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Verified market signals· Filtered by "AdTech"
Discord announced a new press release on Sep 29, 2026: 'Discord Opens Advertising to Brands of All Sizes With Ads Manager and Video Quests'. This is a major product launch expanding advertising capabilities.
agenticadvertising.org has published a live brand.json manifest, establishing machine-readable autonomous agent delegation capabilities under protocol specifications.
A investigation by Online Risk Labs, a Czech research group, revealed that Temu, the Chinese e-commerce platform, spent approximately €830 million ($962 million) on partnership ads on Instagram and Facebook over a 16-month period, largely through fake creator accounts. Of the top 100 influencer partners, 73 were likely not genuine, with many based in Russia and China. After Fortune reported the findings, Temu shut down most of the network within days, halving the volume of such ads. The practice may violate EU and UK rules on misleading advertising and AI content labeling. Meta also faces pressure for running the ads. The European Commission is already examining Temu under the Digital Services Act.
A investigation by Czech research group Online Risk Labs revealed that Chinese e-commerce platform Temu spent approximately €830 million ($962 million) on Instagram and Facebook partnership ads, with a significant portion running through suspected fake creator accounts. Of the top 100 creator accounts, 73 were suspected to be fake, with 28 based in Russia and 19 in China. The network comprised over 12,000 accounts, generating 1.4 million campaigns and 17 billion impressions. After Fortune reported the findings, Temu quickly halted most of these ads, with 54 of the top 100 accounts ceasing partnership promotions. The practice may violate EU and UK rules against misleading advertising and AI content labeling requirements. Meta also faces pressure for running and profiting from these ads.
Meta's launch of its personal assistant Muse, supported by national ads and a dedicated device, signals a major push into consumer AI agents. The market reacted strongly: Instinct, a rival agent startup, is reportedly seeking a $10 billion valuation, while Shopify announced a partnership for agentic checkout. However, the rollout has also triggered fears of disintermediation across travel, banking, and subscription media, with Amazon blocking Muse and Expedia's stock dipping despite an integration. The article examines the technical and business challenges ahead, including CAPTCHA issues, restaurant reservation swarms, and the need for new commerce plumbing to accommodate autonomous agents.
Google will begin charging Local Services Ads (LSA) advertisers for missed calls that meet certain criteria starting October 1, 2026. CallRadius, a human-managed LSA service, has published a five-step guide to help advertisers limit these new charges. The changes include billing for missed calls during business hours if the caller stays on the line for over 20 seconds, and follow-up calls can also be charged. Businesses using phone menus are only charged after a key is pressed. Google is also adding safeguards against robocalls. CallRadius highlights the importance of aligning business hours with actual phone coverage and monitoring call data to avoid unexpected costs.
DMEXCO returned to Cologne on September 23-24 under the official theme 'Scaling Intelligence.' The message behind the theme was straightforward: AI has moved beyond experimentation, and the industry is now being asked to prove where it creates measurable operational and business value.
Equativ, an adtech provider, has joined OpenAI's partner network for ChatGPT Ads, leveraging its expertise in contextual and native advertising. The company has developed its own campaign tool called Ad Studio, which advises advertisers on adapting messages and creatives to different stages of the purchase decision. A first campaign with BNP Paribas, its direct bank Hello Bank, and agency Havas Media France was implemented, targeting students and their families. OpenAI expanded ChatGPT Ads to 31 European markets in August and has been building a network of technology partners, including Criteo, StackAdapt, and Adform. Equativ's partnership focuses on campaign planning and design, while ad delivery remains with OpenAI, which decides which ads appear based on signals and bids. The partnership covers markets including Germany, France, the UK, and the US.
Scope3 has rebranded as Apostra, pivoting from its original carbon emissions calculator mission to focus on enabling agent-to-agent ad buying and selling. The company, led by adtech veteran Brian O'Kelley, has been building agentic advertising infrastructure since early 2025, including the Ad Context Protocol (AdCP) open standard and a platform that allows AI agents to negotiate and execute media buys. Apostra has already managed $1.2 million in media spend over the last three months, with clients in the U.S., U.K., France, Brazil, the Netherlands, and South Africa. The company faces competition from the IAB Tech Lab's AAMP 3.0 standard, which also aims to standardize agentic media buying. O'Kelley acknowledges the shift away from sustainability but argues AI is the biggest growth area. The article questions whether the industry needs such a neutral layer or if open standards suffice.
Centric DPP connects and governs fragmented enterprise product data, creating a trusted foundation for product transparency, circular business models, customer engagement and future product intelligence.
Magnite, the largest independent sell-side advertising company, has been selected as the primary video ad server and programmatic technology provider for HP TV+, HP's free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) environment for personal PCs. This partnership enables HP TV+ to connect advertisers with active PC audiences across various content categories. Through Magnite's omnichannel suite and ClearLine Curation, HP Media Network can offer consent-based audience intelligence for programmatic activation, with access to nearly 100 off-the-shelf audience segments and over 1,200 PC apps. The integration aims to streamline advertising access to HP TV+'s banner and video inventory, supporting the growth of HP's streaming advertising business.
Brainlabs added several new blog posts to its news/blog page, including 'It’s Time to Rethink Reddit’s Role in the Media Plan' (Sept 22, 2026), 'Your Measurement Is Rewarding the Wrong Channels' (Sept 21, 2026), 'Should Media Buying Evolve Into Agentic Buying?' (Sept 17, 2026), 'TikTok Is Removing the Friction From Platform Diversification' (Sept 15, 2026), and 'Organic traffic is falling, but AI isn’t replacing it' (Sept 14, 2026).
OpenAI's ChatGPT Ads launched in Germany in late August, allowing advertisers to book via agency partners or a self-serve tool. Early feedback from German marketers is mixed. Dentsu's Markus Caspari sees potential but notes high CPMs and limited reporting. Performance marketer Carlo Siebert reports poor results, with few clicks and conversions, and tracking discrepancies. OpenAI's VP Ads, Dave Dugan, acknowledges the beta stage and promises improvements. Criteo reports CTRs 2-3x higher and 80% new customers, especially effective for consultation-heavy categories. OpenAI is also testing 'Sponsored Agents' and partnering with Best Buy for in-Chat commerce.
Simpli.fi has launched Simpli.Hub, a new portal that enables corporate teams to configure brand-approved advertising packages that local locations can launch themselves across CTV, streaming audio, display, and more. The company also released a new report on QSR customer loyalty.
S4S Ventures, co-founded by Sir Martin Sorrell, has invested in Higgsfield, an AI startup that enables users to create AI images and videos. Higgsfield recently closed a $400 million Series B round at a $5.4 billion valuation, led by DST Global with participation from Goldman Sachs Alternatives, Valor Capital, and Tribe Capital. S4S co-founder Sanja Partalo highlighted Higgsfield's potential to address brands' need for high-volume, fast content production. The investment underscores the growing interest in AI-driven content creation tools for marketing and advertising applications.
OTTO Advertising und Pacvue kooperieren bei der Integration von Sponsored Product Ads. Die Pressemitteilung vom 22. September 2026 kündigt ein zentrales Kampagnenmanagement über die Pacvue-Plattform an.
Equativ announces partnership with OpenAI to bring ChatGPT ads to brands, as highlighted in the latest press release on September 22, 2026.
Equativ, the company formerly known as Sharethrough, announces a new partnership to bring ChatGPT ads to brands, marking a significant product launch and expansion into AI-powered advertising.
Equativ announces partnership with OpenAI to bring ChatGPT ads to brands, as highlighted in the latest press release on the company's news page.
IAB Tech Lab has announced AAMP 3.0, introducing OpenProposal, a specification to standardize the RFP-to-buy process for agentic advertising. OpenProposal enables AI agents to discover, compare, and negotiate media proposals by defining machine-readable proposal data across eleven headers in categories like Merchandising, Optimization, Commitment, and Reconciliation. It is transaction-type agnostic (supporting Direct IOs, Programmatic Guaranteed, etc.) and channel agnostic (covering display, CTV, audio, OOH, linear TV). Additionally, IAB released the Measurement Services Addendum v1.0, a contractual framework for measurement, verification, attribution, and analytics services. Both initiatives are open for public comment until October 22, 2026, and aim to improve efficiency and standardization in programmatic media buying and measurement.
Equativ announces partnership to bring ChatGPT ads to brands as an advertising partner, as featured in the press section.
New blog post published on Sep 21, 2026 discussing how publishers are building mobile apps to escape traffic dependency and the implications for programmatic advertising.
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