Company Partners with OpenX to Conduct First Server-to-Server Integration 

Mediavine, the largest exclusive full-service ad management firm in the U.S., announced the first successful server-to-server integration in the Privacy Sandbox's Protected Audience API (PAAPI) since its launch earlier this year. Working with OpenX, one of the world's leading omnichannel supply-side platforms, Mediavine configured the first server-to-server (S2S) solution conducted within PAAPI. This was achieved via component auctions through server-to-server communications, resulting in efficient, cookieless advertising.

With Google Chrome's upcoming third-party cookie deprecation, the advertising industry is currently experiencing the biggest shift in the history of programmatic. Ad buyers are seeking a streamlined method to assess cookieless offerings within their current workflows. This preliminary S2S integration is the first successful RTB workflow that will be viable for buyers and the ecosystem at large.

S2S integrations transmit data directly to secure servers without dependence on a user's browser ensuring a privacy-centric environment and a better user experience. The PAAPI auction configuration delivered through S2S allows publishers and SSPs to take advantage of faster ad auctions, more demand sources and increased control available through these connections.

"As the advertising ecosystem attempts to navigate the Privacy Sandbox changes, we're starting to see success in new workflows, and that's thanks to programmatic partners, like OpenX, that are committed to being at the forefront of testing with us," said John Rosendahl, Mediavine's Director of Product, Activation & Identity. "Mediavine is dedicated to crafting innovative solutions within the Privacy Sandbox that prioritize both publisher well-being and buyer achievements as we enter a new era of programmatic advertising."

"As a pioneer of server-side real-time bidding and experts regarding the Protected Audience API, OpenX was well positioned to partner with a leader like Mediavine in delivering this first-to-market offering. Our goal has always been to limit the burden on the end user and minimize the latency in auctions," said Joel Meyer, SVP, Engineering at OpenX. "Today, we provide publishers with much more than just a server-side auction – our proximity to the content and the bidstream at scale across publishers helps us facilitate solutions that deliver strategic advantages to our publisher and advertiser partners."

86% of Advertisers Confirm Games Advertising is Brand Safe; 40% Set to Boost Spending in the Coming Year

IAB Unveils Guidelines, Sets New Standard for Responsible and Engaging In-Game Advertising

Amidst the booming growth of the gaming market, a pioneering study released today during IAB PlayFronts, Changing the Game: How Games Advertising Powers Performance, explores the impact of games advertising. This first-of-its-kind analysis of brands and media agencies quantifies the success, reach, and effectiveness of games advertising, shedding light on why it is a crucial component in the marketing mix.

"This is the first large-scale quantitative analysis of brands and agencies with experience purchasing games advertising," said Jack Koch, Senior Vice President, Research & Insights, IAB. "The study found that advertisers view games advertising as a measurable, brand safe medium that is effective across the entire consumer journey. Marketers can no longer afford to ignore this medium if they want to reach the more than 200 million U.S. consumers that play video games."

Current State of Gaming and Games Advertising

For those using games advertising, it has become an integral and continuously growing part of the marketing mix. Notably, 86% of advertisers surveyed agree that it is of growing importance to their companies, and 40% plan to increase spend on games advertising in the coming year.

Increases in ad spend come on the heels of gaming's growing importance and prevalence in the US. According to Entertainment Software America (ESA), there are 213 million gamers in the US, while eMarketer projects ad spend in games will surge from $8.53 billion in 2024 to $11.49 billion by 2027.

Why Marketers Are Using Games Advertising

As games advertising continues to mature, it has become a reliable platform for delivering premium, high-quality inventory. Of note, 86% of advertisers surveyed agree that it is brand safe, solidifying its position as the second-highest rated channel in terms of brand safety. In addition, 85% of those surveyed are confident in their ability to measure games advertising.

While 79% of advertisers find buying advertising in games relatively easy, it still falls behind other digital media channels concerning ease of buying and planning. Experienced planners and buyers emphasize the need for additional effort to exploit the advantages of games advertising fully. This includes conducting research on gaming audiences to understand their preferences and tailoring ad formats and creatives, which can be more complex compared to other media channels due to the diverse gaming landscape and the need for custom work.

In light of these insights, it's evident that games advertising serves as a powerful tool for engaging with the right consumers in their preferred environment. An impressive 90% of advertisers attest to its effectiveness in reaching valuable, hard-to-reach audiences with relevant messaging. Further, 85% of advertisers recognize games advertising as a premium, high-quality platform for promoting their brands. With its ability to integrate immersive ad placements into user experiences, it offers a fresh and innovative approach to marketing.

Games Advertising is Effective Across the Entire Consumer Journey

Games advertising meets both brand and performance marketing goals, with 78% of advertisers stating that games advertising is "excellent" or "good" at awareness, 76% at driving research and consideration, and 65% at driving purchase.

Koch added, "Impressively, games advertising consistently performs well across all stages of the consumer journey, showcasing its potency compared to other media channels. We're excited to reveal where and how to harness its power in the marketing mix."

Triton Digital, the global technology and services leader in the digital audio, podcast, and broadcast radio industries, announced the acquisition of Sounder, an innovative audio intelligence platform. As part of Triton Digital, Sounder will continue to provide advanced contextual targeting solutions, brand suitability, and cutting-edge podcast promotional tools.

This acquisition combines Triton Digital's renowned audio streaming and podcasting technology and expertise with Sounder's best-in-class brand suitability solutions and industry-leading AI-powered podcast understanding. The combination will enable a more seamless, practical, data-driven advertising experience for brands, agencies, publishers, and podcasters.

"We are thrilled to welcome Sounder to the Triton Digital family," said John Rosso, President and CEO of Triton Digital. "The Sounder team are visionaries in audio intelligence, and their technology adds an essential layer to our offerings. This acquisition empowers us to deliver more value to advertisers and publishers with highly targeted, contextually relevant, and brand-suitable audio advertising solutions. Looking ahead, we are excited to leverage our combined strengths to drive innovation and growth in the digital audio marketplace."

“Becoming part of Triton Digital is a significant milestone for Sounder, giving us the ability to accelerate our growth and innovation while continuing to work across the entire podcast landscape," said Kal Amin, CEO and co-founder of Sounder. “Our AI-powered content analysis enables Triton to bring unprecedented insights, targeting, and promotional capabilities to the audio marketplace."

Key Benefits of the Acquisition:

1. Best-in-Class Contextual Targeting: Sounder's top-tier contextual targeting tools ensure advertiser alignment with relevant content, elevating campaign effectiveness. Triton Ad Platform will deliver a more robust targeting capability with scale, transparent reporting, and forecasting.
2. Premium Brand Placement: Sounder's brand-suitable solution is unmatched in the industry. Sounder offers brands peace of mind and ensures advertisers’ messages are placed in a suitable listening environment.
3. AI-Powered Promotional Tools: Triton publishers will have access to Sounder’s AI promotional tools. The intersection of GenAI and large language models with Sounder's natural language processing technology creates unparalleled promotional opportunities for the audio marketplace.

New “Agency + AI” model hailed as the future of marketing

Media Shower, a leading innovator in digital marketing, is proud to announce the launch of its revolutionary AI platform designed specifically for marketers. This first-of-its-kind platform combines the efficiency of artificial intelligence with the creativity of humans, offering an end-to-end solution for creating high-performing marketing materials. 

The platform contains several dozen AI “assistants” that help marketers draft a wide array of marketing materials, from blog posts to marketing plans and beyond. Then marketers can easily send these AI drafts to an award-winning creative team who turn them into polished, professional marketing materials. Unlike the AI-only tools popular in the market today, this blend of “AI + humans” fuses the potential of AI with the process of human creativity.

Using the platform is simple: after directing the AI assistants to create a draft, marketers click “Place Order” to send the draft to the Media Shower creative team – editors, designers, and videographers – who finish it into beautiful marketing materials. With this platform, a single marketer can direct an entire team, greatly increasing their productivity and power.

"Our approach has been to see AI not as a replacement for human creativity, but as a powerful tool to enhance it," said John Hargrave, CEO of Media Shower. "Even this press release was drafted using our AI marketing platform, then punched up by our human team. AI is an accelerating technology, helping marketing managers level up their efforts."

By using the platform for its own marketing campaigns, Media Shower has witnessed a staggering 500% increase in organic search results and lead volume, proving the platform's potential to change the game for marketing managers.

As AI continues to evolve, Media Shower's platform is poised to redefine the marketing landscape, showing that the future is not “marketers vs. AI,” but “marketers who use AI” vs. “marketers who don’t.”

Avaya Enables Customers to Choose Their Journey by Delivering Exceptional Employee Experiences across On-Prem, Private Cloud and Public Cloud Environments

Avaya, a global leader in customer experience and communications solutions, today announced the Avaya Communication and Collaboration Suite. This suite of solutions delivers customers with seamless communication and collaboration experiences where they can connect with people and tools all in one place: Meet, call, chat, share files, manage tasks, and more. 

Avaya’s strategy is to give customers the ability to choose their path that fits their organization whether in the public cloud, private cloud, or on-prem. By offering these robust communications solutions that can be deployed on-prem, in a private cloud, or via the public cloud, customers can choose which one works best for them and their employees.

“Our ‘Innovation Without Disruption’ strategy continues to resonate exceedingly well with our customers,” said Alan Masarek, CEO at Avaya. “We’ve listened closely to their needs and have built our Avaya Communication and Collaboration Suite to provide our customers with the flexibility and agility they need to meet the ever-changing demands of their employees.”

In the Avaya Communication and Collaboration Suite, customers can choose their employee experience path through:

• On-Prem: Avaya remains committed to Avaya Aura and Avaya IP Office, enabling customers to continue to strengthen and maintain their advanced communication systems. Bolster your advanced communication systems on-prem with steadfast reliability, maintaining seamless connectivity and enhancing operational continuity.

• Private Cloud: With Avaya Enterprise Cloud™, harness the strength of a fortified, managed communication cloud on Microsoft Azure, ensuring heightened security and efficiency for your business operations. Enjoy the benefits available with Avaya Aura in a private cloud environment.

• Public Cloud: Avaya Cloud Office by RingCentral empowers organizations of any size to enhance their employee experiences, leading to improved customer experiences with simplicity, ease of use, and a customized solution. As part of the strategic partnership between Avaya and RingCentral, Avaya Cloud Office by RingCentral is Avaya’s exclusive UCaaS solution in geographies where available.

Innovation Without Disruption

With the introduction of the Avaya Communication and Collaboration Suite, Avaya customers receive additional value from their communications solutions through integrations with the leading collaboration platform of their choice. By integrating new technologies such as enhancing team connectivity and incorporating AI for more efficient operations enterprises can deliver innovative solutions without disrupting the technology they already have in place.

• Collaboration Platform Integrations: Customers can recognize additional value from their existing investments by integrating industry-leading collaboration solutions with Avaya's communications portfolio for enhanced productivity and to streamline workflows. Microsoft Teams Integration is available for all the solutions in the Avaya Communication and Collaboration Suite.

As part of Avaya’s Collaboration Platform Integrations, today Avaya announced a new partnership with Zoom’s forthcoming AI-powered collaboration platform, Zoom Workplace. The Zoom Workplace will be integrated with Avaya’s Communication and Collaboration Suite, providing customers with a new streamlined way to manage their communications environments and workflows. Zoom Workplace will include core Zoom collaboration products like Meetings, Team Chat, Scheduler, Whiteboards, Spaces, and more, providing customers with a streamlined way to manage their communications environments and workflows. Existing Avaya customers will be able to retain their investments in Avaya’s private cloud or premise-based solutions and devices while benefiting from Zoom’s AI-powered collaboration platform, Zoom Workplace. This partnership was forged to deliver a joint solution that provides an enhanced collaboration user experience for Avaya customers.

“The unveiling of the Avaya Communication and Collaboration Suite marks a significant step forward, combining market-leading solutions from Avaya and their strategic partners that deliver on the promise of innovation without disruption,” said Zeus Kerravala, Founder and Principal Analyst at ZK Research. “In an era where workers spend many hours each day on video calls, often across multiple collaboration solutions, the Avaya Communication and Collaboration Suite emerges as a beacon of integration and efficiency. By streamlining their UC offerings into a single suite, Avaya not only addresses the evolving demands of customers and their employees but also offers a unique solution that simplifies the complex digital workspace. This consolidation is poised to redefine how organizations foster collaboration, ensuring seamless interaction across diverse collaboration solutions and enhancing productivity in the virtual workplace.”

Brand assets created via new "Orb Foundry" set the stage for marketers to meet the moment with visual inspiration, content and branding 

• Today, Deloitte Digital is unveiling its global rebrand powered by Generative AI, inviting the industry to witness first-hand how they put the technology into action and how GenAI can be used for inspiration, branding and content creation on a global scale. 
• Deloitte Digital is introducing its "Orb Foundry," allowing teams across 30 international markets to generate fully rendered brand compliant 3D brand assets; these assets are now live on the Deloitte Digital website, social channels and at Adobe Summit.
• This week, Deloitte Digital will debut the Orb Foundry live at the Adobe Summit in Las Vegas (March 26-28) where their new Firefly-accelerated visual identity will be on display and each visitor will be able to create their own personalized Deloitte Digital-branded orb.

Leveraging GenAI for dynamic content creation

Deloitte Digital is unveiling its global rebrand powered by Generative AI, inviting the industry to witness first-hand how they put the technology into action and how GenAI can be used for branding and content creation. Like many others in the industry, Deloitte Digital grappled with one of today's biggest content challenges: rapidly proliferating channels and campaigns.

Historically, adding new supplemental brand assets to visual identity systems was a complex and labor-intensive process, often taking more than two months from initial ideation to completed brand asset. Deloitte Digital needed a simple, practical way to create bespoke brand imagery on demand and at scale.

Accelerating creative outputs with new technology

Deloitte Digital's new "Orb Foundry," allows teams across 30 international markets to generate fully rendered 3D brand assets. Tools like the Orb Foundry can help to democratize the accessibility of bespoke brand assets for a variety of needs and enable designers and non-designers to easily create a unique asset that is both customized for the conversation and brand compliant.

The Orbs are emblematic of the sophisticated tools needed to meet the demand for personalized, timely, and relevant content and visual branding. Many creatives and marketers know the challenge of reinventing brand imagery over and over again to meet a variety of needs, while always following specific brand guidelines; the Orb Foundry simplifies that process. Deloitte Digital's research reveals the demand for marketing content grew by 1.5 times in 2023, but marketing teams were only able to meet that demand 55% of the time. Many brands and marketers are ready to take the next step in their GenAI journey to meet this need but case studies on executing branding via GenAI are limited.

Tools like the Orb Foundry are not just fun experiments, they can position marketers to stay ahead of rapidly multiplying content demands.

Embracing symbolic innovation

The concept began in June 2023, when Deloitte Digital experimented with how to harness the power of using GenAI to accelerate their creative outputs — understanding this was one of the biggest opportunities facing the industry. This led to the creation of a series of orbs that burst with color, personality and movement. Inspired by Deloitte's signature "Green Dot," the orbs became a symbol both internally and externally for Deloitte Digital, signifying ingenuity and transformative thought.

Key quotes

"Every brand leader is presented with the same challenge. How do you refresh your brand, democratize it, but also maintain a level of consistency and control? By leveraging GenAI in brand personalization, Deloitte Digital is reimagining content creation while freeing up creatives to do deeper, more innovative work. We're showing exactly how we are using it on our own brand, to help others imagine how they can use it for theirs."

— Mark Singer
U.S. CMO, Deloitte Digital

"This rebrand marks a significant leap for us and the brands we serve. Deloitte Digital's dedication to pushing the boundaries of Generative AI will open a whole new world of creative possibilities across industries. We're proud to lead this transformation and provide brands and marketers with the tools they need to accelerate growth in the digital world more easily."

— Barbara Venneman
Global Head of Deloitte Digital

"Innovation in GenAI, embodied in our unique 'Orb Foundry,' equips us with a compelling value proposition that has the potential to transform not only marketing, but also sales, communications, and other functions of business. It paves the way for the customization of assets and the realization of personalization at scale across the entire business, marking a transformative shift."

— Christina Bieniek
Deputy Chief Executive Officer, Deloitte Consulting LLP

Company reinforces its focus on the enterprise in a step to build an all-in-one platform for every type of designer

Canva, the world’s only all-in-one visual communication platform, today announced the acquisition of Affinity, the award-winning creative software suite for professional photo editing, illustration, graphic design and page layout. 

The acquisition significantly bolsters Canva’s vision to build the world’s most comprehensive suite of visual communication tools. While the last decade has seen rapid growth for Canva amongst the 99% of knowledge workers without design training, the integration of Affinity’s professional design software now unlocks the full spectrum of designers at every level and stage of the design journey.

As visual communication becomes the status quo in teams and organizations around the world, the acquisition also accelerates Canva’s enterprise ambitions, unlocking a future where professional designers can craft designs and templates with Affinity to scale across organizations with Canva.

“Visual communication is now ubiquitous in the workplace and investing in strategies that enhance our B2B offerings is core to the future of our business," said Canva co-founder and COO, Cliff Obrecht. “From sales and marketing, to brand and creative teams, the need to create effective and engaging visual content is on the rise. The Affinity team comes with an incredible caliber of talent and technology and we're delighted to welcome them to Canva as we enter our next phase together.”

Empowering professional designers

Affinity stemmed from a vision to empower designers to produce high quality content in an effective and affordable way. In 10 years, the Affinity suite of creative products has become beloved and renowned for delivering powerful experiences for professional designers. This includes offering extremely fast and highly responsive tools which deliver on all the photo and vector editing tasks required by professionals.

Today, more than 3 million users around the world trust Affinity to create everything from complex multi-layered graphics to detailed technical diagrams, art and illustration, logos, mockups, documents, magazines and much more.

Designed for the latest hardware and packed with features to simplify real-life professional workflows, Affinity’s all-inclusive photo editing, graphic design and desktop publishing products serve as a powerful, cost effective and subscription-free solution for photographers and designers requiring versatility and precision.

Their core products - Affinity Designer, Affinity Photo and Affinity Publisher - have been lauded for their lightning-fast performance and seamless cross-platform compatibility across macOS, Windows and iPadOS. To date, Affinity has won a number of industry awards, including an Apple Design Award, Apple App of the Year for Mac and iPad and the Microsoft Application Developer of the Year.

Canva growth surge continues

Now entering its second decade, Canva has pioneered the model for simple and effective design and is now used by more than 175 million people across 190 countries and in more than 100 languages. As visual communication becomes an imperative for every kind of industry and organization, the last few years has seen Canva make significant strides in this arena, bolstered by the introduction of Canva’s Visual Suite in September 2022.

Since then, the company has added more than 90 million new users, experiencing nine years’ worth of growth in just 18 months. The acquisition of Affinity will increase Canva’s offering of design tools by expanding into the professional design market.

Canva will continue to invest in the Affinity suite to ensure it not only meets the needs of professional designers, but also enhances their experiences and empowers them to do their best work. Together, Canva and Affinity will be a powerhouse combination built to supercharge the goals of every type of designer.

“Since the inception of Affinity, our mission has been to empower creatives with tools that unleash their full potential, fostering a community where innovation and artistry flourish," said Ashley Hewson, CEO of Affinity. “We've worked tirelessly to challenge the status quo, delivering professional-grade creative software that is both accessible and affordable. Canva’s commitment to empowering everyone to create aligns perfectly with those values. We couldn't be more excited about becoming part of the Canva family and can't wait to see what we will achieve together.”

Europe Based Acquisitions Continue To Fuel Canva’s Product Strategy

Acquisitions from Europe’s startup ecosystem have elevated Canva’s technology and continue to play an important role in expanding the company’s physical presence in the region. Over the years, Canva has found high caliber talent and compatible technology in Europe with a number of acquisitions that have become key to the company’s product strategy. Affinity marks Canva’s latest Europe-based acquisition, joining Flourish (2022), Kaleido (2021), Smartmockups (2021), Pexels (2019) and Pixabay (2019). Canva opened their first European HQ in 2023, based in London.