Blog: digital advertising

Read our latest daily deep dives, hot takes, and exciting updates about the entertainment world. Check out the latest insight from your favourite analyst, or search by coverage areas - music, entertainment and fandom, creator economy and social.

Instagram and the download-delete cycle: a cultural shift for social platforms

Cover image for Instagram and the download-delete cycle: a cultural shift for social platforms

Hanna Kahlert

13 Aug 2024

analogue revival

Forget the tech-centric sci-fi future promised by the early 2000’s; the new aspiration is going offline. Analogue is the new ‘cool’, and it is not just about nostalgia. Audiences are searching for authenticity, connection, novelty, experience, and tangible ownership of the things they love, al...

min read

Not everyone can be a winner in the FAST gold rush

Cover image for Not everyone can be a winner in the FAST gold rush

Ben Woods

28 Feb 2023

Video streaming executives searching for relief from the high cost of acquiring new subscribers have found a saviour – and it looks a lot like linear TV. Free ad-supported streaming television (FAST) is becoming a necessity for video services whose strategy of spending big on exclusive content to ...

min read

YouTube’s new king must reclaim the title of social video’s great innovator

Cover image for YouTube’s new king must reclaim the title of social video’s great innovator

Ben Woods

23 Feb 2023

YouTube’s changing of the guard has brought forward a stark reality: the social video platform responsible for a seismic shift in how video is created, monetised, and distributed is now looking and feeling like an incumbent.

min read

Twitch can fight the digital advertising downturn with Guest Star

Cover image for Twitch can fight the digital advertising downturn with Guest Star

Ben Woods

20 Dec 2022

When Twitch influencer Freckled Science wanted to puncture the falsehoods surrounding the beauty industry, she patched in Dr. Michelle Wong for a live interview . The co-stream, incorporating the feeds of both streamers, was among the early try-outs of Guest Star – the livestreaming platform’s l...

min read

Video streamers batten down the hatches, the social subscription revolution is coming

Cover image for Video streamers batten down the hatches, the social subscription revolution is coming

Ben Woods

25 Oct 2022

Social media companies have been happy to ride the tumultuous waves of digital advertising regardless of the market dominance of Google and Facebook. Arguments for tweaking the business model have always struggled to win-out against the benefits of scale, even during the economic turmoil caused by t...

min read

Instagram drops the Like and WhatsApp defends privacy in India: Facebook’s PR reinvention

Cover image for Instagram drops the Like and WhatsApp defends privacy in India: Facebook’s PR reinvention

Hanna Kahlert

27 May 2021

Facebook is now old enough that there are teenagers on it that are younger than it is. In the time that it has been around, it has reinvented social media . It has also had to do some reinventing of itself, adding to its portfolio image-sharing app Instagram and end-to-end encrypted messaging servic...

min read

The hidden value of esports audiences

Cover image for The hidden value of esports audiences

Karol Severin

20 Jul 2020

Esports video viewers are becoming more interesting to brands and media companies. Increasingly more focus is now put on accurately valuing esports audiences. Gamers (and even more so, esports viewers) are valuable segments in terms of money and time spent across the attention economy.

min read

Thoughts on Spotify’s Acquisition of Gimlet Media and Anchor

Zach Fuller

6 Feb 2019

Spotify is reported to have purchased the podcast companies Gimlet Media and Anchor. Having only just reported an operating profit for the first time, the deals demonstrate not only how Spotify is still firmly locked in growth mode and its market share in music streaming platforms but also how much ...

min read

Google Reveals Interactive YouTube Ad Tools as it Prepares to Compete with Amazon

Zach Fuller

2 Oct 2018

digital advertising

Ads on YouTube are about to get a lot more interactive. With competition from Amazon heating up, Google is doubling down on the competitive advantage of its video assets, namely YouTube’s unrivalled position as a how-to video domain, compared to Netflix and Amazon Prime Video’s more premium offe...

min read

S4 Capital's Growth Strategy

Zach Fuller

14 Sep 2018

Advertising industry

digital advertising

F. Scott Fitzgerald famously said there are no second acts in American lives. Sir Martin Sorrell however is not an American, despite having conducted extensive business in the US and being rumoured to hold the record for most the transatlantic concord flights between London and New York.

min read

Quick Take: Twitch and Amazon’s Advertising Strategy

Zach Fuller

22 Aug 2018

digital advertising

It is the fastest growing segment of the business and yet until recently no one seems to have addressed the extent to which Amazon’s advertising is becoming an increasing force in ad land. Now that’s its online gaming streaming platform Twitch is targeting over $1 billion in annually in advertis...

min read

Quick Take: NME and the Decline of Print

Zach Fuller

9 Mar 2018

digital advertising

To paraphrase a proverb on the inevitability of change, ‘It is astonishing how long things can continue and how quickly they can fall’. The NME’s swift announcement of a final issue certainly aligns with this prophecy.

min read

The Digital Advertising Contest Between Google And Facebook Is Intensifying

Zach Fuller

14 Feb 2018

digital advertising

Brace yourselves for a stats-centric blog. Having gone through this week’s annual reports from big tech, there have been some important developments in the digital advertising space. These of course hold significant implications for content monetisation, as whilst subscriptions remain the core dri...

min read

Snapchat’s Re-Design Is Likely Too Little Too Late

Zach Fuller

30 Nov 2017

Branded content

digital advertising

Having promised a ‘whole new Snapchat’, it appears the app’s mooted re-design is not the revolution Evan Spiegel proposed during his company’s Q3 earnings call. The company’s founder stated that: “While blurring the lines between professional content creators and your friends has been an...

min read

Quick Take: Big Tech’s Q3 Earnings Have Big Implications for Media

Zach Fuller

3 Nov 2017

With US listed public companies’ quarterly earnings currently being drip-fed to Wall Street, here are two of the implications for Media and Advertising entities from Tech’s Big Four Q3 earnings: Amazon’s Media Presence is Continuing to Grow: While Amazon did not break out its specific numbers ...

min read

From Adblocker To Ad Exchange: Eyeo Embeds Itself Into The Digital Advertising Value Chain

Karol Severin

21 Sep 2016

adblock plus ad exchange

Last week a major strategic puzzle piece fell into place on an adblocker’s journey to become a commercial part of the digital advertising industry’s value chain. Eyeo, the company behind Adblock Plus announced that it is launching an ad exchange.

min read