Darndest New Biz Model
As one of my colleagues quipped, “Looks like X has innovated a new business model. If your customers don’t want to buy your product, sue them!”
This week X announced a lawsuit against the Global Alliance for Responsible Media, saying it dissuaded brands, including CVS and Unilever, from advertising on X.
The impetus of the lawsuit is a Congressional report brought forward by Congressman Jim Jordan claiming coordination by GARM and its members is antitrust.
Typically antitrust lawsuits center around unfair pricing schemes, so it’s a twist that this is filed in the absence of sales.
On the merits, it’s a bit of a head scratcher. It’s common practice for brands’ media buying representatives to monitor and eliminate areas lacking brand safety. There was plenty of evidence of X firing safety monitors and continuance of bad – really bad – content on the platform. Should Unilever run adjacent to violence and disinformation?
Nevertheless, Musk has quite literally said “It’s war!”
And the brands are hostage.
#RIghtSideofRelevance
Government Deals Google Blow
This week the US won its antitrust lawsuit against Google for Google’s dominance in search engine marketing.
The government says Google created an unfair marketplace for paid search, leading to a virtual monopoly and corresponding inflated costs. Google says its search is the best and most responsive to consumer needs, which has led to its dominance.
Both are right. Sort of.
While we are all about creating economical efficiencies for marketers and the businesses they represent, if the government does break up search, buying search will become a logistical nightmare. The process of optimizing paid search campaigns, given Google’s want to alter algorithms, is already an exercise of continuous mental gymnastics. And that’s one platform, one search engine. The gymnastics is worth it because you know you’re bidding against competitors in a single marketplace.
Imagine what will happen with optimizing campaigns in multiple SEM marketplaces, with multiple ad-tech managers and multiple walled garden algorithms.
Small businesses lose. Large businesses potentially gain topline reach, but at an expense to monitor all that.
There’s an opportunity here for someone to create an SA360 competitor.
And there an opportunity for an attribution and planning tool that is not dependent on cookies and measures across walled gardens. Oh, wait. #FutureSight.online™