1. TikTok is betting its ceiling is much higher than being an entertainment app. TikTok launched an ad campaign encouraging people to "Search it, learn it, do it with TikTok." TikTok is betting its ceiling is much higher than being an entertainment app. The ad shows TikTok confidently pitching itself as a Google & YouTube alternative by
delivering information to users through short-form videos. In the ad, TikTok shows how people can quickly find recipes, how-tos, and book reviews. Google has seen this trend of users preferring a more visual search experience coming. Last summer, a Google exec described how, in their studies, "almost 40% of young people, when looking for a place for lunch, don’t go to Google Maps or Search...They go to TikTok or Instagram." Can TikTok accelerate the trend?
2. CNET is suspending its use of AI to write stories, at least for now.
The tech news outlet informed staff on Friday that it would no longer publish AI-generated stories. It was a defensive move, with management insisting that they didn't do it in secret—they just did it quietly. The practice started about a year ago for financial explainer stories, but was only revealed earlier this month when online marketer
Gael Breton posted a tweet about it, citing a statement with the stories from CNET's website, according to The Byte. About 73 AI stories were published. The resulting outcry may have contributed to the decision to suspend this use of AI. Bankrate and CreditCards.com are also halting the practice. Bankrate and CNET stopped running AI stories last Wednesday, The Verge reports, sourcing Futurism.
3. It’s time to say goodbye to “people.” Meta Ads
reporting is getting rid of the term altogether and replacing it with “Account Center accounts.” The company just announced that it’s replacing the term “people” in performance metrics with “Account Center accounts.” Why the change? To make metrics clearer, allegedly. As Meta puts it: "If a person has one Facebook account and one Instagram account that are linked, they will be counted as one Account Center account." The new terminology could still affect your ad reporting,
though—so make sure you understand what Account Center accounts means and how it counts towards your metrics and reporting so you can avoid any unnecessary misunderstanding.
4. Disney is rolling out more ad targeting capabilities to Disney+, and by July, Hulu's "full suite" of ad products will be available across Disney's streaming portfolio.Disney Advertising president Rita Ferro said in an interview ahead of the company's annual
Tech & Data Showcase event for advertisers on Jan. 25 that some of Hulu's "basic stuff" like age, gender, and geo-targeting would be ported to Disney+ in April. But by July, the full suite of Hulu's ad products will become available across all of Disney's streaming properties. That includes more than 2,000 audience segments available through the Disney Select first-party data platform — which spans 235 million monthly unique visitors in the U.S. to Disney's media properties and more than 100
million U.S. household-level IDs, she added.
5. Google parent company Alphabet today confirmed that it plans to cut 12,000 jobs, reportedly the largest round of layoffs in its history. The move comes as advertisers note a gradual shift in how Google deals with its largest paying customers.According to Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, the cuts are necessary because of “the economic reality… we face today.” The decision follows similar cutbacks from
other Big Tech companies and is aimed at “sharpen[ing] our focus, reengineer[ing] our cost base, and direct[ing] our talent and capital to our highest priorities.” A Google spokesperson was unable to respond to Digiday’s request on how the cutbacks will specifically impact its advertising operations by press time. However, Pichai’s memo makes several references to how Alphabet’s investment priorities have been geared toward “pivoting the company to be AI-first” and that this has “led to
groundbreaking advances across our businesses.”
6. Microsoft Advertising is helping advertisers gain a full picture to maximize their return on investment.This week, Microsoft released a model into general availability that it calls “last-touch attribution for automated bidding” on the Microsoft Audience Network. This feature helps advertisers better understand how impressions impact a consumer's path to conversion.
"Adopting last touch attribution will ensure that our automated bidding solutions take both click-based and view-through conversions into account when making decisions," said Daniel Godoy, evangelist at Microsoft Advertising.
8. Anheuser-Busch has announced it will have three minutes of national air time in this year's Super Bowl after ending its exclusivity deal with the Big Game last year. The beer giant's decision in June to not
renew opened the door for other alcohol brands to advertise during the game, and now Anheuser-Busch is taking full advantage. "We are the biggest advertiser," said Benoit Garbe, chief marketing officer at Anheuser-Busch. "The reality is that there was no true exclusivity." As competitors were able to buy regional ads, Garbe said Anheuser-Busch spent 3.5 times more than its competitors. Fox is reportedly selling 30-second ad spots for $7 million.
9. The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) on Sunday announced the appointment of Alysia Borsa to chair of the trade organization’s board of directors.Borsa, who has served on the board since February 2020, most recently as IAB board co-chair, replaces Krishan Bhatia, president and chief business officer at NBCUniversal Media. "Alysia has made a meaningful impact on the board during her tenure," stated David Cohen, chief executive officer at IAB. "... Through her
role at Dotdash Meredith, Alysia brings a deep understanding of the publisher perspective, which is critical as our industry is being rearchitected from the ground up." John Halley, president of advertising at Paramount, who has been on the board since March 2021, will serve as the new co-chair.
10. Twitter's ban on third-party clients has been in effect since October 20th, 2022. After that date, all apps that "create or attempt to create a
substitute or similar service or product to the Twitter Applications" were banned by Twitter. The ban was buried in an update to the developer agreement on Thursday, and came a week after several popular third-party clients stopped working without any explanation from Twitter. The new clause in the developer agreement also appears to have been added since the developer rules were last updated on Oct. 20th, 2022, per an archived version of the site.