Ad Tech Insights
GARM Gets Disarmed
The story: Last week, Elon Musk’s X filed an antitrust lawsuit against the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM), a coalition created by The World Federation of Advertisers (WFA). Established in 2019, GARM has been instrumental in setting industry-wide brand safety standards and reducing harmful advertising content, achieving a 4.4% drop in categorically harmful ads. However, the WFA stated that as a “small, not-for-profit initiative”, GARM was significantly drained by Musk’s legal action, both financially and in terms of resources, leading to its closure.
This decision has triggered widespread concern in the ad industry, with many fearing that Musk’s legal attacks could set a dangerous precedent. Arielle Garcia, the director of ad industry watchdog group Check My Ads, warned that GARM’s shutdown could “embolden Elon and others to launch more unwarranted attacks on advertisers.”
The takeaway: The dismantling of GARM marks a crucial moment in the advertising industry, especially regarding brand safety and how to manage harmful content online. The silver lining of this setback is a new opportunity for advertisers to independently establish and maintain their own standards; however, it’s likely that Musk’s actions, particularly through X, are also poised to drive even more advertisers away, especially considering the platform’s ongoing brand safety challenges.
Extra Industry Insights
- Research by UK-based customer data platform company Acxiom earlier this year found that 55% of those surveyed had yet to implement any solution to directly address the end of third party cookies.
- A RetailX Subscription 2024 report reveals 87% of subscription leaders cite retaining customers as important or more important than acquiring them.
- According to director of retail strategy at global digital consultancy CI&T, Melissa Minkow, the key to successful subscription services is, “intentionally deciding upon a target market.”
- In the same report, 96% of those surveyed acknowledge that cancellations occur for reasons that can be managed or resolved, highlighting an urgent need to proactively address and prevent customer churn.
Kevel Catch-Up
PUBLISHED: Commerce Media: The Ultimate Guide
Commerce media is a highly lucrative and untapped channel with tremendous potential, forecasted to drive over $280B for advertisers in higher ROAS by 2026. Marketers, publishers, and consumers all benefit from commerce media as it enables accountability, consumer privacy, first-party data, targeting insights, and more -- which is why there is no sign of it slowing down. This Kevel guide breaks down everything there is to know about commerce media and the opportunities ahead.
Check out the full guide here.
Keep Learning
WATCH → Join Kevel CEO & Founder James Avery and Beeswax & Roscoe Labs Co-Founder Shamim Samadi in this on-demand webinar, “Driving Advertiser Performance While Improving Sales: Why You Need to Upgrade Your Retail Media Platform.”
READ → Google moves away from deprecating third-party cookies and introduces an experience in Chrome where users can make informed choices about their privacy settings. Read all about it in this Street Fight article.
LISTEN → Keep the cookies; hold for consent. This episode of AdExchanger’s The Big Story podcast unpacks Google’s reversal on third-party cookies -- and what this means for an industry that was preparing for a cookieless future. (Listening time: 36:01).
