When Brand Safety Goes Too Far

In This Issue:

🎙 Black culture podcast studio URBAN ONE discovers that AI-based brand safety tools are demonetizing the majority of its content.

📱 BYTEDANCE faces a lawsuit over its CapCut app, accused of secretly harvesting massive user data.

🎥 YOUTUBE SHORTS unveils new creation tools, directly challenging TikTok's dominance in the short-form video sector.

📌 PINTEREST reports slowed user growth in Q2, but sees increased engagement among younger audiences.

🛒 WALMART plans to introduce more in-store ads, targeting its massive weekly audience with strategic placements.

🚗 UBER's ad network experiences rapid growth, with projections indicating a potential billion-dollar business by 2024.

📈 The AD MARKET shows signs of recovery, with analysts optimistic about growth in the second half of the year.

🌮 “Where’s the Beef?” TACO BELL sued for alleged false advertising, claiming the advertised portions of meat are smaller than in reality.

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Black Culture Podcasts Flagged as 'Unsafe'

Some AI-powered podcast ad tools are labeling Black culture focused podcasts as “unsafe” for advertising.

🚨 Diverse Voices Under Threat?

New research released today by Sounder, a podcasting management platform, and Urban One, a Black-owned media organization in the U.S., found that traditional keyword-based approaches to brand safety are often inaccurate, resulting in under monetization of diverse content. For instance, a podcast episode that discusses race or social justice might be flagged as unsafe solely based on certain keywords.

🔍 The Study's Findings

The study found that applying a standard blocklist tool to Urban One's podcast content removed 90% of episodes from the available inventory. The tools didn’t understand that the term “bomb” means “cool”, not a literal explosive device.

However, when using a semantically and contextually focused machine learning model to classify brand safety, only 10% of episodes were potentially available for monetization.

Transcription accuracy was also identified as a critical factor in correctly classifying content. The study said errors in transcribing common Black vernacular (AAVE) can lead to misclassifications and further marginalize BIPOC creators.

ByteDance Faces (Another) Legal Firestorm Over TikTok Video Editing App

Heads up if you or your social media manager uses the CapCut video editor.

CapCut is a great editing tool — it's on desktop and mobile — and it's pretty comprehensive... on par with professional tools like Final Cut Pro. It also has a direct export to TikTok because CapCut is made by the same Chinese company, ByteDance.

And, like its social sister, now CapCut is facing a class-action lawsuit alleging that it is secretly collecting data from its more than 200 million active users without consent, and letting the Chinese government access that data.

The lawsuit claims CapCut users are not informed of its data practices, and accuses the company of intentionally designing its privacy policy in a confusing manner, making it difficult for users to understand the terms and conditions and provide consent. One of the plaintiffs, a 7th grader, was able to use the app without creating an account, reviewing a privacy policy, or obtaining parental consent.

The plaintiffs also argue that their biometric data, including face scans and voiceprints, were collected.

The lawsuit wants to ban ByteDance from sending user data to China and to halt the harvesting of users' biometric data without proper notice and consent. It also asks the court to remove the data that has already been collected.

YouTube's Shorts Renaissance: Collabs, Q&A, and Pushing Vertical

YouTube is playing catchup with TikTok and Reels. The company introduced several new Shorts features for brands and creators yesterday.

👥 Collabs

First, the platform has rolled out 'Collabs,' which lets users film split-screen content with other videos. The feature offers various side-by-side layout options accessible through the "Remix" option on videos.

Collabs will be available on iOS to start, with Android to follow.

❔ Q&A Stickers

YouTube is also adding a new Q&A sticker that lets brands ask their audience questions and get answers in the comments. Creators are now able to respond to comments with a Short, similar to TikTok.

▶️ Shorts Live

Also similar to TikTok Live, Shorts will start testing vertical live-streamed videos that will appear in the Shorts feed.

✨ Content Creation

The company is also rolling out new tools for content creation, including a feature that automatically bundles audio and effects from videos. By tapping the Remix button and selecting "use sound," creators will access both the effect and the same audio timestamp from a previously viewed Short.

🔃 Pushing Vertical

Finally, the company says it will also start testing new "recomposition" editing tools for converting old horizontal YouTube videos into vertical Shorts.

Pinterest's Q2: Slowest Growth Rate in a Year

Pinterest released its second-quarter results yesterday, reporting a slowdown in platform growth.

The social media giant added just 2 million users in its latest quarter, reaching 465 million monthly active users. That’s Pinterest’s slowest growth rate in a year.

What may be more concerning is Pinterest's loss of ground in its most profitable user markets. Growth in the U.S. has stalled, and European usage has declined, with all new users coming from the 'Rest of the World' category, which generates less revenue for the app.

Despite these challenges, Pinterest maintained revenue growth, with a 6% year-over-year increase to $705 million for the period. The company also noted positive trends in usage, with sessions, impressions, and Pin saves growing faster than monthly active users.

Pinterest also reported strong growth in usage among younger audiences, with Gen Z users being the largest contributors to overall engagement growth and the fastest-growing cohort for the quarter.

Walmart's In-Store ADvantage and Uber's Ad Surge

Total Walmart ad domination could be your next media buy.

The retail giant is pushing new in-store ad placements, including;

• Ads on self-checkout displays

• Screens in the aisles

• The TV wall in the electronics department

The company plans to place ads on 170K screens throughout its stores and introduce 30-second radio ads that play throughout the stores. The ad buys will be available later this year, and marketers will have the option to choose regions or target specific stores.

Walmart plans to expand food demo kiosks, similar to Costco's sampler stations, to 1,000 stores nationwide. Advertisers can bundle these stations with other ad options, and customers can use QR codes to purchase the products they try.

🚕 Uber's Ad Network Accelerates

But, if rollbacks aren't your target audience's niche, what about rideshares?

Uber’s ad network added about 55,000 advertisers this quarter, reaching around 400,000, with most being small to medium-sized businesses, according to the company's CEO.

The ad platform's revenue run rate, or expected annual revenue, now exceeds $650 million, marking growth from the projected $500 million in Q4 2022.

Uber’s revenue grew 15% year over year to $9 billion, with gross bookings up 15%. It was also the first time the company achieved an operating profit.

Analysts Predict Ad Market Rebound in Second Half of 2023

After a sluggish year for the ad market, Axios reported yesterday that analysts believe the ad market is finally starting to show signs of improvement.

The slowdown had a significant impact on the media, entertainment, and technology sectors, leading to layoffs and cost-cutting measures at media and tech companies in 2022 and early 2023.

However, analysts are now optimistic that advertising growth will pick up in the second half of the year, with data indicating the economy is moving in the right direction.

A second-quarter GDP report revealed a slowdown in consumer spending at 1.5% but a notable 8% increase in business investment spending, which industry experts consider a reliable indicator of ad spending historically.

🔮 Looking Ahead

The global ad market is expected to grow 6% this year, according to GroupM's latest forecast, aligning with the firm's estimates from December.

While the digital ad market is expected to grow at a slower rate this year due to industry maturation, retail media is expected to grow faster than digital media, as more traditional retailers are investing in building their own digital marketplaces.

And finally…

Raise your hand if you have been personally victimized by Taco Bell's beef.

The fast-food chain has been sued for false advertising claims.

Consumers allege the company misrepresented the amount of beef put in its Crunchwrap Supreme and Mexican Pizza items in ads by "half of the amount".

No word yet if this case will make it to the Crunchwrap Supreme Court.

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