Facebook wants to turn Instagram Stories into the next big ad platform, and is trying to get brands of all sizes embrace it.
The company today unveiled a number of updates that make it easier for brands and businesses of all sizes to advert ize on the platform, including a new uploading tool that lets marketers who already produce Instagram Stories to repurpose them as paid ads.
To read more about the latest Instagram Stories updates and what they mean for advertisers, click here.
In other news:
Hearst believes it can challenge Facebook and Google by thinking like Amazon. Hearst says it has amassed unique profiles on 120 million digital consumers over the past year, and it’s touting this pool of data in meetings planned with 30 agencies and marketers over the next few weeks.
Verizon’s CMO Diego Scotti is launching a fellowship program to tackle the ad industry’s diversity problem. Ad Fellows is an eight month-long fellowship program, in which 20 college graduates with diverse backgrounds will rotate across different positions at both Verizon and a handful of its partner agencies.
Cheddar, the CNBC for millennials, just made a key hire and plans to launch in Europe next year.Anjali Kumar, a former Warby Parker exec and top Google lawyer, will be Cheddar’s first general counsel and chief people officer.
AT&T will now offer free HBO to all wireless customers on ‘unlimited’ plans. Bundle deals are becoming common among telecommunication companies, with T-Mobile announcing earlier this month that it would include free Netflix service in its family plans.
Google has appealed a €2.4 billion (£2.1 billion) fine from the EU. Google confirmed the appeal to Business Insider but declined to comment further or give any detail.
Analysts said that augmented reality will give iPhone X, releasing today, the “wow factor.”Macquarie Research analysts said that the technology could increase iPhone revenue
Pizza Hut is under fire after a Florida location restricted workers’ Hurricane Irma evacuations, in violation of the chain’s guidelines. People are criticizing the note online as a restriction that could endanger workers as Floridians attempted to evacuate the area.
Ad buying agencies Zenith and GroupM have both lowered their expectations for global ad spending in 2017 and 2018, the Wall Street Journal reports. They reasons include political uncertainty, slowing economic growth in China and a slowdown in spending in major categories such as consumer packaged goods.
AppNexus, Pubmatic and Rubicon Project have joined forces to come up with new header bidding technology, The Drum reports. The move is designed to help online publishers wring more money from their online ad space and is an attempt to tackle Google’s ad tech dominance.