Edition #527
On skill files in media, new monetization paths and vertical shorts are back?
Lenny did something neat with his newsletter, he opened up all his posts and transcripts so that paid subscribers could access, and build on top of the newsletter. Perfect for his community (which are product builders).
“Today I’m releasing my entire newsletter archive (350+ posts) and all podcast transcripts (300+ episodes) as AI-friendly Markdown files. Plus an MCP server and GitHub repo.”
And then, someone built Claude skills, from these. And I thought that was neat. Prior I had put all posts in a NotebookLM to make them queryable, but to turn them into a skill which people can then use in their LLMs, I liked the touch.
Quick background, for those not in the know, you can create ‘skill’ files for your LLM responses to be filtered through, to then give it a fresh take. i.e. the ‘growth agent’ skill which helps solve your problems through that skill file. And the skill file itself is just an additional prompt.
Could this be an emerging monetization strategy for ‘knowledge creators’? Maybe the long run is creators get paid a share of the tokens used by their skills.
Has anyone here made some skills?
In that vein, Brian Morrissey shared this quote from What Silicon Valley gets wrong about taste:
“And the reason this matters for AI; the reason it’s not just an aesthetic complaint, is that the absence of taste is exactly why consumers hates this technology. The industry has spent three years telling people what AI can do without ever articulating what it’s for. It can generate images. It can write code. It can summarize documents. Okay. But to what end? For whose life? Toward what vision of the good?”
Letting people build on top like Lenny has (and the AI companies though) is exactly the right strategy, to let builders, express their taste, using the skills.
Vinny Rinaldi had a sage piece this week too – on how we’ve lost sight of the purpose of Reach. Give it a read. The piece purports that in trying to ID people, merge IDs, hold unique ids, we have lost sight of what they were meant to be for. To see what our effective reach is.
Something to add to the ‘media-buyer-skills.md’ file right?
Notable stories this week
- Meet Vurt, the mobile-first streaming platform for indie filmmakers.
- The 12 new steps of booze branding.
- How ‘monitoring the situation‘ became reality tv for men.
- BuzzFeed debuts AI slop apps in bid for new revenue.
- Where AI agent moats actually form in media buying.
- Why The Trade Desk has come out swinging against the press, Wall Street, Madison Avenue and Amazon.
- LinkedIn is making a big play for streaming tv ad dollars.
- Do not launch a new short form unscripted vertical video show.
- Yahoo launches brand pages.
- Understanding MCP the ‘Universal Adapter’ for AI in advertising.
- How Barr Diller’s People Inc learned to live without Google.
- The Trade Desk remains the dominant DSP but its advertisers are starting to shop around.
- Why Programmatic Quality Control Needs To Focus On The Bid Request, Not Domains.
- Inside ChatGPT’s slow motion ad rollout.
- What a vibe coded app should tell publishers about user needs.
- Small publishers hit hardest by search traffic declines.
- Publicis no longer recommends The Trade Desk to clients following audit.
- Meta adds new scam protections to Facebook, WhatsApp and Messenger.
- Why ChatGPT’s Instant Checkout faced challenges.
- Tom Sietsema joins Beehiiv.
- Joanna Stern announces her new venture – called New Things!
- OpenAI is testing an ads manager, as its new ads business fights growing pains.
- Disney+ is rolling out its TikTok-like ‘Verts’ short-form video feed.
- You never actualized your reach numbers. And nobody noticed.
- New questions arise over TikTok sale.
- Google’s response to the CMA’s consultation on potential requirements for Search.
- Creator and influencer trends brand marketers need to know about right now.
- Using AI in your content? You could be dampening brand trust.
- Inside the great migration from newsrooms to brands.
- MyFitnessPal is launching an ad business.
- DEPT pilots early ChatGPT advertising integration for Fortune500 brands.
- NBC News partners with Joanna Stern to elevate tech coverage.
- OpenX and TVision bring real-time attention targeting to CTV buyers.
- PMG takes over WPP’s Cannes beach space to debut AI-focused activation.
- Facebook launches a new monetization program to attract popular creators from TikTok, YouTube.
- Could ads be coming to Gemini?
- How Kick became a landing spot for Clavicular and other streamers big brands won’t touch.
- What I learned about AI at Marketecture Live.
- Advertisers will soon be able to buy Reddit Ads through Pacvue.
- YouTube star Mark Rober got a big boost in product sales after his Netflix deal.
- Perplexity’s Comet browser is now available on iOS. Perplexity’s Comet browser is now available on iOS.
- Yahoo CEO Jim Lanzone on revising the web’s homepage.
- BBC Storyworks and their Range Rover Sport campaign.
- Butler/Till’s first agentic media buy tests cut media and supply chain costs.
Deals/M&A
- Smartly signs letter of intent to acquire INCRMNTAL.
- Rothschild family sells 27% stake in The Economist to Canadian billionaire.
- Predictive modeling firm Recentive Analytics raises $45m Series B.
- Webflow buys AI content generation platform Videos to bolster its marketing suite.
- Native raises $31m to expand digital advertising tech.
- Should David Ellison buy Roku next?
Campaign of the week
- Polymarket is launching the Monitoring the Situation Bar as a popup in DC.
Smartest commentary
- “The global success of SubwayTakes inspired thousands of others to launch similar shows. And why wouldn’t they? They should! It worked for me; it should work for them….What I don’t understand or appreciate, though, is why all of these shows are almost exactly the same? A man or woman stands in Washington Square Park (why is it always that park?!!!??? THERE ARE SO MANY PARKS IN NYC!!!) with a microphone and asks people vapid, depressing questions. It’s not “lo-fi.” It’s just… lazy. And it makes me sad because the internet should be a place where we innovate, challenge, and create things more interesting than the slop currently programmed on TV and in movie theaters.” –Kareem Rahma.
Datapoints of note
- AI-powered ad spend is set to soar 63% this year as brands ditch manual controls.
- Dow Jones projects $1b EBITDA within five years.
- 49% of CTV Ads Are Still Traditional TV Spots.
Events
- Next breakfast is coming up, let me know if you’d like to join.
That’s it for this week.
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