Interactive playable ads, where, for example, a user can test drive a gaming offering, are growing in popularity. Adoption more than doubled between H1 2023 and H1 2024; while video ads still lead the field, the trajectory of playable ads is notable. Ad campaign duration in mobile gaming apps also grew with sports ads ranking top at an average 47 days.
Much of the growth of Salesforce’s suite has come through acquisition and it has revived that strategy by signing a definitive agreement to acquire Tenyx, a developer of AI-powered voice solutions that create engaging conversations in a service environment. The intention is to integrate Tenyx’s voice agents with Salesforce Service Cloud. Deal value was not disclosed.
Researchers at the U.K.’s University of Bristol claim that some of the biggest U.S. gambling sites published over 1,000 posts in one week that did not include information on problem gambling support or a helpline number. This is in breach of the industry’s own self-imposed marketing regulations. Among those named were BetMGM, DraftKings, ESPN Bet and FanDuel.
YouTube is not just a video platform, of course, it’s also a powerful search engine and it has begun testing a Google AI Overviews carousel that will appear in results for selected queries. Given the threat AI Overviews is perceived to pose to click-thru traffic in Google Search results, there’s a question about whether the YouTube initiative could depress click-thrus to brand and creator videos. Right now, the feature is only visible to a sub-set of U.S. premium users.