Tag: adtech
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Analyzing ChatGPT Ads: Study Reveals Key Insights
Accounts tied to lower-income ZIP codes were more likely to be shown ChatGPT ads at all, according to the first independent audit of advertising inside an LLM. It ran 91 fake users for three weeks before the ads stopped, and the authors think OpenAI worked out the accounts were not real.
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Butler/Till Pointed Its Buying Agent at iHeart’s, Skipping the SSP
Two AI agents — one built by the agency, one by the publisher — met over an MCP server and placed just under $10,000 of podcast and streaming audio inventory. No SSP in the middle. Butler/Till says CPMs came in 42% below the client’s own benchmark for direct buying.
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Time Is Selling Ads That Only AI Crawlers Can Read
Time is running a second version of its site that only AI crawlers see — and selling ads inside it. Ally Bank’s sponsored copy went to ClaudeBot and PerplexityBot; Google’s search crawler got the page humans get. Nobody has decided yet whether that kind of ad needs a label.
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Gap Splits Its AI Marketing Rebuild Across Google Cloud, Zeta and Publicis Sapient
Gap has partnered with Google Cloud, Zeta Global, and Publicis Sapient to transform its marketing approach. The collaboration aims to create a scalable, real-time marketing organization using integrated data and AI. Google Cloud provides the data foundation, Zeta builds the marketing stack, and Publicis designs the operating model. The initiative focuses on enhancing content relevance,…
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The Trade Desk Lets Claude Fill Out the Paperwork—Just Don’t Call It “Buying” Yet
The Trade Desk is talking to agency execs about Koa Agents, a set of agentic features meant to automate large parts of programmatic setup and troubleshooting. The system connects with whatever AI model a partner is using — including Anthropic’s Claude — through an interoperability layer called Open Agentic Kit. According to an agency exec…
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Wpromote’s AI Strategy: Let the Bots Pitch, But Keep the Keys
Kargo has rolled out “Project Kera,” a chat-style planning and buying interface (closed beta) aimed at making cross-channel activation feel less like stitching together five different dashboards. The pitch: one agentic layer that can pull together biddable and non-biddable inventory, with beta testers including Hershey, travel media network Navigator, and indie agency Wpromote. Kargo’s CEO…
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The promise and problem of agentic AI in advertising
AI agents were everywhere around the Super Bowl this year—so brands are doing the obvious thing: chasing attention where the attention is. The twist is that both consumers and the industry are still figuring out what “agentic” actually means in practice, even as platforms keep shipping new tools. Google’s Ashish Gupta pointed to longer, more…
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Agentic ad buying has moved from niche topic to top-tier anxiety for media planners
Agentic ad buying has officially graduated from niche curiosity to boardroom concern. In the IAB’s January 2026 Outlook Study, 40% of US ad buyers said that getting their arms around agentic ad buying and how campaigns actually get executed is one of their top worries for 2026—ranking right up there with the usual macro and…
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AdAge Top 5 AI activations
From AI-generated cruise ads to YouTube fan parodies, brands (and unofficial creators) are leaning hard into generative content. Recent hot examples include a parody video pitting Netflix against Paramount in a fictional “Streaming Bowl”—complete with Harry Potter, Superman, and a stadium’s worth of IP cameos. Posted by creator Muhannad Nassar, the spot has racked up…