DIGIDAY+ MEMBER EXCLUSIVES
‘The processes are continuing forward’: Advertising’s dealmakers press on with M&A despite Iran uncertainty
War in the Middle East is a problem for advertising’s dealmakers. Just not yet.
Media
YouTube is building infrastructure for the full creator-brand partnership life cycle
YouTube’s Gemini-powered Creator Partnerships promises to alleviate pain points in the influencer marketing pipeline.
Joint signings highlight growing convergence between creator and Hollywood agencies
What a spate of joint signings between Reign Maker Group and Paradigm Talent Agency tells us about diversifying talent and owning media in the creator economy.
News/Media Alliance signs AI licensing deal to unlock recurring RAG revenue for small and mid-sized publishers
The News/Media Alliance has signed an AI licensing deal that lets its 2,200 publisher members opt in to monetizing RAG-driven enterprise demand.
Marketing
Marketers shift growing shares of search spending to GEO
Generative AI is pushing brands to shift SEO budgets toward visibility in AI-generated answers over clicks.
TikTok courts CMOs with first-ever Collective, as it targets bigger budgets
In its first CMO-focused event in the U.K. TikTok showcased how easy it is for brands to create content. The event is only part of the platform’s sharper 2026 commercial strategy: targeting larger, long-term ad budgets, courting independent agencies, and positioning itself as a serious competitor to Meta in 2026.
Amid competition for sponsors, top sports clubs are investing in social media operations
Sponsors used to want hospitality access and pitch-side banners. Now they want access to a club’s social following.
Future of TV
Future of TV Briefing: How Netflix is shaking up the upfront deal model
This week’s Future of TV Briefing looks at Netflix’s single- and multi-year deals with advertisers that extend beyond the scope of traditional upfront commitments.
Future of TV Briefing: OpenX adds attention targeting for CTV ads backed by TVision
This week’s Future of TV Briefing looks at a new ad targeting option for CTV advertisers wary of people staring at their phones while an ad airs.
Long-form creators eye taking over TVs – and chasing bigger brand budgets
Long-form episodic creator content is drawing in large numbers of highly engaged viewers, but ad budges are lagging behind. We explore why.
Media Buying
Ad Tech Briefing: IAB Tech Lab accelerates push to make agentic AI more practical
An integration with Kochava’s StationOne signals shift from AI hype to standardized, executable ad workflows
What happens when agency execs negotiate against AI agents
I created a game that has AI agents represent buyers and sellers in an ad deal. Then I asked Wpromote’s Skyler McGill and Butler/Till’s Ryan Lammela to test it out.
Publicis vs. The Trade Desk isn’t really about transparency – it’s about who gets the margin
As audit fallout escalates, the deeper conflict points to a structural power shift in programmatic advertising.
Annual research reports
Podcasts
Research
It was nearly 10 years ago, in 2017, that Glossier first released a sweatshirt. It was simple, with the name of the brand emblazoned across the front. And then, in 2024, Hailey Bieber reinvented the beauty merch wheel with the invention of the Rhode Lip Case. Now, charms are a booming beauty trend.
It was nearly 10 years ago, in 2017, that Glossier first released a sweatshirt. It was simple, with the name of the brand emblazoned across the front. And then, in 2024, Hailey Bieber reinvented the beauty merch wheel with the invention of the Rhode Lip Case. Now, charms are a booming beauty trend.
The humble e-commerce site is getting a major upgrade at Lowe’s. The company is expanding a feature that uses customer data to personalize its website and, essentially, hopes that all customers will have a personalized website by the end of 2026.
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AI StrategiesWhat went wrong with ChatGPT's Instant Checkout
The humble e-commerce site is getting a major upgrade at Lowe’s. The company is expanding a feature that uses customer data to personalize its website and, essentially, hopes that all customers will have a personalized website by the end of 2026.