Join us Sept. 14-16 in Miami to connect with top publishing leaders
DIGIDAY+ MEMBER EXCLUSIVES
‘Frogs in the boiling water’: The Amazon-FTC case and the myth of ad auction transparency
The regulator accused Amazon of “deceptive and unfair practices,” but the e-commerce giant’s opaque auction dynamics aren’t all that unusual in today’s digital ad market.
OpenAI's ads program matures
Media
Location data fuels mall giant Simon’s new pitch to advertisers
Simon is letting brands target shoppers in its malls in other environments and use new measurement tools based on Simon’s consumer data.
Why brands are turning to older creators for authenticity AI can’t fake
Millennial and Gen X content creators offer consistency, authenticity, and storytelling; three things brands need now more than ever.
The Telegraph’s next podcast play: video, events and paid memberships
The Telegraph is expanding its video podcast strategy into franchises spanning events and paid memberships to deepen audience relationships.
Marketing
How every major platform pays creators
Every platform monetizes creators differently, with varying requirements and audience thresholds, and a propensity for change.
Brands bring the U.S. Open to fans with tennis-themed pop-ups around New York City
Marketers are pulling out all the stops to tie their brands to the U.S. Open, including hosting public pop-ups in other parts of New York City.
Target’s new beauty selection has almost no Black-owned brands
Of the 90 brands listed as part of the new beauty assortment, Modern Retail could only identify two with Black owners or founders.
Future of TV
Future of TV Briefing: Which agency team(s) should be responsible for YouTube Shorts?
This week’s Future of TV Briefing looks at how agencies are sorting out which teams take the lead for buying YouTube Shorts ads.
Future of TV Briefing: YouTube Shorts gains ad dollars but needs to crack social budgets
This week’s Future of TV Briefing looks at advertisers’ spending on YouTube Shorts inventory as the platform raises the revenue-sharing threshold for creators.
Ad Tech Briefing: TV measurement’s competitive reset gathers pace (with more job cuts)
ComScore and VideoAmp confirm large job cuts, just days after rival Nielsen makes bold M&A move.
Media Buying
5 questions facing advertisers, publishers and creators heading into fall
In this week’s Digiday Podcast episode, hosts Kimeko McCoy and Tim Peterson recap the season’s biggest developments in the media and marketing industries and the questions they raise for the final stretch of 2026.
WTF is the Amazon ad surcharge lawsuit?
The Federal Trade Commission and 22 state attorneys generals are suing Amazon alleging the company secretly overcharged advertisers in its search ad auctions for more than seven years
OpenAI’s ChatGPT ads business hits $1 billion run rate as Europe gets self-serve access
That figure comes from multiplying current monthly ad revenue by 12, so it’s a snapshot of where things stand today rather than money already booked over a full year.
Annual research reports
Podcasts
Research
Upfronts
Future of TV Briefing: The upfront is overtaking streaming’s programmatic marketplace
This week’s Future of TV Briefing looks at how major TV and streaming ad sellers are seeing upfront deals represent a larger share of their programmatic businesses.
Why Amazon and YouTube pitched operating systems, not just TV inventory at this year’s upfront
Negotiations over identity, infrastructure, AI-driven buying take place as much as programing.
The state of agentic storefronts: How AI agents guide shoppers on frictionless, full-funnel journeys
This State of the Industry report, sponsored by Swap, explores how brands, retailers and agencies are adopting agentic commerce, including agentic storefronts, to enhance shopping experiences. Artificial intelligence is the new entry point in e-commerce, as more shoppers rely on AI-powered summaries and assistants to discover products. Beyond discovery and product recommendations, AI agents are […]
This week, I checked in on the Estée Lauder Companies’ integration with Shopify as it seeks to make its operations more nimble. Additionally, Sephora makes the move to TikTok Shop, and OPI’s parent company files to go public.
This week, I checked in on the Estée Lauder Companies’ integration with Shopify as it seeks to make its operations more nimble. Additionally, Sephora makes the move to TikTok Shop, and OPI’s parent company files to go public.
Made In, Plainspeak and Springrose are among the brands turning to Instagram DMs to collect feedback, talk with shoppers and source ideas for new products at a time in which digital marketing costs continue to skyrocket.
Made In, Plainspeak and Springrose are among the brands turning to Instagram DMs to collect feedback, talk with shoppers and source ideas for new products at a time in which digital marketing costs continue to skyrocket.