What you need to know in advertising today

Josh Edelson / AP Images for Lyft

2017 was a breakout year for Lyft.

As its biggest competitor and market leader Uber floundered due to a series of mostly self-inflicted crises, the ride-hailing company made massive inroads both in the US and beyond. 

And it also launched its first marketing campaign that encompassed both digital and traditional media, touting itself as a socially-conscious alternative to Uber.

Much of that has happened under its relatively new VP of Marketing Melissa Waters, who joined Lyft from Pandora a little over a year ago.

Business Insider caught up with Waters — who also features on our list of the most innovative CMOs in the world —who said that Lyft consider itself the "inevitable category leader."

To read more excerpts from the conversation, click here.

In other news:

Penske Media has bought a majority stake in Rolling Stone magazine. The deal values Rolling Stone at more than $110 million. 

There’s a new model of advertising that bridges TV and social media — and it could shake up the industry. The German media conglomerate ProSiebenSat.1 Group is packaging TV ad space with YouTube inventory, including ads on top influencer channels.

A fourth class-action lawsuit against Google claims the company rips off publishers and their advertisers. The suits all focus on the alleged way that Google suddenly cancels web publishers' accounts, confiscating all the money accrued in them, without a detailed explanation why.

Facebook lets employers target job ads by age — and some experts think it's aiding discrimination. Facebook defended the practice, saying it helps both recruiters and job seekers by ensuring that ads target the people most likely to act on them.

Apple admitted it's slowing down older iPhones — but said it has a good reason for doing it. It said it isn't purposely slowing down older iPhones to encourage customers to buy new models, debunking a popular conspiracy theory.

Leaked emails show Twitter had an internal freakout over Milo Yiannopoulos. Twitter's de-verification of the far-right provocateur triggered an internal debate about whether he should be on the platform at all, and how users should be verified.

Fox News is reportedly readying a subscription streaming service that will include exclusive content from its on-screen talent, BuzzFeed reports. This sets the stage for the media moguls' next fight — against Sinclair Broadcasting.

Pinterest reportedly generated $310 million in revenue in the first three quarters of the year and is expected to record $490 million in full-year revenue, The Information reports. This is up 64% over 2016. 

Digital ad revenue continues to rise, and grew 23% to $40 billion in the first half of 2017, according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau and PricewaterhouseCooper’s Internet Advertising Revenue report. According to Pivotal Research analyst Brian Wieser, Google and Facebook collected 83% of US digital advertising growth in the second quarter of this year and 73% of all digital advertising in the period. 

Check out Business Insider's 10 Best Ads as well as 10 Worst Ads of 2017. 

Follow us at @BI_Corporate   to be among the first to hear about news and updates from Business Insider. 

Also, sign up for the Executive Summary , a new biweekly newsletter that brings the latest marketing news, trends, and company updates straight to your inbox.  

NOW WATCH: How much money you need to save each day to become a millionaire by age 65