Welcome to The Refresh, a weekly newsletter from Marketecture Media. Every Thursday we’ll bring you the latest advertising news, commentary, and memes.

• Making ‘Agentic’ Happen At Possible; Not Everything Needs To Be Retail Media (Ad Exchanger)

• Ziff Davis Sues OpenAI as AI Scraping Arms Race Escalates (Digiday)

•  Roku Acquires Subscription Streamer Frndly TV And Touts Programmatic In The Face Of Uncertainty (AdExchanger)

• StackAdapt Launches Integrated Email and Data Hub, Bridging Martech and Programmatic Advertising Under One Platform (Businesswire)

• Comcast’s Universal Ads Expands to More Top Publishers, Democratizing Access to Premium Video for Advertisers of All Sizes (Businesswire)

• What GroupM is telling staff about restructuring, rebranding and redundancies (The Drum)

META leans hard into AI after crushing Q1

Meta posted a strong Q1 with $42.3 billion in revenue, up 16% year-over-year, thanks largely to its advertising juggernaut, which generated over $41 billion across its family of apps. CEO Mark Zuckerberg credited much of this growth to Meta’s AI-fueled ad products, calling out better targeting, creative generation, and campaign optimization as key drivers. Meta’s AI tools are increasingly handling everything from ad formatting to attribution, with early results showing up to 46% conversion lifts for select advertisers. Meanwhile, organic engagement is up across all platforms especially video due to improved recommendation algorithms.

Zuckerberg didn’t hold back on his AI evangelism, suggesting Meta’s AI agents could eventually turn advertising into a much larger share of global GDP. A new standalone Meta AI app also launched this week, and monetization (via ads, subs, and product recs) is on the horizon—though likely not until 2026. Threads also began serving ads, but Meta is playing the long game with both bots and the bird app alternative. For now, it’s all about scale, engagement—and letting the AI do the heavy lifting.

Read AdExchanger

Publishers Pivot to AI SEO

The Washington Post’s new deal with OpenAI marks a shift in how publishers license content to AI companies. Unlike earlier agreements focused on model training, this one prioritizes visibility in ChatGPT’s search results via summaries, quotes, and links. Legal experts say it reflects a growing strategy: AI firms want fresh, reliable content without triggering lawsuits over training data, while publishers aim to reclaim traffic and relevance. As generative search grows, showing up in AI responses may become the new SEO battleground.

Read Digiday

Publishers Quietly Declare: Privacy Sandbox Is Dead

Despite Google’s insistence that Privacy Sandbox lives on, publishers aren’t buying it. With cookie deprecation indefinitely delayed, many say the incentive to support Sandbox has evaporated along with any remaining faith in its viability. Performance concerns, lack of advertiser demand, and unclear long-term value have pushed most publishers to abandon testing months ago. While some see value in the tech developed along the way, most agree: Sandbox’s original vision is dead, and its future looks more like a Chrome innovation lab than a cookie alternative.

That said, the death of Sandbox’s current form shouldn’t be the end of innovation in privacy-safe advertising. This is the time to double down on collaborative experimentation and whether thats a variance of Privacy Sandbox or with other solutions in market we need to shape a future where performance and privacy can truly coexist.

Read Digiday

Email Ads Overtake Programmatic in 2025 Spend and Usage

For the first time, marketers are using and spending more on email advertising than on programmatic, according to Digiday+ Research. While overall use of display ads is rising 79% of marketers use them in 2025, up from 72% in 2024 while programmatic is losing ground. Marketer usage of programmatic site display ads dropped from 77% to 62% year-over-year, and the share of marketers allocating any budget to programmatic has steadily declined since 2022.

In contrast, email advertising is on the rise. Use of email newsletter sponsorships climbed from 51% to 64%, and 84% of marketers now allocate at least some budget to email-up from 71% last year. Confidence in display’s overall performance is also climbing, with 55% of marketers saying display ads drive success, up from 38% the year before.

Read Digiday

Google Faces DOJ Push to Break Up AdTech Empire After Antitrust Ruling

The U.S. Department of Justice has officially asked a federal judge to force Google to divest key components of its advertising business, marking a historic step in the government's antitrust battle against Big Tech. In a court filing, the DOJ proposed an immediate sale of Google’s dominant ad exchange, AdX, followed by a phased divestiture of its publisher ad server—tools central to how websites buy, sell, and serve digital ads.

The request follows Judge Leonie Brinkema’s recent ruling that Google illegally monopolized the ad tech market by favoring its own tools and limiting competition. The DOJ argues that anything short of a structural breakup would fail to restore fair competition. Google, which disputes the need for a divestiture, is expected to offer its own remedy proposal. A hearing on the matter is set for September. The case could redefine the digital ad landscape and stands as one of the most significant antitrust actions in years.

Read Bloomberg

Upfront Uncertainty: Trade Wars, TikTok, and the Fragmented Future of Advertising

As the 2025 upfront season begins, brands are navigating renewed uncertainty driven by trade tensions and a fragmented media landscape. Echoing the early days of the pandemic, many marketers are defaulting to short-term, low-funnel tactics instead of long-term brand building. Meanwhile, digital channels like retail media, streaming, and TikTok have surged, reshaping consumer behavior and challenging legacy planning models. TikTok’s algorithm-driven content discovery has redefined social engagement, pushing even platforms like Instagram and LinkedIn to follow suit. With complexity rising and budgets under pressure, leaders urge the industry to resist fear and embrace adaptability in a rapidly evolving environment.

Read Marketingdive

Meme of the week

I made a Cher series of memes because I was bored.

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