@AdTechProject

A 4-yr study of online advertising by @EdinburghUni & funded by @ESRC. Seeking participants, connections, & #adtech insight. Retwts ≠ endrsmnts

 Edinburgh, UK
Joined February 2022
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Our open-access article exploring the tensions in market encounters and the co-creation of supply and demand in the adtech space is hot off the press with @JCultEcon tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.…

Intermediaries, mediators and digital advertising’s tensions

We argue that Latour’s distinction between ‘intermediaries’ and ‘mediators’ captures important facets of tensions in market encounters and in the co-creation of ‘supply’ and ‘demand’ within digital...

tandfonline.com
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Our project team recently presented some work-in-progress at our Platforms, Advertising, and Power event, captured by a live illustrator. Check out the visual summary here, and special thanks to Illustrated Live for capturing our talks!
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Then, Koray Caliskan and @addiemcgowan gave a double paper on Google's superplatform as a demarketised supply chain, exploring the complexities of "adtech spaghetti" in "Prodexchange: Digital-Industrial Economisation in Google Search Supply Chain."
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To wrap up, Charlotte Rommerskirchen asked, "Why are Podcasts Ads so bad?" in her look into how advertising's past, present, and future haunt the podcast ad landscape.
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@DonaldMacKen kicked us off by asking "What Your TV Knows About You," bringing a consideration of #adtech's embodiment in domestic settings (think: on the sofa, do you lean in, or lean back, for certain ads?).
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Is your cosy fireplace "showing" you ads? We've been researching digital advertising for 4 years, and keep getting surprises. The latest was triggered by a reference in AdExchanger by John Gentry of OpenX to "fireplace app inventory".
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Puzzled by "fireplace app inventory" we asked a couple of our friends in AdTech. It turns out to be ads that aren't visible on screen but loaded in the background of apps that simulate fireplaces, and sold as good quality video ad inventory.
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Seems like this is quite a genre. One of our friends told us about soothing music apps that help you get to sleep. There, the ad *could* appear, but by the time it's loaded the screen is probably dark and if the app has worked, the user is off in the land of dreams ...
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Almost new! Intermediaries, mediators and digital advertising’s tensions @AdTechProject @addiemcgowan Donald Mackenzie and Koray Caliskan tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.…

Intermediaries, mediators and digital advertising’s tensions

We argue that Latour’s distinction between ‘intermediaries’ and ‘mediators’ captures important facets of tensions in market encounters and in the co-creation of ‘supply’ and ‘demand’ within digital...

tandfonline.com
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‘The machine is, of course, amoral. It optimises for whatever “conversions” it is told to pursue: installs of Angry Birds; sales of saris made by village women; voters signing up for a Donald Trump rally.’ Donald MacKenzie on digital advertising: lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v46/n16/…

Donald MacKenzie · Hey Big Spender: What Your Smartphone Knows About You

Tensions haunt our attitudes to the digital economy. We want privacy, but we also want free information and...

lrb.co.uk
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Donald MacKenzie discusses our project's work in his da Vinci Medal Address, thanking @SocHistTech for this honour. Check out his talk which has just been published in the Journal Technology and Culture: muse.jhu.edu/article/933102
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In our latest @LRB article, we share how @eric_seufert describes ad platforms as data icebergs. The tip above the water line includes the characteristics of audiences advertisers focus on, like age, gender, and interests. lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v46/n16/…

Donald MacKenzie · Hey Big Spender: What Your Smartphone Knows About You

Tensions haunt our attitudes to the digital economy. We want privacy, but we also want free information and...

lrb.co.uk
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Apple could further obscure user identity by encrypting IP addresses and using a system of relays, but this could face government opposition and increase energy consumption.
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As both the IDFA saga and the controversy over third-party cookies show, preserving privacy is often in tension with other priorities such as fostering competition. But a productive balance between them is possible, and astute public policy can help find it.
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Divine! Sweet! Our project lead, Donald MacKenzie, talks Candy Crush, match-three whales, data icebergs, and what the mechanics of in-game advertising can tell us about the digital economy with @LRB this week: lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v46/n16/…

Donald MacKenzie · Hey Big Spender: What Your Smartphone Knows About You

Tensions haunt our attitudes to the digital economy. We want privacy, but we also want free information and...

lrb.co.uk
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This also indicates how hard it is to target match-three whales: only 2 or 3 players in 1,000 are whales, we've been told. Targeting this group based on their behaviour, as opposed to their demographics, is an example of a common challenge faced in online advertising.
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As #adtech peeps know, game advertisers therefore use sophisticated machine learning algorithms to target potential players. Platforms like FB and Google use extensive amounts of user data to optimize ad targeting and delivery.
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