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At Cannes, Ad Industry Confronts Rise Of Facebook

In his Mediator column, The New York Times' Jim Rutenberg says ad industry folks seemed particularly spooked by Facebook's spectacular prominence at the annual Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity this year. "Google and Facebook have upended the old order by taking ownership of the new one, claiming nearly two-thirds of the $60 billion online advertising market last year and on course to take more this year. Therefore, the word of the week in Cannes was 'duopoly.' You could understand why the gathered Mad Men and Women were so mad. For decades, they have enjoyed mutually beneficial relationships with their big clients — Coca-Cola, Procter & Gamble, Unilever — reaping great riches by catering to Americans’ wants and tastes, having divined them through focus groups and surveys." Google and Facebook are reshaping the ecosystem, using their technologies and algorithms to "insert themselves into those advertising relationships, but with a huge advantage — they weren’t just divining their users’ tastes and preferences, they knew them. They controlled the data. And as advertising goes more digital, he or she who controls the data controls the market."

Read the whole story at The New York Times »

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