Digiday Sunday
Digiday: A relatively busy week despite the last of the summer doldrums slowing our reporting down before the September rush back after the approaching Labor Day weekend. Coverage of Google post its antitrust ruling continues to perform well and a piece of possible breakup scenarios for the search giant was our most-read story of the week. A piece looking at the key signs that social platform Reddit is poised to launch a search-ads offering also clicked nicely with readers as did a piece looking how Perplexity is out in the market with new vision for AI search as that sector heats up. A sports marketing piece looking at how Manchester United’s first-ever back-of-shirt sponsor points to the possible future of sports jersey placements landed firmly on the pitch with readers and an analysis of the ‘demure’ trend and what it means for marketers’ relationship with diverse creators and viral content was right on time for that buzzy moment. - James Cooper
Story highlights
Ronan Shields (with some nice help from Digiday + research) pulled together a sharp analysis piece that looked at the breakup possibilities for Google post a federal ruling earlier this month that it monopolized the search engine market through illegal commercial deals – and in light of the pending case (starting Sept.9) against Google that claims it essentially cornered the programmatic ad market. As he reported, ‘Ahead of the Sept. 9 trial kick-off, Digiday probed its audience to gauge the opinions of professionals who interact with Google on a near-daily basis, i.e., agency staffers, brand marketers, retailers, publishers, and other tech professionals. Among 48 respondents, a third (33%) believe that Chrome will replace Google Ads Manager should the DOJ pursue an additional divestiture of Google ad stack in the upcoming case, with 31% forecasting a loss in publisher revenues. Meanwhile, 35% predicted that independent rivals would participate in “an ad tech scramble” in the wake of any theoretical divestiture.
Krystal Scanlon reported out a nice breakdown of the five key signals that Reddit is on the verge of launching its own dedicated search ad business. One of the five ways, as she reported, to ‘dive deep (and fast) into the world of search, then to hire someone directly from the number one search engine in the world? Reddit recently announced that it had hired Jyoti Vaidee as its vp of ad product. In Vaidee’s 11 years at Google, her responsibilities included overseeing product listing ads and dynamic shopping ads.’
Marty Swant had a quick turnaround piece that took a peek at a Perplexity’s pitch deck that is offering advertisers a new vision for AI search – increasingly a busy sector in play. As he reported, ‘According to a copy of the pitch deck obtained by Digiday, the plan is to integrate ads within users’ queries and answers — potentially as soon as the fourth quarter of 2024. One page in the deck says buying ads with Perplexity can help brands “reach, educate and spark curiosity of potential customers at high-leverage moments.” The company is also pitching an educated, affluent and engaged user base. Although the pitch deck didn’t talk about pricing, a source within Perplexity confirmed the goal is to target CPMs “north of $50.”
Sam Bradley had an interesting take on how Manchester United’s first-ever back-of-shirt sponsor can shape the future of sports jersey brand marketing placements. As he reported, ‘Manchester United started this season with its first ever back-of-shirt sponsor, U.S. tech brand Snapdragon, which will also take over the club’s front-of-shirt spot from SaaS firm TeamViewer. The brand, which is owned by tech firm Qualcomm, will occupy a new, central sponsorship spot located just below the player’s number on the back of their jersey.’
Kimeko McCoy had a speedy and smart take for our readers on the ‘demure’ trend that bubbled up on TikTok last week and what it signals for brand marketers’ work with diverse creators and viral moments. As she wryly reported. ‘See how brands like Netflix, Zillow, and Lyft are hiring viral TikTok creator Jools Lebron for marketing campaigns? Very demure. Very mindful. Creators from historically marginalized communities have been pushing to be credited for viral trends for years; it seems brands are finally starting to respond to the call. Those brands, among others, have spent the last week scrambling to hire Lebron, a TikToker with 1.9 million followers who started the “Very demure. Very mindful” trend in early August. Lebron is transgender and uses she/her pronouns.
Kayleigh Barber ’s edition of the Digiday podcast featured an interview with Future plc’s CEO Jon Steinberg, during which they discussed his take on AI content on licensing deals. As she wrote in the intro to the chat, ‘When asked which has been the bigger concern to him, [Steinberg said] “The cookie thing keeps me up at night more than the AI thing. The AI thing used to keep me up more at night, but [now] … I have more optimism.’ – give a listen here
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Here are the Digiday + Briefings for the week
See you next Sunday!