Big Moves: T-Mobile’s DOOH Bet & Amazon’s Retail Power Play

Welcome to The Refresh, a weekly newsletter from AdTechGod and Marketecture. Every Thursday we’ll bring you the latest advertising news, commentary, and memes.

  • The Trade Desk to acquire Sincera (Business Wire)

  • That sports News Story you clicked on could be AI slop (Wired)

  • Adtech veteran Michael Komasinski named new CEO of Criteo (Marketech)

  • What A second Trump presidency means for media and advertiser investment (AdExchanger)

  • Disney launches new ad tech tools; TikTok rolls out message ads in APAC; Google tests AI podcast feature for news  (ExchangeWire)

  • 2025 influencer marketing predictions from industry insiders (AdAge)

Podcasts, Videos and more

Anna Bager from the OAAA

Anna Bager, President and CEO of the OAAA discusses the evolving OOH industry, particularly in the context of digital out of home and programmatic advertising.

SWEET SUITES!

What an incredible week! Be sure to watch our exclusive interviews with MiQ, Yahoo!, XUMI, OpenX, LG Ad Solutions, HUMAN, Viant, and Nexxen as they unveil their CES Suites!

Hot takes on the news of the week

Vista Media acquired by T-Mobile for $600 million!

In a bold move, T-Mobile is buying DOOH ad platform Vistar Media for $600 million, signaling continued telco interest in the advertising industry. Research show that DOOH is projected to account for over a third of the $10 billion OOH market by 2027. T-Mobile’s mobile data paired with Vistar’s reach could enable pinpoint targeting, turning screens into hyper-targeted marketing channels.

We’ve seen prior Telcos enter the advertising industry before (not naming names) and then found themselves exiting a few years later. It seems T-Mobile is doubling down on advanced advertising and trying to raise the bar for data-driven DOOH. This acquisition signals DOOH’s rising status and may spark fresh investments and innovation in the out-of-home space but for now we will wait and see how this pans out for T-Mobile and the DOOH industry overall.

Ari’s View: Vistar has been a leader in a difficult market, so its great to see them have a nice exit. T-Mobile has a number of advantages in DOOH, including thousands of stores, free wireless bandwidth, consumer data, and more. This could work!

Marketecture Live Conference March 17

We’d love to hear what you’re most excited to explore at our Marketecture Live event on March 17 in NYC. Join us for inspiring sessions featuring guest speakers from Perplexity and Sincera, plus a world-class workshop from U of Digital. Let us know what topics you’re eager to dive into—and don’t forget to grab your tickets now!

Please vote : Linkedin

Amazon’s retail media ad tech news: Good for brands, bad for vendors, mixed for retailers

Amazon has unveiled a new Retail Ad Service, offering its ad tech to power other retailers’ media networks, a move meant to upend how retail media works for everyone involved. By expanding its ad platform, Amazon can monetize beyond its own channels, though it risks friction with retailers who must partner with a competitor.

For advertisers, the upside lies in streamlined analytics and broad reach across multiple retail media networks (RMNs). Smaller ad tech vendors, meanwhile, face even stiffer competition from the industry giant. And consumers may simply see an uptick in targeted ads, whether they welcome them or not.

Ari’s view: Makes sense for smaller retailers, but big guys aren’t going to want to play with their biggest competition.

Updates on the community and events

Join hundreds of marketers, publishers, and agencies in New York City on March 17th.

We are confronting the chaos ahead for advertising and marketing.

Identity is in flux, AI is emerging, and consumer behavior is rapidly changing.

We are bringing advertising experts and AI innovators to help us get prepared.

Connect with Us

Thanks for reading this weeks The Refresh Newsletter. Marketecture Media wants to help bring you the latest news, opinions and community updates. If you are interested in advertising on this newsletter, our podcasts, The Advertising Forum or our slack community you can by contacting us here.