MARKETERS SPENDING 43% OF BUDGETS ON GOOGLE, FACEBOOK, AMAZON, WANT 'ALTERNATIVES'
Roughly 65% of respondents said they were seeking advertising alternatives and “nearly two-thirds (66%) of brand marketers and agencies are extremely, very or moderately concerned about the oligopoly limiting their advertising options.”

NEWSROOMS LOOK TO RECLAIM AD DOLLARS FROM BIG TECH
Media companies are reluctant to band together to demand better terms from big tech because of antitrust laws, so they'll be arguing for an exemption as Congress launches hearings about the tech giants' practices.

FACEBOOK SAYS ITS YOUTUBE COMPETITOR IS GROWING, BUT ADVERTISERS WANT MORE DETAILS
Facebook says that Facebook Watch now has more than 720 million users monthly, but advertisers say they want more specifics on the data, as well as better functionality for users to discover videos.

WATCH OUT, GOOGLE, FACEBOOK IS EATING INTO PAID SEARCH BUDGETS
Some advertisers have shifted between 10% and 20% of their performance budget to paid-social ads, predominantly on Facebook, because they’ve seen paid-social ads deliver better results.

MICROSOFT EDGE BROWSER WILL BLOCK INTRUSIVE ADS
Microsoft previewed an Edge privacy control that you could use to block advertisers and publishers from tracking you across the web. It'll offer three levels of tracking constraints, unrestricted, balanced and strict.

YOUTUBE CANNES LIONS AD LEADERBOARD 2019
YouTube has today released their special edition Cannes YouTube Ads Leaderboard celebrating the most popular global video ads since last year’s festival. The winners leverage some of the most powerful components of best-in-class advertising.

FACEBOOK'S CRYPTOCURRENCY TO DEBUT NEXT WEEK BACKED BY VISA, MASTERCARD, UBER, AND OTHERS
The cryptocurrency, which will reportedly be called Libra, will be unveiled on June 18th, with a full release planned for 2020. It’s expected to function as a “stablecoin,” meaning it will be pegged to a basket of government-issued currencies in order to limit the volatility typically associated with cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin.