Greg Johns

GM's decision to replace Apple CarPlay with their own Ultifi system is a bold move, but will it pay off? In-car tech is deeply personal and revolves around ease and familiarity. Forcing customers to switch may cause alienation, especially for the massive number of Apple users out there. As a loyal Apple user, I wouldn't purchase a car without CarPlay. Brand loyalty in automotive is no longer just about the car itself, but about the entire digital ecosystem of a person. GM, beware of the risks you take when tampering with customer experience and brand loyalty. #GM #Apple #CustomerExperience #BrandLoyalty #BrandStrategy

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TikTok and Pinterest have jumped into the tier 3 auto space but will dealers spend more to spread their ad budget across even more channels?

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In Nielsen's latest Gauge report, YouTube became the first streaming platform to reach over 10% of daily viewership among U.S. audiences. This milestone signals a significant shift in media consumption trends and highlights how digital platforms are redefining "TV." Why the surge? Well... it's not from folks like me NOT watching sports that's for sure, because the growth is all about sports and live content. YouTube’s viewership of sports content alone hit 35 billion hours in Q2 2024, up 45% year-over-year. This move towards live sports has put YouTube in direct competition with traditional broadcasters, offering a flexible, on-demand viewing experience that resonates with younger, mobile-first audiences. As media consumption habits evolve, leaders in charge of managing their media investment strategy need to consider where their audiences are truly spending their time. With platforms like YouTube dominating not just on mobile but now on TV screens, it’s time to rethink how we define television itself. The line between streaming and traditional TV is blurring, and platforms that leverage on-demand, diverse content will continue to capture more of the viewership pie. For brands, this means rethinking media strategies and embracing platforms that prioritize engagement over traditional formats. The question is no longer just about buying TV spots or impressions; it’s about strategically aligning with where the audiences are — and YouTube's 10% mark is a wake-up call for any media planner.

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I actually think a Hulu Live + Fubo service is really interesting for customers. But I am curious on what the price will be. Hulu + Live and Fubo are actually quite complimentary for sports fans. Hulu + Live has Turner networks like TNT, TBS and truTV that Fubo does not. Although these networks have lost the NBA, they are increasingly doubling down in niche sports that some fans care about, like college basketball and tennis. And, not to mention, they are the home to March Madness alongside CBS. Additionally, Fubo offers Hulu + Live subscribers the ability to subscribe to RSNs like MSG, YES, the Bally's networks, and more. While RSN's as an overall business model has been in the news frequently for being unsustainable, their omission from packages like Hulu + Live and YouTube TV make it hard for local fans to consider cutting the chord, at risk of missing their favorite teams games. As a Knicks fan, I would know - one of the main reasons I'm holding onto cable, is because I can't get the Knicks through YTTV. However, combining these services together lowkey becomes a local sports fans dream, as they can watch both nationally and locally televised games they care about. And, it really opens up the opportunity for Hulu + Live to go more head to head with YouTube TV. The biggest concern here is price - Hulu + Live is already $82.99 / month (the same as YouTube TV), while Fubo packages that provide their full benefit are similarly priced. If Hulu + Live is able to keep their price competitive, they themselves will be really competitive for individuals looking to cut the chord. And they also will become a bigger CTV destination for buyers to reach affluent, premium sports fans outside of traditional and obvious options.

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Gen Z is often talked about in regards to consumer insights; however, this generation is facing challenges that are very unique. In the second part of our Auto Youth/Gen Z study, we talk about what this generation is looking for in a vehicle. Financial concerns, confidence in driving ability top the list of motivations 'driving' their desires about what type of vehicles they want. #fandom

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✅🖥️ AdExchanger (6/10): “OpenPass is a publisher tool that allows users to access sites by providing their email, rather than repeatedly logging in with a password. Once users verify their email, publishers get an authenticated address they can turn into an identifier – in Scripps’ case, a UID2. OpenPass does not automatically turn a signal into a UID2, The Trade Desk said. Publishers can include that signal within whichever identity framework they choose. “Every publisher manages [identity] differently,” the rep said. But, naturally, The Trade Desk considers OpenPass as a next step to UID2. Scripps, for example, already uses UID2, so it expects OpenPass to help raise the number of UID2s it has to target and measure traffic across its streaming and web properties, which include Ion, Court TV and Bounce TV. Additional signal gives Scripps a better understanding of its audience, the publisher said, which will help it better package inventory for advertisers based on the type of viewer they want to reach. It should also help advertisers manage reach and frequency across channels. The major holding companies are (still) asking publishers for show-level data, Scripps said, which many publishers refuse to share because they’re worried advertisers will cherry-pick inventory. Scripps sees that gap as a competitive advantage. Scripps passes show-level data at the network, program and episode level, the rep said, using data obfuscation tactics to ensure the data it passes in the bid stream can’t be used to profile, reidentify or retarget viewers.” ⬇️ #streamingtv #programmatic #avod #fast

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Last year, the Association of National Advertisers Transparency report highlighted MFA (Made for Advertising) sites in the programmatic ecosystem attributed to ~25% of spend wasted from a $$ and emissions perspective. This year, the ANA reported that Advertisers are spending much less on MFA sites; this proves that when you shine a light on ways to be more efficient and save money, our industry is quick to act. For those looking to drive further efficiency and get more out of every marketing dollar—who isn't at the moment? The next thing to watch out for is problematic placements. What are problematic placements? Ad placements that load off-screen or auto-refresh in fewer than 15 seconds means wasted media $$$ and wasted emissions. There’s minimal overlap between MFA sites and Problematic Placements as per our research released in April. Read more via 🔗 in comments. P.S. Thank you to IAB Tech Lab for providing the mechanism (Global Placement ID) to enable the industry to optimise away from problematic placements. Thank you to our partners Sharethrough, Index Exchange TripleLift who are standing up solutions to help brands avoid problematic placements and finally thanks to Association of National Advertisers for driving transparency to help our industry improve. Adele Wieser Janette Higginson Amelia Ward Ayan Chakravarti Henry Shelley Jonas Jaanimagi

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✅🖥️ Variety (5/22): “Last year, the writers strike kept boldface names from appearing at the upfronts. This year, everybody turned up the star power to 11. NBCU stuffed its presentation with performances from Little Big Town, Michael Bublé and Kelly Clarkson. Amazon went overboard with a nonstop parade of A-listers, including Reese Witherspoon, Will Ferrell, Jake Gyllenhaal and tennis great Roger Federer, with none other than Alicia Keys as the opening act (and yes, she promoted her Amazon line of skin care products). Disney also hauled out the heavy hitters: Ryan Reynolds, Michelle Williams, Sterling K. Brown, Steve Martin, Martin Short and Selena Gomez, just to name a few. Opening Disney’s upfront was Emma Stone, introducing CEO Bob Iger while getting in one more plug for her Oscar-winning film “Poor Things.” The sheer number of movie mentions (NBCU took time to debut the trailer to “Wicked”) felt unusual at an event traditionally tailored to ad-supported TV. But in the streaming age, everything’s for sale — and there’s nothing brands like more than cozying their messages up to the biggest names in showbiz. Sports franchises were put on a higher pedestal than usual as networks lean on live games to deliver the audiences that advertisers covet. Sports personalities, from Tom Brady to Jason Kelce to Dawn Staley, were all over the presentations. Fox made it clear to anyone in earshot that it has the Super Bowl next year and it has Brady, a bona fide NFL legend, joining the Fox Sports team in the booth for football season this fall. Disney used a hunk of its time to tub-thumb the future of ESPN. Netflix bragged about landing two Christmas Day NFL games. WBD pledged allegiance to the NBA even as the company is kneedeep in contract negotiations with the league.” ⬇️ #upfronts #newfronts #streamingtv #ctvadvertising

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For agencies, an expansion of streamers’ footprints to international markets could translate into an opportunity to access first-to-market opportunities and test new ad formats, but will also mean increased complexity for media buyers and creative work alike. #mediaplanning #mediabuying

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✅🖥️ The Hollywood Reporter (11/12): “Freevee began its existence as IMDb TV and changed its name in April 2022 to better distinguish it from its association with the online database, also owned by Amazon. The platform’s demise comes about 10 months after Prime Video launched an ad tier (which is the default for users) in late January, having previously been an ad-free SVOD platform. Prime Video users now have to pay an additional $3 per month to go ad-free. The launch of Prime Video’s ad product, along with Freevee programs being readily available on Prime, may have made Freevee redundant. Amazon had already been exposing Freevee originals to its Prime Video subscribers, including breakout Jury Duty and Bosch: Legacy. Content also flowed the other way, with Freevee streaming more than 100 Amazon originals including A League of Their Own and The Wheel of Time.” ⬇️ #streaming #ctv #ott #fast #tvos #fast #avod #svod #cordcutting https://lnkd.in/exhzcphS

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✅🖥️ AdExchanger Interview: Vevo (12/6): “AX: Some have argued that all video – not just streaming and linear, but also social – should be thought of similarly. Do you agree? Vevo: I lean more toward yes than I ever have before. The next question, then, is what do you pay for it? What do you sell it for? Depending on where the impressions are, it’s always going to be supply and demand. I heard many cases during this year’s upfronts of advertisers that previously spent large volumes on mid-tier to long-tail cable are starting to replace those GRPs and rating points within social because the price point is very similar. And why is that? Because there’s an ocean of availability within the social platforms. But only the top 1% to 5% of that traffic is premium. AX: What’s holding brands back from investing more in social? Vevo: Transparency is an issue. The environments are so big, and brands still require, as they should, control of the content they’re adjacent to. I think you’ll start to see more YouTube Select or Google Preferred models, where platforms lean more on their best content partners to maximize price, yield and brand safety. AX: Do you anticipate social platforms will start to cooperate more on the transparency front? Vevo: It’s really hard to grow without getting smarter about how you organize your impressions and who you let help you. Look at YouTube, which generated $31 billion in ad revenue last year. Even they have publicly started to remove some of the friction points and play nicer in the sandbox, letting partners like us represent our own inventory and our content, but still giving advertisers credit toward their YouTube commitment. That’s one example that makes me want to answer your question with “yes.” “ ⬇️ #socialmedia #tv3point0 #ctv #ott #upfronts #music

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Netflix is the latest titan to recognize the value of programmatic advertising with the announcement of its strategy to distribute unsold OTT/CTV ad space across several different providers. The Trade Desk, Google DV360, Magnite are cited as the next batch of providers. Up until now, CTV media buyers had to go through Microsoft Xandr DSP or book with Netflix publisher-direct. It reminds me of the moment when Lamar Advertising Company took the same bold step to ensure their unsold space was programmatically available in top notch, third party SSP platforms like Place Exchange and others. It’s a rite of passage. Expanding the surface area of buy-side and sell-side platforms unlocks massive revenue dollars, when done right. Some of the smartest people in the world of business work at Netflix. This is proof of that. Many hands make light work! This layers on a new dimension for marketers when they say that they can now “Netflix and Chilll”. 📺😎👏🏼 #programmaticadvertising #ctv #innovation #followthemoney https://lnkd.in/gJU9ytZi

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✅🖥️ Nielsen Gauge (9/17): “On the streaming CTV side, Peacock offered broad Olympics coverage to complement linear offerings, the success of which was demonstrated by a monthly viewership increase of 39% for the streaming service overall, and nearly double the amount of viewers aged 35-49. These factors helped lift Peacock from a 1.5% share of TV in July to a new platform-best 2.1% share in August (+0.6 pts.). It also makes Peacock only the third streaming platform this year to record a 0.5 point share increase or more on a monthly basis, in addition to YouTube (Feb. and July) and Netflix (June). Olympics programming on NBC drew millions of viewers in both primetime and daytime windows. Across all of NBC’s Olympics telecasts that aired during the August interval, 32 of them totaled more than 5MM viewers, and 17 garnered more than 10MM viewers. Moreover, Olympics telecasts on NBC notched the top 19 broadcast telecasts of the month, with the primetime presentation of the Women’s Gymnastics Team Final topping the charts with 17.9MM viewers. From a total television usage perspective, August levels were even with July. However, a year-over-year comparison revealed a larger imbalance, as usage this month was up 3.5% versus August 2023. A notable year-over-year difference was also evident among broadcast program genres, with broadcast sports program viewership up 239% over August 2023, further illustrating the impact of the Games on the overall TV landscape. Like the broadcast category, cable also exhibited a peak viewing week that coincided with a major TV event.” ⬇️ #streamingtv #olympics #ctv #ott #avod #livesports https://lnkd.in/efnSWkfV

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‘Big Advertising’ needs to think small. Advertising today is a myriad of smaller things, not just a few big things, and the ad industry needs to more fully embrace this reality or continue to be disintermediated. In large part the industry employs old world approaches to meet new world challenges. And in quite a big week for Big Advertising, this is the first of a double header by me. It lays some foundations for change, and the second part will be published next week, detailing more of the implications for brands. MarketingWeek Jellyfish The Brandtech Group

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Morning Consult released their "Fastest Growing Brands of 2024" report earlier this month, which ranks the top 20 brands that have seen the biggest rise in purchase consideration over the year. Top of the list was WNBA, driven in part by the supposed "rivalry" between Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese, rookies in the league with big collegiate fanbases that they took with them. This, an increase in investment, and other factors led to record-breaking watch figures. Second on the list was Ben & Jerry's which recently ended up suing Unilever for what they say was an attempt to silence them re: their stance on Gaza (https://lnkd.in/gPnJD9SS). Ben & Jerry's is known widely for taking a stance on social issues, for example, their Pecan Resist/Change The Whirled flavours released to support the Black Lives Matter movement (a portion of proceeds went to various charities). Although "go woke, go broke" has been a clarion call for right-wing groups, especially in the US, the actual statistics show something quite different - https://lnkd.in/g74HpFce In a world where women's sports are over-scrutinised, and people like Joey Barton criticise commentators/players of women's football, it's great to see WNBA being recognised globally. And in the case of Ben & Jerry's, it goes to show that brands who have a stance on geopolitical issues (as many did re: Russia/Ukraine) will resonate with consumers.

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Another interesting viewpoint on the impact of AI on search. What makes the open web so interesting is the richness and complexity of it. But what’s the impact when Google “does the Googling for you? Tech research firm Gartner predicts traffic to the web from search engines will fall 25 percent by 2026. That’s a massive impact for indy publishers and many smaller companies who’ll find it harder to compete. It has the potential to improve the search experience for the consumer, it has become more than a bit messy over the last decade. But for smaller brands the fight to cut through will be that much harder. Quality of content and user experience will be key. https://lnkd.in/eZ7SituW

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I really enjoyed this Marketecture Pod by Harry Kargman. He said what we all know to be true: "If you even look at Trade Desk today...are they even a DSP or an ad network or a data company, or all the rest, you can't put anything in a box." But what I do know is what a black box looks like. So if you don't know where your ads are running (ie: domain level reporting with log files to back them up) or how much you are paying for them now, (beyond the platform fee, or the variable/blended margin), then I can tell you with a large degree of certainty that you are you are probably lighting 50-60% of your media dollars on fire once it actually gets to the end human, which you aren't also tracking to be true. Keep in mind, your screenshots are also made up. AI can do that for me now too. If you don't believe me, hit me up via DM and I'll tell you where you money is being wasted. https://lnkd.in/gHxmHeZ7 CC: Lizzie Black Brittany Smartt Batchelor

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✅🖥️ New York Times (6/22): “Streaming has long been hailed as a promising business, because companies like Netflix can add additional subscribers at little extra cost. The more paying subs a service has, the more the company’s costs can be spread out over a large base, lowering the cost per sub. But those want lots of options, and the costs of making enough programming can be enormous. As a result, a streaming service’s profitability depends in large part on how many paying subs are needed before those TV shows and movies become cost-effective. There was a time when industry execs hoped that number might be as low as 100MM. But now the consensus among many of the executives interviewed is that the number is at least 200, and possibly more. “If you’re going to be a full entertainment service with live sports and tent-pole blockbusters today, 200MM is a number that can give you the scale with the hope for growth over time,” Amazon (execs have) said. Bob Chapek, Disney’s CEO until 2022, also agreed that 200 was the number that meant “you’re big enough to compete.” Netflix has reached that, and then some, with about 270MM paying subs. Moreover, those pay an industry-leading average of more than $11 per month. Netflix is highly profitable, with operating margins of 28 percent. In the first quarter of 2024, Netflix reported revenue of $9.4B, and $2.3B in net income. No one else comes close. Disney and Amazon are the only other streaming services with more than 200MM subscribers.” ⬇️ #streamingtv #ctvadvertising #avod #svod #ott #fast #upfronts

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