Ad Tech
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Data-Driven Thinking
The Death Of The DSP? How Ad Tech’s Cash Flow Crisis Threatens The Entire Ecosystem
Programmatic advertising is experiencing a dramatic shift. Conversational and agentic AI are here, and their effects are already being felt. Microsoft announced the shuttering of its DSP in May, stating that the current DSP model no longer aligns with its AI-powered priorities. As ad tech barrels toward automation, companies of all sizes along the supply […]
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Data-Driven Thinking
Fresh Meat: Cannes Lion Festival In Retrospect From An Industry Novice
Early last Wednesday evening, I found myself in a closed courtyard off the Croisette in Cannes at an exclusive event co-hosted by a publisher and a tech company. Who am I and why was I there? I’m just a dude with a passion for interesting tech accompanying my girlfriend as she navigates her industry’s largest […]
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The Big Story
Why The FTC Tied The Omnicom-IPG Merger To Brand Safety
The FTC approved the Omnicom-IPG merger, but with a brand-safety caveat: The agencies cannot create agency-level blocklists of any media that’s political or ideological. With Ad Fontes CEO Vanessa Otero, we unpack the consent order’s ramifications.
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Marketers
US Bank Is Using Synthetic Audiences To Generate Real Customer Insights
The scene: Sitting on a large wicker sofa 30 feet from the Mediterranean Sea drinking Perrier in the Riviera sunshine and talking to the chief marketing officer of a bank about generative AI, synthetic audiences and creative optimization. That’s how one rolls in Cannes. But rolling back the clock to 2023, which is when Michael […]
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AdExchanger Talks
Spilling The Rosé In Cannes, With TikTok’s Monetization Chief
Despite ongoing uncertainty over TikTok’s fate in the US – the potential ban just got extended for the third time – advertisers aren’t concerned, according to TikTok’s David Kaufman. On this episode, recorded live from Cannes, Kaufman, who oversees product development, marketing and operations for TikTok’s ad platform, says it’s pretty much been business as usual for buyers.
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AI
This AI Startup Encourages Hallucinations For The Sake Of Creative Inspiration
AI has a tendency to generate false information in response to queries and present it as fact – which is a bad thing, right? Not always, according to Springboards, a self-described “creative AI tool” designed to generate inaccurate information for the sake of sparking creativity. Instead of trying to reduce hallucinations, Springboards is leaning into them, […]
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Data-Driven Thinking
Cannes Lions 2025: A New Era Of Tech-Enabled Creativity And Collaboration
In 2025, the Cannes Lions festival entered its third era of creativity. The first era focused on the creative itself: the work that inspires consumers to change their behavior. Then media entered the mix, and the creativity tent grew to include how publishers, platforms and brands cultivate consumer engagement. This year, it was clear that […]
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The Big Story
The Human Cannes
From Cannes Lions, our editorial team discusses the mix of perspectives on the ad industry’s application of AI: the opportunity, the hesitation and the predictions of how it will disrupt marketing.
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Data-Driven Thinking
Retail Media’s Growing Pains: How To Push For Transparency Before The Bubble Bursts
We’ve seen this movie before. A new tech-fueled, transformative business opportunity emerges; irrational exuberance takes over; and the bubble ultimately bursts. This is what happened 25 years ago with the dot.com era and then, much less spectacularly, with the programmatic, personalized digital advertising era and its poster boy for bad behavior, retargeting. When it comes […]
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CTV Roundup
How Visit Savannah Finds Its Target “Luxury” Traveler On CTV Channels
Like so many of us in this industry, I like to think that knowing how the proverbial sausage gets made leaves me less susceptible to advertising’s influence. Even still, there’s something about travel commercials – especially ones produced by tourism boards – that always make me want to pack up and go to whatever fun […]
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