This Week in AI + Advertising
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ChatGPT Ads Just Landed in 31 More Countries. Today.
OpenAI switches ads on across 31 European markets today, taking its total footprint to 40 countries and its ad business to nearly a $1 billion annualised run rate. Europe gets a stricter build, no personalised targeting at launch, ads sold only through agency partners like Publicis, WPP and Omnicom to start. India still isn’t on the list. At this pace, that’s the more interesting gap.
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Remember Time’s Ads That Only AI Could See? Perplexity Just Called Them Cheating.
Follow-up to a story we ran a few issues back: Time started selling ads that exist only in the markdown version of its pages, the plain-text rendering AI agents read instead of the full site. Perplexity has now blocked all of it, calling the practice deceptive and warning that publishers who try it risk a hit to their standing in Perplexity’s own index. Time’s ad partner Mobian disagrees, arguing it just hands models “brand-verified” facts they can choose to use. Less than two weeks between the ad format launching and an AI platform blocking it. That’s the whole story about how fast this territory is moving.
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70% of Agencies Haven’t Raised Prices Since AI Made Their Work Faster. Guess Who Kept the Savings.
D&AD surveyed 197 creative leaders across 30 countries for its new AI & Creativity Report, and the sharpest finding isn’t about output quality, it’s about who captures the value. AI has made creative work genuinely faster, but 70% of agencies are still charging what they charged before, quietly handing the entire efficiency gain to clients. The report’s read: the agencies pulling ahead have stopped billing for delivery and started billing for the decision and the IP behind it. Worth a look before your next scope conversation, not after.
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Meta AI Can Now Read Your Client’s Instagram, Ads Account and Gmail at the Same Time.
Meta is turning its AI assistant into a marketing analyst for small businesses, connecting Facebook and Instagram performance, Meta Ads data and Google Workspace (Gmail, Docs, Sheets, Slides) into one conversation. Ask it which content worked last month, get a report every Monday, turn findings straight into a deck. Free to start, deeper use expected to sit behind Meta One later. For any small founder-led client, this is a real productivity gift and a real question about who else gets to see inside their inbox once it’s connected.
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A 10-Year-Old Built a Cardboard Cockpit at Home. IndiGo Turned It Into Their Best Ad of the Year.
Siddharth, a 10-year-old from Ajmer, built his own cockpit, engine and plane at home out of whatever he had. IndiGo didn’t script a story around him, they just gave him a real aviation experience and let the camera catch his actual reactions. “Every dream begins somewhere,” the film opens, then gets out of its own way. No product message, no CTA overlay, just a kid’s wonder captured straight. Sometimes the most strategic move is restraint.
Sources
Dataconomy · Digiday · D&AD · BestMediaInfo · Yahoo Entertainment