Data + Privacy

Pause ads are going programmatic, as connected TV ad buying becomes more automated. Plus: how publishers are proposing to be compensated by AI companies – and the odds that they’ll receive what they are asking for.

Building a career in social media marketing while raising kids has been a unique, dichotomous experience.  From 9 am to 5 pm, I’m heads-down, focused on maximizing audience growth and engagement while crafting content designed to captivate viewers and keep their eyes (and thumbs) locked in. At home, however, I find myself actively monitoring the […]

Since ChatGPT exploded into public consciousness, the conversation in ad tech has centered around AI. Generative tools, predictive models, attention algorithms: AI now touches nearly every part of the ecosystem, from media planning and creative to optimization and reporting.  But while AI captures the spotlight, another foundational technology has quietly enabled much of this progress: […]

Everything seems to get better and last longer. Remember when it was recommended to change your oil every 3,000 miles? Now it is 5,000 miles. Remember when milk used to go sour in the fridge in a few days? Now it will make it through the weekend.  However, as the realm of privacy law advances, […]

We’ve got the witness list for the remedy phase of the Google antitrust trial, which starts in September. How might Google be forced to change its ad server and exchange to make this corner of the ad tech market competitive again?

In ad tech, group thinking is the silent killer.  It convinces great companies to keep playing the same game long after the rules have changed. Too many leaders keep reaching for the same playbook that worked a decade ago: connect pipes, aggregate inventory, plug data, take a cut.  Even The Trade Desk (TTD), arguably the […]

Investors use The Trade Desk as a proxy for the health of the entire open web advertising ecosystem, which means TTD’s recent run of concerning earnings is devaluing the entire ad tech sector. Doubts about how TTD is competing with walled gardens like Amazon, along with slower overall revenue growth, have led some investors to […]

Most of us don’t realize how much control we’ve already given up. With industry red flag reports now published regularly, we’re forced to confront the hard truth that control and transparency are further away than we thought. At the same time, social platforms have shifted their content moderation approaches, with most of them embracing a […]

OpenX filed a lawsuit against Google over its anticompetitive practices. And HyphaMetrics claimed victory against Nielsen in court over a patent lawsuit.

Bid collision is a song of the past. Go ahead, use multiple retargeting partners. Just make sure they’re different in kind. In performance marketing, practices that were once best-in-class can quietly create blind spots. Not because marketers get complacent but because the mechanics underneath strategies invisibly evolve, and the mental models often lag behind. Almost […]