The people transforming advertising and media, Verizon's DTC move, and ad tech's privacy play

Shonda Rhimes

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This week we published our first list of 100 people transforming business, including 10 each from the worlds of advertising and media.

The $221 billion US ad industry is being upended by the rise of digital ad giants, fragmented consumer attention, and marketers' pressure for results, while media industry is undergoing a grand convergence with tech giants, telecoms, startups and legacy companies competing to set the cultural agenda.

These visionaries range from P&G's Marc Pritchard, who's pushing to clean up digital advertising; to showrunner Shonda Rhimes, who's changing the balance of power in the TV industry. You can check out the full list here.

The deadline for nominations for the most innovative chief marketing officers is April 29. We want to hear from you. Submit your nominations here.

Elsewhere, Lauren Johnson dug into Publicis' $4.4 billion deal for data company Epsilon. Here are the takeaways:

The pending deal with give Publicis' agencies access to Epsilon's database of 250 million US consumers. Epsilon helps marketers collect and manage first-party data like CRM stats pulled from email and loyalty programs.
As Facebook and Google gobble up digital ad dollars and privacy laws clamping down on marketers' use of consumer data, agencies are under increasing pressure to help marketers manage that data.
Publicis' acquisition could create a more level playing field for brands and publishers.
Publicis isn't the only holding company betting big on data through acquisitions, though, so there's a question of how it'll set itself apart from others trying to do the same thing.
Also, it's notoriously difficult for agencies to integrate acquisitions.

Here are other good stories we've been reporting:

Verizon is hoping to build a big direct-to-consumer subscriber business by taking a page from Warby Parker
Verizon created Visible, a digital-only cellphone carrier, which provides a simple $40-a-month plan, and it's a chance for the telecom to capture some of the 50 million people each year who change carriers. It's a low-risk investment for Verizon and could eventually help boost its lagging prepaid-subscriber numbers. But Verizon has to do more to market the product, which hasn't gotten much promotion to date.

The CEO of a free TV service that's riding the wave of ad-supported streamers reveals how the company achieved 300% growth in the past year
As video streaming subscription costs increase, ad supported streaming services are having a moment. We got a look under the hood at one such service, Xumo TV, which is targeted toward millennials and other digitally savvy viewers who are unhappy with pricey linear-TV options and are willing to sacrifice the latest news and movies for free video. AVODs won't replace traditional cable TV because they don't include things like sports and news that are non-negotiables for many viewers, though.

LiveRamp just acquired a startup to help marketers get ready for the looming headache of privacy regulation
With privacy regulations like the California Consumer Privacy Act coming in the US, the race is on by ad tech firms to help marketers comply. Now ad-tech firm LiveRamp has acquired Faktor, a Dutch tech firm, to help marketers to collect consumers' consent and use their data. Marketers and ad tech firms have their work cut out for them, as there are multiple bills being proposed and they don't all treat consumer data the same.

Here are other tech, media, and advertising stories you shouldn't miss. (To read most of the articles here, subscribe to BI Prime and use promo code AD2PRIME2018 for a free month.)

'Wonder Woman' director Patty Jenkins knows fighting for her own equal pay helps other women in Hollywood

Alibaba's South China Morning Post is staffing up in the US as part of a global expansion

P&G has overhauled how it works with agencies, reducing media waste by 20% and saving upwards of $1 billion in agency and production fees

Here are all the details on the plan to totally change YouTube's business model that Google CEO Sundar Pichai reportedly killed in 2017

The Information made a splash with its high-priced subscription model, but its founder says it may experiment with ads this year

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