There’s very little “white space”—areas of opportunity—in the salty snacks category.

The organic potato chip is, however, one of those opportunities.

Family-owned and founded in 2019, SpudLove Snacks says it’s the only brand of organic potato chips in the country (instead of an organic offshoot of a regular brand).

The company operates dairy and potato farm Threemile Canyon Farms in Boardman, Oregon, where organic fertilizer from cows helps grow the majority of the company’s organic potatoes.

Carrying a premium price because of the costs involved in organic production, SpudLove has managed to secure distribution in more than 5,000 retail doors—beginning with Whole Foods Market in the Pacific Northwest

In June, SpudLove said it was expanding to all U.S. Whole Foods stores.

Given the price and narrow consumer base—primarily health-conscious people who care about where food comes from—widespread advertising is not on the table.

To help drive sales for its debut in Hannaford supermarkets on the East Coast and H-E-B grocers in Texas, SpudLove did a mobile-targeting test with Aki Technologies’ personalized advertising solution called Moments.

Based on such input as consumer app activity and time of day, the campaign ran exclusively on mobile apps including CBS Sports, MyFitnessPal, theScore and Scrabble GO, and delivered 3,895 ads. Targeting included consumers who had downloaded apps from Hannaford and H-E-B.

“We targeted consumers within a 10-mile radius of the Hannaford and H-E-B stores—a total of about 200 locations,” SpudLove CMO Shaila Garde-Lester tells CPG Insider.

“One of the things we wanted was consumers who are more health-focused. For example, we looked at people who have apps tracking their workouts and who had purchased healthier-focused salty snacks.”

According to Aki senior manager of content marketing Alexandra Matthews, the campaign prompted 7,886 incremental store visits that generated estimated sales of $36,985 while resulting in 35,712 additions of SpudLove products to consumers’ online shopping carts.

One of the things Shaila-Garde “was most impressed with” was the campaign’s click-through rate of 1.46—which she says is nearly four times higher than the industry average.

“People get bombarded with a lot of messages. So the holy grail for me is trying to get a click-through from somebody who sees an ad and is motivated to stop scrolling and reading and click on it. It’s a hard thing to do.”

Vivid Seats, an online ticket marketplace for book events in North America, launched its first brand campaign.

Created by 72andSunny LA and a partnership with omnichannel agency Assembly, the work channels the dreams of fans across sports, music and theater.

The integrated “Real Rewards for Real Fans” campaign connects Vivid Seats with the number 11, aligning it with the Vivid Seats Rewards program so users can earn a free 11th ticket.

Fans who buy 10 tickets earn a reward credit to use on their next purchase. The spot dives into the fantasies of how people would spend that credit.

Vivid Seats will also be the first brand to sponsor a bonus 11th play on the ESPN “SportsCenter Top Ten" series. The free bonus play reminding fans their 11th ticket is free.

In addition, broadcast and digital spots highlight Vivid Picks, its daily fantasy sports app.

“At Vivid Seats, we understand that our fans are not just any fans,” said Tyra Neal, Chief Marketing Officer of Vivid Seats. “This campaign captures the passion of that kind of fandom and highlights one of the key differentiators of our brand – Vivid Seats Rewards. We believe that no one else in our industry appreciates what it takes to be a real fan, and we know that no one else recognizes that dedication with real rewards.”

On Nov. 11, the campaign will include homepage takeovers of Rolling Stone, Bleacher Report and ESPN. Vivid Seats also aligned with global influencer-marketing agency Viral Nation to feature 11 key influencers to support the “Real Rewards for Real Fans” social campaign.  

“The rewards are real, but what you do with them can be as wild as you can imagine,” said Zach Hilder, ECD at 72andSunny. 

After a successful, year-long beta program, Teads has added connnected TV (CTV) to its cloud-based multichannel programmatic advertising platform. 

Teads is launching the CTV solution in the U.S., with additional territories to begin rolling out later this year. 

Users of the platform can now buy across CTV, mobile and desktop through the Teads platform, to reach nearly 2 billion monthly unique users through a premium-content marketplace. 

Teads — known for its proprietary inRead video and display formats that insert ads into editorial content — says it added CTV through existing content partners, including Scripps. 

The CTV solution offers creative optimization, interactivity, omnichannel frequency capping, remarketing and omnichannel attention measurement. 

Teads also recently launched an Attention Program designed to enhance omnichannel attention measurement.

Bidstack, the in-game advertising and video game monetization platform, announced on Thursday that Jude O’Connor has joined the company from AdColony as chief revenue officer.

O’Connor is tasked with overseeing global revenue and growth in the U.S., a move Bidstack believes will expand its presence in the U.S. market. 

Bidstack says that O’Connor is also leading teams across sales, publishing, marketing, and strategy while scaling the company’s local teams and steering a go-to-market strategy centered on educating the U.S. market on Bidstack’s in-game technology.

A 20-year ad-tech professional, O’Connor has joined Bidstack after more than seven years at AdColony, one of the world’s largest mobile gaming monetization platforms. Prior to entering the gaming space, O’Connor worked at internet companies like Yahoo and AOL.

In 2022, the global gaming market as a whole is forecast to generate $196.8 billion.

Mobile games, which make up53% of the market ($103.5 billion)have been the proving ground for the native in-game format, which is being explored by major cross-platform publishers of PC and console titles. 

Last month, the IAB and MRC releasedupdated guidelines for the measurement of in-game ads, heralding a new wave of mass adoption. In addition to native in-game ads, Bidstack offers in-menu and rewarded video formats aimed at the 3.2 billion gamers across the globe.

“We’re approaching an inflection point where brands are ready to be part of the immersive, multi-touchpoint experiences that gaming offers at scale,” says O’Connor.

Since launching into in-game advertising in 2017 with Sports Interactive’s Football Manager series, Bidstack has run in-game campaigns for brands such as Marriott Bonvoy, Paco Rabanne, and Doritos, and works with game publishers such as Codemasters, and Take-Two Interactive. 

Niantic, the company behind popular AR (augmented reality) game “Pokémon GO” and the 8th Wall AR developer platform, has announced the launch of Lightship VPS (visual positioning system), a browser-based technology that allows developers to build web-based AR experiences connected to real-world locations.

Similar to Snap’s Landmarker’s technology, Lightship VPS is intended to transform everyday locations into experiential destinations, whether it’s augmenting a statue in a park or a storefront in a major city. 

Lightship VPS uses Niantic’s AR map of the world to anchor AR content with centimeter-level precision at locations around the globe. By bringing this system to the 8th Wall platform, which has been used in over 2,000 commercials by major brands like Pepsi, Netflix, and Dior, developers can now create VPS-enabled AR experiences that work directly within the mobile browser, requiring no app to download.

Either developers, agencies, and brands can root AR experiences to one location, strengthening a consumer’s need to be at a certain place, or they can choose among 10,0000 VPS-activated locations ready at launch on Niantic’s AR map as a move to increase reach for specific content. 

Multi-location experiences like AR scavenger hunts and geo-AR games can also be created to elevate brand engagement. 

Users can currently interact with Coors Light’s “Keeping It Chill” bear flipping burgers on a real grill, or feed Paddington Bear marmalade sandwiches at the statue in Leicester Square, or even watch the famous Luxor Obelisk in Paris come to life. 

“At Niantic, we believe that the real-world metaverse should get people exploring and connecting in the world around them,” says CEO of Niantic John Hanke. “Bringing Lightship VPS to the Web is a critical step forward for AR, enabling developers to realistically fuse digital content to the real world with precision and persistence.”

Lightship VPS for Web also gives WebAR developers access to the 3D mesh of a location for use in an AR scene. The company says  this will enable developers to create WebAR experiences that add a greater level of interactivity between virtual objects and the physical world. 

The company says the locations vary, including parks, paths and local businesses.

The AR map is powered by scans of real-world locations from developers, surveyors and gamers who have contributed millions of locations, photos, and scans. 

Developers can create and simulate their AR experiences remotely within the Geospatial Browser in the 8th Wall platform.

Lightship VPS for Web is now available to all 8th Wall developers. The experiences can be accessed on any iOS or Android smartphone.

Wireless carriers and streaming services long ago recognized the mutual customer-growth benefits to be realized by teaming up, and that dynamic is clearly still compelling. 

Case in point: Verizon recently bowed a limited-time offer of $30 off an annual subscription to the NFL+ Premium streaming service, normally priced at $79.99, to score access to live local and primetime regular season and post-season games, and on-demand content, on their smartphones and tablets.

Verizon also recently extended its deal offering prepaid wireless customers six months of free access to Disney+ when they activate or upgrade to an unlimited plan.

Meanwhile, starting Aug. 31, T-Mobile — which has deals with multiple streaming service providers — expanded its relationship with Apple TV+.

The wireless carrier had been offering Apple TV+ (normally $4.99 per month) free for one year to its unlimited wireless customers. Now, it’s offering the streamer free to new and existing T-Mobile Magenta Max (its top-tier plan) customers for as long as they remain on the plan.

In addition, those on unlimited Magenta plans are eligible for six months free access to Apple TV+. Thereafter, they will be billed the standard $4.99 per month.

T-Mobile also continues to offer Netflix with most Magenta Max and Magenta plans — either the streamer’s basic or standard tier, depending on their mobile plan; a free year of Parmount+’s ad-supported Essential plan (normally $4.99 per month) to new and existing customers on consumer postpaid plans; and one free year of TelevisaUnivision’s new ViX+ Spanish-language streamer (normally $6.99 per month) for new and existing customers.

Sinch, parent of Email on Acid and a provider of cloud communications and mobile customer engagement tools, has formed a new integration with Zapier, an automation platform. 

The arrangement will deliver a range of messaging channels to the 5000+ business apps supported by Zapier through Sinch’s Conversation, including WhatsApp, Telegram and Facebook Messenger. 

The integration gives users “easy access to those channels from a single integration point, reducing headaches for IT departments and laying the groundwork for a true omnichannel conversational messaging strategy,” says Jon Campbell, Director of Rich Messaging at Sinch.

Zapier’s users, including sales and marketing teams and HR departments, can also build automated logic flows between their existing marketing apps and processes and Sinch’s Conversation API, the company says. 

Small and medium sized business use Sinch's MessageMedia, SimpleTexting and ClickSend to send SMS messages.

Sinch’s integrated its MessageMedia service with Zapier in 2018, allowing users to connect with other apps and automate repetitive tasks like sending SMS calendar notifications.

Possible use cases for the new integration include:

Sending WhatsApp messages to opted-in customers stored on Google Drive

Payment confirmation messages sent via SMS

Creation of a Zendesk ticket when a customer messages a brand via Instagram.