Economic uncertainty and privacy was top-of-mind for many attendees during AdWeek 2022. Google responded to pressure from regulators and consumers by reiterating their commitment to phasing out cookie-based tracking, and other platforms pitched new opportunities for growth despite the looming threat of a recession.
Here are some of the AdWeek developments we’ve been following:
Amazon streaming the NFL
Amazon scored a deal with the National Football League to stream NFL games. Most notably, the retail giant will stream an NFL game on Black Friday, an annual event that Marie Donoghue, Amazon’s vice president of Global Sports Video, expects to become “a new holiday tradition”.
"Amazon continues to expand its presence with live sports,” says Hannah Grobmyer, Global Lead of Kepler’s Amazon business. “The Black Friday announcement is particularly interesting as we think about the cultural alignment with retail shopping on the day.”
The NFL is taking a big bet on streaming as the next home for entertainment for American households and the shift towards younger and more digitally engaged fans is exciting.
Fox Corp working with Magnite
Fox Corp. also announced a new deal, this time with supply-side platform Magnite, which will allow marketers programmatic access to ad inventory from the OneFOX platform. The Magnite partnership will expand programmatic access to FOX Corp's portfolio, including Tubi.
“FOX inventory is already available via FreeWheel and Google Adx, but streamlining access to all O&O properties will help FOX compete with larger portfolio offerings,” says Kevin Cahn, Associate Director, Client Solutions.
One FOX deal IDs are already live in Demand Side Platforms (DSPs), and clearing prices are roughly in line with similar inventory. Advertisers can activate a RON deal ID or focus solely on sports or news.
Uber’s new ad units
Uber announced new ad formats that will use first-party data to target users. The “Journey Ads” will target Uber users based on their status on their Uber route. Users can be targeted while they’re waiting to be connected to a driver, when they’re waiting for the driver to arrive and while they’re en route to their destination. While first-party data is the future user-based targeting, some users have voiced concerns about privacy with thiskind of tracking from the ride-hailing app, especially when it comes to targeting individuals based on their destination.
SmartNews’ new direct ad platform
The #1 news app in Japan is launching their own direct sales ad platform to serve display ads to the ~50M users who have downloaded the app, with an average time spent of 19 minutes per day in the app per person.
“The SmartNews team prides themselves on their engaged and highly educated user base, with above average household incomes, education levels, and industry click-through rates,” says Grace Mante, Director of Kepler’s Search Center of Excellence. “This could be an interesting play for Kepler clients looking to get in front of a highly attentive audience.”
