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“Reaching a $1bn run rate so quickly is impressive by any measure, and this is with official launches still being very fresh in most top-10 ad markets like Western Europe and Japan,” Jamie McEwan, a senior media analyst at media research service Enders Analysis told The Media Leader.

He noted, however, that the announcement has been received with “mixed reactions” by the advertising industry. While the $1bn figure is a significant demonstration of OpenAI’s rapid scaling of ChatGPT’s ad model and advertiser demand for AI chatbots more generally, it is still a modest figure relative to other tech platforms, and according to McEwan, “it now seems certain that OpenAI will miss its advertising revenue target for 2026 by quite a way, right when Anthropic has been overperforming.”

"It could prompt some brands and their agencies to reassess where they draw the line between creative freedom and oversight, with greater scrutiny of creators and more checks around creative sign-off," said Ben Woods, head of creator economy at Enders Analysis.

“A recent Enders Analysis report showed that licence fee income has fallen by 28% in the past 15 years. The BBC has cut costs by 15%. It’s found £1.5 billion in savings, and is on target to find another £500 million. Revenues tumbling; costs rising. This equation cannot last. You cannot cut your way to growth.

“The most interesting feature of Play Quest+ is the ability to plug into advertisers’ own ecosystems, enabling better conversion data and allowing users to collect rewards in-game rather than simply for use on Discord itself,” said Claire Holubowskyj, senior research analyst at Enders Analysis. “External integrations target growth on both sides: from IP-motivated users that can benefit from more attractive in-game rewards, and from advertisers who can integrate into Discord’s formats more seamlessly — previously a particular challenge for growing interactive ad formats.”

Creator economy analyst Ben Woods at technology, media and telecoms insights firm Enders Analysis sees the future as less a transfer of ownership from one function to another than a sharing of responsibility: “I think responsibility is becoming more shared rather than simply moving from communications to another department,” he told PRovoke Media.

“A creator might promote a new release, make content around an existing franchise, host a podcast or even produce programming that appears on a streaming service. Different parts of the business will therefore have different reasons for working with them.

“The important thing is having checks and balances around those decisions. Content teams might know who can make something audiences want to watch, while marketing and social teams understand who can reach and engage the right audiences. Communications can bring another perspective: is this someone we are comfortable becoming closely associated with our brand?”

But when it comes to sports, YouTube actually has a different strategy for establishing its presence: "The platform uses its army of creators," explains Ben Woods, a specialist in the creator economy at Enders Analysis. "They often have access to these major events to produce content, before the matches or live while they're commentating on them, when they're not producing podcasts on the subject."
 

Gareth said "“The primary challenge for The Atlantic with a gaming product is developing a portfolio of puzzles at various levels of complexity that hook recurring players. Leaning into quirkiness and brand identity is an elegant avenue to start, but sustained commitment is the other critical pathway to residual stickiness, with on-time updated daily games,”