the Disney channels. With no agreement in place at yesterday’s deadline, the channels went dark on DirecTV. And with the new NFL season due to begin this week, the pressure is on the satellite distributor to resolve the dispute.

But DirecTV accuses Disney of unreasonably raising its prices, while Disney claims its terms are the same for all distributors.

Google Is Fighting To Keep Ad Tech Execs Off the Stand In Its Upcoming Antitrust Trial

Google doesn’t want AppNexus founder Brian O’Kelley – you know, the godfather of programmatic – to testify during its ad tech antitrust trial starting on September 9.

It also doesn’t want Index Exchange CEO Andrew Casale, OpenX CEO John Gentry, Vox CRO Ryan Pauley or The Trade Desk’s CRO Jed Dederick on the stand. And the list goes on. In fact, Google is looking to exclude all of the ad tech industry witnesses that were deposed as the DOJ was building its case.

Late last week, Google filed a motion to toss out any testimony related to Google’s alleged anticompetitive behavior coming from government witnesses who aren’t economists or antitrust experts.

Google’s argument is that “none of these third-party competitor witnesses has the proper foundation of knowledge, expert qualifications or done the required economic analysis to opine as to whether Google is a monopolist whose conduct harmed competition.”

California Legislature Advances Bill to Make it Easier to Exercise Privacy Rights

SACRAMENTO – The California Privacy Protection Agency (CPPA) commends the California State Legislature for passing AB 3048, authored by Assemblymember Josh Lowenthal. The bill, sponsored by CPPA, requires browsers to support opt–out preference signals (OOPS), allowing users to opt out of the sale or sharing of their personal information in a single step. The bill now heads to the Governor for his consideration.

“We thank the Legislature for passing AB 3048, a landmark bill that makes it significantly easier for Californians to exercise their opt–out rights online,” said CPPA Executive Director Ashkan Soltani. “This is another example of California innovating to protect consumers and promote trust in the digital marketplace.”

California is currently one of approximately a dozen states requiring businesses to honor consumer privacy requests made through opt–out preference signals in their browser and devices. If signed, California will be the first state to require browsers and mobile operating systems to offer consumers the ability to exercise these rights.

Level Up Your Revenue With the Exploding Potential of In-Game Advertising for Publishers

Publishers are all looking to level up their revenue and audience engagement, and in-game advertising is the power-up many have been looking for. 

The gaming industry has entertained all demographic types for quite some time and is now filled with opportunities for advertisers, marketers, and publishers. Comscore’s State of Gaming 2024 report reveals that 62% of adults are now actively engaged in video gaming, with a significant portion playing across multiple platforms. 

In-game advertising is gaining traction, with 45% of gamers showing openness to rewarded ads. This shift and the notable success of video game-themed movies at the box office reflect gaming’s deepening cultural impact. Brands that recognize the potential within this space can unlock new avenues for reaching a diverse and highly engaged audience.

Over a year and a half later, Netflix still has a long road ahead to get advertisers on board

Back in the first quarter of the year, Netflix’s new ad chief, Amy Reinhard, was wrapping up her European ad industry meet and greet in London.

While there, she met with executives from GroupM to hear how they prefer to work with Netflix and, more crucially, their expectations. It was during this chat that she got a key piece of intel: GroupM’s London office serves as the gateway to its global operations. Any worldwide deal with GroupM would start right there, in the room where she was tuning into the way things got done, according to someone familiar with the meeting.

Mitigating Misrepresentation: Is There A Proper Approach To ID Bridging?

It has become clear recently that some sellers in the RTB ecosystem are engaging in abnormal practices regarding how IDs are populated in bid requests. 

These sellers are causing a cookie ID to be presented in the bid request, in the customary field (“buyeruid”), but this cookie is not present in the browser. MediaMath listed this manipulation of IDs as unacceptable in its 2018 open letter to suppliers – yet it’s still occurring in 2024 at a concerning rate.

Typically, this misrepresentation is due to the practice of “ID bridging.” Sellers sometimes present a cookie ID through probabilistic bridging they claim is from another device that someone in a household owns. They do so to increase the monetization of their cookieless inventory, because without an ID, the inventory will attract fewer bids at lower prices.