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Pepsi cut ads, raised prices, and now must reverse both; YouTube is bringing interactivity to TV content; Instagram kills “link in bio,” sidelining publishers.

Behind its edgy marketing, Liquid Death faces a familiar CPG problem: Most sales happen at the register, where media measurement goes to die.

The programmatic supply chain is “pretty flawed,” says Danny Spears, COO of publisher alliance Ozone, and value is leaking away from digital media brands. But that doesn’t mean they need to stand there and take it.

We now have plenty of evidence that AI can be an incredibly useful tool. But proof is also piling up that it erodes our creativity.

Could Epic’s rough patch mean ads in Fortnite?; TV’s shot to end the reign of direct insertion orders; and publishers learn how to game AI search summaries.

There’s MMM and MTA, but no single ad measurement works for brands with multiple points of sale. On Tuesday, Northbeam launched an incrementality tool to complete what it calls “the trifecta of digital attribution.”

A new marketing intelligence platform helps brands like nutpods address fragmentation by unifying data and inventory across the digital ecosystem.

If you want to know what privacy regulators think about online advertising, it’s not a mystery. Just listen to what they’re saying.

Last week, the SSP Kargo announced a closed beta of its AI unified buying platform, Project Kera. The independent ad agency, Wpromote, is an early tester. Plus, the agency reveals a deeper look into its overall AI strategy.

Medvi caught in AI deepfake scandal; Delta SkyMiles members get 24-hour free NYT access. Source Golf launches a YouTube network.

The effect wasn’t just limited to news content. The Reuters.com/lifestyle vertical also had some of its brand-suitable pages blocked.

I’m keenly interested by emerging grocery aisle trends, snacks especially. So, I was quick to grab an interview with Andrew Thomas, head of marketing for the meat snack brand Archer, who was being offered to speak to a case study with GumGum regarding CTV pause ads.

The industry has spent years debating third-party cookies, but AI has settled the debate. First-party data isn’t just preferred; it’s structurally necessary. And the capital is already moving.

DSPlease Brand marketers and agency buyers are skeptical of DSPs’ transparency claims. After Publicis announced last month that it’s no longer recommending The Trade Desk to its clients, other DSPs saw an opportunity to strike. Since then, other DSPs (Viant being “the most aggressive,” according to one media buyer) have been reaching out to TTD […]

We open with insights from attending a duo of privacy conferences this week, the IAPP Global Summit and IAB Public Policy & Legal Summit, including one reason regulators are paying more attention to data privacy: Their constituents consider it a “kitchen table” issue. Then, we turn to the mash-up of retail media and sports, which is opening up new opportunities across media and ad tech.

Sonia Chung, Boathouse’s new CSO, wants to help the agency (and the industry at large) take full advantage of its data.

I’m pretty sure I’ve missed the window on becoming a Crumbl fan — but I can still appreciate the “pretty pictures of cookies” on their CTV ads.

Enjoy this weekly comic strip from AdExchanger.com that highlights the digital advertising ecosystem … 

Spotify expands its ad offerings; the case on a fraudulent real estate campaign draws to a close; and browsers must provide GPC opt-outs starting next year.

Swivel and Olyzon’s new partnership brings buy-side and sell-side agents together as early examples of an agentic marketplace.

A new solution from Basis puts campaign planning into the (figurative) hands of AI agents. But it’s just a starting point.

Machines can now flag anomalies, surface trends and spin insights in seconds. Yet, even with its speed, AI still can’t decode the “why” behind the “what.”

Mediavine suffers layoffs; Amazon’s chatbot ads suffer from lack of clicks; and we all suffer the AI fruit slop.

Inside how Jones Road Beauty is trying to turn messy, conflicting measurement signals into a single testing roadmap for its media mix.

Local media companies have already seen traffic declines of 25% to 50%, and the Local Media Consortium is collaborating to fight the problem.

IAPP’s Global Summit in DC was a reminder that AI is moving fast – and judges, privacy lawyers and practitioner are racing to keep up.

The Trade Desk overhauls ID partner payments; investors downplay their software holdings; and Kalshi’s “we don’t do death markets” campaign may be backfiring.

No one in programmatic advertising needs another reminder about fragmentation. This complexity stands in sharp contrast to the original promise of the open internet. Programmatic was supposed to give marketers the freedom to reach audiences anywhere online by combining data, automation and inventory from across the web.

It’s widely reported that anywhere from 20% to 30% of programmatic video spend is lost due to supply-side misrepresentation, invalid traffic and low-quality inventory. That’s billions in wasted ad spend – not to mention billions in ad revenue siphoned away from premium publishers – further eroding high-quality video inventory.

Scripps CRO Brian Norris explains why the broadcaster is leaning into women’s and local sports – and how that shift is reshaping the media plan.