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Welcome to the Advertising and Media Insider newsletter, our weekly roundup of all the big stories we've been covering.
First, I want to make sure you don't miss a deep dive we published by reporter Ashley Rodriguez, Inside Netflix's marketing strategy for 'Stranger Things,' the show that supercharged its work with brands like Lyft and Coca-Cola.
In the piece, Ashley looks at how Netflix has done deals with dozens of brands like Coca-Cola, Baskin-Robbins, and Nike to promote "Stranger Things." Some of the key points:
- Netflix's global partner marketing and consumer products teams are also reaching out to brands to promote other tentpole Netflix originals, through licensing deals or broader marketing partnerships.
- Netflix's pursuit of marketing partners comes at a time when the streaming giant is trying to keep its 148 million paid subscriber base from flatlining in the US, and growing heartily abroad.
- The collaborations serve a broader purpose: To test people's appetites for engaging with Netflix franchises outside of the streaming platform as well as their willingness to accept Netflix shows being associated with brands.
Speaking of advertising, Tanya Dua reported from Cannes, France, last week about how advertisers are bracing for sweeping changes to how they've put their message in front of people online:
- As regulators and tech platforms like Apple, Google, and Facebook clamp down on targeting and focus on privacy, companies are responding by appointing chief privacy officers and focusing on collecting first-party data.
- Still, collecting data is one thing, but managing it is a challenge for a lot of marketers who have traditionally relied on outside parties to do it for them. And people say they're increasingly concerned about how their personal data is used.
- Chipotle's top marketer compared the changes to a "steamroller coming."
Here are other stories we've been reporting. (You can read most of the articles here by subscribing to BI Prime; use promo code AD2PRIME2018 for a free month.)
Amazon is coming for Madison Avenue's talent, and it could be another blow to embattled agencies and ad-tech companies
Meanwhile, Amazon is trying to break the digital ad duopoly, and it's looking to fill some 190 advertising jobs in New York to do so. Lauren Johnson dug into how Amazon is luring talent, where it's setting its sights, and its chances for success. As ad tech, media companies, and agencies face consolidation and layoffs, Amazon could benefit from a glut of unemployed talent. But Amazon also has a reputation for having chaotic management and needs to show it can offer what creative people are looking for.
A new alliance hoping to save Facebook and Google from regulation has left out a key group
The Global Alliance for Responsible Media is a new group that includes ad and tech giants like GroupM, Unilever, Facebook, and Google and was formed to improve online safety as there's growing talk of breaking up tech companies and online content regulation. Some critics worry that news outlets were left out and question putting tech companies in charge of fixing the problem they created. The reaction reflects the vast power the tech giants have amassed, the advertisers and their agencies that support them, and the interconnectedness between the two sides.
LiveRamp paid $150 million for a 20-person ad-tech firm, and it shows the massive forward bets that advertisers are making on the future of television
Data Plus Math is being sold at a multiple of 24 to 30 times revenue, which is massive, even for its sector, experts say. According to one, the average valuation for marketing cloud companies is closer to 9X to 10X. The high price shows how red-hot advertisers' demand is for strong tools to measure and attribute ads on the growing area of OTT.
Here are other stories from media, tech, and advertising you should check out: