Hello, Bidtellectuals! Hope you’re staying cool and safe.Congratulations to Star Bidtellectual Karl Hentschel!

Which Industries are Surviving (Thriving?) this Pandemic

MediaRadar’s Tea with Todd webinar offered some great insights into changes in consumer advertising during the pandemic. Some big takeaways: Streaming services (ad spend up 284% YoY) and food subscription boxes (up 130% YoY) are crushing it, duh. (eMarketer also forecast that food and beverage will be the fastest-growing ecommerce category this year, with year-over-year growth of 58.5%.) But RVs are outplaying us all! To save those summer travel plans, ad spend is up 400% YoY and in June, 80% of RVs sold were to first time buyers. Road trip, anyone?

High Impact Creative Guarantees Engagement

By the way, are you getting the most engagement out of your creative? For Native Ads, packing a punch with eye-catching creative assets is everything. If you haven’t yet, check out How to Refresh Your Coronavirus Ads to Connect With Consumers and Bring Hope. Then watch our video for Five ways to really up your creative assets to “high impact.” Isn’t that what we all want?

The [insert adjective] Antitrust Hearing

The House Judiciary subcommittee on antitrust grilled execs from Google, Facebook, Apple and Amazon on industry dominance at a virtual hearing on Wednesday. Words that I’ve read to describe it include “meandering” “showdown” “historic” and “ironically streamed on Google-owned Youtube.” The hearing aimed to uncover whether or not anti-trust action should be taken, as all four have exhibited common patterns of anticompetitive behavior and exploitative practices, though each in different ways and to varying degrees. As CNET points out “No single rule, law or action will likely fix them all.”

5 HIGH IMPACT Creatives for MAX Engagement: Native Ads & Digital Advertising

Other News: TTD Unied ID 2.0

The Trade Desk is building out the second iteration of its Unified ID. Unified ID 2.0 will rely on encrypted email addresses, not third-party cookies and the new version will hopefully avoid friction since it’s open-source – the entire digital industry can shape and ultimately participate in it.

Good News: Impossible Foods, folklore, and Architectural Digest

Faux-meat brand Impossible Foods will now be in Walmart stores! The deal with Walmart and other retail locations across the country increases the company’s physical footprint 50x. Taylor Swift dropped a surprise album and if you haven’t listened to it yet what are you even doing?? the last great American dynasty and cardigan are currently playing on repeat – what are your favorites? Read this interview on the process – it was all virtual! I am crushing hard on the latest “InsideAD” video of Kendall Jenner’s home designed by Kathleen and Tommy Clements and Waldo Fernandez. Does anyone else think this is basically just MTV cribs but with better editing? ~The power of marketing.~ ~Tell me I’m wrong~

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Charlotte Otremba is Sr. Manager of Communications and Marketing at Bidtellect.