AI Bots’ Impact on Search Engine Queries
The Source: Gartner
The News/Forecast: By 2026, traditional search engine volume will drop 25%, with search marketing losing market share to AI chatbots and other virtual agents, research firm Gartner forecasts.
What are the implications? The forecasted trend will have many substantive consequences. “Generative AI solutions are becoming substitute answer engines, replacing user queries that previously may have been executed in traditional search engines. This will force companies to rethink their marketing channels strategy as GenAI becomes more embedded across all aspects of the enterprise,” says Alan Antin, Vice President Analyst at Gartner. We at Portada think that, at the margin, search engine marketing will become less critical for marketers vs. AI bot solutions. This trend would diminish Google’s revenue support to the open web. In addition, according to Gartner, search engine algorithms will further value the quality of content to offset the sheer amount of AI-generated content, as content utility and quality still reign supreme for success in organic search results.
MarTech News: Third-Party Ad Partnership
The Partners: Google and Pinterest
The News: The integration will enable ads to be served on Pinterest via Google’s Ad Manager.
What does it Mean? This collaboration allows brands running campaigns with Google Ads to broaden their reach and engage an active, high-value consumer base. Google is the second third-party ad partner for Pinterest, following its multi-year collaboration with Amazon announced last year.
Check out Portada’s analysis on how Walmart’s Vizio Acquisition will Impact the U.S. Advertising Ecosystem.
Sports Video is All the Rage
Buyer/Acquisition Target: Minute Media and STN Video
The News: Global tech and sports content company Minute Media announced it has acquired STN Video, a leader in North American sports content distribution.
What does it Mean? Sports video content, particularly live sports (not least soccer content), is very coveted by both publishers and advertisers. STN Video, founded in 2010 as SendtoNews, is a North American leader in sports content distribution and holds premium partnerships with every major league in the U.S. Its online video platform reaches tens of millions of unique users across the web. The acquisition of STN will bring additional technology capabilities, distribution, and sports highlight content rights to Minute Media’s ecosystem of owned sports content brands, distribution partners, and advertisers.
MarTech News: Extending Reach to Audiences in a Multicultural America
The Partners: Sabio and FreeWheel
The News: FreeWheel will work with Sabio as a supply-side platform (SSP) partner.
What does it Mean? FreeWheel works with the majority of publishers across the TV ad ecosystem. By teaming up with Sabio, the latter’s clients now access a more comprehensive array of premium video ad inventory in the highly growing CTV Advertising market.
AI-Powered Communications Insights
The Partners: Microsoft and Meltwater
The News: Meltwater, a media, social, and consumer intelligence firm, announced the launch of a collaboration with Microsoft. Meltwater will be the provider of media, social, and consumer intelligence to Microsoft on a global scale. In turn, Microsoft will work with Meltwater to deliver an integrated communications insights solution, harnessing the capabilities of Meltwater’s leading listening tools alongside Microsoft’s technology stack. Meltwater also agreed to a multi-year commitment to make Microsoft Azure its preferred cloud platform for future Microsoft customer deployments.
What does it Mean? “We aim to transform the way insights are accessed and actioned, embedding Meltwater’s deep listening capabilities into the daily rhythm of business communications,” says John Box, CEO of Meltwater. Organizations need easy-to-use solutions that enable them to be more productive, efficient, and creative to receive integrated information that can drive strategic decisions. Microsoft and Meltwater product integration allow for Meltwater’s global data set to be available—cross-selling of Meltwater services for Microsoft customers and vice versa.
