Welcome to The Refresh, your weekly download of what actually matters in advertising. Brought to you by Marketecture Media and written by AdTechGod. Every Thursday, we bring you the latest news, commentary, and memes that speak the truth about this industry. If it's happening in AdTech, media or marketing and its interesting it’ll be here.
DEI Fades From the Spotlight in Cannes as Marketers Grow Cautious (AdWeek)
Crisp Acquires Cantactix, As Ad Tech And Analytics Unite Around Retail Data (AdExchanger)
Cannes Lions 2025: Recapping the Biggest Industry Moves on la Croisette (ExchangeWire)
CMA Proposes Search Overhaul to Curb Google’s Dominance; FTC Intervenes in $13.5bn Omnicom-IPG Merger (ExchangeWire)
Future of TV Briefing: YouTube gives a peek at how its recommendation algorithms work (Digiday)
Innovid Named One of the First Ad Tech Partners for Meta’s Threads API Launch (businesswire)
Cannes Lions 2025: A New Era Of Tech-Enabled Creativity And Collaboration(Ad Exchanger)
Hype vs. Reality: Tom Goodwin on Fixing What’s Broken in Advertising
Tom Goodwin joins for a blunt take on what’s broken in advertising today. From performance tunnel vision to undervalued creativity, Tom argues we’ve lost touch with what consumers actually want. We cover AI’s role, the risks of chasing metrics, and why long-term brand building needs a comeback.
HOT YACHTS!
The Hot Yachts video series on YouTube by The Advertising Forum is filmed in France during Cannes Lions, where we sit down with leaders from PubMatic, Kerv, Viant, MiQ, InMobi, Nexxen, and Philo to talk about the festival and what’s coming next for their companies.
AdTech God Party in Cannes
AdTech God crashed the Adweek House at Cannes Lions, bringing together brand marketers, publishers, agencies, and platforms.
Location: Hotel Barrière Le Majestic Cannes
Hosts: AdTech God and Adweek
The AdTech God Party has been referenced in posts and discussions under the names “AdTech God Party” and “AdTech God Party Cannes”, “It’s a Risky Business Party”
FTC Greenlights Omnicom-IPG Merger
The FTC’s conditions on the Omnicom-IPG merger may be meant to prevent political bias in media buying, but they go too far. By banning Omnicom from avoiding publishers based on “ideological” content, without defining what that means, the order creates confusion and opens the door to political interference.
It also misses how the ad industry actually works. Clients decide where their ads go; agencies advise. Now, Omnicom faces extra paperwork and scrutiny that its competitors don’t, which could hurt its business.
The bigger issue is what this means for journalism. If agencies have to play it safe to avoid trouble, news outlets covering sensitive topics could lose out on ad dollars. This sets a worrying precedent for how much control the government might have over where advertising money goes.
CTV Ad Spend Grows, but CPMs Drop
CTV ad spend is on the rise, but CPMs have fallen 10–30% year over year. The drop comes as inventory floods the market and advertisers focus more on performance and efficiency than exclusivity. Most CPMs now sit below $30, unless the ads are running on top-tier platforms.
Open and private marketplaces alike are feeling the pressure, though curated, high-quality inventory is holding up better. Platforms like OpenX and TripleLift report stronger CPMs for premium, well-packaged supply.
There’s just too much CTV inventory right now. Everyone wants in, but not all of it is worth the same. That oversupply is driving prices down and making it harder for sellers to stand out. Until the market figures out how to balance quantity with quality, low CPMs are likely here to stay.
HaaS: Hallucination as a Service is here!
Springboards is embracing AI hallucinations and using them to boost creativity instead of avoiding them. The platform generates wild, factually incorrect ideas to help creatives break out of the ordinary. With features like a “randomness” dial (options include “micro-dosing,” “LSD,” and “Asylum”) and a Tinder-style interface for picking ideas, Springboards aims to match users with the AI model that best fits their creative vibe.
Backed by major ad industry groups, Springboards emphasizes that it’s not here to replace humans but to fuel human imagination. Still, it raises questions about where to draw the line between inspired and just plain weird.
I never thought there was a business model based on hallucinations, but what do I know…
Ad Industry Shifts & AI Influence Grows
Big ad agency holdcos like WPP and Dentsu may face major consolidation soon, with deals possibly rivaling Omnicom’s attempted IPG takeover, says M&A advisor Michael Kassan.
AI is quietly reshaping how we talk. A study shows a spike in ChatGPT-style words like “delve” and “meticulous” in academic YouTube videos post-ChatGPT launch.
Back from the AdTech God Party in Cannes and ready to meme it up!!
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