Stream of Reading (Prepare to be Forwarded) – An Archive of What I'm Reading
Anyone who spends time on Instagram knows that celebrities are doing #ads, and also that there are lots of times a celebrity is clearly doing an ad but isn’t really admitting it, which is kind of shady. But there’s never been an attempt to actually find out how much #spon is out there – and…
Buying and selling “hunger bonds” is always more fun when you do it with friends. Optimal investing conditions. By JUAN BARRETO/AFP/Getty Images. Back in May, Goldman Sachs found itself in a bit of hot water when The Wall Street Journal reported that its asset-management arm had purchased $2.8 billion worth of Venezuelan bonds that had…
Transparency in agency relationships is a growing issue. Pivotal analyst Brian Wieser downgraded ratings on the four major agency holding companies on Monday, warning that the growing noise over agency kickbacks has caused him to “reassess some of our views on long-term holding company growth.” In a note to investors, he added that since marketers are…
With the major investigation into media buying kickbacks in the USA by the ANA about to conclude, and our own ISBA recently making headlines about the poor state of media agencies in the UK, Mark Ritson reviews what we have learned so far. Just over a year ago Jon Mandel, the former CEO of media…
Advertising agencies in the US have been systematically padding their profits by using non-transparent practices such as taking rebates from media companies and not disclosing them to clients, according to the Association of National Advertisers (ANA), which released the highly anticipated findings of an eight-month investigation into the sector on Tuesday. The ANA — which…
Jon Mandel Media agency rebates and kickbacks, long thought to be something that happened overseas — or only in pockets of the U.S. market — are actually widespread, said former Mediacom CEO Jon Mandel, so much so that it caused him to leave the agency business. Mr. Mandel made his remarks in a blistering presentation…
Agencies are not transparent about their actions. Agencies recommend media that is off-strategy when it works for their gain. Agencies accrue media earned by advertisers’ spending and resell it to other advertisers. Agencies demand pay-for-play from vendors in order to be recommended, and cross the line in partnership relationships. These are among the claims made…
Facebook embraced sound-on autoplay videos, just months before Google and Apple said they were banning these formats on their platforms as unacceptable UX intrusions. By Tony Haile on June 27, 2017 6:30 am Facebook has a problem. What has driven its growth for the last five years won’t drive its growth for the next…
Los Angeles — Samuel Talavera Jr. did everything his bosses asked. Most days, the trucker would drive more than 16 hours straight hauling LG dishwashers and Kumho tires to warehouses around Los Angeles, on their way to retail stores nationwide. He rarely went home to his family. At night, he crawled into the back of…
Twitter unveiled an update to its mobile app that enables users to block ads on mobile webpages opened via the app. Unlike Google’s recently reported move to incorporate an ad blocker in its Chrome browser next year, Twitter is simply enabling its app to use the ad block software built into Apple’s native browser, Safari….