Advertisers prepare for big targeting changes

Hi and welcome to this weekly edition of Insider Advertising, where I get into the big stories in media and advertising.

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This week: The end of ad targeting - what's next for TV - the WarnerMedia blowback.

Targeting changes are coming to advertising

The tech giants are clamping down on advertisers' longstanding use of cookies and other targeting tools, which will upend the $108 billion digital ad business.

The next big change could come as early as March, when industry sources are speculating that Apple will roll out its privacy-focused changes after an earlier postponement, they tell Lara O'Reilly.

Some context:

• Marketers and publishers have already been bracing for Google's cookie phase-out.
• Not only will these changes wipe out how marketers aim ads at people, it'll force them to change how they measure ads and attribute them to sales.
• Adtech companies like The Trade Desk and LiveRamp are hard at work trying to replace the cookie, but the risk is that having a hodgepodge of solutions sows more confusion.

What's next:

• The thing to watch will be if marketers all line up and adopt a universal replacement for the cookie - and if they move further into the arms of the big platforms, whose dominance over digital advertising has only grown in the pandemic.

Read more here: Companies are scrambling to prepare for Apple's upcoming app privacy changes. Here's what we know so far.

The big picture

The TV market has been rocked this year with big players like Apple TV Plus and CBS All Access banding together to attract audiences, Roku and Amazon aggregating streaming content, and new entrants like Disney Plus and Discovery Plus jumping into the streaming fray.

Ashley Rodriguez has six big takeaways from a UBS TV report looking out at the industry over the next 10 years. Here's a taste:

• The next five years will be a "land grab" phase where people may experiment with multiple services, but it will be followed by a period of consolidation.
• Netflix and Disney Plus are best positioned to gain in the near term because of their premium content, pricing power, technology, and economic positions.
• While we've already seen Quibi fold, the analysts also see smaller and local players like AMC Networks in the US, Atresmedia in Spain, and News Corp. struggling more.

Read the rest here: How Wall Street analysts think the next decade will reshape the global TV industry, including the likely winners and losers from Netflix to Tencent

The WarnerMedia blowback, explained

WarnerMedia is under attack from all sides after it decided to release all its 2021 movies on streaming at the same time as theaters, which Hollywood fears will jeopardize revenue it's historically counted on.

Travis Clark broke down the backlash:

While movie studios have experimented with alternatives to theaters amid the pandemic, like premium video-on-demand and streaming, Warner Bros.' plan is certainly the most disruptive one yet.

The key points:

• Many actors and filmmakers are concerned they won't get the same payday they'd get from box-office returns.
• Already struggling movie-theater chains are accusing WarnerMedia of sacrificing their business to boost its new streaming service, HBO Max, which has struggled to win over subscribers.
• People have been trained by streaming services to get content when and where they want it, WarnerMedia is trying to sell its plan's predictability at a time when it's anyone's guess when people will feel comfortable going back to the movies.

Read the rest here: 'It's very, very, very, very messy': Why Warner Bros. faces major Hollywood backlash over its plan to release its 2021 movies on HBO Max the same day they hit theaters

Other stories we're reading:

• Off-price retailers like Burlington and Ross are set to win big over department stores this holiday season (Business Insider)
• Google is now blocking the ads publishers sell if they don't meet Google's standards (Nieman Lab)
• Substack is building a reader app for newsletters (The Verge)
• 9 TikTok stars explain how much money they charge brands for sponsorships (Business Insider)
• Mark Zuckerberg threatened not to invest in the UK over its 'anti-tech' attitude during a secret government meeting (Business Insider)

Thanks for reading, and see you next week!

- Lucia