This week’s round-up of the latest mergers and acquisitions, partnerships, and account moves includes Amazon Ads, Adthena, Gambling.com.
Deal Desk rounds-up the latest moves across the global affiliate and digital marketing industry and why it matters.
This week, Amazon Ads partners with Octave; Born Social launchs new creator community; and Dentsu joins forces with Adthena for ChatGPT advertising.
Amazon Ads partners with Octave
Amazon Ads has joined forces with Octave – News UK’s audio-visual advertising platform – to make talkSport, Virgin Radio UK, Times Radio, Talk, and other News UK digital audio brands available through Amazon DSP.
This programmatic integration expands Amazon DSP’s breadth of supply for advertisers, bringing a wide variety of premium content publishers across a range of topics and genres.
The integration looks to make it easier for brands to reach their desired audiences at scale, giving them the ability to leverage insights from Amazon’s trillions of first-party shopping, browsing, and streaming signals, alongside rich audience signals from Octave.
Phil Christer, managing director of UK Amazon Ad said: “Audio is where UK audiences are spending more and more of their time, and this integration brings some of the country’s most engaging premium audio brands to Amazon DSP.
“It makes audio easier for advertisers to plan, activate, and measure as part of a brand’s full-funnel strategy — so they can see the impact of their campaigns, all from one place.”
Leaders take
Octave combines inventory from News UK’s portfolio of media brands, which includes audience data, alongside premium partners to reach over 15.5 million connected listeners per month. Coupled with Amazon Ads trillions of first-party data signals and its measurement capabilities (including third-party tools), this partnerships offers a significant opportunity for advertisers looking to scale and reach a mass audience. It also streamlines the process, giving advertisers a one-stop-shop to plan, activate, optimise and measure campaigns.
Born Social forms new creator community
Social media creative agency, Born Social, has launched a new operating model for brand building: the Born Creator Community.
Built in partnership with Croud, the new global creator platform aims to help brands scale “authentic, social-first content at a time when social feeds are flooded with AI-generated creative”, the agency said.
The Born Creator Community will include perpetual usage rights, allowing brands to repurpose content across social, CRM, websites and paid media. It also gives brands access to bespoke creator communities, which can be activated across markets, but Born Social will retain strategic oversight.
Leaders take
Creator content is undoubtedly going to feature as a key affiliate and marketing strategy for brands going forward, so a unified purpose built community platform is a smart move from Born Social.
This was tested in a pilot phase by brands including Stanley, Premier Inn, Guinness, and Smirnoff, which illustrates agility across a range of sectors.
Dentsu and Adthena partner for ChatGPT advertising
Adthena is partnering with Dentsu for a new ‘Decision Intelligence’ product to help UK brands compete in digital advertising channels.
The collaboration looks to bring together Dentsu’s practical experience in running live campaigns with Adthena’s decision intelligence capabilities.
Dentsu was one of OpenAI’s four UK agency launch partners, and was an early participant in the ChatGPT ad auction, giving valuable first-hand performance data and real-market insights.
The new product is designed for competitive dynamics in AI-native ad environments, and can identify which competitors have entered specific prompt categories, when they appeared, and what effect their entry has had on auction prices.
Toby Benjamin, chief media officer, Dentsu UK & Ireland, said: “ChatGPT is already changing how consumers research, compare, and make purchasing decisions, and our role is to ensure our clients’ brands are present, credible, and competitive from the very start.
“Partnering with Adthena’s Decision Intelligence backs that positioning with data and supports us in staying ahead as this channel scales.”
Kat Pouwer, senior director, partnerships EMEA, Adthena, added: “OpenAI’s ads manager tells you what is happening to your campaigns. Adthena tells you why and what to do about it.
“Launching Decision Intelligence alongside a partner like Dentsu, who already has live data and real clients competing in the UK ChatGPT auction, means our intelligence is being tested and validated against the most complex auction conditions in the market right now. UK advertisers now have access to advertising intelligence in combination with Dentsu’s campaign expertise, and that combination is unmatched.”
“Crucially, the platform translates this intelligence into prioritised, actionable recommendations: whether to cap bids on inflated groups, redirect budget to uncontested prompt categories, or win high-value placements on creative strength rather than bidding power,” the press release confirmed.
Leaders take
ChatGPT is evolving as an interesting experiment in advertising – with clear enthusiasm for the technology and platform, but an under-delivery in practice. As the technology either grows or burns out, the ad ecosystem will reflect the evolving landscape.
What will make this partnership is how Adthena and Dentsu translate the intelligence they gain into actionable recommendations for brands – whether that’s to cap bids on inflated groups, redirect budgets or improve creative strength.
Other notable deals
Gambling.com Group has rebranded to Grandstand limited. This represents a diversification for the company as it moves towards its data, technology, content and audience solutions.
Kevin McCrystle, chief executive officer and co-founder of Grandstand, said: “Grandstand captures our position as the intelligence layer powering informed decisions for consumers and partners across sports, gaming and entertainment. The new name Grandstand brings together the broad array of products and services in our portfolio, while also creating room for what we are building now and our long-term roadmap.”
The Paramount and Warner Bros merger talks have been put on hold and could be froxen until as late as next June as US state legislators look to block the agreement. The deal has garnered significant criticism from actors, directors, and other industry professionals, who signed a letter protesting the merger over monopoly concerns and fears the “transaction would further consolidate an already concentrated media landscape, reducing competition at a moment when our industries – and the audiences we serve – can least afford it”.
