Amazon Blocks ChatGPT Crawlers as AI Shopping Battle Heats Up

Amazon has quietly blocked additional OpenAI web crawlers from accessing its site, including bots that power ChatGPT's live web browsing and SearchGPT search engine, as the retailer protects its $56 billion advertising business from AI agents that could bypass its ads. The move comes as competitors like Walmart, Target, and Etsy embrace ChatGPT partnerships and see surging referral traffic from the AI chatbot, with Walmart now getting 36 percent of its referral clicks from the platform. Amazon is instead investing in its own AI shopping tools like Rufus and Auto Buy, betting it can maintain control over the nearly 40 percent of US e-commerce spending it commands while keeping shoppers on its own site, where it can monetize their attention.

Read more at Digiday

Meta's 'Glitchmas' Strikes Again With Holiday Ad Platform Chaos

Meta's advertising platform is experiencing widespread technical failures during the crucial holiday shopping season, with advertisers reporting that the system is burning through entire daily budgets in the first hour with low-quality traffic and generating bizarre AI-created ads featuring distorted images. The problems are compounded by Meta's gutted customer service operation, leaving even advertisers spending hundreds of millions of dollars annually unable to reach human representatives who could quickly fix the issues. While Meta says it vigorously monitors its systems and has addressed several bugs, six advertisers told AdExchanger they continued experiencing major outages and delivery problems through last Friday, with little recourse for recovering wasted ad spend.

Read the full article at AdExchanger

Streaming Services Face Subscription Exodus as Viewers Shop Around

63% of UK streaming subscribers now regularly cancel and rejoin services or plan to start doing so, according to new research from MTM, marking a major shift in how people approach their entertainment spending. The trend is being driven by the proliferation of promotional deals, with more than half of all subscriptions now purchased through special offers that effectively train viewers to treat services as disposable once the discount ends. Smaller platforms like Paramount+ and Discovery+ face the toughest challenge in this new landscape, where success increasingly depends on having both tentpole shows and a deep back catalogue to prevent subscribers from walking away the moment they've finished watching their latest obsession.

Read more of the research at MTM

We got scared: Confessions of an ad tech exec's AI agent experiment

An ad tech company built an AI agent that handled real customer ad buys on connected TV for two days in February before pulling the plug, with executives admitting they panicked over what could go wrong if the system accidentally added an extra zero to a campaign budget.

Kantar Media Appoints Mark Read as Chairman of the Board of Directors

Kantar Media has named Mark Read, who stepped down as WPP's CEO earlier this year after a seven-year tenure, as chairman of its newly independent board following the media measurement firm's sale to H.I.G. Capital in August.

Broadsign Acquires Place Exchange As The DOOH Category Hits Its Stride

Broadsign has acquired rival digital out-of-home ad tech firm Place Exchange for an undisclosed sum as the sector gains traction with performance-focused advertisers who increasingly demand programmatic buying capabilities tailored to the unique measurement and targeting needs of billboards and retail screens.

EU approves Omnicom's acquisition of IPG without conditions

The European Union cleared Omnicom's $13.25 billion takeover of Interpublic Group without requiring any concessions, paving the way for the creation of the world's largest advertising agency as traditional players seek to counter Big Tech's growing dominance in the AI era.

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