As third-party cookies disappear from the digital advertising scene, publishers are waking up to a harsh reality: it’s time to rethink how they do business. For years, the industry has buzzed about data transformation, revenue diversification, and the importance of privacy regulations. But one key element is often overlooked — how to build a solid identity strategy that can reliably function within both the company and with external partners.

Here’s the bottom line: if publishers don’t focus on building a strong identity graph now, they’re going to fall behind. With so much change in the ecosystem, revenues shifting or diminishing,  it’s not just about survival — it’s about thriving in a privacy-safe, data-driven future.

Identity Plays A Key Role In The Future Of Programmatic Demand

Without third-party cookies, the ecosystem that once drove programmatic advertising is fading. Revenue is dropping, and many publishers are looking to rebuild addressability, opting to rely on rented identity solutions — those that pool data from other companies just to stay afloat. These solutions inject a quick fix, but in the long run, lack the required transparency and revenue models to make this a sustainable solution.

Publishers need their own robust identity architecture to not only bring in more money but also to reduce the total cost of ownership and increase margins.

More and more PII-based identifiers are emerging, but deploying multiple IDs can become complex. Additionally, it’s difficult to evaluate if and when hashed emails should be exposed on the page. Whether a publisher chooses a client-side or server-side deployment comes down to one question: how much risk are you willing to take when it comes to privacy?

The latest version of IAB Tech Labs’ OpenRTB enables to inject identifiers directly into the bidstream, adding transparency to the process. By collaborating with third-party data partners or industry solutions like ID5, publishers can inject their own identity signals into the bidstream, enhancing their ability to target users effectively and increase revenue, all while staying on the right side of data privacy.

Breaking Down the Data Silos

First-party data is gold for publishers right now but it’s difficult to mine. Many publishers are collecting a vast amount of data, including identity,  across different platforms — whether through ads, subscriptions, or events — which has led to a huge problem: fragmented data. This is amplified when there are multiple business units that all have different systems and policies. With no underlying identity architecture and different systems for managing content, consent, and customer data, many publishers find themselves staring at disconnected pieces of the puzzle.

That’s why the conversation around identity is so critical. If you’re not connecting the dots, you’re only looking at small pieces of the puzzle, effectively making decisions in silos. A unified identity framework tied to a data foundation, lets publishers see the bigger picture with an opportunity for cleaner data sets – how users engage, how that ties to revenue, and where there are opportunities to grow.

Creating a True Single Customer View

A single customer view is no longer a “nice to have” – it’s a must. This is the flip side of eliminating data silos, but it also connects to greater actionability concerning users. To maximize engagement and performance, publishers must track users across every device and environment they interact with. It’s about understanding your logged-in users and anonymous users, as both are crucial for monetization.

Building a persistent identity graph that updates in real-time helps publishers make informed decisions. This isn’t just about driving ad revenue; it’s about understanding every user touchpoint, from what content they consume to how they interact with your brand.

Getting Ready for What’s Next

The value of data is skyrocketing. To tap into that potential, publishers need more than just a surface-level understanding of their audience – they need a solid identity strategy & architecture. Identity sits at the center of every monetization and engagement opportunity for a publisher. As more advanced data analysis rolls out, these data foundations are critical to leverage newer approaches like AI, predictive analytics, and new data collaboration models. If you don’t have your foundation set, you’ll be left scrambling when the next big opportunity comes knocking.

Many publishers have under-invested in building a comprehensive identity strategy because of the level of cross-functional thought, effort, and collaboration required. However, waiting longer creates an even bigger risk to their business. If publishers don’t invest in data and identity now, they’ll be left out of emerging revenue streams.

The reality is clear: we’re entering a new era of advertising, and identity is at the center of it all. Those who get it right will have the upper hand in a cookieless world. The time to act is now.

The post Owning Identity in a Post-Cookie World: Why Publishers Need to Get Real About Data appeared first on AdMonsters.

The detrimental impact of third-party cookies on consumer privacy has been a hot industry topic for some time now, and with the deadline for cookie depreciation continuously being pushed back, more and more publishers are shrugging their shoulders to the end of cookies. Not surprisingly, only 32% of publishers are actively preparing for this change, according to a recent Teads survey.

The study surveyed 555 publishers across 58 countries, revealing an urgent need for the industry to adapt quickly. At Cannes, we met with Natalie Bastian, CMO of Teads, and were pleasantly surprised to be joined by Simon Klein, Global Head of Publishing. Onboard a yacht with a crisp blue aesthetic; we chatted about a future without cookies; the challenges publishers face, and Teads’ current initiatives to support them. 

As we navigate this complex environment, even a blind man could see that there are too many different types of ID solutions on top of Google’s Privacy Sandbox.

“One minute cookieless is here, the next it’s delayed, then it’s happening again, but we don’t know when,” Klein explained. “We are trying to educate publishers as much as possible on what’s available. At Teads, we are cookieless by default since 2018.We are willing to work with every solution that we believe could actually help publishers generate more revenue.”

Teads and Publishers: A Partnership Driving Mutual Success

In digital media there is a ton of trial and error. Now more than ever, publishers need to ensure their SSP partners are resourceful. One aspect of Teads that is a major resource to publishers is its tech and engineering team. With about 400 team members, both teams do a lot of the leg work when it comes to investigating and understanding the best solutions. 

According to Teads’ Publisher Preparedness study, 53% of publishers feel completely overwhelmed by the plethora of solutions. There are just too many. Through Teads’ Publisher Lab, the SSP hosts off-the-record conversations with publishers where they can all work together to derive roadmaps. 

Think of it as a therapy session for publishers. As a major player focusing on the buy and sell sides, Teads is in a unique position giving them a responsibility to share all of the trends and traction that they see happening on the buy side with their publishers and vice versa. 

“We are the connective tissue between all these publishers, but many aren’t necessarily talking to each other,” Bastian said. “Our workshops are cross-functional; we host the Publisher Lab quarterly on average, and we curate the conversation, but the publishers are the ones doing the talking.”

Keeping Publishers A Part of the Conversation 

This year is significant, with 64 elections worldwide involving 49% of the global population. For voters to be informed, they need to have access to news. News publications need ads to survive. Quality publishers and news journalists need the support of brands and if ads continue to fund journalism, then it makes news more widely accessible. Many news outlets are going to a paywall, only to find out that subscriptions can be a struggle. 

These outlets are turning on paywalls because they either need more funding to support their content or increase their first-party data set. Some of that is login-based, but even when logging in, it could still be free for readers.

“Many publishers are trying subscription or hybrid models to increase revenue,” Bastian explained. “We sit in a very unique position that is good for the consumer because we give them access to quality content. To keep this access open for everyone, it must be properly funded through quality ads and quality journalism.”

As Klein put it, at Teads, they are “making their pipes as efficient as possible.” That entails making their player a little quicker, and faster across every single environment, and making sure they have the critical pieces of their roadmap. When it comes to buyer partners, nearly 80% of Teads campaigns do not use a cookie-based solution. The need for urgent adoption is right in front of our faces, and while some are actively moving towards the cookiepocolypse, some are not moving as swiftly.

The post Wake Up and Smell the Coffee; The Cookieless Future Will Be Here Before We Know it appeared first on AdMonsters.

Issues like the deprecation of third-party cookies, the rapid evolution of generative AI, various state privacy regulations, brand safety challenges, ad spend slowdowns, and many more have placed immense pressure on publishers to navigate shifting demands and unpredictable revenue, all while operating with leaner teams.

Despite these difficulties, Mike Caprio, Senior Vice President and GM, Americas, Connatix, envisions a redefined role for publishers in 2024, one teeming with promising opportunities. I chatted with him to learn more about his vision.

Lynne d Johnson: 2023 was a challenging year for our industry, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve heard from publishers this year? 

Mike Caprio: This year our industry was impacted by disruptive innovation, an uneven economy, and world events that impacted publishers acutely — from industry and regulatory changes, the pending death of the cookie, generative AI impacting editorial teams, and two international conflicts that complicated the global digital media landscape.

Publishers are feeling the squeeze from every direction, but there are good things on the horizon that should help improve the opportunities for publishers in 2024. Heading into an election and Olympic year in the United States can help improve the overall ad marketplace. As millions of Americans head back to the office, the opportunity for increased media consumption will benefit publishers and brands.

Defunding the News: Brand Safety & Social Media Woes

LdJ: Throughout 2022, news publishers encountered a significant decline in revenue when brands pulled back ad spend from news related to the Russia/Ukraine conflict, and we’re unfortunately seeing a similar pattern emerge surrounding the Israel-Hamas war.

How can news publishers work together with advertisers to benefit the greater good during times of crisis? 

MC: It’s time for advertisers to reconsider their relationship with news publishers. As we grapple with the grief of yet another war, advertisers have an opportunity to use their spending power as a force for social good, without sacrificing brand suitability.

Extensive blocklists are detrimental to publishers who depend on advertising to fund their content, which is essential in today’s news cycle to keep consumers informed.

There are a variety of solutions available to advertisers that can help them safely invest in news and diversify their ad spend to reach engaged audiences, like NewsGuard or Ad Fontes. Contextual targeting can also help advertisers make more informed decisions about their ad spend and specifically target topics and keywords to reach the right audience vs. broadly blocking all news, which jeopardizes publishers and advertisers alike. The responsibility is on us all to ensure that we help advertisers feel confident investing in quality journalism so that consumers can access publishers’ vital news content and stay informed without paywalls.

LdJ: Publishers are fighting an uphill battle with site traffic this year, with steep declines from social sites like Facebook and Twitter due to ever-changing company policies, coupled with generative AI impacting organic search. What do you say to publishers who feel like the pressure is mounting from all sides? 

MC: These changes impact publishers of all sizes, but especially smaller publishers who are leaning on monetization as their lifeline. For publishers who see a drop in traffic of double digits or more, unfortunately, no amount of display will make up for that. Publishers’ websites remain a core destination for video despite the surging popularity of social channels, but to increase engagement and keep consumers on-site longer, creating effective and meaningful video experiences can help hit engagement and retention goals, especially amidst declining external traffic.

Additionally, assessing your current video strategy to determine which inventory is under-monetized, and then establishing a comprehensive strategy for optimizing video ad revenue, can help create a more sustainable long-term strategy to offset traffic declines.

Generative AI: A Double-Edged Sword

LdJ: The evolution of generative AI can be seen as a double-edged sword for publishers. How do you think it hurt publishers this year, and how can they turn that around and use AI for good in 2024? 

MC: The learning curve this year for advances in generative AI has been substantial. The rollout of tools like ChatGPT forced us all to stop and think, how are these models being trained, is there proper attribution and compensation to the publisher, and how will this affect search traffic?

While publishers are excited to continue exploring AI and digital video to improve newsroom operations and increase audience engagement, they’re also tasked with maintaining credibility and combating misinformation with issues like deepfakes. As publishers are working with shrinking budgets and smaller editorial teams, we can use these tools as a force for good, but there has to be a middle ground, and I think Biden’s executive order is a step in the right direction to address the ethical, legal, and societal implications of AI not only in our industry but across the board.

As we enter an election year and in the face of tremendous global controversy, it has never been more important — or more difficult – to provide the public with access to accurate reporting they can trust, and while AI can help ease the strain on editorial teams, we have to also make sure it’s protecting our publishers.

To take it a step further, when accompanying content is contextually relevant to the page, it can provide immense value and redefine what’s possible in reaching consumers. 

IAB Tech Lab’s Updated Video Guidelines

LdJ: The industry was taken by surprise this year amidst the IAB Tech Lab’s amended video guidelines. While the original updates posed a severe challenge for some publishers, how can publishers now leverage the amended guidelines to increase engagement? 

MC: The IAB Tech Lab’s new guidelines were necessary and publishers have the opportunity to benefit from these guidelines, by passing more transparent signals to buyers.  Connatix was part of the working group that helped shape the new definitions, collaborating closely with The Trade Desk, Google, and others.

With the new guidelines, we can finally recognize the value that other types of content can bring, rather than just instream or outstream. The addition of accompanying content in the guidelines including pre-roll, mid-roll, and post-roll ads, can expose end users to discoverable content, even though watching that content may not be the original purpose of their visit. 

To take it a step further, when accompanying content is contextually relevant to the page, it can provide immense value and redefine what’s possible in reaching consumers. 

Publishers can leverage accompanying content as a means to further engage readers by suggesting quality content in the same way social platforms and YouTube do today, without being labeled as outstream, and it’s a benefit to advertisers as they can ensure they are reaching their audiences with topics that are of interest to them.

Advertisers build their video strategies around specific objectives. Some brands focus on video to drive conversions. Some brands use digital video to tell a brand story to build attention and awareness.  Each of these strategies can leverage different classified video formats to achieve their objectives. In the case of instream video, the scarcity that will result from these new classifications creates a monetization lift for instream publishers. If we all work together to implement these new guidelines, we can create a more transparent and trustworthy video ecosystem.

How Publishers Can Prepare for Cookie Deprecation

LdJ: The third-party cookie conversation and fear of the revenue impact for publishers has been in the mix for years, but deprecation seems to be coming sooner rather than later. How can publishers prepare? 

MC: While it’s valid for publishers to be anxious over the revenue impact cookie depreciation could bring, it creates an urgency and opportunity to build a direct relationship with their audiences. With the ever-changing state of our industry, the traditional display or print role of the publisher is outdated, and the new role of the publisher is evolving to become more of a consultant to brands, meant to extend their storytelling capabilities and audience engagement.

In today’s digital age, we’re seeing higher video consumption and audiences are seeking out contextually relevant video content — in a recent report, 57% of respondents aged 18-34 reported that they are more likely to watch a video ad if its content is aligned with the article they are reading. Change can be scary, but as we await the impending death of the cookie, this time is valuable for publishers and advertisers to work together to test solutions and chart the best path forward, and contextual, among other solutions, can help. 

Privacy-First Solutions for Pubs

LdJ: You mentioned contextual, among other solutions that can help publishers. What types of privacy-first solutions do you think we’ll see the industry gravitate towards in 2024? 

MC: Everyone’s strategy will be different, what works for some won’t always work for others, and using this time to test and learn and find out how publishers can best future-proof their strategies is a great use of time. In light of cookie depreciation, publishers are strengthening their first-party data to sustain their revenue. Leveraging universal identifiers, both probabilistic and deterministic, will also be helpful for effective monetization. When keeping the consumer in mind, we need to think of privacy-first solutions that are also personal, and when leveraging first-party data and contextual targeting together, it can be a game-changer. 

New Role of Publishers in 2024

LdJ: What is the biggest piece of advice you’d give to publishers as they prepare for 2024?

MC: Publishers had a tough year in 2023, but that shouldn’t crush their hopes for the opportunities available to them in 2024. The tools that publishers have at their disposal to create personal, effective, and meaningful experiences for consumers visiting their websites are abundant, and doing so will allow them to increase engagement and revenue, and in-turn help advertisers meet their target audiences.

There is a big opportunity for publishers to step up and create a more engaging viewer experience through video, especially during big moments like the election and the Olympics, and brands will find value in this as they look to find those who can help them break through the noise and tell their stories. So to publishers, I would say, use this time to evaluate what worked and what didn’t work in 2023, and rethink the traditional role of the publisher as we head into 2024 to turn these setbacks into opportunities.

The post The New Role of Publishers in 2024: Q&A with Connatix’s Mike Caprio appeared first on AdMonsters.

Sprouting from just a laptop and a little bit of code in 2015, AMA, previously known as A Million Ads, has grown into the leader in dynamic creative for digital audio advertising. And by using data to make each listener’s experience more contextually-aware and personalized, they create a more compelling experience for listeners and deliver better outcomes for advertisers. 

Whether listening to podcasts on Spotify, iHeart, or Audacy, the ad experience can now be enhanced and personalized by AMA’s ability to dynamically serve the most relevant ad for each listener. 

What does AMA mean by dynamic? Dynamic is the ability to change the voiceover, music, and sound effects of the audio ad based on data about each listener, such as the time of day the user is listening, the device they’re using, the weather, the pollen count, or any other data the creative ad platform can access in a privacy-compliant way.

“Our studio tool is a platform for scriptwriters, producers, and creatives to design and build these dynamic ads”, said Steven Dunlop, CEO and Founder of AMA. “We have a serving infrastructure that can serve dynamic ads into platforms like Spotify, iHeart, and Pandora, automating the process of serving the right message to the right user, all through a single tag.”

Yakira Young: Are selling ads on podcasts a struggle? What are the main challenges that publishers and advertisers face in the space?

Steven Dunlop: The podcast industry is growing but not evenly. For podcast creators, if you’re a new podcast that no one knows about yet, it’s tough to get monetized because you don’t start to see any money coming in until you reach a critical mass or a scale that’s interesting, so it is a game of marketing and SEO to get known.

For advertisers, the biggest challenge with podcasts is effectively spending money on the channel. It’s tough for big advertisers with big budgets because the inventory is fragmented, and the format is difficult to scale.

These are symptoms of the first phase of podcast monetization, and we are approaching the tricky transition between the first phase of podcasts and monetization and the second phase.

Phase one:

The first phase was characterized by a few hit podcasts being sponsored by a similar type of advertiser, brands like Casper mattresses, Squarespace, Better Help, Hello Fresh, and other Direct -to -Consumer (D2C) businesses that are prepared to try different types of advertising.

Podcasters were often famous people who would turn to podcasts, often names you’d recognize or coming from prominent publications like NPR, BBC, and the Economist, places where listener trust and audiences would naturally migrate, and then the ad creative itself was host read.

The host would go from discussing a True Crime Murder in a sleepy suburb to telling you about Casper mattresses. That was the first phase of podcasting. Not a lot of ad tech or technology involved. 

The podcast ecosystem has been built around that, gathering up a lot of the podcasters into groups so they can be managed and sold collectively. But then also applying ad tech to the scenario rather than the baked-in-host read ad.

Phase two:

The second phase is about being able to buy and sell programmatically, like all other forms of digital advertising. This does not include baking in content linked to that host or that podcast.

This allows more budget to be spent across many different podcasts. So rather than just Squarespace sponsoring five podcasts, Squarespace can buy based on the podcast’s audience, topic, or genre rather than just the title.

Say you have a discussion format podcast whose first topic is about science news, the second story is about sports results, and the third might be about politics. With topic-based programmatic ads, an advertiser could pick and choose where to place their ad based on the content of that segment, whether they want to buy just that sports segment, science, or all three. 

YY: What does this mean for the creative?

SD: In this second phase, there’s an opportunity to build a new, more flexible creative format.

Imagine you’re a podcast network with 1,000 podcasts in your catalog. Getting all 1,000 hosts to read the script for one advertiser is already labor-intensive. But, more likely there are 100 different advertisers, so now you’ve got 100 times 1,000 different scripts to read, which is an incredible organization and logistical challenge. 

So, the answer isn’t making everybody do a live read. The answer is finding a creative format that can fit in the middle, with some of the benefits of live reads, like the authenticity, but can scale to the kind of dimensions that the bigger podcast networks are working at. 

YY: How important is it for an ad to relate to the content? I attended the IAB podcast upfront, and one takeaway is that listeners prefer when the ad flows into what’s already being discussed.

SD: When people think about programmatic advertising on podcasting, they immediately associate it with a particular type of creative; the 30-second ad is trying to sell air conditioning.

This makes people nervous in the podcast industry because we all hark back to radio, where there are 18 minutes of ads an hour, which doesn’t make for a great user experience in podcasting.

So there’s a strong and justified fear of a race to the bottom in the podcast industry. The lowest common denominator is that we all get programmatically delivered spots. I encourage everyone to see programmatic as a way of trading the creative, the payload that goes once you’ve won the bid in the programmatic auction. It can be host-read or the middle ground.

NPR has announcer voices for all of their commercial spots so that announcers could know it’s being placed in this podcast and therefore reference it. It feels like it’s native content.

Native content is prevalent on many websites, newspapers, and radio stations. ​​In radio, they call it the live read, which is the presenter opening up the mic in the middle of their show and reading a script.

That concept is a huge opportunity for podcasting and solves the multidimensional 100 by 1000 logistical challenge. It gives the premium feel that a host- read ad would get but avoids the fear that everyone has of these lowest-common-denominator spot pods.

YY: What are the main differences between podcast advertising and other forms of digital advertising? How do you see these differences impact the buying and selling process?

SD: It’s about where podcasting has come from, which is that first phase. I was a radio producer in 2007 and worked on a breakfast show at a rock music radio station in Manchester. I made the breakfast show podcast, and we got about 100 weekly downloads. It was a complete labor of love.

And then we had a Serial effect if you remember the Serial podcast from This American Life. That first series brought podcasting onto the front pages and into everyone’s media consumption diet.

Back when I was making podcasts for radio stations, there was no advertising technology or a thought of monetization. It wasn’t until much later that podcast sponsors came along. Now it’s that transition from the first phase into the second phase that’s the main difference.

Display advertising has been around since 1996, and video advertising has been around for a long time. Now, with businesses like Google and Facebook pushing the envelope and all of the advertising technology built around display and video — those formats are further ahead than podcasting. Podcasting is playing catch-up, and it will get there because everyone is incentivized to bring more money into the industry. These creative challenges are just a growing pain. Ad tech is already there and working, there are lots of vendors who are already making podcasting an equivalent digital channel.

There are some issues around measurement. If you have a plan that includes TV, CTV, social, display, search, and podcast, sometimes it’s hard to compare metrics across all of those channels because other digital formats have better attribution metrics or click-through rates.

Podcasting is getting there, but it’s not quite that simple if you’re in an agency and trying to plan a cross-media campaign and want to check a box for podcasting. There are still growing pains in the planning and buying phases, from an agency perspective as podcasting is going through this transition. 

The post AMA CEO Reveals Podcasting and Ad Tech’s Seamless Future  appeared first on AdMonsters.

Who you partner with for monetizing your video inventory across screens can mean the difference between success and failure for publishers. With your CTV inventory, you want a partner who can also fix issues around brand safety, fraud, frequency, ad pods, and publisher yields. This is especially true when CTV feels more like TV for viewing audiences. 

Take the flourishing partnership between TMB (Trusted Media Brands) and Unruly, a leading CTV and video advertising platform. TMB selected Unruly as one of its preferred SSP partners following TMB’s acquisition last year of Jukin Media, a top streaming and social video company.

Following the acquisition, TMB found itself with more than two billion minutes of video watched per month across its brands like FailArmy, Taste of Home, Family Handyman, Reader’s Digest, People Are Awesome, The Pet Collective, and WeatherSpy, and the company was seeking partners to help it more efficiently monetize its inventory.

We spoke with Mike Richter, Vice President of Global Revenue Operations for CTV and Digital at TMB, to learn more about the importance of working with the right CTV partner, addressing programmatic concerns, and what’s next on the horizon for CTV.

Emily Dalamangas: Trusted Media Brands’ acquisition of Jukin Media last August quadrupled its monthly audience reach. How has this extended reach opened more opportunities for brands looking to advertise on CTV or OTT?

Mike Richter: Jukin Media didn’t have a strong digital offering, and TMB didn’t really have a CTV offering at all. So, the combination of efforts has greatly opened the door for both entities to have more access to users across newer platforms that they’ve never touched on before in a detailed way.

It is exciting to see and to be able to drive growth and investment in new original programming, platforms, app distribution, and possibly new website distribution opportunities. There are tons of ways with the new collective audience to go to market with a very strong value proposition for agencies and buyers worldwide. 

ED: Unruly was selected by Trusted Media Brands as a preferred SSP partner. How does partnering with Unruly fit into Trusted Media Brands’ future plans in the CTV and OTT space?

MR: Across the board, Unruly is a company that TMB likes to partner with. That’s because a strong supply-side partnership not only lets us properly merchandise our inventory but also allows us to be exposed to a multitude of buying angles for CTV and OTT. 

Advertisers need brand safety, and at the same time, we are trying to attract viewers to our video content. We want viewers to stay in the content we’re delivering and if the content doesn’t fit within their values, they will go away from the site. Publishers are constantly focused on the quality of the content from a programming perspective and also on the nature of the ads served. And that quality assurance for both ads and content is key in choosing an SSP partner.

Unruly has proven to be one of those partners that we don’t have to police and can trust with the demand they are sourcing through their sales efforts—unruly hits all the spots. We can be confident in the demand they are trafficking our way as well as how they are representing themselves in the market as a steward of our content inventory. 

ED: It can be challenging for media companies to find the right strategic and creative content partner for their CTV and OTT needs. What criteria should publishers be looking for in a successful partnership?

MR: It’s well-known that most of the video content you see is not built by those channels. It is built by various studios and syndicated because the amount of money it takes to create shows is very expensive. To get any decently supplied CTV or OTT channel off the ground, you need hundreds of hours of content, and it should be a mix of new, syndicated, and older content. At TMB, we’re one of the few FAST channel operators that produce our own original half-hour series, but we wouldn’t attempt to program an entire schedule only with originals. It needs to be a mix.

To get any decently supplied CTV or OTT channel off the ground, you need hundreds of hours of content, and it should be a mix of new, syndicated, and older content.

There is tons of valuable content out there that has been on the shelves for years. Just because it wasn’t made this year doesn’t mean it’s not valuable to a user. I’m constantly re-binging shows that have been off the air for decades, and there is opportunity in content stored inside vaults that are barely being tapped into.

Figure out the semantic nature of the channel you’re programming for and the right experience for the viewer that’s going to keep them engaged. You want the viewer to keep wanting more of the experience to build on the publisher’s revenue generation, which lets the publisher either license or buy syndicated content or create content on its own. It creates more or less a circle of life that we all know within this industry.

ED: According to eMarketer, 70% of CTV is purchased programmatically. But with, with programmatic, ad ops and brands have concerns about brand safety, data privacy, and ad fraud. How are CTV platforms addressing these concerns, and in what areas can they do better?

MR: For those that are truly concerned about brand safety, data privacy, and ad fraud, take a look at who you’re buying from. Is anyone who pops up hawking TV inventory like a cheap watch on the street? You must take ownership of your verification and make sure what you’re buying is accurate. 

At TMB, we focus on ensuring that our content is delivered across platforms we can trust with real viewers and real distribution points. So, we can guarantee an advertiser that if you go through any of our preferred partners, like Unruly, and verify the supply path optimization, there’s nothing to be concerned about, which means doing the homework of your programmatic buys. 

We can do better if we are more open and transparent as an industry. We can address brand concerns about programmatic by taking steps to provide a positive experience for both users and buyers equally; one is not more important than the other. But we must be willing to ask those vetting questions of our partners, and buyers have to be ready to stop using untrustworthy platforms because when you stop giving them the money, they will dry up.

ED: CTV has rapidly evolved with consumer adoption and platform launches. Can this rapid rise be sustained, and what CTV trends do you foresee in the next six months, one year, and beyond?

MR: CTV will continue to evolve as users demand more control in their experience. A few years ago, we went very fast to the diversification of delivery systems, and we’re now circling back to unification. Users who wanted to go a la carte now realize they like a group package. 

When we look at the development of delivery systems for video, we had black and white, color, cable, and satellite TV. CTV is still called CTV because it’s new, but soon it will be called TV. Eventually, there will be no screens; it’ll all be virtual. I know that sounds crazy, but the reality is that’s where we’re heading. For example, glasses are not sustainable, but it may be some sort of implant or lens on the eye. 

All that means is we’ll likely have to change the way we’re buying and consuming content. Right now, we’re going through unification but give it a year or two, and we’ll be going back to diversification because some new way of watching TV will change. We need to keep up with the technology development, the desires of the audiences, and the value for the buyers because, without those elements, none of this will exist.

The post Finding the Right Partner Is Key to CTV Success: A Conversation With TMB’s Mike Richter appeared first on AdMonsters.

This, of course, angered a lot of publishers even though most—not all–have it clearly stated in their contracts with SSPs that the publisher doesn’t get paid in these situations. Still, the conversation circled around the fact that the SSPs should pay. If a publisher served the impression, they did their part. Isn’t this on the SSP?

The conversation devolved into striking back against the SSPs–turning them off until they paid up so the SSP would feel the pain. To my knowledge, no one took any action. This was just people grousing about feeling mistreated.

This awkward state of affairs really got me thinking about the word “partnership” and how disposable a word it has become in our industry. Someone can have 10-to-15 header-bidding “partners,” but all that means is you’ve got contracts with that number of companies. If one doesn’t perform, they are out, easily replaced with another. I know for many companies, they aren’t even reading or negotiating those agreements—sign and wait for a check.

I don’t know. Perhaps this is all for the best. Our industry has stability issues and maybe arm’s length is the closest you want to be with another company. Do you really want to tie yourself closer to another company when you don’t know what your company will be doing in the future?

Making Partner Relationships Work

However, I would like to argue that you at least consider the other direction–making relationships real partnerships to see what might happen.

Let’s take an SSP that’s a significant contributor to your bottom line. What might they do in exchange for you upping your commitment beyond the standard out clause? What if you offered to reduce your number of SSPS from 10 to three or four companies you believe will add value for some time to come? Would that be attractive to them?  What if you said an SSP must do more for your company than provide fill, but instead must drive other sources of revenue or help your business in some other way? If you gave them better terms (rev share or years), could they invest in projects you want them to focus on?

What if you said, “To be our partner, you need to demonstrate that you are more than some interchangeable piece of our tech stack and in exchange, we’ll be a loyal partner to you. Let’s work together to grow both our businesses.”

In other words, offer to enter a true partnership.

The big publishers, of course, have the advantage of negotiating with leverage. I’m sure that some already work with their partners as I describe. I’m sure other large publishers just throw their weight around, looking to simply get the best terms. However, I don’t think this is a game that only the big players can play. In very much the same way you go to agencies and brands to pitch that you as a publisher are unique, that same argument can work for your partners. If I have a unique audience, could working with fewer partners make that audience more valuable? What is that worth to those partners to be one of the few that work with me?

Working Together in a Cookieless World

Hopefully, this sparks some ideas, but I must confess that I have an agenda for pushing you in this direction.

If we change how we negotiate, we as publishers can change the dynamics of the industry. First, there are many players in our space who can’t differentiate themselves, who can’t offer real innovation or work more strategically. To them: thanks for playing. Goodbye. Publishers, your willingness to work with anyone and everyone keeps anyone and everyone afloat in a sea of mediocrity and chaos. I think it’s time to start picking some winners and then push those winners to make sure we win as well.

To step away from the theoretical and more practical—I want to work with players who can help drive the identity conversation to a point where we as publishers CAN operate profitability in a cookieless world. Not all companies can do that. If I invest in the companies that can, I’m investing in the future as I see this play out. To those who can’t, you’ll get the arm’s length contract at best. Worst, I’m moving on.

I lead a roundtable discussion about this at the Vancouver Publisher Forum and it’s a conversation I’d like to have again in Scottsdale. To those for which my points are obvious, I suggest this: help lead these conversations. Many of you take the time to look under the hood. Many of you take the time to think ahead. That should impact your partnerships. Those partners should benefit and therefore we all benefit.

Next time someone offers to be your partner: ask them to prove it.

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For those of us in the digital advertising world, there is little doubt that everyone and anyone will be consuming content digitally in the near future. Devices will proliferate, advertising dollars will shift, and at some point, magazines and newspapers as we know them will decline.

Today content lives in multiple places, both on- and offline. And no matter how many people shout about the death of traditional media, significant dollars are still going to these, dare I say, “legacy” media choices. Herein lies the challenge: If you lead a digital division within a company that has multiple lines of business, your own division’s long-term future may be bright, but revenue today and in the near-term is neither clear nor large compared to the divisions managed by your peers. What to do?

Even more, regardless of the legacy or digital argument, how do you overcome the fact that digital advertising may only be a second or third line of revenue within the overall corporation?

Many people tell me about challenges external to their business: competing sites, overall ad spend decline in the market, and social sites taking visitors and content. One item that continually shows itself is the internal conflict when digital is a small portion of the overall business revenue. It causes sales teams to “throw in” digital when larger buys are made and it causes the digital business to take a backseat when it comes to investment. As one VP of Sales put it, “I need better information to run this business, and could easily grow my revenue and cut my costs by investing a small amount in both personnel and technology, but they will never go for it.” One director of operations expressed the same sentiment with, “Our yearly revenue is a blip on the screen when compared with the television dollars the company sees on a monthly basis.”

If you’re in the ad operations or ad sales world in the above described businesses, it can be a daunting challenge to show the significance and growth within your corporate walls. Nobody wants to do work that isn’t appreciated. Yet, with the amazing amount of innovation in technology, that great business generating gobs of money could be in jeopardy should a competitor rise up in your market.

So, what is the best way to show the importance and growth in the digital landscape for these types of businesses? From talking with publishers it seems that the first place to look is to the legacy sales teams within the organization. What are they working on and how can you help them grow their deals by leveraging the web or mobile to deliver more value to those clients.

Second, look to present unique opportunities across the digital landscape that will further enhance those legacy mediums like custom rich media the reflects the same branding advertisers expect to see in magazines, casual games in mobile that promote the advertiser, or large scale takeovers of site sections.

Perhaps the biggest step is to effectively measure the results and provide those to your advertising partners, both internally and externally. Clients seeing how they met their goals because of the effect digital added to the campaign could be the driver to grow the business and further promote “Digital” within the corporate walls.

Would you like Chris to address your particular Publisher Headache? Drop him a line at chris AT aimatch DOT com or submit an editorial request to AdMonsters, and he may explore it in a future column.

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