The 10 things in advertising you need to know today
1. AppNexus thinks soon there'll be only three shops you really need to visit on the internet to buy video ads: YouTube, Facebook, and AppNexus. It launched its "open outstream video marketplace" on Thursday, which it hopes will boost programmatic video spend.
2. Publishers are trying to prevent ad blocker users from seeing their content - but there are signs their walls aren't working. Research from PageFair shows many of the ad blocker walls are technically inconsistent and there's no evidence yet they are a sound long-term strategy to ward off the threat of ad blocking.
3. Yahoo is shutting down a bunch of its digital magazines. Yahoo Food, Yahoo Health, Yahoo Travel, and Yahoo Autos are among the verticals being ditched.
4. KFC has described a seismic shift in young people that's a big problem for the brand. Young people are growing up with a big distrust in brands which makes it difficult to market to them in the conventional way - hence KFC's recent over-the-top Colonel Sanders campaigns.
5. These are the 15 companies that flooded your inbox with the most spam last year. Groupon tops the list.
6. Leaked numbers show Yahoo's core products are in trouble. Yahoo Mail, the Yahoo.com homepage, and Yahoo Search have all seen huge declines in traffic, according to The Information.
7. The owner of The Daily Mirror newspaper is preparing to launch a new UK national newspaper called New Day, Sky News reports. New Day is expected to launch on February 29, initially priced at 25p ($0.36.)
8. Apple Music's former director of sales has joined ad tech company Undertone. Michael Pallad is Undertone's new chief revenue officer.
9. Digiday lifts the lid on the publisher trick used to make their audiences look bigger and younger. Publishers are increasingly packaging up their independent sites to make one big comScore audience number.
10. Nike has cut ties with boxer Manny Pacquiao after he said that condoning same-sex relationships made people "worse than animals," AdAge reports. "We find Manny Pacquiao's comments abhorrent," said Nike in a statement. Pacquiao has since apologized for the comment.