MadTech Daily: McDonald’s Bets on $1bn Ad Business; Temu Cuts $1bn Fake Influencer Network on Meta

In today’s MadTech Daily, we discuss UK digital ad spend in H1 surpassing the whole of 2020, Shein’s profit plunging 67% as costs rise, and ChatGPT ads expanding into new Asian markets.

In today’s MadTech Daily, we discuss 58% of ad executives expecting agentic buying to scale within a year, Apple and Amazon facing a renewed UK consumer case, and A24, Sony and The New York Times circling Letterboxd.

In today’s Digest, we discuss McDonald’s betting on a USD$1bn (£750m) ad business as it joins the commerce-media gold rush, Temu cutting a USD$1bn (£750m) fake influencer network on Meta, and TikTok settling with Alabama for USD$100m (£75m) over teen use.

In this episode of The MadTech Podcast, ExchangeWire's head of marketing, Grainne Reid, is joined by COO Lindsay Rowntree and John Still, head of content. They discuss Google's ad tech rules, OOH advertising growth, and John Lewis launching a YouTube chatshow.The first story covers Judge Leonie Brinkema's assessment on the DOJ's proposal to break up Google's ad tech business, and what the ruling means for advertisers. The second is out of home advertising in Q2 showing +12.7% revenue growth from the same period last year. The conversation explores drivers of OOH growth, and whether it will continue on the same trajectory without World Cup activations.Finally, John Lewis is launching an online chatshow with the aim of improving its visibility in AI search. How should retailers be adapting their marketing strategies in the age of chatbots and social media?•••0:00 Introduction1:23 US judge says Google should relax ad tech rules11:57 Out of Home advertising reports +12.7% revenue growth in Q222:16 John Lewis to launch YouTube chatshow to improve AI search results

 In today’s MadTech Daily, we discuss Citi entering advertising with a new ad business, IAB Europe finding growing momentum for agentic ad buying, and Alibaba unveiling an AI roadmap to drive monetisation. 

In today’s MadTech Daily, we discuss Shopify tapping Meta’s Muse for agentic checkout, Brian O’Kelley’s startup pivoting to AI agents, and a Microsoft patent revealing plans to pause games for ads.

In today’s MadTech Daily, we look at Paramount clearing a legal hurdle ahead of its Warner merger, Amazon blocking Meta’s AI assistant in an agentic shopping standoff, and Ant Group reshaping Alipay for agentic commerce.

In today’s MadTech Daily, we cover Infillion acquiring Foursquare in a location data deal, McCann merging FP7 and MullenLowe in MENA, and OpenAI rolling out a youth safety plan for Australia.

In today’s MadTech Daily, we discuss the global programmatic DOOH market reaching $1.34bn, Shein shares sinking to a post-IPO low after an underperform rating, and Ozone launching Arc to enter performance marketing. 

Aly Nurmohamed, founder and CEO of Nodals AI, and Christer Ljones, director of advertising data capabilities at Schibsted, joined ExchangeWire COO Lindsay Rowntree before ATS London to discuss the future of the open web and which parts of it are worth fighting for.The open web was never one thing. It was premium publishers and everyone else, served by the same ad tech, with the good publishers effectively subsidising the rest. AI changes the terms of that arrangement because the models are becoming open and commoditised while the data is not. If the moat is the data rather than the model, the publishers with the closest relationships to consumers are suddenly the ones best placed to build advertising products, provided they own the system rather than rent it.Schibsted made that bet early, in 2019, before AI made it obvious. Nodals exists because of what that bet revealed. That’s the story of this episode.•••0:00 Introduction3:17 GDPR and Criteo: Nodals AI's origin story9:45 Premium publishers and first party data12:35 AI, ad tech, and the open web16:06 Building data and consumer relationships21:07 Publishers vs. Meta advertising27:41 Where do publishers sit within the open web?35:21 The next few years for publishing