What you need to know in advertising today

Marketers have long been intrigued by the potential to zap ads at consumers' phones with precise targeting based on the stores they routinely visit.

It's become a tired ad industry cliche: "Someday, you'll be walking by a Starbucks and you'll get a coupon for your favorite drink."

But the hype hasn't worked out the way that industry veterans once expected. It's still safe to walk by Starbucks.

In fact, a number of location-based tech firms have been forced to rethink their businesses. To read more, click here.

In other news:

'It's a signal Verizon is not seriously interested in major investments': Insiders say Verizon's choice of Guru Gowrappan to run Oath reveals the future of Verizon's ad business. Oath president and COO Guru Gowrappan will assume the role of CEO in October.

Mark Zuckerberg has warned 2 months before the US midterms that Facebook can't fight election interference alone. In a lengthy essay about how Facebook will protection upcoming elections, Zuckerberg said governments, journalists, and non-profits could all help.

Spotify's CMO Seth Farbman is departing the company as the music streaming company reorganizes its marketing group. Farbman led the company's snarky and data-driven campaigns in recent years, and was also the top chief marketing officer on Business Insider's 25 most innovative CMOs in the world list in 2018.

iHeartMedia has bought Stuff Media for $55 million, the Wall Street Journal reports. Podcasting is a small but rapidly expanding slice of the digital advertising pie.