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CMO TLDR: Your Weekly Marketing Brief

Weekly Digest - March 7, 2025

Author

Peter Brendan
March 07, 2025

CMO TLDR: AI, Acquisitions, and the Premium Internet

Artificial Intelligence

Amazon's AI Ad Tool Aims to Streamline TV Ad Buying

Amazon is launching an AI-powered tool called Complete TV to assist advertisers in optimizing their TV ad spending. The tool provides recommendations for ad placements across Prime Video and other streaming platforms. It also offers analytics to measure the effectiveness of ad campaigns.

Agency News

Publicis Expands Data Dominance with Lotame Acquisition

Publicis Groupe has acquired the data platform Lotame, adding 1.6 billion global user profiles to its existing 2.3 billion users, positioning the company to reach 91% of internet-connected adults globally. The deal, part of Publicis' $1.5 billion six-month acquisition spree, strengthens the holding company's CoreAI platform and expands its identity-based targeting capabilities, particularly in Asia-Pacific and Europe. Publicis Chief Solutions Architect Scott Hagedorn emphasized that the move creates a foundation for "modern marketing" based on owned rather than rented identity data, directly challenging rival WPP's approach of connecting disparate datasets rather than building proprietary databases.

Retail Media & Commerce

Target's Ad Business Shines Amid Retail Challenges

Target's Roundel advertising business saw a robust 25% revenue growth in 2024, reaching $649 million, even as the retailer faced a 3% decline in net sales and a challenging year for store performance. Despite lagging behind Walmart's massive $4.4 billion ad revenue, Target sees the potential to double its Roundel business to $1.3 billion by 2030, with CEO Brian Cornell highlighting the strategic importance of digital services that drive customer spending and create incremental value.

Adtech

The Trade Desk's "Premium Internet"

The Trade Desk is doubling down on its "Premium Internet" strategy by distinguishing quality publishers from low-value sites. While both the New York Times and MFA (Made for Advertising) sites may have similar ad-to-content ratios, Sincera's analysis revealed critical differences: the NYT employs a single, high-impact takeover ad placement, in contrast to MFA sites' cluttered, overlapping ad experiences. This nuanced approach of prioritizing ad quality over mere quantity underpins The Trade Desk's SP500+ publisher targeting strategy, highlighting a sophisticated method of identifying truly premium digital inventory at its FWD25 event.

Ad Tech's Next Frontier: How Curation Could Reshape Programmatic Advertising

Index Exchange CEO Andrew Casale is positioning curation as a potential game-changer that could rival the impact of open real-time bidding by fundamentally reshaping how ad dollars flow in the digital marketplace. The company's Index Marketplaces product has already attracted 75 advertisers, with Casale arguing that the approach could shift decision-making power from demand-side platforms back to publishers, potentially increasing ad spend efficiency. While the concept remains divisive, Casale sees curation as a critical innovation that could unlock scarcer audiences and create a more strategic relationship between buyers and media owners.

New Tool Lets Publishers See If They're on MFA Blocklists

Addressing the ongoing challenge of MFA sites, the Brand Safety Institute has launched a tool that allows publishers to check their status on blocklists and offers resources to work with vendors to rectify any issues.

T-Mobile has acquired location-based advertising firm Blis for $175 million in cash, adding to its growing adtech portfolio that includes the recently purchased Vistar Media ($600 million), as the telecom giant continues its expansion beyond wireless services with an advertising business already generating over $1 billion in annual revenue.

More than 60% of marketers plan to increase their reliance on attribution modeling, a statistical analysis that gives credit to the marketing activities that influenced a customer's decision, according to a recent survey. The growth of digital marketing has increased the use of such models, which can track the customer journey in close to real time.

Viant acquired Lockr to help accelerate the adoption of its own ID solutions in programmatic buys.

As privacy concerns escalate, contextual ad tech providers are recalibrating their pitches, emphasizing solutions to signal loss and enhanced brand safety while increasingly showcasing AI-driven semantic analysis of web pages.

GroupM, a subsidiary of WPP, has been reappointed as the global media agency for Electronic Arts, the digital entertainment giant behind video game franchises such as Madden NFL, The Sims, Need for Speed, and Battlefield, following a competitive review.

Article Takeaways - TLDR

  • Leverage AI-powered Tools: Utilize AI-powered tools like Amazon's Complete TV to optimize ad placements and enhance campaign measurement. These tools will become increasingly commonplace and table stakes for advertising and adtech companies.

  • Prioritize Identity: Emulate Publicis's strategy by prioritizing ownership of identity data to improve targeting precision and create more personalized marketing experiences.

  • Emphasize Premium Inventory: Focus on quality ad placements over quantity by partnering with or buying inventory from premium publishers, aligning with The Trade Desk’s Premium Internet approach.

  • Evaluate Curation's Role: Depending on your position within the online advertising ecosystem, explore the potential use cases for curation. With significant hype surrounding it, curation must demonstrate tangible value to sustain its relevance.