Lumen Research

Wall Street’s Tough Take on Ad Tech Earnings

Publicly traded ad tech companies reported mixed Q2 results but faced sharp negative investor reactions, highlighting Wall Street’s skepticism about their ability to compete with Big Tech. AppLovin, The Trade Desk, Criteo, Taboola and Teads all saw sizable share-price drops after earnings despite some revenue growth, while PubMatic, Magnite and Zeta Global posted positive stock moves. Analysts and investors cited the growing share of ad spend going to Meta, Amazon and Google, rising expectations around AI-driven performance, and a preference from marketers for scale and convenience over best-of-breed stacks. The quarter also accelerated consolidation and take-private activity, including Nielsen’s agreed $2.15 billion purchase of DoubleVerify and Novacap’s $1.9 billion take-private of Integral Ad Science. Observers say measurement vendors may reposition toward multi-signal activation and omni-channel measurement to regain investor appeal.

WPP Embeds Media Teams Inside Clients' Offices

WPP is placing agency staff directly inside clients' offices under an "embedded" model to act as extensions of clients' marketing teams, says James Weinberg, Executive Director at WPP Media (T&P). In a VideoWeek interview Weinberg discusses CTV definitions and strategy, the limits of attention measurement, broadcasters needing outcome-based proof, WPP's Advanced TV capability (formerly Finecast), and WPP testing large-scale automation via WPP Open to identify TV spots that drive unique reach. He also highlights working with partners such as AudienceProject, and measurement pilots with Adelaide and Lumen, and stresses transparency, consistent measurement, and outcome-linked accountability across the industry.

InMobi Launches FRAME Attention; 3.5x YouTube

InMobi Advertising launched FRAME Attention, a certified high-attention media product for Mobile In-App Video and Connected TV (CTV), validated by Lumen Research. Offered globally via Deals and IO as part of the FRAME Ad Experience suite, it guarantees a minimum Attention Per Mille (APM) floor of 8,000, supports third-party measurement (Lumen, Adelaide), and is available to brand advertisers and agencies. Independent testing found InMobi’s mobile in-app video delivered 3.5× the attentive seconds versus a YouTube-equivalent benchmark, while CTV inventory reached 9,593 APM — 31% above a 7,286 streaming benchmark. A Cint-measured study across four million impressions reported a 67.4% lift in ad recall and a 16.5% lift in brand awareness. The product prioritizes attentive seconds over simple viewability to help advertisers optimize for attention-quality impressions and is available across InMobi’s mobile, desktop and CTV supply, including Glance properties.