CMO TLDR: Pinterest Enters CTV, TTD Cuts, Meta Under Fire
Performance Comes for CTV
Pinterest Grabs Performance CTV Play
Pinterest is acquiring tvScientific for an estimated $300 million to $350 million to extend its performance advertising business into connected TV. The deal gives Pinterest immediate access to a platform that treats CTV like paid search, with direct attribution and outcome tracking for advertisers who want proof that their CTV spend drives measurable results. The acquisition reflects broader industry pressure on television to deliver performance metrics comparable to social media and search advertising.
Ad Tech Trims for Growth
Trade Desk Cuts Jobs Amid Continued Restructuring
The Trade Desk is laying off less than 1% of its roughly 3,900 employees, marking its second major reorganization in a year as the ad tech giant works to sharpen its competitive edge against Amazon and Google. The cuts come despite hiring nearly 1,000 people this year and follow a turbulent 2024 that included the company's first earnings miss and ongoing tension with sell-side platforms over supply chain transparency. CEO Jeff Green has framed the moves as necessary to position the demand-side platform for efficiency and growth, though the company continues facing pressure to prove its AI investments can deliver results.
Revenue Beats Enforcement
Meta Shelved China Fraud Crackdown to Protect Revenue
Meta determined that roughly $3 billion, or 19% of its $18 billion in annual China advertising revenue, came from scam ads, illegal gambling, and banned content, according to internal documents reviewed by Reuters. The company briefly cut fraudulent ads by half in late 2024 through a dedicated enforcement team, but CEO Mark Zuckerberg then intervened, and the unit was disbanded, allowing prohibited advertising to climb back to 16% of China revenue by mid-2025. Meta now plans to permanently tolerate elevated levels of misconduct from Chinese advertisers rather than seek parity with enforcement standards in other markets, prioritizing what internal documents called minimizing "revenue impact" over user protection.
Quick Links
NBCUniversal unveiled AI-driven advertising tools, including contextual targeting that automatically matches ads to live sports moments and new Peacock ad formats, positioning itself to capitalize on major 2026 events like the Super Bowl and Olympics.
Albertsons rolled out technology that lets shoppers add items or entire recipe lists to their carts directly from ads without leaving the page, with General Mills among the first brands testing the feature that aims to reduce friction in online grocery shopping.
Media agencies, including WPP and Butler/Till, are piloting AI agents that can execute media buys autonomously, with some tests cutting out traditional ad tech middlemen to reduce costs by up to 40%, though concerns remain about ceding control of purchasing decisions to algorithms.
Magnite deployed the first AI-generated home screen advertisements on LG and TCL smart TVs using its streamr.ai tool, enabling the Dave Thomas Foundation to create streaming ads more efficiently and capitalizing on research showing viewers spend an average of 10 minutes browsing home screens before selecting content.
Key Article Takeaways - TLDR
Pinterest's acquisition of tvScientific marks a shift toward treating CTV advertising with the rigor of paid search, offering advertisers direct attribution and measurable outcomes. The deal provides an exit for Jason Fairchild, who co-founded OpenX before launching tvScientific.
The industry continues pursuing cost cuts through restructuring and automation. The Trade Desk became the latest adtech company to announce layoffs aimed at improving efficiency, while media agencies are piloting AI agents to reduce costs after multiple rounds of staff reductions over the past year.