What California's Proposition 24 means for Facebook and Google

Hi! Welcome to the Insider Advertising daily for November 5. I'm Lauren Johnson, a senior advertising reporter at Business Insider. Subscribe here to get this newsletter in your inbox every weekday. Send me feedback or tips at LJohnson@businessinsider.com.

First: We are looking for nominations for the top PR firms in the tech industry. Nominations are open until November 18.

Today's news: What California's Proposition 24 means for Facebook and Google, Mark Penn shopped around Stagwell Group for more than a year, and inside General Mills' e-commerce strategy.

California just passed a major privacy law that will make it harder for Facebook and Google to track people and gather data

• California voters passed Proposition 24, a ballot measure that expands the state's existing privacy laws and scales back the amount of data that big tech companies are allowed to collect on people.
• The law will make it harder for Facebook and Google to track people's activity through third parties, which could make much of the tech giants' advertising business models obsolete, experts told Aaron Holmes.
• While Prop. 24 is only active in California, it will effectively apply to all of the US because of the state's huge influence on the tech industry.

Read the full story here.

Mark Penn tried to sell ad agency network Stagwell Group to rival holding companies as he looks to cut $1 billion in debt

• Patrick Coffee reports that MDC CEO Mark Penn tried to sell advertising and PR holding company Stagwell Group to rival holding companies and private equity firms for more than a year, said sources with knowledge of the talks.
• The effort came immediately after Penn became CEO of holding company MDC Partners and began trying to reduce that company's debt, which stood at more than $1 billion in 2019. Since then, MDC and Stagwell agreed to merge and create what would be the eighth-largest ad holding company with revenues of around $2 billion.
• The main reason investors passed on Stagwell was Penn's asking price of more than $1 billion, the people familiar with the matter said.

Read the full story here.

General Mills' brand chief explains how the company is shaking up its brands' websites as online shopping takes off

• Tanya Dua spoke with Brad Hiranaga, North America chief brand officer at General Mills, about how the company's e-commerce strategy is changing.
• General Mills is adapting content on its websites for brands like Betty Crocker based on consumer data and trends. When use of appliances like air fryers and grills rose in recent months, the sites responded with content teaching people how to make crescent rolls and pizza using them, for instance.
• General Mills' ad budgets are also shifting from big-reach channels like TV to e-commerce channels like Walmart and Kroger.

Read the full story here.

More stories we're reading:

• Fox Corporation CEO says he would welcome the new competition if Donald Trump started a rival network (Business Insider)
• Facebook and Twitter immediately clamped down on Trump's posts that prematurely declared election victory, but they did so in very different ways (Business Insider)
• 'Together, we can move forward': Gap deletes tone-deaf election tweet after online backlash (Business Insider)
• Political ads appear 'active' on Facebook ad library despite post-Election Day ban (CNBC)
• The Washington Post beefs up contextual targeting in the post-cookie era (Adweek)

Thanks for reading and see you tomorrow! You can reach me in the meantime at LJohnson@businessinsider.com and subscribe to this daily email here.

— Lauren