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First-party FTW
Amidst an evolving ad tech landscape, The Trade Desk is making moves to establish an alternative ecosystem that can better challenge the likes of Facebook and Google. As Ad Age’s Mike Juang reports,
On Tuesday, The Trade Desk outlined its new strategy, announcing that it created a venture capital arm called TD7 to help finance the next generation of ad tech companies. Also, in a first for The Trade Desk, it is developing a new platform for brands to upload their first-party consumer data right into its ad system, which is another nod to the changing demands of the digital advertising landscape, where first-party data is key.
Essential context: That new platform, called Solimar, “is meant to help spur adoption of the company’s ad-tracking replacement known as Unified ID 2.0,” Juang adds.
Keep reading here.
Private decision
Colorado just passed a major new privacy law, joining California and Virginia in enacting similarly comprehensive commercial regulations surrounding the handling of consumer data. As ZDNet’s Jonathan Greig reports,
The Colorado Privacy Act, which was signed into law on July 7 by Governor Jared Polis, gives consumers the right to ask companies not to sell their personal information while also giving them access to any data companies have about them. Consumers can also ask companies to delete their data, and the law forces enterprises to ask for consent to hold certain sensitive information like Social Security Numbers, drivers license numbers and more.
Keep reading here.
Jobless claims tick up
“The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits rose slightly last week even while the economy and the job market appear to be rebounding from the coronavirus recession with sustained energy,” the AP’s Paul Wiseman reports, citing U.S. Labor Department data.
Essential context: “States Ending $300 Unemployment Benefits Haven’t Boosted Labor Market Yet, Morgan Stanley Finds,” per Forbes.
Previously: “U.S. advertising employment scores record job increase in June,” from Ad Age.
What’s hot
Going swimmingly
Selena Gomez is a pop star, an Instagram influencer (she has 243 million followers) and now also a swimwear designer. This past Saturday she announced (via Instagram, of course) a new collaboration with La’Mariette, “an inclusive swimwear brand that promotes self-love and acceptance,” per the company’s mission statement.
In the caption on her Instagram post in which she models a swimsuit from the La’Mariette x Selena Gomez collection, Gomez writes, “What I love about this brand is that it celebrates women who love their bodies unconditionally, giving themselves the grace they deserve. Hope you love it as much as I do.”
Here, key insights on the earned-media campaign, shared exclusively with Ad Age Datacenter Weekly by CreatorIQ, the influencer marketing platform:
• La’Mariette typically has an Instagram engagement rate (a CreatorIQ measurement that reflects likes, shares and comments) of 2.76% on Instagram, which is considered “good” by CreatorIQ.
• Over the past week, La’Mariette’s engagement rate has jumped to 28.8%—which falls into CreatorIQ’s “exemplary” ranking.
• Gomez’s launch post, linked above, went instantly viral; as of this writing, it has 7.6 million likes.
• La’Mariette’s own various posts on @lamariette promoting the La’Mariette x Selena Gomez collab have earned an average of 133,000 likes and nearly 2,000 comments each—up dramatically from the brand’s previous averages of 12,800 likes and 195 comments per post.
• CreatorIQ says that Gomez has an Instagram audience that’s 60% female, concentrated largely in the 18-24 (43.9%) and 25-34 (37.5%) demos.
• Her audience is truly global, with 16.2% of her Instagram followers based in the U.S., followed by 9.2% in Brazil and 6.1% in India.
Essential context: “Everyone is praising Selena Gomez’s unedited swimsuit and bikini pictures,” from Cosmopolitan.
Think small
Want to learn more about small agencies and the challenges and opportunities they face? Buy your ticket for the virtual Ad Age Small Agency Conference & Awards, Aug. 2-4, the only event of its kind. A list of speakers and the agenda can be found at AdAge.com/saca2021.
Just briefly
The road ahead: “U.S. hotels finally surpass Pre-COVID levels as travel surges,” per Bloomberg News (via Ad Age).
Breaking up is hard to do: “Experts say it’ll take more than just breaking up Facebook to rein in Big Tech and protect your data,” per Business Insider.
The great wall: “China is cracking down on data privacy. That’s terrible news for some of its biggest tech companies,” per CNN Business.
A grim pandemic milestone: “Global Covid death toll exceeds 4 million, Hopkins data show,” CNBC reports.
In the weeds: “Brands can now target cannabis and CBD users through Comscore,” per Ad Age.
Work it: “Call for entries: Ad Age Best Places to Work 2022 is open for business,” per Ad Age.
The newsletter is brought to you by Ad Age Datacenter, the industry’s most authoritative source of competitive intel and home to the Ad Age Leading National Advertisers, the Ad Age Agency Report: World’s Biggest Agency Companies and other exclusive data-driven reports. Access or subscribe to Ad Age Datacenter at AdAge.com/Datacenter.
Ad Age Datacenter is Kevin Brown, Bradley Johnson and Catherine Wolf.
This week’s newsletter was compiled and written by Simon Dumenco.
