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| HBO Max Is Back—But Can Neo Fix the CTV Matrix? |
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Stuck In The WBD Matrix WBD is also leaning into its library of iconic content to offer brands a new way to create custom campaigns. Through its Storyverse initiative, the company gives advertisers access to characters and narratives from WBD’s beloved movies and shows. We’ve already seen what these campaigns will look like in practice. Think State Farm’s Batman vs. Bateman ads or Unilever’s Super Bowl spot promoting Hellmann’s mayonnaise starring Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal reprising their roles from “When Harry Met Sally.” Storyverse enables brands to develop branded content, product lines or creative integrations that can run across WBD’s platforms or through external partnerships. This strategy allows marketers to tap into fan nostalgia for established media properties to build deeper consumer connections. To borrow some inspiration from WBD’s new Neo platform … maybe we’ll see brand mascots joining Keanu Reeves in “The Matrix.” Maybe some advertisers will want to leave the muggle world behind and visit Platform 9¾ for some synergy with HBO’s upcoming Harry Potter TV series or take a resort trip to one of The White Lotus’s exotic locales. The WBD/HBO world is their oyster. Publishers Fight CTV Fragmentation Creative possibilities in the Storyverse aside, the Neo platform looks like WBD’s biggest concession to marketer demands for more control over their CTV campaigns. The fragmentation problem in CTV is nothing new, and publishers and advertisers have been working through different ways to combat it. As AdMonsters content director Lynne d Johnson aptly put it, “CTV is the problem child of measurement, and everyone’s trying to parent it differently.” CTV fragmentation causes a lot of measurement messiness for marketers. Buyers are juggling logins across a dozen clean rooms and wrestling with disconnected data sets, while creative strategy—arguably the most critical element of a campaign—is tacked on as an afterthought. Still, WBD and other streaming platforms are working to nurture adolescent CTV tech into a fully functioning adult that’s accountable for its actions. Developed in partnership with FreeWheel and Magnite, Neo is meant to offer advertisers transparency into what media they’re buying, with real-time insights across every WBD screen and content-level data. Brands can activate their data alongside WBD's first-party audiences for more intelligent targeting and improved ROI. But stay tuned while we wait and see how effective this solution will be. Did you like this newsletter? Is there a topic you want me to tackle next time? Feel free to hit me up with your feedback at abyrd@admonsters.com. |
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| Monster Mashup |
| Confessions of a Former Curation Hater: “I’ve Changed My Tune.” Ryan Maynard, the SVP of Programmatic Sales Operations at publisher monetization platform Raptive, was, until recently, deeply skeptical of curation and the industry’s shift to activating curated audiences within SSPs. What changed? Read more. As Buyers Prioritize Media Health, The Daily Mail Has A New Way To Check Its Vitals The Daily Mail saw the programmatic marketplace shifting toward curated deals. They started using Signal Vitals because it gives publishers a road map for being included in these deals. Read more. Snackable Media Acquires AdGrid: Justin Barton on Building a Multicultural Tech Stack That Puts Publishers First Snackable Media’s acquisition of AdGrid marks a first. A Black-owned header bidding wrapper and full-stack ad platform built with multicultural publishers in mind. Read more. From OAO to adops.com: CEO Craig Leshen on Elevating Ad Ops for Publishers OAO is now adops.com—but this rebrand is more than a name change. CEO Craig Leshen talks about what’s needed to move ad ops out of execution mode and into a strategic role that drives revenue, operational clarity, and long-term growth for publishers. Read more. Everything Is Everything. Change Comes Eventually. Will Media Owners Lead It? Discovery is shifting. Attention is scattered. And the sell side isn’t just supporting strategy—it is the strategy. Here’s what media owners need to know now, and the real moves to make next. Read more. |
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