Category: In the News

Can the carrot of better empirical measurement, as opposed to the beat of a political drum, woo advertisers back to news content?

For much of the past decade, brands’ retreat from advertising next to news content has been framed as a means of risk mitigation in response to political polarization, as well as to other ills of the digital media sector, such as misinformation. Alternatively, as many media-buyers call it, the “I just don’t want to get fired approach.”

Inevitably, this caution leads to a “set-and-forget” mindset that leaves money on the table, often directed into the pockets of Big Tech rather than legacy media owners, contributing to the subsequent decline of the news publishing sector.

Continue reading this article on digiday.com. Sign up for Digiday newsletters to get the latest on media, marketing and the future of TV.

,Read More

As YouTube moves further upstream for TV ad dollars, it’s careful not to weaken the lower, mid-funnel mechanics that make those budgets defensible.

Google’s sales reps are now being incentivized to prioritize pitching YouTube, according to three ad execs Digiday spoke with in exchange of candor for anonymity. In those pitches, YouTube, especially its Demand Gen offering — a Google Ads campaign type focused on discovery and mid-funnel influence — is being framed less like a glossy TV buy and more like a direct rival to Meta when marketers want lower, mid-funnel performance, the execs said.

It’s a move that partly hinges on Youtube Shorts, the short-form format built to compete with TikTok and Meta’s Reels. Shorts gives YouTube the inventory and user behavior patterns that performance marketers expect, helping the platform argue it can deliver both brand-scale reach on TV screens and response-driven outcomes inside the same ecosystem — or the middle of the funnel. Paid social media expert Shamsul Chowdhury said he has heard this narrative from Google reps, adding that Google has long struggled to navigate the so-called “messy middle.” Demand Gen, he noted, was intended as the company’s solution.

Continue reading this article on digiday.com. Sign up for Digiday newsletters to get the latest on media, marketing and the future of TV.

,Read More