Data-Driven Thinking Archives

Seeing Through The Smoke And Mirrors: Transparency In The AI Age

Transparency has become the currency of credibility in advertising. As clients demand more outcomes-based accountability, agencies, media companies and online platforms promise more transparency. But how much of this is empty rhetoric and how much of it is an earnest commitment? For those folks who think clients are bluffing, I would advise waking up to […]

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Data-Driven Thinking

AI Is Everywhere, But Where Is It Really Adding Value?

Angelina Eng will be speaking at Programmatic IO in Las Vegas from May 19-21. Click here to register. AI has taken over the ad and media industry conversation. It’s in the room, the road map, the pitch, the QBR. If your company hasn’t mentioned AI in the last 48 hours, check for a pulse. But […]

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Data-Driven Thinking

Unpacking Google Breakup Proposals: New Rules, New Risks For Marketers

A long-simmering antitrust battle concerning Google’s ad tech business has reached a decisive turning point. On April 17, 2025, US District Judge Leonie Brinkema ruled that Google violated sections one and two of the Sherman Act. She found that Google monopolized the open-web display publisher ad server market (via DFP) and the ad exchange market […]

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Data-Driven Thinking

The Brand Safety Myth: Why Most Marketers Don’t Need Brand Safety Verification

When I started working with marketers in the early 2000s, they were advertising on fewer digital channels than today, and there were fewer nefarious challenges, like fraud and malicious advertising attacks. But brand marketing has gotten more challenging over the years. Today, marketers expect their partners to monitor and measure viewability, engagement and conversions, because […]

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Data-Driven Thinking

Undermining Ourselves: How Advertising Keeps Getting Standards Wrong

Many well-intentioned advertising standards efforts gather digital dust. Others have even shut down in the face of lawsuits claiming insufficiently broad industry engagement. Why? Because we mistake the release of a proposal for the achievement of standardization and create more noise than clarity. My standards journey began with IAB’s Future of the Cookie (FotC) working […]

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Data-Driven Thinking

Is Your Data Gen AI-Ready? Here Are 3 Steps For Shaking Up Your Data Strategy

It’s tempting to think AI models can hack their way to the best solution possible, no matter how basic the input we give. But feeding clean first-party data to AI models is an absolute prerequisite to ensuring that the output is on-brand and accurate. And there is little value in generating five times more content […]

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Data-Driven Thinking

Less Is More: Why Excluding Audiences Leads To Stronger Campaigns

Advertisers and their agency partners are well-versed in assembling audiences based on who they want to reach. Yet effective audience composition isn’t simply about deciding who is ideal; it’s also about determining who should be excluded. Audience suppression is a superpower that many advertisers don’t realize they have. When used effectively, it can be the […]

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Data-Driven Thinking

The AI Tradeoff: How Marketers Can Balance Efficiency And Authenticity

It started with a backlash. Mango’s AI-driven campaign, featuring hyper-realistic AI models that didn’t exist, sparked online outrage. Comments like “False advertising!” flooded social media. Consumers felt deceived, and Mango’s attempt to save time and money came at the expense of something far more valuable: trust. Meanwhile, Dove was making waves for the opposite reason. […]

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Data-Driven Thinking

Avoiding CCPA Privacy Pitfalls: Lessons From The Honda Settlement Order

We all know it is difficult for participants in digital advertising to enter into contracts with every company to which they disclose personal information. However, difficulty is no longer an acceptable excuse, especially after the California Privacy Protection Agency’s recent enforcement action against American Honda Motor Co. That case highlights a critical compliance reminder for […]

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Data-Driven Thinking

Google’s Fingerprinting Update Might Trigger The Next Battle For Digital Privacy

In much the same way as Google decided not to kill off third-party cookies in Chrome, the company’s recent announcement of a more relaxed stance on fingerprinting has certainly raised some eyebrows. With the ad policy update, which came into force in February, Google has adopted a more lenient approach to how advertisers, vendors and […]

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