GRO

BuzzFeed Launches Social Platform; Trade Desk & AppLovin Q4

This week’s VideoWeek digest highlights BuzzFeed’s plan to launch its own social platform, aimed at spreading joy and enabling playful creative expression, with AI intended to empower users rather than limit them. BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti frames this as part of a broader stance against SNARF content. In parallel, The Trade Desk and AppLovin report contrasting Q4 results: The Trade Desk posts 22% year‑over‑year revenue growth but misses targets, with CEO Jeff Green attributing the miss to internal execution adjustments and a push toward stronger brand relationships. AppLovin delivers a 44% YoY revenue rise, notes meaningful holiday shopping spend, and remains optimistic about serving the broader advertising economy. M6 Group records 2024 streaming revenue growth of 36% YoY, while overall ad revenue declines 0.5%; streaming accounts for 9.6% of total video revenues, with €99.5 million in streaming revenue in 2024 and a 2028 target of €200 million.

Scott’s Miracle-Gro Grows with Home Depot's Retail Media

Scott’s Miracle-Gro is expanding its use of Home Depot’s retail media network, now rebranded as Orange Apron Media, after serving as a pilot partner since 2022. This partnership marks an early test of Home Depot’s channel expansion into CTV and streaming. Scott’s relies on retail media to access retailer-first data and insights, while noting its own first-party data is limited because most sales occur through retailers. The brand uses marketing mix modeling to measure RMN campaign performance, focusing on upper-funnel metrics such as awareness and household penetration, and attributes sales lift by comparing markets with and without CTV ads. Home Depot executives emphasize that retailers are broadening RMN offerings into higher-funnel formats to drive ad revenue and foot traffic. The industry expects measurement standardization and greater transparency as retailers evolve their media platforms.

AWS launches AI assistant Amazon Q

AWS announced the general availability of Amazon Q, a generative AI assistant for developers and enterprises. Built on Bedrock and leveraging Titan and LLMs from Cohere and Anthropic, Q aims to boost productivity and decision‑making by handling coding, cloud software management, and business applications with built‑in security. Amazon Q is offered in two editions: Amazon Q Developer and Amazon Q Business, tailored to developers and business users. Early adopters include BT Group and National Australia Bank, which report high acceptance and personalized assistance that aligns with their existing code bases and data. In the business tier, Amazon Q Business integrates with Amazon QuickSight for natural‑language guided dashboards, while Amazon Q Apps is in Preview to enable user‑defined AI apps without coding. Pricing for Q Business Lite ($3 per user/month) and Pro ($20 per user/month) is currently regional (US East and US West); Europe timing is not yet announced. AWS also launched the AI Read initiative to train 2 million people by 2025.