BARC India and Nielsen launch cross-media ad measurement solution
BARC India and Nielsen have launched a new cross-media advertising measurement solution called BARC | Nielsen ONE Ads, aimed at providing unified data across television and digital platforms.
The system combines BARC’s linear television viewership data with digital measurement from Nielsen ONE Ads to provide a deduplicated view of audiences across multiple screens, including mobile, connected TV and computers.
JioHotstar will be the first platform to use the solution, starting with coverage of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup hosted by India and Sri Lanka in 2026. The organisations said the framework could expand to include more broadcasters in the future if there is industry interest.
X Pilots New Ad Unit That Links Posts to Products
X is testing a new advertising format that places product promotions beneath posts referencing related brands. Early examples include a Starlink link displayed below a user post discussing the satellite internet service. The experiment comes as the platform seeks to strengthen advertising revenue amid growing competition in global digital advertising.
Key Highlights
- X is testing product-linked ads that appear beneath posts referencing related brands or services.
- Early trials include a promotional link to Starlink beneath a user post discussing the service.
- Advertising remains the platform’s largest revenue source, accounting for roughly two-thirds of income.
- Global digital advertising spending is expected to exceed $700 billion annually across major platforms.
Social media platform X has started testing a new advertising format that places product recommendations directly beneath posts mentioning related companies or services. The experiment introduces what can be described as product-linked ads on X, a format that connects user conversations with commercial promotions.
Retail and grocery brands dominate ChatGPT ads
With OpenAI now into its fourth week of running ads in ChatGPT responses, the team from app analytics provider Sensor Tower shared an overview on X of the kinds of ads that are being shown to ChatGPT users, relative to specific queries being submitted.
ChatGPT ads, which OpenAI announced would begin testing from Feb. 9, are displayed to users based on the topic of the conversation with the chatbot. That means the types of ads shown will reflect what people are using ChatGPT for, at least to some degree.
And according to Sensor Tower, retail and grocery-related promotions are currently the most prominent ad category shown to ChatGPT users.
Retail and grocery promotions also dominate Google Search, so it’s no surprise to see that ChatGPT users are also seeking information on these topics.
Sensor Tower reported that it recorded more than 100 individual brand promotions in ChatGPT ads over a two-week period, with travel and food delivery options also seeing a lot of appearances.
LLMs Unlock Audio And Video Indexing
In a podcast interview, Google VP of Search Liz Reid described two ways LLMs are changing what Google can index and how it ranks results for individual users.
Reid told the Access Podcast that multimodal AI models now allow Google to understand audio and video content at a deeper level than was previously possible. She also pointed to a future where search results adapt based on a user’s paid subscriptions.
What’s New
Multimodal Understanding Is Expanding What Google Can Index
Reid said LLMs being multimodal has opened up content formats that Google previously struggled to process.
Reid told the hosts:
“The great thing about LLM is they’re multimodal. So we can actually understand audio content and video content actually at a level we couldn’t years ago.”
AI assistants now equal 56% of global search engine volume: Study
AI tools now generate 45 billion monthly sessions worldwide — about 56% of search engine volume, according to a study by Graphite.io CEO Ethan Smith.
- The analysis combines web traffic and mobile app usage across major AI tools and estimates AI activity equals 56% of global search usage and 34% in the U.S.
- Much of this growth is occurring in mobile apps such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Grok, and Claude.
Why we care. AI is expanding discovery, not shrinking search demand. Total usage across search engines and AI assistants has grown 26% globally since 2023. In other words, it’s not SEO vs. GEO — you need both LLM visibility and traditional rankings.
The details. The report analyzed usage across the five largest LLM products — ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Grok, and Claude — and compared them with the six largest search engines. Key findings:
- AI platforms generate 45 billion monthly sessions worldwide.
- In the U.S., AI accounts for 5.4 billion monthly sessions.
- 83% of global AI usage occurs inside mobile apps (75% in the U.S.).
- ChatGPT dominates AI usage, representing 89% of global AI sessions.
- When isolating search-like prompts (“asking”), AI usage equals 28% of search worldwide and 17% in the U.S.
The report excludes prompts categorized as “doing” or “expressing.” According to OpenAI research, about 52% of prompts are information-seeking, the closest equivalent to traditional search queries.
Google introduces AI voice-over in Performance Max video ads with opt-out
Google is introducing an AI voice-over feature for Performance Max (PMax) video ads that automatically generates voice narration from your existing headlines and descriptions. This AI-generated voice-over will be layered onto your current videos and saved as new assets, but only if the videos do not already have voice narration.
Key Details
- The AI voice-over uses advertiser-provided headlines and descriptions to create realistic voice narration.
- It will be applied automatically to videos without existing voice-overs.
- This feature is opt-out, not opt-in, meaning it will be enabled by default.
- Advertisers have until March 20, 2026, to disable this under video enhancement controls.
- After this date, all ads with video enhancement control enabled will serve voice-enhanced versions.
- Ads already opted out of video enhancement control will remain unaffected.
Advertisers should review their video enhancement settings before the rollout to manage this new feature.
From BC Web Wise
Before we end, check the very important perspective by Chaaya Baradhwaaj founder BC Web Wise on the IT Rules amendments effective February 20 and what they could mean for brands using AI-generated content in marketing.
