Expect the Olympic torch to take a detour through the programmatic pipes en route to Paris.

NBCUniversal, which will broadcast the Olympic Games this summer, will make some of its inventory available programmatically for the first time, it announced Wednesday during the company’s annual One24 tech showcase.

To do it, the broadcaster is partnering with The Trade Desk, which will build a private marketplace that’ll let advertisers bid on everything from the US Olympic Trials to the Paris games.

The move follows the media giant’s efforts to open up more TV inventory to the programmatic world. Ryan McConville, EVP of advertising platforms and operations at NBCUniversal, said during a press briefing that the broadcaster has seen a 40% increase in advertisers in the last year, “driven mostly by programmatic access.”

Much of that is on streaming; in fact, more than 30% of Peacock ads are sold programmatically, he said.

“This ability to buy into these premium environments now in an automated way is opening up the ability for more and more marketers to come in,” he said.

Read more here.—RB

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The Baltimore Banner, a nonprofit news startup in Maryland that opened in 2022, has quickly made its presence felt in its community. After exposing the state’s failure to fully reimburse victims of welfare theft in December, officials announced new policies to reimburse them last month.

The outlet is also beginning to make money. The Banner made $5 million in advertising and events revenue in 2023, outpacing the organization’s subscription revenue and exceeding the company’s own goals, Chief Revenue Officer Sharon Nevins told Marketing Brew. This year, Nevins expects subscription revenue to exceed what’s earned from advertising and events, but for now, local advertisers are paying the bills.

“We don’t think you can really be self-sustainable if you rely on only one source of revenue,” Nevins said.

The publication isn’t profitable yet—it’s only two years into a five-year path to profitability set by its owner, the hotel magnate Stewart W. Bainum Jr.—but it could serve as a glimmer of possibility among some attempts nationwide to shore up local news media. The newsroom has over 60 journalists, covering the city’s local government, its food scene, and its beloved professional sports teams, the Ravens and the Orioles, and lately, it’s covering regional stories from neighboring Howard and Anne Arundel counties, too.

So far, the Banner doesn’t have a single national advertiser, and Nevins doesn’t expect them to come running. Instead, it looks regional and local, running ads for businesses like the Howard County Economic Development Authority, Ronald McDonald House Charities Maryland, regional banks, casinos, and a local music school and recording studio.

So far, the publication has avoided programmatic inventory. The Banner “does not have that scale,” Nevins said—plus, she added, these ads can be “extremely reader-intrusive.”

Continue reading here.—RB

Each week, Marketing Brew recaps what people are talking about on social media, the trends that took over our feeds, and how marketers are responding.

Feeling abandoned: After the House passed a bill that would require TikTok parent company ByteDance to sell its stake in the app or cease operations in the US, the threat of a TikTok ban is once again looming—and many TikTokers are understandably upset. In addition to questioning the motivations behind the bill and criticizing its Congressional supporters, app users are sharing their concerns about the effects a ban could have on their incomes, career prospects, and…general happiness. Some have also questioned the wisdom of banning an app used extensively by young people in a presidential election year when millions of Gen Zers will be eligible to vote.

Gone girl, continued? As people continue to speculate on the status of the Princess of Wales and whether the most recent photos and video of her are real or fake, official accounts are getting in the mix. NYC Sanitation, the City of New York, the Washington Department of Natural Resources, and Dublin Airport are among the accounts on X posting about Princess Catherine.

In what’s surely unrelated to everything going on, the Royal Family is hiring a communications assistant. Crisis PR folks, it’s your time to shine.

No assumptions: An ad from the National Down Syndrome Society about the ripple effects that negative assumptions have on the lives of people with Down Syndrome is getting major engagement. The ad currently has more than 29 million views and 6.5 million likes on TikTok, as well as more than 216k likes on Instagram.

Talk to your grandparents: If you were wondering what’s going on over on Facebook, it’s apparently one big AI engagement fest that is seemingly focused on older users. If you see your relatives engaging with a “photo” of Crab Jesus, please initiate a conversation on media literacy.

Big news for the little guys: Dunkin’ Donuts is honoring short kings this spring by renaming its small iced coffee in the Dunkin’ app. We just hope the target audience can reach the drive-thru window.—KH

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Stories we’re jealous of.

• The New York Times wrote about Ashwin Deshmukh, a former social media marketer and co-owner of NYC’s Superiority Burger, and the individuals who allege that he stole from them.
• Vox wrote about YouTuber MrBeast and how his style of content, which is largely geared toward children, could be the future of streaming.
• Cosmopolitan wrote about the trend of “stay-at-home girlfriends,” some of whom have found large followings on social media, and what happens after a breakup.