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CMO TLDR: Your Weekly Marketing Brief

Weekly Digest - May 16, 2025

Author

Peter Brendan
May 16, 2025

CMO TLDR: AI-Driven Disruption as Microsoft Shutters DSP, ChatGPT Enters Commerce

AI Disruption

ChatGPT Transforms Into AI-Powered Retail Channel, Reshaping Brand Discovery

OpenAI's ChatGPT has launched a feature enabling users to browse and purchase products directly through AI-generated recommendations, bypassing traditional search engines and e-commerce platforms in what Iris Americas CEO Jill Smith calls "the biggest shift in digital commerce since the algorithm killed the homepage." The new AI shopping experience functions more like a personal shopper than a search engine, prioritizing brands with strong digital ecosystem signals, including reviews, earned media, and trusted advocacy rather than paid search results. Smith advises marketers to shift from traditional SEO to "LLMO" (Large Language Model Optimization) by auditing their presence across trusted sources, investing in authentic user advocacy, and creating educational content that helps their brands earn visibility in AI recommendations.

Microsoft to Shutter Invest DSP as It Refocuses Ad Strategy on AI-Powered Platform

Microsoft Advertising announced it will discontinue its demand-side platform, Microsoft Invest, by February 28, 2026, as part of a strategic pivot to focus exclusively on the Microsoft Advertising Platform, which will emphasize conversational, personalized, and AI-driven advertising experiences. The tech giant is abandoning "the industry's current DSP model" that "no longer aligns" with its vision, while continuing to support media buying through third-party DSPs and doubling down on monetizing its extensive consumer properties, including Xbox, Bing, Copilot, Outlook, and LinkedIn. Microsoft's Corporate Vice President Kya Sainsbury-Carter framed the decision as part of a broader push toward an "agentic world" where advertising becomes integrated into conversational AI experiences, with Copilot positioned at the core of the company's advertising platforms.

IAB’s Day in Court

European Court Settles IAB Europe's GDPR Case, Narrowing Scope of Ad Tech Liability

A Belgian appeals court has finally ruled on the IAB Europe's Transparency & Consent Framework (TCF), reaffirming a €250,000 fine while confirming the trade body is a joint data controller for the framework and that TC Strings constitute personal data under GDPR. The decision represents a partial victory for the digital advertising industry by rejecting the broader definition of joint controllership that would have made IAB Europe accountable for all data processing in the supply chain, though it now requires the organization to be explicitly included among vendors granted permission for data collection in consent pop-ups. "The impact on the market is negligible," said IAB Europe CEO Towney Feehan, who emphasized that the ruling pertains only to a prior version of the TCF and that the current framework remains legally valid for programmatic advertising in Europe.

According to Gartner's annual survey, marketing budgets remain flat at 7.7% of company revenue in 2025, with 39% of CMOs actively seeking to reduce labor costs as they deploy AI to automate creative generation and ad operations. Despite budget constraints, brands are protecting their ad spend while cutting marketing technology investments and agency partnerships, with 40% of CMOs using AI for automation and 37% implementing AI agents to improve ad spend efficiency.

Amazon Ads unveiled three new connected TV formats, including contextually relevant pause ads powered by AI, on-platform shoppable ads for Amazon products, and off-platform interactive ads with "send to phone" functionality, all designed to reach the 130 million monthly Prime Video ad viewers.

The Trade Desk-owned Sincera launched OpenSincera, a free API integration providing real-time ad impression data on publishers and tech vendors to the entire advertising ecosystem, marking a strategic shift from its former freemium model to a platform that benefits agencies, publishers, and advertisers while leveraging TTD's campaign results data.

Publicis dominated Q1 2025 agency rankings with 319 global account wins worth $168 million in revenue, including the coveted Coca-Cola media business in the U.S. and Canada, while Omnicom topped media acquisitions with $80.8 million from 176 new clients, and WPP secured Electronic Arts as independent Horizon Media won cable provider Spectrum's account.

Applebee's restaurant visits increased 12% when using GSTV's gas pump video advertising alone and jumped to 27% higher foot traffic when combined with digital video ads, according to a new IPG Magna study that demonstrates the effectiveness of targeting consumers who are already "in motion" and likely to spend 5.3 times more at restaurants after fueling up.

Netflix's advertising business continues its rapid expansion with 94 million monthly active users globally, up from 70 million in November, while U.S. subscribers are spending 41 hours monthly on the platform as the streaming giant rolls out its in-house Ads Suite across all 12 ad-supported markets and enhances targeting capabilities with programmatic offerings through The Trade Desk and Google's Display & Video 360.

Acting Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Russell Vought has withdrawn a proposed rule that would have required data brokers to obtain consent before selling Americans' sensitive personal information, a decision welcomed by the Financial Technology Association but criticized by privacy advocates, dealing a significant blow to efforts to regulate the multibillion-dollar data broker industry that powers targeted advertising, marketing databases, and audience profiling.

Publicis Groupe is expanding its "Closed Door Sessions" at the upcoming Cannes Lions festival, where over 50 executives will meet with major clients including recent wins Coca-Cola, L'Oréal and LinkedIn to demonstrate how the holding company's CoreAI platform can "create AI upside to fight the downturn," with Sadoun touting that last year's sessions led to the development and deployment of over 50 CoreAI models for clients, while sidestepping discussions about agency compensation models despite industry-wide concerns about AI's impact on pricing.

Key Article Takeaways - TLDR

  • Develop LLMO (Large Language Model Optimization) capabilities immediately as ChatGPT's shopping feature bypasses traditional discovery channels; firms must audit visibility across trusted sources feeding AI recommendations and generate authentic advocacy signals.

  • Microsoft's Invest DSP shutdown by February 2026 exposes a strategic weakness in traditional ad models for non-dominant players. Prioritize building AI-integration capabilities and conversational formats for agentic environments like Copilot to avoid disintermediation.