Rakuten and impact.com announce global alliance
Rakuten International and impact.com have announced a strategic alliance to modernize the affiliate and performance marketing ecosystem.
The collaboration unites Rakuten Advertising’s global partner relationships, managed services, and performance intelligence; Rakuten Rewards’ Cash Back shopping platform and consumer reach; and Impact’s leading technology platform and global marketplace to create a comprehensive and scalable performance marketing ecosystem.
Under this initiative, Rakuten Advertising and Impact will deliver an integrated technology and services model, combining Rakuten Advertising’s strategic expertise, program management, and global execution with Impact’s platform infrastructure for contracting, tracking, and payments across commerce partnerships.
Advertisers working with Rakuten Advertising will benefit from expanded platform capabilities and a broader ecosystem, while Impact’s customers will gain access to Rakuten Advertising performance intelligence and managed services.
Rakuten and impact.com plan to share additional capabilities in the coming months, including at Rakuten Optimism US (May 5-6 in Scottsdale, Ariz.) and Impact’s iPX (June 9-11 in Austin).
Audion raises $15 million for US expansion
Audion, an AI-powered advertising platform specialising in digital audio, has announced $15 million in Series B funding. This will enable it to build on its UK and European growth with a launch in the United States; it will also accelerate the development of its proprietary technology, Audion AI, which delivers outcome-driven audio advertising campaigns.
Funding partners for this next phase of growth are Elevation Capital Partners, Founders Future and Bpifrance.
Founded in 2018 by Arthur Larrey and Kamel El Hadef, and now with over 1,500 clients worldwide, Audion has established itself as a pioneering European player in digital audio. Following initial funding of €1.1 million in 2019 and a second capital injection of €6 million in 2022, the company has developed innovative and high-performance technology solutions for advertisers and their media agencies.
With the new funding, Audion aims to become a global leader in digital audio; it will build on its already well-established positions in Europe – notably in France, the UK, Italy, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands – and its forthcoming expansion into the United States.
Tapper and GOA unite to drive down CPAs and dial up performance
Tapper and GOA have joined forces to help agencies and advertisers reduce cost per acquisition (CPA) and improve the quality of their paid media performance data.
The strategic partnership aims to provide performance teams with a connected approach to two problems that are usually treated separately: invalid traffic and inflated CPAs. By combining traffic quality infrastructure with Google Ads optimisation, Tapper and GOA will deliver cleaner conversion signals, lower acquisition costs, and more accurate performance calibration.
Tapper operates as an independent quality layer across paid media channels, with particular depth in Google Ads and Meta. By identifying and blocking invalid and non-genuine traffic in real time, it removes the noise that inflates CPAs and corrupts conversion signals. The effect is a truer picture of what traffic is actually worth and which audiences are genuinely converting.
GOA picks up where that cleaner data begins. Its platform connects to Google Ads accounts and runs over 200 automated daily checks across campaign structure, bidding, and budget allocation, surfacing issues and delivering targeted recommendations to improve return on ad spend. With Tapper filtering out low-quality traffic upstream, GOA’s optimisation engine works from a more accurate baseline.
IAB Europe tackles CTV transparency and measurement consistency with new Framework
IAB Europe, the European-level industry association for the digital marketing and advertising ecosystem, has opened its Connected TV (CTV) Measurement Framework and Transparency Principles for public comment, setting out a bold step toward tackling one of the industry’s most pressing challenges: transparency in CTV.
CTV investment is accelerating rapidly, fuelled by 24.5% growth in video display driven by SVOD and BVOD formats. Yet concerns around visibility and measurement quality persist. Today, only 30% of advertisers and publishers report full visibility into where ads run, while fewer than half use quality verification tools. Meanwhile, 27% of stakeholders lack consistent insight into brand suitability, highlighting a clear need for industry-wide standards.
Built in collaboration with sell-side and buy-side stakeholders, and shaped through two dedicated industry workshops with companies including Amazon Ads, EGTA, Freewheel, Google, IAB UK, Magnite, MFE ProSiebenSat1, Pubitalia, RMB Belgium, RTÉ, Samsung Ads and YouTube, the Framework delivers a unified set of metrics and definitions to bring consistency, comparability, and accountability to CTV measurement. It applies across the full spectrum of digital video environments, from broadcasters and streaming platforms to digital-first services, reflecting how audiences consume video today.
The Framework is underpinned by a set of transparency principles that establish clear expectations for measurement providers and ecosystem partners, building on IAB Europe’s broader efforts to address transparency and consistent measurement challenges in CTV, as outlined in a recent industry overview.
Research reveals what drives creativity that actually works
As part of the wider ‘Cost of Dull’ collaboration, System1, the Creative Effectiveness Platform, has partnered with eatbigfish, Uncensored CMO, Peter Field, the IPA, and Amplified to uncover what separates effective creativity from work that leaves no emotional or commercial impact across both long and short formats.
Building on the earlier whitepaper, The Extraordinary Cost of Dull, this new report moves from diagnosis to prescription. Drawing on the effectiveness research of Orlando Wood, Chief Creative Officer at System1, it identifies the role of salesmanship and showmanship in creating advertising that engages and drives results.
Using its Test Your Ad platform, System1 measures audience emotional response, including happiness, surprise, fear, disgust and anger, and links these to long-term effectiveness through its Star Rating and short-term impact through its Spike Rating. At the centre of the issue is neutrality, the absence of emotion. In testing, neutrality is what dull looks like and it delivers no short- or long-term commercial effect. If it makes people feel nothing, it does nothing.
Download The Cure for Dull here.
M6 Unlimited adopts smartclip’s smartx platform for digital audio monetisation
smartclip, RTL Group’s adtech business, and M6 Unlimited, the advertising sales house for M6 Group, have announced that Groupe M6’s entire digital audio advertising inventory — including content from RTL, RTL2, and Fun Radio — is now available through smartx, smartclip’s ad serving and SSP technology platform.
This partnership fully supports Groupe M6’s ambitious growth strategy in the digital audio space and is designed to further strengthen monetisation of its premium content. Close collaboration between M6 Unlimited and smartclip’s local and international teams ensured a smooth and efficient migration of inventory to the smartx platform, delivering results fully aligned with the project’s operational and commercial objectives.
Driven by a shared commitment to continuous innovation, smartx will be progressively enhanced through the co‑development of new AI‑powered agents and modules, enabling agencies and advertisers to simplify campaign management and optimise their media strategies. The project also ensures the rollout of an advertising monetisation solution tailored to local market requirements, while fully aligned with the standards of the broader digital audio ecosystem.
Through this partnership, smartclip enters the French digital audio monetisation market, offering advertisers and partners a high‑performance, innovative technology solution.
Mirakl’s Agentic Activation launches to support AI agent visibility
Mirakl, the Operating System for Intelligent Commerce, has launched Mirakl Agentic Activation, the first production-ready enterprise infrastructure enabling merchants and retailers to be discovered, recommended, and transacted by AI agents at scale. Agentic Activation delivers two live, functional features: Agentic Product Enrichment and Agentic Channels, converting a market overwhelmed by theoretical roadmaps into measurable, executable, revenue-generating agentic commerce reality.
Based on 427 product pages analyzed across 35 countries through Mirakl’s GEO Readiness Analyzer, the data reveals a clear pattern: eCommerce is not ready for agentic commerce, starting with discovery. The average GEO score across all pages is 48 out of 100, well below the 61-point threshold where products become competitive for AI agent visibility.
86% have poorly optimized product images that AI cannot fully read or index, while only 9% provide the machine-readable data structure that allows AI to understand basic product details such as price, size, availability, without ambiguity.
Adthena launches ChatGPT AdBridge
Adthena, the global leader in AI Search Intelligence, has launched Adthena ChatGPT AdBridge, an industry-first, migration wizard designed to help agencies and brands prepare for ChatGPT Ads. This free tool analyzes an advertiser’s Google Ads campaigns to create keyword lists and negative keywords ready for immediate upload directly into the new ChatGPT Ads platform. With ChatGPT Ads trial surpassing 600 advertisers and OpenAI expected to open the platform to all markets including the UK, Adthena is giving advertisers a practical head start.
AdBridge integrates with your Google Ads account, requiring just a single connection. Once connected, it manages the entire process, including preparing keywords, negative keywords, and ad assets, all ready to be pasted directly into ChatGPT Ads for immediate activation.
ChatGPT AdBridge is the free entry point into Adthena’s broader ChatGPT Ads offering. This month, Adthena will release its full ChatGPT Ads solution for trialists and early adopters, delivering a Prompt Market View alongside immediate optimisation actions and search intelligence. Adthena has been one of the first companies globally to publish intelligence on ChatGPT Ads, with research cited by AdWeek, The Wall Street Journal, and Search Engine Land.
Sky Sports and Audi Launch ‘Flying Lap’
Sky Sports and their official innovation partner Audi have launched a new series, combining real-world driving with Audi’s “R26” simulation technology to deliver a storytelling experience from the race track that’s never been seen before.
At the heart of Flying Lap is Audi’s cutting-edge simulation technology, placing the brand directly into the narrative of performance. By integrating Audi Sim data with Sky Sports’ world-class production, the series brings fans closer than ever to the technical and physical demands of the circuit.
Fronted by Sky Sports expert and former Formula 1 driver Karun Chandhok, episodes see the driver take to an iconic track in a high-performance Audi road car, delivering a full-throttle lap guide enriched with immersive data visualisation.
Launching across Sky Sports platforms in May, Flying Lap represents the next evolution of the Sky Sports and Audi Innovation partnership — pushing the boundaries of broadcast innovation and creating new opportunities for storytelling beyond live coverage.
Sky Media is the advertising sales arm of Sky.
SuperAwesome and Tinkercast announce partnership for Wow In The World, the #1 Kids & Family podcast
SuperAwesome, specialists in data, technology, and services for safely engaging Gen Alpha and Gen Z, has announced an exclusive advertising partnership with Tinkercast, the audio-first children’s media company behind Wow in the World – the #1 kids and family podcast globally.
SuperAwesome will serve as Tinkercast’s exclusive direct-sales advertising partner, connecting brands with Wow in the World’s millions of co-listening families across a premium, brand-safe environment, alongside Tinkercast’s other award-winning podcasts.
Created by Tinkercast and hosted by podcast pioneers Guy Raz (How I Built This) and Mindy Thomas (SXM’s Kid’s Place), who were both named among The Hollywood Reporter’s “50 Most Powerful Players in Kids Entertainment” in 2024, Wow in the World is the most listened to kids and family podcast of all time.
Wow in the World has expanded into a 360° franchise that connects laughter to learning through New York Times bestselling books, the first-ever podcast-based toy lines, and sold-out live shows across the U.S. Tinkercast podcasts have logged a staggering 300 million lifetime listens, with 5.7 million hours of listening in the past year alone.
The deal introduces the leading podcast to Awesome Audio, the largest kids & family audio ecosystem delivering over 18 million listens per month across its shows. Through the partnership, SuperAwesome will connect Tinkercast’s audience with global brands, reaching an audience that includes 92% of parents who listen alongside their children.
UTA brokered the partnership and represents Raz, Thomas, Tinkercast, and its programming.
Employment Hero backs regional sports partnerships
Employment Hero, the global AI-powered employment platform, is putting sport at the centre of its latest UK marketing push, launching a regional B2B brand campaign in Leeds and Bristol through partnerships with Leeds United, Leeds Rhinos, Bristol City and Bristol Bears.
The business is backing the partnerships with a wider regional media and events programme designed to increase visibility and relevance among SMEs in both cities.
The move reflects a deliberate marketing strategy from Employment Hero, leveraging sport as a high-attention, high-affinity channel to build stronger local presence in priority regional markets, rather than relying solely on audience targeting in digital media.
To support the campaign, Employment Hero has launched an integrated activation programme across both cities spanning stadium and matchday visibility, out-of-home placements, bus advertising, Shell forecourt media and tailored events for local employers. All creative has been developed and delivered by Employment Hero’s in-house creative agency, Hero Collective. It marks the company’s first large-scale OOH campaign in the UK executed entirely in-house.
V expands European advertising partnership with Rakuten TV Enterprise across key markets
V, the global platform company behind VIDAA, has announced the expansion of its advertising collaboration with Rakuten TV Enterprise, the B2B arm of Rakuten TV, establishing a new partnership focused on in-stream video and native display advertising across key European markets, including Germany, the United Kingdom, and France.
The agreement enables Rakuten TV Enterprise to deliver targeted advertising solutions within VIDAA’s ecosystem, including in-stream video ads across the TV Channels service and native display advertising placements across the TV interface, including the Home Screen.
This collaboration builds on the long-standing relationship between V and Rakuten TV in Europe, where the Rakuten TV app is already available on the VIDAA platform and a selection of Rakuten TV’s original streaming channels are carried within the TV Channels offering. The expanded partnership reflects a shared commitment to developing scalable, high-quality advertising solutions tailored to the connected TV environment. Rakuten TV now joins a select group of partners delivering advertising across the VIDAA platform, reinforcing its role within the ecosystem.
