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Meta’s AI vibes have been very different lately; times are tough for The Trade Desk; and fingerprinting has a bad reputation.

Is TTD forcing agencies to adopt the new Kokai interface despite claims they can still use the interface of their choice? Here’s what we were able to find out.

We’ve got the witness list for the remedy phase of the Google antitrust trial, which starts in September. How might Google be forced to change its ad server and exchange to make this corner of the ad tech market competitive again?

CTV advertising platforms often try to sell small businesses on how closely the channel resembles the digital marketing avenues they’re used to working with, like paid social. For Wildgrain, a DTC subscription service for artisan breads and other grain-based foods, this argument proved to be very compelling.

Enjoy this weekly comic from AdExchanger.com that highlights the digital advertising ecosystem … 

Walmart’s CTV and DSP business shine in a meh Q2; plummeting search traffic is blowing up cost-per-click pricing; and TikTok annoys brands with its black box optimization.

Product prices and marketing budgets are flip sides of the same coin. But the phase-in effects of tariffs, combined with vicissitudes of global weather and commodity production, challenge that truism.

For all of Ad Tech Land’s excitement about new and emerging CTV-specific ad formats, many commercial brands are still hesitant to try some of these new formats for themselves.

The IAB Tech Lab video classification updates introduced much-needed clarity. But valuable inventory, now categorized differently, is being deprioritized or rejected, even though its performance hasn’t changed.

Former Meta employee files a complaint regarding the company’s illegal business practices; virtual AI salespeople are hosting 24/7 livestreams; and Google SPN advertisers will now receive a list of URLs where their ads appeared.

IAB Tech Lab CEO Anthony Katsur didn’t mince his words when declaring unauthorized generative AI scraping of publisher content “theft, full stop.”

Last week, the DOJ and Google filed their respective witness lists and the exhibit lists for the remedy phase of the ad tech antitrust trial. Lots of familiar faces!

Bluefish helps advertisers track and optimize how they show up in an LLM’s search results. Its latest funding will expand its team and product suite.

Web publishers are seeing revenue and traffic evaporate thanks to AI searches; LG Ads is finally preparing to go public; and women’s dating safety app Tea has some shady marketing practices.

Programmatic OOH and video ad platform Adomni wants to make DOOH approachable to more small and local businesses by simplifying the process and lowering the cost.

Native advertising has been around for a long time. But creating a native ad unit online is way more complicated than a standard programmatic placement, because multiple teams and systems have to compose it on the fly, says Priti Ohri, CEO and co-founder of startup Advertible, which describes itself as “native-as-a-service.”

Wondercraft’s new tool generates and revises audio content via natural language prompting, without the need for advanced technical skills.

Walmart has some new rules for third-party sellers; WPP wins Mastercard; and marketers should get into VTubers.

What’s the point of a market research survey that could take weeks, when consumer sentiment is rollercoasting up and down every day? That’s the problem MX8 Labs aims to tackle.

Last month, Spotify began making podcast inventory available programmatically, which is something buyers have been asking for, says Spotify’s Chloe Wix.

The competitive set has shifted and it’s stacked against independent DSPs. But, instead of chasing what competitors already own, TTD can own what they can’t: trust.

Perplexity didn’t just try to buy Chrome; product placement in TV and film is on the rise; and the FCC is on one again.

The Trade Desk has won the battle for supremacy on the open internet, says Needham & Company’s Laura Martin. But it might just be losing the war for the future of the web to walled gardens and AI search.

According to Adam Paul, executive director of media alliances at LiveRamp, the old-school programmatic ads – the ones bought across multiple platforms without regard to context or audience – are underperforming on CTV these days.

Enjoy this weekly comic from AdExchanger.com that highlights the digital advertising ecosystem … 

Walmart Connect’s deal with The Trade Desk isn’t so exclusive anymore; Amazon is competing with everyone except publishers; and Meta’s chatbots don’t exactly inspire confidence in the company’s ability to deliver effective AI tools.

Today’s developers face mounting challenges: heavier workloads, complex tech stacks and an increasingly fragmented advertising landscape demanding automation at scale. This complexity limits their ability to adopt new products and innovate.

Protected by Mediaocean, Mediaocean’s ad verification division, is partnering with the Internet Watch Foundation to crack down on CSAM and ensure children’s online safety.

Human-made content will remain the most important source of information for consumers online. And our appreciation for human expression will only grow as we experience derivative outputs created by AI models.

Some accuse The Trade Desk of becoming a walled garden; short form video clips are the only way to go viral; and a new startup touts “micro-dramas.”