Digiday

AI agents are becoming a new gatekeeper between brands and buyers, picking products by rules marketers don’t yet understand. Here’s what they need to know when navigating that shift. Read the full story by Seb Joseph: https://lnkd.in/ghduCTNs

That natural disaster footage you saw on YouTube last week? There’s a good chance it was fake. The shark attack video? Not real, and made just to get you to look. All social media platforms these days bristle with exponentially increasing amounts of AI slop, as low-quality content made with AI tools is known these days. YouTube technology and data platform Pixability, which specializes in optimizing investments on the massive video platform, is out to separate the slop from the good stuff, and has launched a new solution called Pixie to do just that. Pixability assesses some 8 billion YouTube videos across 40 million channels. In this piece by Michael Burgi, we speak to Jackie Swansburg Paulino, chief product officer at Pixability; Evan Britton, founder of Famous Birthdays; Hyun Lee Miller, Good Apple’s chief media officer; and Matthew Duffy, Pixability’s CMO. https://lnkd.in/ga6-pKGP

Seven months after OpenAI started selling ads in ChatGPT, marketers are still asking how they’re supposed to measure them. It has become the sticking point in almost every conversation Digiday has had about the company’s progress as an ad seller. Part of the frustration comes from a sense that OpenAI hasn’t built much beyond the basics. Marketers’ own reluctance to trust the company with their data accounts for the rest. In this piece by Krystal Scanlon and Tim Peterson, we speak to Jellyfish’s Victor B., senior paid media director; ACCURACAST’s group CEO Farhad Divecha; and Mile Marker’s vp of biddable centre of excellence Monica Shukla. https://lnkd.in/guaR43Fh

Digiday Sunday Poll ICYMI

When viral stars began taking off on social media in the early 2010s, Shira Lazar saw a gap: few outlets were making videos about figures like Michelle Pham and Jenna Marbles. She built multi-platform digital media brand What's Trending to fill it. Fifteen years later, as publishers including CNN, Bustle, and The Washington Post now embrace creator-led media, Lazar is working to scale the business and strengthen the support and protections available to creators. In this piece by Alyssa Mercante, we also speak to NowThis CEO Sharon Mussalli. https://lnkd.in/eN7Vz8ZM

Beauty brand CAKES body is betting that it’ll maintain its viral momentum by bringing some of its brand marketing in-house. The TikTok viral brand launched its own entertainment company called Cakes Media last week to “operationalize virality in a way that makes our overall business more profitable,” said Taylor Capuano, co-founder and chief creative officer at Cakes. In this piece by Kimeko McCoy, we also speak to Daryl Giannantonio, chief strategy officer at VML; and Olamma Nzeribe-Williams, social activation manager at Media by Mother. https://lnkd.in/e3256xYv

The most consistent aspect of today’s TV measurement landscape may be its inconsistency. Or more to the point, the frustration across both buy and sell side with the lack of consistency in TV’s measurement currency. Read the full story from Tim Peterson here: https://lnkd.in/eB_53mZb

AI assistants and AI search outpace traditional search engines for news consumption, 79% to 51%, according to a new survey. Partner insights from Arc XP. https://buff.ly/Oa836UE

Two of the biggest names in mobile advertising have further entrenched their rivalry in court filings this week, with AppLovin suing Unity. https://lnkd.in/gqbyqKe4

OpenAI has billion-dollar goals for its ChatGPT ads by the end of this year. But can it woo advertisers enough to make good on those goals? Listen to the latest episode of the Digiday Podcast wherever you get your podcasts 🎙️ https://lnkd.in/exqcPcbU