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The cookie remains on the menu (for now)
“The third-party cookie, a linchpin of the ad industry used to serve targeted ads, just received a stay of execution,” Ad Age’s Mike Juang reports. “Google says it will continue supporting third-party cookies until the end of 2023, citing mounting industry opposition and the feedback it received when testing possible replacements.”
Essential context: “The delay leaves brands restless and uncertain,” Juang adds. “While the move relieves immediate pressure on advertisers trying to find or build a suitable replacement, it leaves the industry in an uncomfortable limbo as those replacements—including Google’s own post-cookie solution—struggle for traction.”
Keep reading here.
See also: “ANA cookie replacement test moves ahead despite Google reprieve,” from Ad Age.
Plus: “Ad tech stocks surge as Google delays killing third-party cookies until 2023,” per CNBC.
Subscribe to Ad Age's Datacenter for ongoing data and insights on all of the most-advertised brands.
Olympic feat
“More than a year after the 2020 Summer Olympics were first delayed due to pandemic concerns, the games’ perennial broadcaster NBCUniversal has revealed it expects to have the largest line-up of advertisers in the event’s TV history and exceed the more than $1 billion ad sales total recorded during the Rio Games in 2016,” Ad Age’s Ethan Jakob Craft reports.
Essential context: “NBCUniversal anticipates that its U.S. broadcast of the international event will attract more than 120 advertisers, a 20% increase from the number of brands that snapped up airtime during the previous Summer Olympics five years ago,” Craft adds. “Of those, more than 80 will be first-time advertisers in the Games.
Keep reading here.
Betting on BET
“After a depressed award season delivered blow after blow to long-valued ratings earlier this year, the BET Awards have shaped up to be a relatively hot commodity among advertisers,” Ad Age’s Ethan Jakob Craft (again) reports, “with the event celebrating Black entertainment selling out of commercial inventory faster than ever—even with more ad slots to fill.”
Keep reading here.
A surge in Pride
Tubular, the digital video measurement platform, tells Datacenter Weekly that so far in Pride Month, Facebook is dominating.
At the start of the month, the social network announced plans to make a major Pride push; see “Forward With Pride: Celebrating and Elevating LGBTQ+ Voices,” a Facebook blog post by Alex Schultz, who is Facebook’s chief marketing officer and VP of analytics, as well as executive sponsor of Facebook’s LGBTQ+ Employee Resource Group.
As of this writing, Tubular says that Facebook-produced Pride-related videos have racked up more than 23 million views on Facebook—more than any creator.
Some of that video content has been adapted for national TV commercials, including “Take on Anything” (video via TV ad analytics company iSpot.tv), featuring Laverne Cox.
Meanwhile, CreatorIQ, the influencer marketing platform, tells Datacenter Weekly that it’s tracking sponsored content with an LGBTQ+ theme across social networks, including Instagram, during Pride Month; in recent years, LGBTQ+-themed sponsored content has surged—from less than 1% to more than 2% of all sponsored content—during Pride Month. But the company notes that the larger trend it’s seeing is that brands are backing LGBTQ+-themed sponsored content more often throughout the year, and not just during Pride. Watch for more data on all this from Datacenter Weekly once Pride Month 2021 wraps up.
Best places to work
Ad Age is on the hunt for the best places to work.
Does your company stand out among the best? Prove it to the market and employees by entering Ad Age Best Places to Work 2022. Register for Ad Age’s survey and awards program by Aug. 13 at AdAge.com/bptw2022.
We’ll honor companies in advertising and marketing that are quantifiably ahead of the pack in factors including corporate culture, benefits and employee development. The competition is open to agencies, ad tech firms, brand or corporate marketing departments or groups and in-house agencies of marketers.
More details here.
Just briefly
Ad tech IPO: “Innovid plans to go public as investor interest in ad tech continues,” Ad Age reports.
Sports by the numbers: “JPMorgan Buys Stake in Robert Kraft’s Sports-Data Company,” per The Wall Street Journal.
Streaming data questioned: “The Problem With Nielsen’s Streaming Data,” from The Hollywood Reporter.
Medical data for sale: “Hospitals are selling treasure troves of medical data—what could go wrong?,” from The Verge.
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.
