By glsoane@adage.com(Garett Sloane)

Snapchat may be rethinking its stance against brand placements and partnerships in its fledgling original programming, according to people familiar with the company’s video plans.

Snapchat has started discussing the possibility of allowing more promotional content, with brand integrations, in shows being developed for the platform. The advertising tie-ins could be allowed in new shows that Snapchat has been cultivating from media partners like A&E Networks, Hearst, Turner, NBC Universal and others.

“Brands that buy TV shows expect to be able to do some product integrations,” said a media executive, who works closely with Snapchat on content. “That was not on the table at the beginning, but now Snapchat is open to it.”

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Source:: AdAge – Digital

The duopoly is forcing some unlikely partners into bed with each other.

Large publishers are hatching new alliances to counter Google and Facebook, the so-called duopoly that’s expected to capture 85% of new digital advertising this year in the U.S. and 60% of digital spending, according to various estimates.

The duopoly’s biggest advantage is immense reach among consumers who sign in and reveal all kinds of details about themselves.

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Source:: AdAge – Digital

Apple has hired two former Sony Corp. TV executives who oversaw the development of acclaimed shows like “Breaking Bad” and “The Crown,” further evidence that the technology giant is getting serious about producing its own video programming.

Jamie Erlicht and Zack Van Amburg, who had been presidents of Sony Pictures Television since 2005, will report to Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior VP of internet software and services, according to a statement Friday. The duo had helped Sony’s TV studio take advantage of the demand for high-quality series spurred by streaming services like Netflix.

Apple has been adding documentaries and reality shows to its Apple Music subscription service, providing a way to test video streaming. The iPhone maker could use exclusive video as a way to keep rival services from dragging customers away from its products, though creating buzzworthy programs is difficult and expensive. Netflix alone will spend more than $6 billion this year on programming, including about 1,000 hours of original shows.

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Source:: AdAge – Digital

Business-to-business advertising is almost synonymous with lead generation and management. However, worryingly, only 13% of businesses describe their lead generation as very successful.

On top of that, there is a big mobile divide: while 40% of b-to-b buyers use their phone in the business purchasing process according to Google, data from MarketingProfs shows that only 3% of the b-to-b digital marketing budget is allocated to mobile digital marketing. A clear picture of the problem begins to emerge. If you like bullet points, here’s what the data means:

B-to-b buyers are using the same tools as consumers to research and buy products;

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Source:: AdAge – Digital

Spotify Ltd. lost 539 million euros ($601 million) last year — its biggest loss yet — even as it added tens of million of customers, underscoring how difficult it will be for the owner of world’s largest paid streaming service to turn a profit.

Revenue jumped 52% to 2.93 billion euros in 2016, but the net loss more than doubled, according to documents filed in Luxembourg. Spotify also acknowledged an accounting error that understated losses in previous years.

Spotify has grown from 20 million subscribers to 50 million in less than two years, and now has more than 140 million people using the service between the free and paid options. The growth of Spotify has lifted sales across the entire music industry, reversing years of decline due to piracy and the transition from CDs to iTunes.

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Source:: AdAge – Digital

By kkaye@adage.com(Kate Kaye)

During coffee, bacon, egg and cheese hours from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. last year, visits to Subway and Dunkin’ Donuts rose from the first quarter to the second while visits declined at Starbucks and McDonald’s.

That’s based on changes in foot traffic teased from the pool of location data at mobile ad firm xAd , and represent the sort of insights that the firm and others in the location business are finding increasingly valuable.

According to the company, Subway’s share of foot traffic among the quick-serve restaurants measured rose to 14% from 12%. Such foot-traffic share rose slightly to 21% from 20% at Dunkin’ Donuts, fell to 17% from 19% at Starbucks and declined to 48% from 50% at McDonald’s.

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Source:: AdAge – Digital

Corporate chatroom startup Slack Technologies has received recent inquiries about a potential takeover from technology companies including Amazon, people with knowledge of the situation said, a deal that would be the internet-commerce giant’s biggest ever.

San Francisco-based Slack could be valued at at least $9 billion in a sale, the people said. An agreement isn’t assured and discussions may not go further, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the matter is private.

Buying Slack would help Seattle-based Amazon bolster its enterprise services as it seeks to compete with rivals like Microsoft and Alphabet Inc.’s Google. The company’s cloud-hosting unit, Amazon Web Services, in February unveiled a paid-for video and audio conferencing service — Amazon Chime — that lets users chat and share content.

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Source:: AdAge – Digital

By glsoane@adage.com(Garett Sloane)

“Playstation Search for Greatness” by BBH New York for Sony

“Pocket Patrol” by Leo Burnett for Samsung Australia

“We Are Here” by Airbnb

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Source:: AdAge – Digital

Mary Meeker is known for making bold predictions that sometimes come true.

But she can also shine such a large spotlight on a relatively unknown company that it begins to debate whether or not to go public.

That seems to be the case for Vungle, a 6-year-old private ad tech company that’s mulling over an IPO after being featured on Slide No. 27 of 355 in Mary Meeker’s 2017 Internet Trends report, according to insiders with direct knowledge of the matter.

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Source:: AdAge – Digital

By glsoane@adage.com(Garett Sloane)

Facebook is giving advertisers more control over where their ads run, allowing them to opt out of appearing near content from specific publishers, according to new policies announced on Wednesday.

“We will show you all the publishers or pages on which your ad could theoretically run,” said Michel Protti, Facebook’s director-product marketing. “Then you can uncheck a subset of them so ads don’t run in these places.”

Facebook is touting “pre-campaign transparency,” where it will disclose more information about the content advertisers could encounter through Instant Articles, mid-roll video ads, and Facebook Audience Network.

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Source:: AdAge – Digital