Lendi’s growth GM: AI search is reshaping how brands get measured
AdExchanger’s James Hercher reports that Lendi Group GM Michael McCash is using MMM vendor Mutinex and its new AI Visibility tool to measure how chatbots like ChatGPT and Gemini shape home-loan discovery.
Netflix heads into Q3 earnings amid layoffs and a content-chief shakeup
TheWrap’s Roger Cheng reports that Netflix’s third-quarter earnings call follows its biggest layoffs in four years, the exit of content chief Bela Bajaria and film chief Dan Lin, and a stock drop of more than 40% over the past 12 months.
Instacart, Pinterest partner to link inspiration and purchase
eMarketer’s Christopher Wood reports that Instacart and Pinterest are teaming up to close the gap between discovery and checkout, letting shoppers move from inspiration pins toward grocery purchases without leaving the platforms they browse in.
FTC clears Publicis’ $2.2B LiveRamp deal with neutrality conditions
Adweek’s Christopher Cicchiello reports that the FTC has approved Publicis Groupe’s $2.2 billion acquisition of LiveRamp, closing a key regulatory hurdle. The order imposes five-year guardrails requiring firewalls so Publicis cannot access competitors’ customer data through LiveRamp’s platform.
Ad Age’s daily Hot Spots tracks new TV spots from Home Depot, Oura, Experian
Ad Age reports that its iSpot.tv-powered Hot Spots roundup features new commercials from The Home Depot, Oura, Kohl’s, Prenuvo and Experian, each with impressions, spend and attention-index data from the past 30 days.
Evan Shapiro: Netflix is becoming the thing it swore it would never be
Media War & Peace’s Evan Shapiro argues Netflix has reversed its founding bets on sports, ads, aggregation and creators, turning into “a digital reboot of CBS.”
Off-the-shelf MMM tools can diverge wildly from custom models, op-ed warns
AdExchanger is reporting that an off-the-shelf marketing mix model estimated 10 paid channels drove roughly 75% of new-customer volume, while a custom build using identical data found under 1% incremental contribution.
Netflix exec shakeup fuels fresh M&A speculation
MediaPost’s Wayne Friedman reports that Netflix’s replacement of content chief Bela Bajaria with Peter Rice comes as growth stagnates and the stock falls 24% year-to-date.
Talent agencies, producers form coalition to curb streamer show ownership
C21Media reports that top US talent agencies and producers have formed the American Entertainment Alliance to push studios and streamers to earmark at least 50% of original content spending for independently produced projects.
MarkApp: MENA CTV can’t borrow social video’s playbook
ExchangeWire’s Charlotte McEleny interviews MarkApp managing director Sotiris Oikonomou, who argues MENA buyers must stop applying social-video targeting logic to CTV.
eMarketer: retail media and influencer marketing are converging
eMarketer’s Peter Clark reports that retail media networks are increasingly pairing their first-party purchase data with influencer marketing, letting brands target creator campaigns using actual shopper behavior instead of demographic guesses.
IAB guide pushes DOOH as core media-plan channel, not a siloed add-on
IAB is publishing a guide, Getting Digital Out-of-Home on the Media Plan, arguing DOOH deserves a consistent place in the omnichannel mix rather than siloed planning.
Billion Dollar Boy Group buys LinkedIn-focused shop Creator Authority
Marketing Dive’s Peter Adams reports that Billion Dollar Boy Group has acquired Creator Authority, a B2B creator marketing agency and official LinkedIn partner whose clients include Amazon, Adobe and Mastercard, to expand its West Coast footprint.
Amazon’s two-track pitch turns Thursday Night Football into an ad-dollar magnet
Digiday’s Sam Bradley reports that Amazon is using Thursday Night Football to pull in both non-endemic brands like American Express and endemic retail advertisers like Colgate, which hasn’t run a Super Bowl ad in seven years but is now “all in” on Amazon football.
NBCUniversal says shoppable TV revenue growing sharply via Traitors, Love Island
Modern Retail’s Julia Waldow reports that NBCUniversal’s shoppable TV business, spanning Peacock and partners like LG TVs, is growing significantly year over year, with svp Evan Moore citing a 171% lift in brand favorability when shoppable moments tie to beloved shows like “Traitors.”
Target weighs in-store digital screens, but cautiously
Adweek’s Mitchell Parton reports that Target’s Roundel network is exploring digital screens in stores, but only in ways that wouldn’t disrupt shopping, a Roundel vp said at a partner event, pointing instead to app and mobile-site ads already reaching 60% of in-store shoppers.
Kite Factory buying chief: CTV transparency matters more than price in agency deals
VideoWeek’s Dan Meier interviews The Kite Factory’s Gregor Chalmers, who argues agencies are shifting from transactional pricing toward genuine partnerships, and warns that CTV’s digitisation has let bad actors exploit TV’s trusted reputation.
Young adults aren’t tuning out TV ads
eMarketer’s Peter Clark reports that younger viewers are not skipping or avoiding TV commercials at the rate many marketers assume, based on new survey data on ad engagement by age group.
Ritson: Meta is reselling marketers the TV playbook it once mocked
The Drum’s Mark Ritson writes that Meta used its Brand Building Summit to unveil ad products built on classic reach-and-frequency brand-building principles, the same TV logic it spent years telling marketers to abandon.
Adweek names 2026 Agency of the Year shortlist
Adweek is reporting that it has revealed the 2026 Agency of the Year shortlist, spanning categories from Global Creative to Independent Media, with Gold, Silver and Bronze winners set to publish in Adweek’s December issue on December 8.
Banijay CEO: scale from All3Media still isn’t enough vs. Big Tech
The Hollywood Reporter’s Etan Vlessing reports that Banijay CEO Marco Bassetti, speaking in Rome after completing the $8.5 billion All3Media mega-merger, said the combined super indie remains small against Alphabet and Meta.
Second-tier holdcos jockey for position behind the Big Three
Digiday’s Michael Bürgi reports that consultants now group Dentsu, Havas, Horizon, Stagwell and independents like Brandtech, Dept, Tinuiti and PMG as a forming second tier, even as S4 Capital leans on AI to rebuild Monks.