Data + Privacy

Ask a marketer where their last ad ran and why, and they’ll probably shrug or send a spreadsheet that answers nothing. Programmatic promised clarity: automation, efficiency and measurable outcomes. What we got instead is complexity dressed up as optimization: a stack of acronyms performing trust theater. DSPs, SSPs, exchanges, verifiers and data vendors now pile […]

The traditional marketing funnel is quickly being rewritten – not by a consumer trend but by a shift in how machines process and recommend information.  As AI agents like OpenAI’s Operator, Google’s Gemini and Amazon’s Rufus begin to mediate everything from search to purchase, marketers are being forced to confront the reality that they must […]

Amazon is integrating into Prebid. What does this mean for publishers? Plus, are Amazon and Google diverging in their product focus?

Retail media networks (RMNs) have grown rapidly, with spending representing a fifth of global advertising in 2024. Now, the rise of commerce media is shifting spend and further blurring lines between advertisers and publishers. With over 100 RMNs in the US alone, commerce media is expanding across verticals like travel, finance and health care. This […]

Recorded live on the Programmatic IO stage in Las Vegas, the editorial team recaps the trends that dominated our conference: marketers adopting AI and finding truth through measurement.

The rise of digital media offered the promise of paying for advertising based on definable, measurable impressions. Finally, decades of basing TV and radio advertising on limited survey models were coming to an end.  While surveys left advertisers with no insight into who was actually seeing their ads, the new digital advertising environment allowed advertisers […]

Microsoft’s decision to shutter its Xandr DSP, formerly AppNexus, a pioneer in programmatic advertising, is reverberating throughout the ad tech industry.  As Microsoft itself puts it: “Our commitment to more private and personalized advertising experiences for a conversational and agentic world is not achievable with the industry’s current DSP model and, therefore, it no longer […]

GroupM is restructuring, as AI looms over the business model of agency holding companies, and one-click campaign planning comes for agency jobs.

The last thing most marketers want to think about right now is politics. However, in today’s media environment, where attention is fragmented and trust is fragile, they can learn a great deal from how political advertisers operate. Political campaigns have mastered persuasion, precision and performance under pressure. They have to move people who are skeptical, […]

Does a connected TV DSP need lower take rates? Inside the battle among DSP’s to take on The Trade Desk’s dominant market position. Plus: an on-the-ground report from the TV Newfronts.