2024 in review: From AI boom to election frenzy, Digiday editors look back

Summary

The Digiday Podcast: 2024 in Review – From AI Boom to Election Frenzy, Digiday Editors Look Back

Release Date: December 24, 2024

As 2024 draws to a close, the Digiday Podcast takes a comprehensive look back at the year's most impactful stories, dissecting their implications for brands, agencies, and publishers navigating the digital landscape. Hosted by Tim Peterson, Executive Editor of Video and Audio, and Kamiko McCoy, Senior Marketing Reporter, this episode delves into seven dominant themes that shaped the media and marketing sectors over the past year.

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1. The 2024 Election: Trump’s Resurgence and Media Dynamics

The episode opens with a reflection on the monumental 2024 election, spotlighting Donald Trump's unexpected victory and its reverberations across various industries. Seb Joseph, Executive Editor of News for Digiday, provides insights into how Trump's administration is poised to influence media spending and public engagement.

Seb Joseph [02:24]: "Trump is the resounding kind of victory... He will go after the news media in ways that he just wasn't able to last time around."

Joseph discusses the anticipated "Trump bump" for media platforms, where Trump's polarizing presence drives impressions and clicks, benefiting publishers and broadcasters. However, he also cautions about Trump's aggressive stance towards the media, which could lead to increased tensions and direct confrontations.

2. TikTok Under Threat: Navigating Potential Bans

A significant portion of 2024 was dominated by discussions around the potential ban of TikTok in the U.S. Tim and Kamiko explore the implications of this threat for content creators and brands heavily reliant on the platform for virality and brand partnerships. Ben and Lazara Martin share their strategies to mitigate the impact of a possible ban.

Ben and Lazara Martin [05:34]: "The TikTok ban itself... is very scary for any creator... we're having to look at a bunch of other platforms."

The Martins emphasize the importance of diversifying their presence across platforms like Instagram and YouTube, and building direct communication channels with their audiences through email subscriptions to ensure continuity in engagement and monetization.

3. Streaming Advertising: A Market in Flux

The rise of ad-supported streaming services continued to be a pivotal story in 2024. Marci Greenberger from Worldwide discusses the "streaming ad price correction," highlighting how increased competition from platforms like Amazon Prime Video has led to more favorable pricing for advertisers.

Marci Greenberger [07:47]: "There was just so much more supply. That finally convinced the suppliers or the publishers to kind of rethink what the right pricing is there often in exchange for volume."

This reset has benefited advertisers by lowering costs, while publishers adjust to the influx of available inventory, fostering a more competitive and dynamic streaming ad market.

4. The Surge of Women's Sports in Advertising

Kamiko highlights the burgeoning investment in women's sports, driven by significant milestones such as the U.S. women's soccer team winning Olympic gold and standout athletes like Caitlin Clark. Shana Stevenson, overseeing the NY Liberty women's basketball team, discusses the strategic branding efforts that have capitalized on this momentum.

Shana Stevenson [09:58]: "WNBA players specifically are a microcosm of society... tapping into that and going several layers deeper was the way to really achieve success with our franchise."

The focus on authenticity and representation in women's sports has attracted substantial ad dollars, opening new avenues for brands to connect with diverse and growing audiences.

5. Authentic and Unhinged Content Strategies

The podcast explores the trend of brands adopting "unhinged" content strategies to stand out in a crowded digital space. Duolingo’s iconic mascot, Duo, serves as a prime example of this approach. Katherine Chan from Duolingo shares insights into managing such strategies effectively.

Katherine Chan [12:23]: "We had a lot of internal discussions about it... we made sure that we had these clear standards and practices guidelines."

While unhinged content can boost visibility and engagement, it requires careful oversight to maintain brand integrity and avoid backlash, as demonstrated by Duolingo's experience with controversial posts.

6. Governance of Generative AI in Content Creation

AI continues to be a transformative force in 2024, with Dow Jones implementing stringent governance over generative AI tools. Ingrid Verscher from Dow Jones elaborates on the establishment of an AI steering committee that ensures all AI applications align with the company's core principles.

Ingrid Verscher [14:38]: "We have an AI steering committee... to ensure that whatever we do with GenAI, that it fits with our core principles."

This multidisciplinary committee evaluates each AI-driven initiative, balancing innovation with risk management to uphold content quality and ethical standards.

7. Third-Party Cookie Deprecation: The Great Procrastination

The impending deprecation of third-party cookies remains a contentious issue. Rachel Casisa from Epsilon compares the industry's response to procrastinating study for an exam, highlighting a reluctance to fully commit to alternative strategies.

Rachel Casisa [16:44]: "We're all sort of going to wait and cram at the end. It's the great procrastination."

Casisa advocates for a proactive focus on first-party data strategies, urging marketers to maximize their existing data assets to future-proof their marketing efforts irrespective of the cookie landscape.

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Conclusion: Looking Ahead to 2025

As the episode wraps up, Tim Peterson teases next week's discussion on the anticipated big stories of 2025, featuring Seb Joseph and Sarah Jehradi. The hosts acknowledge that while 2024 was a whirlwind of significant events, the challenges and innovations of the past year set the stage for an equally dynamic 2025.

Tim Peterson [18:35]: "If you want to listen to these full interviews, you can find links to the episodes in the show notes... next week, Tim, you'll be on the podcast with Seb and Sarah to talk about 2025."

Kamiko adds a light-hearted remark on the perennial focus on third-party cookies, humorously predicting that the conversation will continue into the new year.

Kamiko McCoy [19:00]: "This is actually the worst will they or won't they trope I have ever encountered in my life."

Merry Christmas and all a good night concluded the hosts, leaving listeners with a sense of camaraderie and anticipation for the discussions to come in 2025.

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Key Takeaways:

• Election Impact: Trump's victory is expected to influence media strategies and engagement, with potential benefits and increased confrontational dynamics.

• TikTok Ban: Creators are diversifying platforms and building direct audience channels to mitigate risks associated with potential bans.

• Streaming Ads: A competitive streaming ad market has led to favorable pricing for advertisers, driven by increased inventory from new entrants like Amazon Prime Video.

• Women's Sports: Significant investment in women's sports offers new advertising opportunities, driven by authenticity and societal representation.

• Content Strategies: Balancing unhinged content tactics with brand guidelines is crucial for maintaining integrity while achieving visibility.

• AI Governance: Structured oversight ensures responsible and principled use of generative AI in content creation.

• Cookie Deprecation: Proactive focus on first-party data is essential as the industry grapples with the phasing out of third-party cookies.

For a more in-depth exploration of these topics, listeners are encouraged to refer to the full interviews available in the episode's show notes.

Transcript

[Tim Peterson]

Foreign. Hello, and welcome to the Digiday Podcast. My name is Tim Peterson. I'm executive editor of video and audio.

[Kamiko McCoy]

At Digiday, and I'm Kamiko McCoy, senior marketing reporter here at Digiday.

[Tim Peterson]

Merry Christmas, Kamiko.

[Kamiko McCoy]

Merry Christmas indeed, Tim. We have made it close to the end of 2024, which has gone by in a flash. Do you have whiplash? I do.

[Tim Peterson]

I'm sure I do. But I think the feeling for me is more punch drunk at this point. I feel like that's not the first time I've said that I've been feeling punch drunk on the podcast, but I think that's fair.

[Kamiko McCoy]

I'm sure our listeners fall into one of those two camps as well. And if you don't already, you will by the end of this episode.

[Tim Peterson]

And especially like heading into New Year's Eve and the New Year, I'm sure the feeling of punch drunk or punched or drunk will resonate with a lot of folks.

[Kamiko McCoy]

100%. 100%. And the thing is, we will all, all be in this together. So good news for them.

[Tim Peterson]

Yep. And it's appropriate we're doing this episode coming out on Christmas Eve because we're going to look back at the gift that was 2024, as well as the lump of coal that was 2024 in certain respects, especially if you're a TikTok executive, for example.

[Kamiko McCoy]

Yeah. Yeah. There's a lot that has happened this year and a lot of these stories will continue into the new year. So, you know, we're, we're going to try to present to the the. The seven wonders of 2024.

[Tim Peterson]

Yep. Yeah. These are the seven stories or topics that we felt really dominated the year and were reflected in interviews that we did on the podcast throughout 2024. So let's get right into it. The big story of 2024 was the election. And we had Seb Joseph, the executive editor of. Of news for Digiday, on the podcast immediately after the election for you and I to kind of have a bit of a therapy session maybe with him or just kind of like figure out, okay, Donald Trump has been elected. What does this mean for the industries that we cover? Media, marketing, technology, 100%.

[Kamiko McCoy]

I think there are a lot of through lines that happened with that story. So I think a therapy session was a great way to put that kind of looking at the ideas of where this goes as far as media spend tariffs that were already being talked about and what that means for executives and how they, they get in front of people shopping under economic Concern, we'll call it.

[Seb Joseph]

Look, it's still so soon after. Right. So it's been really hard to get a kind of firm handle on. On much. I think the in the immediate aftermath of the election, a lot of the industry execs that we're talking to, at least at this moment, seem to be anticipating or at least wondering about a return to the boon days. Right. The days where kind of Trump and everything he said and did generated all manner of kind of attention and impressions and clicks for publishers and kind of broadcasters alike. I guess you factor in the fact that, you know, Trump is the resounding kind of victory. He's kind of emboldened a lot more. Right. And has made a big point of the fact that he will go after the news media in ways that, you know, he was just not able to kind of the last time round. So a lot of that kind of anticipation that, you know, the media industry will be able to see a kind of direct benefit of this. You sort of have to caveat it with that. Right. The fact that, you know, Trump is all likely to respond to criticisms from the all parts of the media industry really directly in ways that he. He just wasn't able to the kind of last time around.

[Tim Peterson]

Yes. Kamiko. So, as we just heard Sepp talk about, one of the questions coming out of the election is what's the election of Donald Trump or the new administration of Donald Trump going to mean for news publishers? And is there going to be a kind of a Trump bump where we may not see a Trump bump in 2025 is on TikTok, which another big story of 2024 was this potential for Tik Tok to be banned in the.

[Kamiko McCoy]

U.S. yeah, there's been a lot of conversation about that because this is not the first time that a ban has been threatened, but this is the first time that there's a little bit more certainty, not a little bit more. There is certainty that it that that decision has been made. But what's interesting here is again, that's something that folds into next year. January 19th is when a final call has to be made. We had a conversation with Ben and Lazara Martin to TikTok content creators started on Facebook, expanded, but we talked to them about the TikTok ban and kind of what that means for their reliance on that platform for virality and brand deals. So let's hear from them now.

[Ben and Lazara Martin]

The TikTok ban itself, you know, is very scary, I will say very scary for any creator, but that's why we cross Post. You know, we post on Instagram, YouTube and all of that. And we encourage our followers that wherever we're at, they love us. They'll go there, they'll follow you. Another way that we have really been talking about is just creating a email chain, like telling our following. Once this really becomes like, oh my gosh, this is really happening. Like telling them, hey, we have a email. Subscribe here. Put your email in. And anywhere that we go, anywhere that we post, you will be notified, whether that's by email or phone. We just really haven't really thought about how exactly we're going to do that. But with the TikTok band talk, it is very scary.

[Tim Peterson]

It really just makes us work a lot harder on every other platform. Yeah. So as Ben and Lazar were saying, they're having to look at a bunch of other platforms, which that was another big story throughout the year of just kind of the state of platforms for creators as well as media companies. And one platform that I'm curious to see, like if creators like Ben and Lazara jump onto more, is streaming. Because another big story this year was ad supported streaming, the streaming ad market. We've talked, you and I a number of times about just how many ads are on streaming this time, but it was just a big year overall for streaming advertising.

[Kamiko McCoy]

Yeah, that too. Which I would imagine that that kept you very busy this year. The gift that kept on giving.

[Tim Peterson]

Yeah, yeah, no, it kept a lot of people busy this year, including Marci Greenberger from, um, Worldwide, who he had on the podcast coming out of this year's upfront negotiations to talk about what the big story of this year's upfront was, which was kind of this streaming ad price correction. You know, with Amazon Prime Video coming into the market, there being more inventory available, ad buyers were able to get the streaming ad sellers to come down a bit in their prices. But you don't need to hear from me. Here's Marcy talking about that.

[Marci Greenberger]

Yeah, to your point, it definitely was a slower marketplace, a little bit similar to last year, and I would say it continued to be a buyer's market again this year. A soft marketplace from a linear standpoint, as dollars continue to shift. I think the biggest, I don't know if takeaway is the right word, but the biggest shift or change this year is it was really a reset year from a digital video standpoint in terms of pricing. I think there was such an explosion of supply last year from the, you know, increase from Amazon prime creating their ad platform from just more consumers opting into an ad forward subscription tier as well as just, I think some reduced churn in that space. There's just so much more supply. That finally convinced the suppliers or the publishers to kind of rethink what the right pricing is there often in exchange for volume. But really saw a reset that benefited advertisers tremendously.

[Tim Peterson]

What we didn't necessarily get into with Marcy there, but could very much be even more of the consideration next year is sports inventory, specifically women's sports inventory. It was huge year for women's sports from the U.S. you know, women's team winning gold at the Olympics on soccer to obviously. Caitlin Clark.

[Kamiko McCoy]

Yeah, just. You don't actually don't need anything after that. Just Caitlin Clark. Yeah, but yeah, I think this is the first time that, you know, there's been this money pouring into women's sports and even like sports that, you know, are, I guess, off the beaten path, like pickleball and things like that, as kind of the last fashion of one live television events for people to start throwing ad dollars behind and also just the growing number of viewers and people that are in the audience. So we had a really interesting opportunity to talk to Shanna Stevenson, who oversees the NY Liberty women's basketball team, about kind of all of how that came together, building that brand from the ground up and kind of what it took to capitalize on that, that movement in that moment. So let's hear from Stephanie Shayna.

[Shana Stevenson]

WNBA players specifically are a microcosm of society. A lot of what they experience, you know, successes, challenges, whatever it is, it's identifiable, it's relatable to so many people within our society. A lot of the isms that women in our society face or people in marginalized communities in our society face are inherent to several of our players just because they're women or because they are women of color or because they identify as queer or queer women of color, you know, so the list goes on and on and on. Or because they're moms or because they're entrepreneurs, like whatever it is, they check off those boxes. And so I really felt like tapping into that and going several layers deeper was the way to really achieve success with our franchise as we were set to reposition the brand in Brooklyn.

[Tim Peterson]

And so we have Shana there talking about kind of like authenticity, which has been a big word among media companies, creators, celebrities and the like, but really having some way to stand out among all the content that's out there. Another way to stand out is maybe it's authentic, but authentic in a Very obscure way is just by being a bit unhinged. Like how Duolingo has been on social media, especially TikTok with their mascot.

[Kamiko McCoy]

Duolingo, I would say has been like one of the leaders in the unhinged, so called unhinged content strategy space. Right. But I think you're seeing more and more brands start to tackle that and kind of take a page out of Duolingo's playbook, if you will. Nutter Butter is another one that's kind of on that list now that's really. I don't know if you've seen their TikToks. They're scary, you know what I mean? But they've got folks talking. So job, you know, mission accomplished. But sometimes with the unhinged content, you can fly a little close to the sun in an effort to stand out. And I think that is a case in point. That dueling go learn. But you know, again, said to be for the playbook for, for everybody. But we had Katherine Chan from Duolingo on the podcast to talk about so called unhinged content. So let's hear from Katherine.

[Katherine Chan]

A part of our strategy is actually to comment on stories that maybe Duolingo aren't, isn't directly involved in. So as a part of personifying Duo, you know, he comments on a lot of TikTok videos, for example, that are not necessarily about language learning or about him directly. And, and we once commented on a video that featured Amber Heard with a comment that I think looking back, is definitely something that we would not have done. This was during the time when Amber Heard and Johnny Depp were going through their divorce proceedings. It was obviously a massive flashpoint in the culture and we removed it almost immediately. But it had basically nothing disappears on the Internet. And it did cause a bit of a news cycle. And in this case, I think we had a lot of internal discussions about it. And I think what really came of it was one, we made sure that we had these clear standards and practices guidelines, which now we have a process for. If we think stuff might be on the edge, let's run it by the standards and practices team. And that's actually helped a lot.

[Tim Peterson]

So what stands out to me with that conversation is that as it feels like everyone's producing so much more content these days and it's getting a lot easier in many respects to be producing content, it also seems like there needs to be more eyes on that content before it gets published, which is, you.

[Kamiko McCoy]

Know, I actually had a conversation with an executive who said that Generative AI is coming in handy there. Right. Where there's this push to make sure that AI optimizes things to where you know or you better feel as a marketer that you're not wrong. Which is one of the conversations that we've been having this year, especially in the publishing world.

[Tim Peterson]

Yep. Yeah. So during our digital Publishing summit in Europe, we had Ingrid Verscher and from Dow Jones on, and she talked about this steering committee that they have put together to kind of govern their use of generative AI tools when it comes to, well, all across the company, but including the content they create. And so here's Ingrid.

[Ingrid Verscher]

The way that Dow Jones looks at AI or the way that we govern these decisions is we have an AI steering committee. And within that AI steering committee, we have representation from across the business. So it includes the newsroom, but it also includes representation from the commercial side. It includes representation, not surprisingly, from legal, from technology as well. And the function of this cross functional steering committee is really to ensure that whatever we do with Genai, that it fits with our core principles when it comes to Gen AI. So we look at every single request that we get and then decide, can we actually accept the risk? Can we accept it? But we need to mitigate. If you need to mitigate, what are the guardrails? And then make sure that ultimately the people from whoever department the request comes from, they are the ones who then execute on it. We don't get involved in the execution.

[Tim Peterson]

So AI, obviously one of the big stories of 2024 will be one of the big stories of 2025. Another big story of 2024 that I wish would stop being a story. But is third party cookie deprecation.

[Kamiko McCoy]

Yeah. Did you think that we'd go an entire podcast episode without talking about the cookie? You were wrong. Merry Christmas.

[Tim Peterson]

Yeah, exactly. And so we had, you know. Kayleigh Barber, former co host of the Digiday podcast, spoke with Rachel Casisa from Epsilon about cookie deprecation coming right off of Google's decision to actually, we're not going to fully get rid of third party cookies in Chrome. We're going to give people the option at some point in 2025 for the cookie to go away. And so this was kind of like where we started with Seb and the react episode to the election. This was kind of a react episode to Google's decision not really to deprecate the third party cookie. So here's Rachel to talk about that.

[Rachel Casisa]

I think that you can liken it to procrastinating to study for an exam Right. So you know, two months in advance that your final is coming, but you don't actually start studying until a week before. I think that's a really similar human behavior that we're seeing here that's applied to corporate, the corporate world. Right. We're all sort of going to wait and cram at the end.

[Tim Peterson]

Yeah.

[Rachel Casisa]

You know, I think that what we will likely see over the next, however long that this gets dragged out is a continued procrastination. It's the great procrastination. Right. That's what I'm seeing. And I think, think it gives opportunities for us to focus on things that are third party cookie deprecation adjacent things like first party data strategy. Right. So, you know, that is just good, good strategy for marketing regardless of whether cookies will be deprecated or not. Right. You really, as a marketer want to make sure that you are getting the absolute most that you can out of your first party data. And so thinking about it from that lens, instead of thinking about, oh, cookies are dying cookie apocalypse, let's think about it instead of, hey, I've got some time to figure that out or others are going to figure that out for me. Fine. But really, how do I make sure that I am future proofed, regardless of what happens, regardless of what kinds of identifiers are deprecated or instituted or whatever the case might be.

[Tim Peterson]

So Kimiko obviously sounds like the cookie is very much going to be something we continue to talk about in 2025. One of my New Year's resolutions, I think I'm not a New Year's resolution person. Was going to be talking about the cookie less. I think that's like a lot of people. I'm probably going to break that on January 2nd.

[Kamiko McCoy]

100%. This is actually the worst will they or won't they trope I have ever encountered in my life. And with that, the 2024 year is winding down, but will still have much to talk about in 2025. If you want to listen to these full interviews, you can find links to the episodes in the show Notes. And next week, Tim, you'll be on the podcast with Seb and Sarah to talk about 2025.

[Tim Peterson]

Yep. Yeah. So I had Seb Joseph, our executive editor of news, and Sarah Jehradi, our managing editor on the show to kind of map out what the big stories in 2025 seem primed to be. And it was great having this conversation with, you know, both of them because Seb obviously oversees our newsrooms and Sarah's been overseeing our 2025 notebook coverage. This package of stories that everyone across the newsroom has been putting together in terms of, like, what are going to be the big topics and developments for the year, at least from where we sit at this point. So I think it was really great conversation to kind of organize my thoughts at least heading into 2025. On. Okay, what do I need to know to be prepared for next year? Because I don't know that I felt adequately prepared for 2024 in hindsight.

[Kamiko McCoy]

Yeah, exactly. As Rachel said, a good, good cramming session.

[Tim Peterson]

Absolutely. So. So that's it for this episode. KO Again, Merry Christmas and to the.

[Kamiko McCoy]

Listeners, Merry Christmas and all a good night.