BDG

BDG Elevates Zimak and Estabrook in Leadership Shakeup

Bustle Digital Group (BDG) appointed Avi Zimak as chief commercial officer and promoted Amber Estabrook to chief business officer of prestige revenue and partnerships; both will report to founder and CEO Bryan Goldberg. Zimak, with more than 25 years across digital media, ad tech, and publishing, joins from Perion (where he was chief growth officer) and previously held senior revenue roles at The Arena Group and New York Magazine. Estabrook, who spent six years building W’s prestige advertising business, will oversee high-end partnership revenue across BDG while remaining publisher of W and retaining oversight of its Milan and Paris offices. The moves support BDG’s commercial pivot toward live events, influencer marketing and higher-end brand partnerships after recent restructurings; BDG reported first-half revenue up 25% year‑over‑year and is targeting a 10% profit margin on nine‑figure revenue for the year.

Gaming Ads Struggle as Retail Media Soars

AdExchanger’s Friday roundup highlights a generally positive IAB advertising outlook with growth accelerating in retail media and connected TV, but gaming ads lag, with 5.1% year-over-year growth and a share drop from 3.8% to 3%. Apple’s ATT policy change undercuts mobile game revenue and ad spend, though other channels are gaining momentum. The piece also covers political ad formats, noting Harris campaign’s use of 'sludge' videos that pair a topical clip with 3D animation to reach younger, online audiences. On the platform side, Google is pushing advertisers toward more automated workflows: ads accounts will be linked to Merchant Center from October, and Demand Gen is set to replace video action campaigns. The roundup closes with several ancillary items: Aditude acquires Hashtag Labs; Life360 launches direct ad sales; a Kantar poll finds only 4% of marketers consider X brand safe; and leadership moves at BDG, Accenture Song, Qloo, GroupM, and R3.

Adelaide Unveils Attention Leaderboard for Media Quality Excellence

Adelaide has released the Attention Leaderboard, a ranking of top display publishers, platforms, and ad networks built on its omnichannel AU metric, which predicts a placement's likelihood of capturing attention and driving impact. The AU model, trained on full-funnel outcome data, analyzes hundreds of signals, including exposure and eye-tracking data, and, for web display, considers factors such as clutter, position, and coverage. The leaderboard draws from AU data collected across billions of impressions on hundreds of thousands of websites and highlights the top five display owners (Highsnobiety, Hearst, H Code, The New York Times, Bustle) and the top five platforms and networks (WeTransfer, Seedtag, GumGum, Teads, Onyx). Adelaide intends to update the leaderboard regularly to provide advertisers with timely guidance. CEO Marc Guldimann states the initiative aims to increase transparency in media quality and realign buyer and seller incentives toward high-quality inventory.