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.
Disney has agreed to license more than 200 characters, costumes, and environments (but not voices or talent likenesses) to OpenAI for Sora, its gen AI video platform. This is highly unusual for Disney, which generally sues AI models for copyright infringement; in fact, it sued Google for that a day before announcing the OpenAI deal. Disney will also invest $1 billion in OpenAI, nicely illustrating how very eager they are to join the AI party.