Advertising news today: Facebook NYT story, DTC agencies

Facebook CEO Mark
Zuckerberg.
Getty

As Facebook faced a string of crises, it sought to tie its
critics to George Soros, the billionaire at the center of many
fringe right-wing conspiracy theories.

This summer, with anti-Facebook sentiment growing in the wake of
the Cambridge
Analytica scandal and other fiascos, the
social-media company had a public relations firm it had hired to
attempt to pin the blame on Soros for the growing Freedom from
Facebook movement, The
New York Times reported on Wednesday. At
Facebook’s behest, Definers Public Affairs distributed to
reporters a research report that accused Soros of quietly backing
anti-Facebook groups and urged them to dig into the alleged
financial connections between those groups and the businessman,
The Times reported.

Click here to read more about The New York
Times’ story.

The story is loaded with other tidbits including how
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer intervened with one of
his colleagues on Facebook’s behalf this summer, and Facebook COO

Sheryl Sandberg’s efforts to downplay widespread Russian
propaganda in 2016.

Facebook has since
published a blog post disputing several parts of the story.

In other news:

Ad tech company Taboola wants to reach you while you’re
waiting for your ride, and it’s part of a plan to take on Apple
News. Israeli ad tech firm Taboola has formed a
strategic partnership with ride-hailing app Via.

Inside the unique partnership that helped ‘A Star Is
Born’ soar at the box office by targeting music fans and live
events. Live Nation Productions President Heather
Parry talked to Business Insider about the unique way the company
helped the movie get noticed by concertgoers.

A new breed of ad agency is cashing in on the
direct-to-consumer boom, and big agencies are scrambling to catch
up. Some like Decoded and Azione are incubating
their own DTC brands, while others like YellowHammer and Diff are
upending traditional fee models.

Giants like Oracle and Salesforce are salivating over
direct-to-consumer startups, but insiders say winning business is
‘inherently messy.’ Business Insider spoke with a
dozen direct-to-consumer brands, marketing clouds, consultants,
bankers, and agencies and found that brands are taking different
approaches with their marketing technology.

Nike is opening a 68,000-square-foot flagship store of
the future in New York City. Spanning six floors and
68,000 square feet, it is packed with brand-new customer
experiences that Nike has never done before.