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Daenerys Speaks; Nike Changes Pregnancy Policy for Athletes; Democrats Catch Up to Trump in Digital
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Emilia Clarke as Daenerys Targaryen in last night’s “Game of Thrones” finale. PHOTO: HBO.
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Peter Dinklage as Tyrion Lannister, facing down ad breaks in the U.K. PHOTO: HELEN SLOAN/HBO
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Marketers in the U.S. watched “Game of Thrones” wrap up last night from the outside looking in, as always, unable to buy commercials because HBO doesn’t sell them. But brands have enjoyed the opportunity to insert ads during “Game of Thrones” in the U.K. because Sky Atlantic runs it there, and is plenty happy to take their money.
So last night’s send-off, which Sky Atlantic ran at 2 a.m. Monday local time to coincide with HBO’s U.S. premiere and will rerun Monday night, included ads for Amazon, Apple, Beats, BrewDog beer, Gillette, “John Wick: Chapter 3-Parabellum,” McDonald’s and Samsung. They were spread across three commercial breaks, not counting the lead-in and the lead-out.
“‘Game of Thrones’ represents one of the rare chances to reach people who all ‘have to watch’ the show within that first day or at time of transmission,” said a partner at BrewDog’s agency, “for fear of it being ruined or missing out on the chat at work, school or on WhatsApp.”
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Play My Game, Play My Game
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Ben Lupo, known as DrLupo to fans, was paid to play ‘Apex Legends’ the day it launched. The 32-year-old professional gamer from Omaha, Neb., has 3.2 million followers on Twitch. PHOTO: LUPO PHOTOGRAPHY
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Electronic Arts surprised the videogame industry in February when its “Apex Legends,” a download-only game in the style of “Fortnite,” drew more than a million downloads in its first day with no advance promotion.
EA took on “Fortnite” by hiring Tyler “Ninja” Blevins and other professional gamers, more than a dozen in all, to stream themselves playing “Apex Legends.”
While smaller, independent game companies have compensated streamers for years to publicize games, big publishers like Electronic Arts have mainly stuck to traditional ads. But live-streaming now has become too popular for even top-tier publishers to ignore. Top streamers get $50,000 an hour to play new games.
“If you don’t have live-streaming as part of your marketing spend, you’re doing it wrong,” said John Benyamine, chief executive of Greenlit Content, a marketing agency that enlists streamers on behalf of game publishers.
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PHOTO: ALEXANDER POHL/ZUMA PRESS
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The complexity of online ad buying continues to torture everyone—except criminals.
Google has agreed to refund advertisers for ads purchased through its ad marketplaces that ran on websites with fraudulent traffic, following a lawsuit claiming the tech giant was withholding those back-payments.
In 2017, Google offered limited refunds to hundreds of marketers and ad agencies who used its ad-buying tool after the company uncovered a fraud scheme—but only the “platform fee” it charged for the tool, not the money that flowed through to third-party marketplaces where publishers were selling space. The online ad company AdTrader sued Google, arguing that it could repay more, because some of that money went to marketplaces that Google itself owned. Got all that?
Google had planned these refunds since before the suit was filed, according to a spokeswoman. AdTrader’s case is still pending, however, and it is seeking certification to represent affected agencies and marketers as a class.
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Nike said it is adding language to new contracts for female athletes to protect their pay during pregnancy, after coming under fire for cutting compensation for some athletes. [WSJ]
President Trump was dominating presidential-campaign advertising on Google and Facebook, but Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have now caught up. [Axios]
Spotify addressed rumors that it was making a hardware device, confirming that it’s testing a voice-controlled “Car Thing,” but says it’s just to gauge how people listen to music and podcasts in the car. [TechRadar]
Not even Apple’s new TV app can clean up the mess of streaming TV, Journal columnist David Pierce writes in a review. [WSJ]
The proto-pet influencer Grumpy Cat died at seven years old. Her marketing legacy includes a Honey Nut Cheerios commercial, an endorsement deal with Friskies, three Golden Books about her, the Lifetime movie “Grumpy Cat’s Worst Christmas Ever” and Grumpy Cat Grumppuccino. [Ad Age]
Extinction Rebellion, climate-change activists who staged major protests in London last month, want the ad industry to do more to save the planet. [The Drum]
CBS has had talks with Lions Gate about buying the pay-TV channel Starz. [The Information]
Uber’s latest product innovation lets riders tell drivers to please not talk. [Chicago Sun-Times]
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We bring you the most important (and intriguing) marketing news every day. Write me at nat.ives@wsj.com any time with feedback on the newsletter or comments on specific items. We want to hear from you.
And follow the CMO Today team on Twitter: @wsjCMO, @natives, @alexbruell.
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