What you need to know in advertising today

A growing number of major brands, including McDonald's, HP, State Farm and most recently Mercedes-Benz, are demanding bespoke, integrated ad agencies.

Specifically, they want creative department (those that make the ads), the strategy teams, and the media departments (the folks that buy ad space) all under one roof. And ideally, they want teams of specialist ad executives focused only on their business.

To read more about how big marketers like McDonald's, HP and State Farm are changing the ad agency model as we know it, click here.

In other news:

A star Amazon analyst thinks it will make up to $4 billion from advertising in 2018. Baird analyst Colin Sebastian predicted Amazon would make between $3 billion to $4 billion in 2018 from advertising, which would be more than what Snapchat made from ads in 2017.

Sebastian also thinks that YouTube is a $15 billion business. Google has never revealed YouTube's revenues — but the analyst said that YouTube parent company Alphabet is likely to start breaking out YouTube's finances.

Spiegel said that the time it takes for users to relearn an app after a redesign is a challenge for the company, but that Snapchat is "still very early in even the core app evolution."

NPR's 'On Point' host Tom Ashbrook fired over allegations of workplace abuse. More than 11 current and former employees came forward with allegations of verbal abuse, bullying, and unwanted contact.

The Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter, one of the biggest Netflix bears on Wall Street, told Business Insider that the company's $300 million deal with the producer Ryan Murphy was expensive and that he's concerned about Netflix's cash-burning tendencies.

NBCU’s entertainment studio Universal has fired creative, strategy and research executive Seth Byers and put marketing chief Josh Goldstine on administrative leave after receiving "allegations of inappropriate conduct," Deadline reports. The publication published a copy of an internal memo confirming the news from Universal executives Jeff Shell and Donna Langley.

The New York Times wants to offer data tools to marketers to help them develop targeted branded campaigns, the Wall Street Journal reports. It is also creating a new team supporting the effort, dedicated to adapting existing tools across various divisions, including data science, product and design, technology and advertising.

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