Monthly brandtech blend – June 2019

Digital advertising: the post-tracking era

After Apple’s successive Intelligent Tracking Prevention updates and the rumor that Google is on its way to follow the lead, advertisers are naturally feeling overwhelmed, although many understand that the outcome will be positive in the long run. However, short-term issues are drawing attention at the moment. Indeed, advertisers and digital agencies are having more and more trouble monitoring users’ online behavior, which makes it difficult to build consistent attribution modeling and media plans.

Read more on Digiday, and dig deeper on ad Exchanger

IAB Internet Advertising Report: 2018 full year results

The Interactive Advertising Bureau and PwC recently released their 2018 annual report on the state of the digital advertising market in the US. For the first time, digital advertising revenue exceeded $100 billion, with an overall 21% year-over-year increase, representing 40% of the total media landscape. The most important highlight of the report is the outstanding results of mobile, since the latter accounts for 65% of all media spending with a near 40% YoY increase. Several key growth drivers are also worth noting, including the resurgence of e-commerce and the introduction of data privacy regulations, but also new ad technologies powered by Artificial Intelligence or 5G.

Download the full report here

Google I/O 2019: Pixel 3a, Nest Home Hub, Android Q and Assistant… Discover this year’s innovations

The annual Google developers’ conference—presented by the firm’s CEO, Sundar Pichai, and its exec team—took place last month. Far away from the time where its only goal was to provide access to any type of information to anyone by typing a few keywords, the firm launched its latest software and hardware innovations. With the official announcement of its Pixel 3a and 3a Plus smartphones, the smart face-and-voice-match home device Nest Hub Max, the great improvements on Google Assistant (say goodbye to “Hey Google”), and the beta version of Android Q,Google has more than one trick up its sleeve this year!

Read more on Wired, or in The Verge

Facebook Groups and Dating, Instagram turning into ecommerce and new VR headsets… Here’s what you’ve missed from the Facebook F8

As the social network turned 15 this year, its founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced a year of great changes and innovations in the opening keynote of the Facebook F8 annual conference. Outlined by one major theme “the future is private”, the company showed an attempt for a fresh start, after a year packed with privacy controversies. The firm also made important announcements for each of its apps. Facebook will be redesigned to focus on groups and events and, will further develop Facebook Dating. Instagram takes on the e-commerce challenge, Messenger will cater for close friends, and Whatsapp will have new business features. Finally, new VR headsets and connected screens have been introduced. Facebook is more alive than you think!

Read more in the tea house

GDPR one year on: what have we learned so far?

This month marks the end of the first year into GDPR. So, what has actually changed? For one thing, GDPR has succeeded in raising awareness among citizens in Europe (and beyond!) about their personal data. But on the company side, not enough sanctions have been given by regulators to actually make them feel threatened. Although some tangible progress has been made, a high number of companies seem to continue to do as little as possible to keep their ad revenues up. Also, data privacy is no longer aEuropean issue, while awareness on that matter has expanded globally.

Read more on Digiday

The digital cold war between China and the United States

Donald Trump seems to have decided to mimic China in its one-way isolation to the rest of the world with its Great Firewall. Indeed, an order was released by the American government preventing potentially threatening companies from trading with the US. Google immediately announced it would limit access to its softwares (including its mobile operating system, Android) for Huawei, which powers the Chinese company’s devices. This technological cold war is likely to go on for some time.

Read more in The New York Times

Facebook Groups, an unexpected treasure

In the midst of this year’s edition of the Facebook F8 conference—which revealed a focus on the development of Facebook Groups—it appears that retailers, and more importantly direct-to-consumer brands, are increasingly taking advantage of this Facebook feature, as they leverage their customers to gather feedback and strengthen their digital community. But there’s more: communities are also growing on Facebook in an unofficial manner, with superfans creating their own digital conversations around brands, and developing increasingly influential spaces for buy and trade, tip exchanges, styling advice, etc.

Read more in Digiday