LTK, the platform that powers Creator Commerce™, is strengthening its proven creator-powered e-Commerce marketplace with the launch of Buy Now with LTK Cart. In the last 12 months, consumers have purchased more than $4B in products from creators on the LTK shopping platform, and with this launch, LTK is deepening its e-Commerce integration with merchants for creators to deliver a seamless shopping experience for their community. The in-app cart and checkout experience delivers a faster discovery-to-purchase flow for shoppers, reducing friction and helping drive higher conversion rates for creators and brand, retail and manufacturer partners.

Additionally, the LTK custom-built Buy Now with LTK Cart technology is now available for all brands on Shopify on the Shopify App Store. As part of this offering, brands on Shopify can fast track integration into the LTK platform and quickly scale their distribution through the booming, creator-guided shopping experience. Various brands have already integrated Buy Now on LTK - including Lucchese Bootmaker, Misa Los Angeles, Buffbunny, Peixoto and Roe Wellness.

Modern shoppers expect personalized, efficient and safe shopping with authentic products and LTK is designed to deliver on those expectations. The launch of Buy Now with LTK Cart means consumers have the ability to directly and securely purchase multiple products from brands and retailers, recommended by the creators they follow and trust - all without ever leaving the LTK shopping app.

The LTK Creators’ experience remains the same - they don’t have to hold any inventory or ship products to consumers, but can now deliver a more efficient shopping experience to their community right on their own LTK Shops. Having an LTK Shop enables creators to build and future-proof their businesses with a digital storefront that connects with thousands of retailers. It’s creators’ one-stop destination for their community to shop their personalized and shoppable content - from across all major social media platforms.

“LTK’s Creator Commerce platform provides the e-commerce software for creators, like myself, to build modern retail empires- helping us collect, retain, nurture and grow our communities on a purpose-built, creator-first platform,” said Amber Venz Box, Co-founder and President of LTK and content creator. “Growing shopping capabilities on the LTK platform will be key to boosting creators’ digital sales over the coming years.”

According to a national shopper study conducted by LTK, an impressive 73% of Gen Z, 69% of Millennials, and 57% of the general population are already making purchases from creators. LTK’s launch of Buy Now with LTK Cart is streamlining the purchasing process, to further fuel adoption.

• 75 per cent of surveyed Canadian internet users* are TV streamers, the majority of which are now watching ad-supported TV (59 per cent), up from 42 per cent in 2022
• “Cord cutters” are on the rise with a quarter of Canadian TV streamers that have cable (24 per cent) planning to cancel or downgrade their cable or satellite package in the next 12 months

Today, Roku revealed the results of its annual Video on Demand (VOD) Evolution study, examining Canadian TV streaming behaviours and trends. TV streaming is now the most popular TV source (75 per cent of Canadian internet users are watching), with ad-supported TV streamers increasing exponentially in the last year alone (59 per cent watching in the last year compared to 42 per cent in the previous year). Another 63 per cent also plan to watch ad-supported TV streaming in the year ahead.

Rising inflation and cost of living, which top the list of worries for Canadian TV streamers in the next few years (54 per cent), compel many (24 per cent) to cancel or downgrade their cable/satellite package in the next 12 months (up six per cent from 2022).

“For Canadian TV streamers, ad-supported TV offers the benefits of a lighter ad load compared to broadcast TV, with the added benefit of being cost-effective, which is what makes it so appealing – especially in today’s economic climate,” says Christina Summers, Head of Advertising in Canada, Roku. “For advertisers and publishers alike, the uptick in interest in ad-supported TV streaming, along with TV streaming generally, enables greater reach beyond traditional TV broadcasting, stronger targeting, measurement, interactivity, and flexibility with creative.”

The growth of ad-supported TV streaming: A deeper dive into the trends

• Time spent on AVOD and BVOD is up 32 per cent YoY, with TV streamers who watch ad-supported programming watching.
• When it comes to the effectiveness of ads on streaming platforms, TV streamers are significantly more responsive to ads than non-streamers (70 per cent vs. 54 per cent).
• TV streamers are taking measurable actions after viewing an ad, with the top three responses being: visiting a brand’s website, online store, or app after seeing an ad (38 per cent); searching online for more information about the product/brand while continuing to watch TV (36 per cent); and placing items in online/app shopping basket to buy later (25 per cent).

“The engagement that ads on TV streaming versus those on more traditional platforms get is unmatched,” says Summers. “Not only is the audience group larger, but the ad formats available to appease these actions, such as interactive ads with direct website call-to-actions, is diverse and continues to expand every day. Tapping into the TV streaming audience is a great opportunity for many brands to reach consumers who have made the move to streaming exclusively and to win new customers who may not have discovered them before.”

When it comes to Canadians’ preferences for TV advertising, there are some notable polarities, as no one size fits all trends:

• Canadians are split on personalization, with 50 per cent wanting ads to cater to their personal interests/preferences, and the other 50 per cent wanting impersonal ads.
• 54 per cent of TV streamers like ads that are unrelated to the show/movie they are watching, while 46 per cent prefer them to be related.
• 51 per cent prefer a single ad that takes up the whole ad break, while 49 per cent prefer lots of short ads that fill the ad break.
• The majority of Canadians (77 per cent) are in broad agreement that they prefer every ad to be different.

TV streamers on the move: The “FlexiVOD” era

The emergence of the “FlexiVOD” (a TV streamer who makes changes to their streaming services, including switching to watch their favourite show, cancelling subscriptions, among others), which surfaced in the 2023 VOD study, continues to remain prevalent in the 2024 edition, as 48 per cent of Canadian TV streamers either have made changes to their streaming services in the past 12 months or plan to make changes in the year ahead. Similar to last year’s findings, this persisting trend is likely influenced by the fact that 58 per cent of TV streamers feel they have less disposable income than before, consistent with last year’s results.

Canadian TV streamers’ content-watching trends

• On average, TV streamers are watching just under 22 hours a week of TV content.
• Canadian TV streamers love dramas (95 per cent) ranking it as their top TV genre choice.
• On the flipside, while comedy is the least popular, 87 per cent are streaming that genre. When it comes to live news, 48 per cent of Canadian TV streamers tune in, followed by general family entertainment (e.g., “How I Met Your Mother,” “Friends”) at 50 per cent and live sports and events at 45 per cent.

When it comes to discovering content to watch, TV streamers use a variety of methods. The top three within TV streaming platforms include the “just released” section (42 per cent); the “top trending” or most popular titles sections (34 per cent); and “free to watch” shows and movies (31 per cent).

Outside of the TV streaming service, the top three methods include: word of mouth/personal recommendations (50 per cent); “coming soon” notifications (36 per cent); and ads they’ve seen on TV promoting shows or movies (31 per cent).

Additional study insights

• On average, Canadian TV streamers have used/subscribed to 3.5 paid or free streaming services in their household in 2023, which is anticipated to increase to 3.8 by 2024.
• Here’s how Canadian TV streamers spend their time watching TV in an average week:
  • 26 per cent of time on live TV
  • 20 per cent on new releases available for the first time
  • 19 per cent on new-to-them releases available
  • 18 per cent on repeat watching
  • 17 per cent on other online video through the TV

• Groundbreaking suite of 12 AI tools rolled out to teams and offices since early 2023

• Cutting-edge technology includes Sage, a proprietary ChatGPT-powered platform that rapidly synthesizes firmwide information, data and insight to drive client work

• Tools will fuel teams' productivity and maximize value delivered for clients

Bain & Company is pleased to confirm more details of its pioneering use of artificial intelligence tools it has developed and is deploying worldwide to equip its 18,500-strong multi-disciplinary teams with an extensive and powerful suite of cutting-edge AI technology.

The groundbreaking AI tools have been rolled out across the firm in planned phases since early in 2023.

At the core of the technology solutions now enabling 'Bainies' worldwide with AI to enhance their efficiency, productivity, and the effectiveness of their work is Sage, a state-of-the-art proprietary chat platform powered by GPT 4.0 LLM from OpenAI. Sage provides Bain teams ability to generate incredible insights leveraging the wealth of Bain's collective proprietary data and expertise in matter of seconds.

It combines this with a simple and seamless front-end for users, allowing Bainies to harness it to accelerate and strengthen innovation and the development of business ideas and solutions firm-wide.

Sage is one of 12 generative AI-based tools Bain has deployed. It was developed in collaboration with OpenAI, the company behind the large-language-model AI technologies ChatGPT and GPT-4, with which Bain & Company formed a global strategic alliance in February this year.

"The world continues to find powerful uses for AI that fuel innovation, productivity and business growth. It's vital for companies to identify not just how AI will impact them, but to also master how they can benefit from this technology that will be critical to long-term competitive advantage," said Manny Maceda, Bain's worldwide managing partner. "At Bain, we understand the importance of exploring these new capabilities now and of equipping our teams with the tools to bring AI's full potential to our clients."

In addition to Sage, Bain is also implementing a full range of other AI-powered tools across the firm. These include Microsoft Copilot, which harnesses the power of generative AI to enhance productivity by performing routine tasks, draft content, and summarizes insights across the Microsoft Office product suite.

Other examples of Bain's proprietary generative AI capabilities include the Expert Call Guide Draft Generator which assists in drafting interview guides and a tool which categorizes datasets and provides sentiment analysis. Still more AI tools are in development at Bain with the goal of deploying AI securely, safely and at scale in the firm.

"I am incredibly proud of what our firm and our technology and knowledge teams have been able to accomplish as we realize and leverage the benefits of AI," said Ramesh Razdan, Bain's global chief technology and information officer. "Rolling out new technologies at this level can be challenging, especially when the technology is still evolving. Our teams have been exceptional in providing the market-leading capabilities and the proper training necessary to effectively deploy generative AI, helping employees understand what these tools can do for them."

Treffiletti brings successful record from BlueKai, Oracle Data Cloud & Voicea as well as multiple successful stints in ad agency leadership to drive growth for this rapidly expanding channel

Rembrand, the Product Placement Platform powered by Generative AI, today is announcing the hiring of Cory Treffiletti as Chief Marketing Officer. Treffiletti rejoins a team that has been consistently successful with companies such as BlueKai, Oracle Data Cloud and Voicea, as well as his own prior experience in the advertising agency business with such early successes as i-Traffic, Freestyle Interactive and Carat Fusion. The arrival of Treffiletti signals the rapid growth that Rembrand has seen since launch earlier this year. Back in February, Rembrand announced its automated approach to leveraging AI to identify and insert virtual product placement at scale for brand advertisers.

"I am very excited to again work with this team," said Treffiletti. "We've seen much success in the past with our prior ventures, and I truly value the chance to do it again. We are quickly building a new category for brand advertisers to reach a targeted audience at scale. Product Placement offers a unique opportunity that essentially guarantees attention for brands in highly impactful content, and now we can offer it in hours rather than weeks, at scale like paid search or display advertising does."

In a very short time, Rembrand has launched campaigns with multiple Fortune 100 brands while establishing relationships with hundreds of Content Creators who publish video content on YouTube and Tik Tok. In these campaigns, Rembrand has proven that it can offer large advertisers a way to be integrated quickly into high-quality video content. Initial results have shown that consumers who are seeing Virtual Product Placement (VPP) are 10x more likely to pay attention to the brands embedded in the content. This level of awareness and engagement is more efficient and less interruptive than traditional sponsored posts. This gives brands a highly efficient media-like' way of integrating their products into organic content.

"Cory knows how to engage with the audience of marketers and advertisers better than most anyone else, and we have a proven track record working together on multiple businesses," said Omar Tawakol, CEO of Rembrand. "He was a natural for us to bring into the team to help us spur the growth of the business."

Relaunch of ad tech stack accompanies new research on creative impact for omnichannel marketers

Mediaocean, the mission-critical platform for omnichannel advertising, announces the reintroduction of Flashtalking as the leading independent ad tech stack for creative relevance and activation across all digital marketing channels. With refreshed branding and a new website to reflect its vision for the future of advertising, Flashtalking provides innovative solutions for the world’s biggest brands to unleash the power of creative and make media work better. In the latest G2 Fall 2023 Reports, based on authenticated customer reviews, Flashtalking was named a Leader in both Creative Management Platforms and Cross-Channel Advertising.

“We are incredibly excited to roll out a fresh Flashtalking brand and extend our leadership in the Creative Ad Tech category. This update comes just as the industry’s view could not be clearer: creative personalization is what’s driving outcomes for omnichannel marketers,” said Ben Kartzman, COO of Mediaocean and Flashtalking. “Seeing the results our platform delivers motivates our team to continue innovating and, with AI at the core of our stack, the future is very bright for our company and clients.”

The unveiling also coincides with the Q3 release of a timely research report, “Breaking through the Digital Ad Ceiling with Creative Personalization.” The findings reflect a growing recognition that Creative Ad Tech built for automation, relevance and intelligence is what drives breakthrough campaigns at scale. In fact, 97% of marketers report that personalized ads drive higher conversions and customer engagement while 79% said they view creative optimization as part of working media budgets.

A cross-vertical survey reveals sentiment that programmatic media has matured, incremental lift is harder to attain, and advertisers are looking for the next thing to drive their business growth. Among key campaign levers, including audience targeting and bid management, creative optimization emerged as the variable which will have the biggest impact for omnichannel marketers. To that point, 96% of respondents said that creative will be more important in advertising campaigns over the next 10 years.

Additional findings from the research shine a light on key challenges and opportunities when it comes to creative personalization:

• Lack of insights and intelligence: 91% of those surveyed are experiencing major blind spots when it comes to creative intelligence.
• Siloed teams: 90% say siloed teams lead to inefficiency and slow go-to-market.
• Disparate technology: 73% think that brand messages have become increasingly disconnected from how consumers experience them in their world.

The survey was conducted using TechValidate to gather insights from 100 leaders at brands, agencies, media providers, and tech companies across ten verticals, including Automotive, Consumer Packaged Goods, Direct-to-Consumer, Entertainment, Financial Services, Pharma/Health, Retail, Technology, Telecommunications, and Travel. Please visit www.flashtalking.com/infographic to see a snapshot of the results.

“This research presents itself at a pivotal moment for our company, partners, and clients. It’s clear that the gap between creative and media grows wider by the day. Consumers are inundated with irrelevant and repetitive messages. Meanwhile, marketers have blind spots about what they’re running and what’s working,” said Grant Parker, Mediaocean and Flashtalking CRO. “To meet the industry need, we have re-upped our mission and commitment to Creative Ad Tech, equipping marketers worldwide with advanced tools for creative personalization and optimization. Now is the time to integrate creative ad tech into omnichannel media workflow and Flashtalking is leading the way.”

MGID, the global advertising platform, today announced its strategic partnership with Pixalate, the market-leading ad fraud protection, privacy and compliance analytics platform.

Pixalate’s software will work in tandem with MGID’s proprietary fraud protection solution, adding a layer of third party verification to monitor traffic quality and filter out bots and invalid inventory.

Ad fraud, particularly in programmatic advertising, has long impacted marketing budgets. The proliferation of artificial intelligence raises the likelihood for fraudulent activity due to the ease with which made-for-advertising sites can generate content. MGID’s world-wide network of advertisers will benefit and see a greater return on investment from the increased protection – reduced wasteful spending while ensuring that ads appear in safe, high quality environments, and are viewed by real consumers.

“The integration of Pixalate’s software is indicative of MGID’s ongoing commitment to reducing fraudulent traffic across the online advertising supply chain,” said Oleksii Borysov, VP of Product at MGID. “We look forward to working with Pixalate to closely monitor our traffic quality, ensuring ad spend is only going to legitimate publishers whose success is vital to the health of the open web.”

“We are excited to announce our partnership with global advertising platform, MGID.” said Brooke Huntley, VP of Product Management MRT Products at Pixalate. “By incorporating our fraud protection, privacy, and compliance analytics platform, MGID is further strengthening its commitment to reducing fraudulent activity for both their clients and the wider advertising industry.”