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 it’s interesting, it’ll be here.
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Peter Naylor Joins Nielsen as Chief Client Officer (Variety)
Life360 Acquires Nativo for $120 Million to Expand Its Advertising Ambitions (Adweek)
Prime Video With Ads Claims New Milestone: 315 Million Monthly Viewers Globally (Hollywood Reporter)
Amazon's New Ads Agent Makes Its Marketing Cloud More Accessible (Adweek)
Former Razorfish CEO Josh Campo to Lead Huge (Adweek)
Snap Reveals $400 Million Perplexity Deal and Tops Wall Street Expectations in Q3 (Hollywood Reporter)
Collaboration with Freestar Expands Access to Premium Advertisers for The Associated Press (Yahoo Finance)
Redefining Quality in Ad Tech: Erez Levin on Marketing Effectiveness and Media Value
We discuss the complexities of defining quality in marketing, and the importance of ad placement and publisher quality. The conversation also dives into the incentives that drive the industry, the accountability of marketers, and the future of quality in advertising.
Reinventing Digital Monetization: Inside Mula’s Agentic Future
Jason White, CEO of Mula, discusses the concept of agentic monetization and the evolution of digital content monetization. He highlights the importance of data in creating personalized user experiences and the need for digital media publishers to adapt to changing market dynamics.
InfoSum/WPP Unveils Beacons: A Privacy-First Leap Toward AI-Driven Data Collaboration
InfoSum has introduced Beacons, a groundbreaking infrastructure designed for secure, AI-ready data collaboration. Unlike traditional solutions, Beacons operate directly within a company’s cloud environment, eliminating the need for data movement or exposure.
The platform enables organizations to connect and collaborate across clouds, partners, and even walled gardens, all while maintaining full privacy protection. Built to support the next generation of intelligence-driven marketing, Beacons allows businesses to unlock new datasets and growth opportunities without compromising compliance or security. InfoSum positions Beacons as the bridge from identity-based marketing to intelligence-led growth, redefining how companies harness data responsibly.
ElevenLabs Unveils AI Marketplace Featuring Voices
ElevenLabs has launched the Iconic Voice Marketplace, letting brands license AI-generated voices of celebrities and historical figures, from Michael Caine and Liza Minnelli to Mark Twain. This innovative use of AI connects companies directly with rights holders, ensuring consent, transparency, and payment to voice owners. It’s a fascinating step for creative industries and maybe (just maybe) a new way to guarantee both quality and fair compensation in AI-driven storytelling.
Agentic Buying and the AdCP: The Next Revolution or Just Another Ad Tech Experiment?
The Ad Context Protocol (AdCP) introduces a new way to buy media by using AI agents and natural language instead of complex APIs. Unveiled at the Agentic Advertising Standards launch, AdCP aims to unify fragmented ad systems into one open standard. A live demo showed an AI buyer using Scope3 and Swivel to automate a full campaign setup, hinting at faster, smarter ad transactions.
Supporters see this as the future beyond direct and programmatic buying, while skeptics question adoption by major platforms. For now, agentic buying looks like a bold experiment with big potential but uncertain practicality.
Index Exchange Sues Google Citing Years of Market Manipulation
Index Exchange has filed an antitrust lawsuit against Google, seeking damages and injunctions after a federal court found Google illegally monopolized digital advertising markets. The filing accuses Google of manipulating auctions through “First Look,” “Last Look,” and the covert “Project Poirot” program to give its AdX exchange an unfair advantage despite higher fees. The suit builds on April’s landmark ruling that found Google willfully maintained monopoly power through its DoubleClick acquisition and restrictive practices that hurt competition.
As AdTechGod put it, “If you play stupid games, you win stupid prizes. I said months ago we’d see more lawsuits follow the DOJ ruling and here we are.” With this case, the predicted wave of private antitrust actions against Google appears to be gaining momentum.
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