Starting next year, Meta plans to limit certain advertisers’ access to health-related data that could affect how everything from vitamins and supplements to acne treatments and Botox injections is marketed on the platform.

The plans, contained within a lengthy update to Meta’s advertising policy released last month, detail how the platform plans to limit or entirely restrict advertiser access to data that falls into specific categories like health and wellness, financial services, and politics. The new policy is scheduled to go into effect in January, nearly two years after advertisers using Meta’s ad tools faced scrutiny from the federal government for allegedly sharing users’ sensitive health information with the platform.

The changes could prevent advertisers from being able to access some kinds of data tied to consumers’ online activity, like the purchases they’ve made or the items they’ve placed in their online shopping carts. Those can be crucial data points for advertisers who are increasingly relying on Meta’s AI-powered advertising tools to find potential customers.

Advertisers told Marketing Brew that they had heard little from Meta directly about the full effects of the policy changes, and they described the policy changes as “vague” and “fairly ambiguous.” Beyond that, one described the timing of the announcement as “tone-deaf” amid the busy holiday shopping season.

Regardless, advertisers are working to understand how the updates will affect them—and are bracing for impact.

Continue reading here.—RB

Women’s teams and leagues in the US have had quite the year, but they’re still playing catch-up when compared to men’s sports.

Given the fact that women’s teams and leagues still tend to have fewer resources, media coverage, and infrastructure than men’s sports properties, “a new blueprint for team valuations is needed,” according to a report from Wasserman’s women-focused advisory business The Collective and the Royal Bank of Canada.

Comparison is the thief of joy value: The report’s authors argue that when women’s properties are compared directly to men’s using traditional metrics, they often end up being undervalued. To rethink their value, the authors put forward a new framework for “redefining the value of women’s sports franchises” based on 40 indicators, including:

• Team attributes like performance and access to venues or facilities dedicated specifically to the team;
• Revenue sources like jersey sponsorships and other brand deals;
• Growth factors like broadcast, streaming, in-person, and social audience size.

“Our model projects growth and recalibrates revenue multipliers to better reflect long-term investment potential in women’s sports,” the authors wrote.

Read more here.—AM

From Amazon Prime Video’s position in the WNBA’s historic media rights deal to Netflix’s continued push into live sports, streaming services have made some big moves in the sports media landscape this year—though perhaps not quite as many as Saquon Barkley did on the football field over Thanksgiving weekend.

By most indications, sports streaming is only going to continue to get more popular in the foreseeable future. Roku predicts that two-thirds of sports content will be consumed over streaming in 2025, according to Joe Franzetta, head of sports at Roku Media.

“That unlocks a lot of opportunities with advertisers,” he told Marketing Brew.

We spoke with Franzetta about his other predictions for sports media and advertising in 2025 and how Roku is looking to capitalize on the opportunity.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Some sports marketers started the year by saying that the industry could probably make better use of fan data for targeting and personalization. What do you expect to see on that front in 2025?

The cable model has long been the golden goose of sports media, and as we migrate to streaming, the question becomes, “What’s the new economic model, and how does data support that new economic model?” I think there’s a couple things. One is more targeted advertising, the ability to identify the audience and identify the audience as they’re interacting with you. The other is…you’re able to start layering in interactivity that provides other types of revenue opportunities and other types of relationship opportunities with viewers, whether that’s sports betting, or merchandise sales, or ticket sales, or food delivery.

Continue reading here.—AM

Executive moves across the industry.

• MLB CMO Karin Timpone is leaving the role at the end of the month.
• BetMGM tapped Rocket Mortgage vet Casey Hurbis to serve as CMO.
• Dries Van Noten elevated Julian Klausner to the role of creative director.