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• Podcasts are selling products, but some brands are still holding back (to the tune of $1 billion)
• Snap’s new ad format asks brands to pay for creators’ education

  Snap is opening 22 sponsorship slots over the rest of 2025, and calls them a "premium offering" that "offers advertisers a unique opportunity to engage directly with aspiring and established Snap Stars, helping build brand visibility and foster meaningful relationships and partnerships with creators."

  
• YouTube Premium is letting some viewers delete ads for their friends

  For nearly two years now, YouTube has been running a campaign that pushes ad block → YouTube Premium as a pipeline. It figures (rightfully) that people who use ad blockers do not want to see ads--so it seems to view Premium as a compromise. If people just pay $13.99 per month for Premium, they don't have to see ads!

  
• Advertisers can now see if their Amazon ads drive sales at Walmart, Best Buy, and Target. Does that give them an edge?

  Why is this such a pressing concern? Because analysts like eMarketer forecast that brands will spend $60 billion this year on "retail media"--that is, digital ads aimed at encouraging people to buy from brick-and-mortar retailers rather than ecommerce platforms.

  
• What happens when brands adopt creators’ winning content strategies?
• Brands give Amazon $1.8 billion as it challenges YouTube and Netflix for video ad budgets
• Feel like you’re seeing more unskippable ads when you watch YouTube on a TV? You are. Here’s why.
• YouTube’s new inclusive ad initiative lets creators tell brands who they are
• YouTube could crack down on ad blockers. That won’t be a popular decision.
• Meta expands Facebook Reels monetization with performance-based payout model
• Netflix pays back advertisers after missing projections on its new tier
• Is your small business looking to get big on TikTok? Enroll in the TikTok Academy.