10 Things In Advertising You Need To Know Today

1. Yahoo has confirmed it is acquiring video ad tech company Brightroll for $640 million. Here's what some industry insiders think of the deal - in short, they believe Yahoo has probably overpaid.

2. Pinterest revealed earlier this week its big plan to give you what you want before you know you want it. Pinterest wants to be the resource that users rely on when they've only got the faintest glimmer of an idea, as opposed to sites like Google where they search for specific things.

3. Alibaba sold a record $9.3 billion worth of goods during its annual Singles Day sales event Tuesday. Xiaomi, Uniqlo and Huawei were among the top-selling brands during the 24-hour festival.

4. Adweek asks whether brands are afraid of sharing their data with Facebook. The social network is on a "charm offensive" to get advertisers' assurance on products like its new ad server Atlas and Custom Audiences, the report says.

5. The UK's third biggest supermarket, Sainsbury's, has announced it will invest £150 million ($238 million) in price cuts as it looks to become more competitive with the increasingly popular discount retailers, The Financial Times reports. The investment will be funded by cost savings and lower investments elsewhere in areas such as property.

6. Nestle has apologized after joking in a tweet that 43 abducted Mexican students thought to be dead had been "crunched." A spokesman for the Crunch brand said the tweet was "unauthorized" and that the company had launched an investigation to find out who had sent it.

7. Chief financial officers think marketers are "fluffy and weak," according to new research from Marketing Week and Econsultancy. The study reveals an "alarming" divide between finance chief and marketers, with return on investment (or the lack of it) a particular sticking point.

8. Google is looking to fight online advertising fraud with a new feature in its DoubleClick bid manager that automatically prevents advertisers buying "hidden" ad slots, the company announced in a press release. Hidden ads occur when fraudsters create sites and stack multiple ads into a single ad slot where only the top ad is visible, adjust the styling of a page to make ads completely invisible, or create a very small iFrame to serve ads into that are impossible for users to see.

9. Wireless carrier Vodafone has borrowed the children's mega hit tune "Let It Go" from Disney's Frozen for its UK Christmas commercial, Campaign reports. The ad features hospital staff, chefs, farmers and its employees singing along to the song - a spot that will no doubt drive parents mad (just as they thought their kids had got over it.)

10. Unilever is holding a global creative pitch for its Axe brand, The Drum reports. However, the CPG giant says BBH - which has held the account since 1995 - will still remain its lead agency.