Next in Media chatted with Rich Bloom, GM, Creator Programs & EVP, Business Development at Tubi, about the Fox-owned streamers new creator program, which has quickly expanded for five to 50 participants. Bloom also talked about Tubi's overall growth, Gen Z misconceptions, and whether TV needs to adopt more YouTube-like qualities.

💡Takeaways:

• 🎬 Creator Content is Blurring the Lines with Traditional TV: The distinction between content from native digital creators and traditional Hollywood content is becoming increasingly blurry, with creators now producing longer-form, high-quality content that is being watched on television.
• 🤝 Collaborative Partnerships are a New Path to Hollywood: Tubi is creating a program called "Tubi For Creators" that provides native digital creators with a path to elevate their careers and businesses by giving them a way to work with Tubi.
• 📈 Success Comes from Leveraging Existing Audiences: The success of Tubi’s original movie Sideline was a result of bringing together the built-in fandoms of a popular Wattpad novel and a huge TikTok star, Noah Beck, who was eager to cross over into acting.
• 🚫 Accessibility and Low Friction are Key to Attracting Young Viewers: The absence of a paywall on Tubi makes it an accessible platform that encourages young audiences, like those on TikTok, to easily transition from a clip on their phone to watching the full content on Tubi.
• 💰 Creators Are the New Media Startups: Creators are seen as sophisticated media startups that produce content, own their own IP, have large distribution channels, and have huge, loyal fan bases.

🎙 Guest: Rich Bloom

🎤 Host: Mike Shields

📺 Sponsor: Elemental TV & Linkedin

🎬 Producer: FEL Creative

Next in Media spoke with Marketecture CEO Ari Paparo, author of the new book "Yield: How Google Bought, Built, and Bullied Its Way to Advertising Dominance" about how Google was able to build a monopoly on programmatic ads, despite so many people in the ad industry shouting about it for years - and whether we can stop the next one.

💡Takeaways:

• 🏛️ The initial small scale of programmatic advertising in the early 2000s made it difficult for regulators to foresee its future dominance, allowing Google's DoubleClick acquisition to proceed with less scrutiny than it might warrant today.
• ⚔️ Google's ownership of the ad server provided a significant competitive advantage, enabling it to "snipe" bids and secure ad inventory by having insight into auction prices.
• 🔍 Regulators initially overlooked the critical advantage of Google's ad server being connected to its exchange, a factor that proved more significant than simply a company selling ads also owning a marketplace.
• 🤫 Google's acquisition of Invite Media (which became DV360) for a relatively low price (around $80 million) reportedly allowed it to avoid significant antitrust scrutiny, highlighting a potential loophole in regulatory oversight based on transaction size.
• ⚖️ The lack of specific regulations governing advertising market transactions, unlike financial markets, meant that the ad industry operated largely on "best behavior and contract law," creating vulnerabilities for anti-competitive practices.
• 🗣️ Publisher dissatisfaction with Google's actions, such as removing features like UPR, played a significant role in fueling antitrust scrutiny and demonstrating the company's "total arrogance".
• 🌍 Unlike the US, the Digital Markets Act in Europe provides regulators with tools to intervene based on a company's scale of power, offering a potential model for preventing future monopolies in the digital advertising space.

🎙 Guest: Ari Paparo

🎤 Host: Mike Shields

📺 Sponsor: Elemental TV

🎬 Producer: FEL Creative

Next in Media spoke with WPP Media's Jessica Brown and Spark Foundry Worldwide's Kelly Metz, focusing on YouTube's growing role in the TV marketplace, the shift towards holistic video measurement, the increasing importance of AI and streamlined approaches in media buying, and the evolving challenges and opportunities in creator partnerships and cross-platform attribution.

💡Takeaways:

• 📺 YouTube's Growing TV Presence: YouTube is increasingly seen as a significant part of the TV landscape, with viewership numbers supporting its inclusion in TV consumption.
• 📱 Short-Form Content on TV: YouTube Shorts are surprisingly popular on television, prompting discussions on whether short-form content like TikTok and YouTube Shorts should be considered alongside traditional TV in video strategies.
• 🚀 Social-First and Short-Form Strategies: Brands should consider starting with social-first and short-form content, depending on their audience and message, as there are various options for reaching consumers.
• 🤝 Streamlined Creator Partnerships: While finding and activating creators at scale remains challenging, companies are making strategic acquisitions and developing agile processes to simplify creator deals and get campaigns to market quickly.
• 📊 Need for Holistic Measurement: There's a strong demand for better, more comprehensive, and consistent measurement across all media platforms, including walled gardens, to compare performance effectively and understand ROI.
• 🤖 AI and Tech in Media Buying: Technology and AI are becoming increasingly important for media buying, helping to streamline approaches, inform product choices, and create more effective and impactful campaigns.

🎙 Guests: Jessica Brown & Kelly Metz

🎤 Host: Mike Shields

📺 Sponsor: Elemental TV

🎬 Producer: FEL Creative