Choosing the right retail media provider is crucial for your advertising strategy. With US omnichannel retail media ad spend projected to hit $54.85 billion in 2024, growing 26% year-over-year, retail media will make up 21.8% of total US media ad spend by 2027. This growth demands that agencies select partners who can drive real business outcomes.

As retail media expands, so does its complexity. It’s no longer just about placing ads but leveraging retailer-specific insights, ad innovation, and personalization. The right provider will offer precision targeting, data transparency, and seamless campaign integration, helping advertisers achieve measurable, data-driven results in an increasingly competitive landscape. 

“When choosing a retail media network, we focus on finding a partner that can help us drive meaningful results for our clients,” said Chelsea Monaco, SVP Commerce Media at Digitas. “We look for networks that offer strong audience reach, flexibility in ad formats, and the ability to provide actionable insights. Ultimately, we want a platform that delivers high visibility and supports strategic, data-driven decision-making to maximize impact across the board.”

We’ve worked with some of the top retail media networks on the market to identify the top criteria ad agencies and brands look for when selecting a Retail Media Network (RMN). Here’s what we’ve compiled from those conversations: 

1. Retailer-Specific Customer Insights: What exclusive insights can you tap into? Retail media networks grant access to valuable first-party data directly from retailers. This data offers a window into detailed customer purchase behaviors and evolving shopping trends, empowering you to make smarter, more informed advertising decisions. By leveraging these insights, you can create highly targeted campaigns that align with real consumer interests and buying patterns, boosting relevance and effectiveness.
2. Ad Innovation and Personalization: How advanced is the technology? Seek out networks that provide innovative tools like dynamic ad creatives, personalized offers, and AI-powered product recommendations. These advanced capabilities help ensure your ads are more relevant to individual consumers, driving higher engagement and better overall performance. By harnessing technology to deliver tailored experiences, you can create more impactful, results-driven campaigns. 
3. Brand Alignment: Does the retail network resonate with your client’s brand? The retailer’s reputation and brand image significantly influence how consumers view your ads. It’s essential to select retail partners that share your client’s brand values and appeal to their target audience, ensuring that your message is consistent and strengthens brand perception.
4. Audience Targeting Capabilities: Who are you trying to reach? Make sure the retail media network provides comprehensive targeting tools, including insights into customer demographics, purchase behavior, and browsing patterns. The more refined and accurate the targeting, the greater the chance of connecting with the right audience and driving meaningful results.
5. Ad Placement Options: Where will your ads appear? Consider the range of placements offered, such as on product pages, checkout pages, search results, or homepage banners. The relevance of these placements to your target audience’s journey is critical.
6. Data Transparency and Reporting: How transparent is the data? Ensure the network provides real-time performance insights with granular reporting on key metrics like impressions, clicks, conversions, and ROAS (Return on Ad Spend). Access to detailed analytics will allow for continuous optimization. Also consider the pricing models (CPM, CPC, CPA) offered by the network. Compare the costs with the expected returns based on the network’s historical performance and your campaign objectives.
7. Integration with Other Campaigns: Does it complement your broader strategy? Evaluate how well the retail media network fits your broader digital and omnichannel advertising strategy. The ability to integrate with existing campaigns across channels like social media, search, or programmatic is crucial for holistic marketing.

“Selecting a retail media network is about finding a platform that provides deep customer insights and the flexibility to precisely target the right audience. It’s about finding a solution that offers strong brand alignment and the tools to create impactful, personalized ad experiences,” said Janine Flaccavento, EVP, Vertical Lead at Merkle. “Ultimately, I want a partner that can deliver measurable results and help drive real business growth for our clients.”

 The retail media landscape is rapidly transforming, with several key industry trends driving this growth. Retailer-specific customer insights powered by first-party data give advertisers unprecedented access to consumer behaviors and shopping patterns, allowing for highly targeted and relevant campaigns. Additionally, advancements in ad innovation and personalization, such as ad creatives and AI-driven recommendations, are helping advertisers deliver more engaging, tailored experiences that increase consumer interaction.

As retail media networks become more integrated into omnichannel strategies, advertisers focus on networks offering advanced audience targeting capabilities, real-time data transparency, and seamless integration with other marketing channels. These trends are forcing advertisers to rethink their approach, demanding more strategic partnerships that align with the evolving digital ecosystem and consumer expectations.

The post Inside the Buy Side: What Retail Media Network (RMN) Is Right for Your Ads? appeared first on AdMonsters.

While in Boston, we didn’t just indulge in delicious lobster with garlic butter (which was as amazing as it sounds); we also dived deep into the pressing issues facing our industry.  The timing was perfect, as news dropped about X suing GARM, Unilever, CVS, and others — fueling plenty of conversations during Tuesday breaks.

Our publisher forums are always valuable, but this one hit differently. The focus was clear: everyone was determined to crack the code to retain more revenue. This time around, attendees were in rare agreement, openly discussing their biggest challenges as publishers. The great main-stage presentations and breakout sessions all revolved around one core question:

What is the future of revenue? Three key themes emerged: data, transparency, and diversifying ad revenue across diverse publishers. Let’s explore each of these critical areas in more detail.

Unlocking the Treasure Trove: How Data is the Golden Key to Future Revenue for Publishers

I’d be rich if I got paid for how often data came up in conversations. But it’s no surprise—it’s at the forefront of every publisher’s mind. The conference started with a bang when Claire Atkin, CEO of Check My Ads, took the stage. She kept it real, to say the least, ruffling some vendor feathers, but hey, we’re here to expose the truth. 

Atkin emphasized that the ad tech industry must embrace a new era of accountability and transparency. To empower advertisers and ensure purveyors of disinformation don’t hijack their brand messaging, she advocates for hourly log-level data and “know your customer” requirements.

Jeff Goldstein, Head of Programmatic at Future, shared how they rely heavily on their first-party data platform, Aperture, to collect and unify data signals from their 200+ owned and operated properties. This data is key for audience segmentation and building media products. Goldstein and his team collect data signals that give advertisers better insights and help create more precise targeting products. These signals include brand, model, and category information from the content, which helps Future understand how audiences behave, consume, and shop.

During the Deal Curation session, Scott Messer explained how these curations create a less leaky data-sharing environment. This is crucial, considering how data often leaks somewhere in that black box called the ecosystem.

Rick Welch, who works on advertising partnerships at Western Union, shared how they use their audience data to sell media and create cohesive, multi-touch packages for advertisers. And yes, when we say Western Union, we mean Western Union, the publisher, as they have thousands of owned and operated screens strategically lighting up retail spaces and locations worldwide. Their digital out-of-home network is making waves, proving they’re not just money movers but also a force in the digital advertising game.

Transparency and Collaboration: The Dynamic Duo Powering the Future of Publisher Revenue

Data and transparency were neck and neck in Boston, given how often attendees discussed both. This brings us back to that black box in ad tech — everyone is doing something, but no one knows what anyone else is actually up to. Publishers may know the pipes that generate their revenue, but what happens inside the ad tech ecosystem often remains a black box—how bids are made, who’s bidding, and where the money goes. Brands don’t have full visibility into agency strategies and tactics, while agencies may lack insight into the brand’s internal goals and data.

This has to change, and fast. The only way forward is through collaboration and establishing more transparency. In other words, talk to each other. It’s really that simple even a caveman can do it, jk.

I recall at least four sessions that directly addressed transparency. Jana Meron discussed it in her keynote, and John Shelby, Director of National Programmatic Sales at Zoom Media, Gym-TV, also brought it up in his Ops to Sales workshop. Attendees further explored this topic in the media quality session featuring Addy Atienza, VP of Programmatic Revenue and Streaming Operations at Trusted Media Brands, and Roxanne Allen, Head of Ad Ops at Dotdashmeredith. Finally, Atkin and Goldstein shared valuable insights on transparency during their keynotes. Goldstein also talked about how important it is to partner with advertisers to share sales data, which is vital for validating the effectiveness of high-intent segments. This collaboration explicitly boosts campaign ROI and refines audience targeting.

Meron shared some compelling stats on brand safety and made a strong case for the ongoing relevance of quality news. She stressed that brand safety and news SHOULD NOT be mutually exclusive, and advertisers should feel confident placing ads next to election content. Consumers with high political interests are highly engaged and could be lucrative.

She also emphasized that everyone needs to communicate to enhance brand safety across the board; publishers can no longer be left out of the conversation. Atienza and Allen echoed this sentiment, highlighting the lack of transparency, the challenges in getting verification vendors to address misclassifications, and discrepancies in reporting. They also pointed out how publishers are excluded from brand safety conversations, with agencies often defaulting to broad, non-contextual blocking measures.

The main theme of Shelby’s Ops to Sales workshop was clear: “Communicate, communicate, communicate, educate, educate, educate.” The key takeaway was the need for greater transparency, both internally between ad ops and sales teams and also with clients.

As I mentioned earlier, Atkin also reinforced the need for advertisers to be more transparent and controlled and suggested new strategies.

Spreading the Love: Why Championing Diverse Publishers is the Secret to Industry Growth

Messer’s Deal Curation session stood out for its focus on multicultural publishers. He invited Armando Aguilar, VP of Programmatic Operations at Mirror Digital, and Alex Haluska, Senior Director of Revenue Operations at MyCode, to discuss these publishers’ challenges. Despite representing 40% of the population, multicultural publishers receive only 6% of media budgets—a glaring disparity. 

Promises of increased ad spending on minority-owned and small niche publishers have not materialized. Instead, agencies bottlenecking the budgets, with most diverted to large platforms like Facebook and Google, bypassing diverse publishers altogether. 

Both speakers urged agencies to innovate and be accountable for their spending practices. They also encouraged publishers to engage directly with brands to circumvent agency bottlenecks. Once again, speakers emphasized the need for transparency and accountability in distributing ad dollars. 

The Premium Publisher Shift session began with a powerful visual:  a slide highlighting the disparity between the US Black population (15%) and the ad spend on Black-owned media (2%) to emphasize the issue. Terry Guyton-Bradley, Senior Director of Ad Tech at Fortune, led the discussion alongside Michael Bendell, an ad tech consultant from Ebony, and DeVon Johnson, founder of BlueLife Media and co-founder of BOMESI.

Each panelist offered a unique perspective on how to address this issue. One proposed solution to simplify ad buying was for platforms to aggregate minority-owned media buys. They also discussed the need to dismantle systemic barriers in the advertising industry that prevent minority-owned publishers from thriving independently. 

Advertisers should differentiate their spending on Black audiences from their spending on minority-owned publications, recognizing that these groups have distinct experiences and needs. As an industry, we must find ways to support unique publishers— whether they’re diverse, niche, small — if we want to see real growth. 

Embracing Data, Transparency, and Diversity: The Path Forward for Publisher Revenue

At PubForum Boston, it became clear that the future of publisher revenue hinges on three critical pillars: data, transparency, and support for diverse publishers. The discussions were not just about recognizing these elements—they were about taking actionable steps to make them central to our core strategies.

Data isn’t just a tool; it’s the foundation of future publisher revenue. Transparency and collaboration are no longer optional — they’re essential for defining success. And when it comes to diverse publishers, we need to actively uplift and invest in them, as they are vital to the ecosystem’s growth.

Looking ahead, these themes will clearly shape our strategies, push us to think differently and drive us to work more closely together. The future of revenue is bright, but only if we embrace these lessons, act with urgency, and follow through on our commitments made at forums like this one.

If you missed Lynne and myself chatting about these themes, check it out on AdMonsters LinkedIn

The post PubForum Boston: Three Emerging Themes Redefining Revenue’s Future appeared first on AdMonsters.

At Cannes Lions 2024, the conversations were as lively and diverse as the French Riviera itself. Amid the glitz and glamour, we sat down with several leading digital media and advertising figures to get their take on the future. 

From exploring ID-less solutions to leveraging retail media data, the strategies for surviving and thriving in this ever-evolving ecosystem were as varied as they were insightful.

Geoffroy Martin, CEO of Ogury, emphasized the necessity for publishers to pivot towards ID-less solutions and alternative identifiers. “If you own your first-party data and comply with regulations like GDPR and CCPA, you will be able to monetize your data, and that’s what advertisers want,” Martin explained. This proactive stance is crucial as the industry braces for the end of third-party identifiers. 

Meanwhile, Oz Etzioni, CEO of Clinch, highlighted the importance of personalization, automation, and omnichannel strategies, underscoring the need for a holistic approach to integrating CTV into advertising.

Read on to learn what leading industry leaders from Ogury, Clinch, TransUnion, and more had to say.

Publisher Playbook: Winning Strategies from Cannes Lions 2024

Geoffroy Martin, CEO of Ogury

According to Martin (if you haven’t already), publishers should start exploring and implementing ID-less solutions and alternative identifiers in partnership with advertisers and technology partners. This proactive approach will help publishers continue monetizing their content effectively, considering that we will be done with third-party identifiers in the foreseeable future. 

Gathering and maintaining first-party data is, of course, a major focal point.

“If you own your first-party data and comply with regulations like GDPR and CCPA, you will be able to monetize your data, and that’s what advertisers want,” Martin explained. “When Google finally deprecates the cookies, signals from third-party identifiers will disappear. This will be a massive problem for publishers, giving them no options but to continue collaborating with advertisers and technology partners to work with ID-less solutions or alternative ID.”

Oz Etzioni, CEO of Clinch

From Etzioni’s perspective, publishers have a few options for survival. He suggests that publishers integrate personalized technology, optimize content frequency in partnership with buyers, adopt omnichannel strategies, invest in automation and AI, utilize retail media data, and focus on operational efficiency to enhance the effectiveness of CTV and retail media campaigns. 

Overall, publishers need to adopt a holistic approach to integrating CTV into their advertising strategy. 

“We are partnering with publishers to integrate everything into one, let’s call it activation,” Etzioni said. “CTV is becoming another channel. They’re also starting to venture into more formats like display and video on the opening home screen. It’s not just pre-rolls anymore. In terms of frequency management, we are working with publishers by taking the same ad and creating different variations and stories behind it. That way, a user will not see the same annoying ad 25 times. 

Michael Schoen, EVP/GM, Marketing Solutions at TransUnion

Schoen’s advice for publishers focuses on understanding consumer identity, leveraging cloud environments for data collaboration, and partnering with buyers and intermediaries to ensure the effectiveness of targeted marketing strategies. 

We discussed using GenAI to scale creative content and TransUnion’s pivotal role in providing data and measurement solutions for marketers and publishers. Schoen also schooled us on this concept of “Movable Middles,” which focuses on targeting consumers that are neither loyal to one brand nor competitors to drive incremental impact. 

“The concept of the middle is to focus on the middle, don’t target those folks who are really loyal to your brand because they’re already yours,” said Schoen. “Don’t target folks who are really loyal to the competitor either. One shows that investments in building your brand actually pay off in the long term and act like an annuity. If you can take a consumer and shift their brand loyalty, that will pay off long-term, and you don’t need to make this trade-off.” 

Voices from the Croisette: Insights and Anecdotes from Cannes Lions 2024

Lena Arbery, Associate Director Sales Tripadvisor 

“The key lesson from Cannes Lion 2024 is the importance of consistently innovating while staying true to your brand’s core values and putting consumers at the center of your brand. In a crowded market, advertisers must prioritize their end customers, who are the heart and soul of the brand, to effectively target and retarget them through every step of the funnel.”

Paul Wright, Head of International for Uber Advertising

“Anecdotally, we heard that out of a week of highlights at Cannes, Uber Advertising’s late-night pizza giveaway on the Croisette stood out as especially welcome. When our team helped serve them, they were certainly warmly welcomed by the event’s attendees! 

Regarding key topics, the rise of commerce media and commerce networks was undeniably dominant. Prominent brands across verticals, from our platform to airlines to banks, all came to highlight their commerce media offerings. Last year, the focus was perhaps more on pure retail media, but this year’s Cannes showed that commerce media offers distinct advantages. It can effectively steer consumers along their purchase path and empower brands to amplify their message across the upper and lower funnel.”

Simon Sikorski, President, Global Operations of XR Extreme Reach

“A lot of companies are buzzing around sustainability at Cannes, emphasizing the urgency to move faster. The discussion is that advertising has an amazing role in getting the message out and helping consumers make informed choices when opting for sustainable brands and practices. Sustainability is not just a passion but a business advantage. Companies are moving from policies to measurable outcomes. The focus is on reducing storage, optimizing assets, and effectively measuring these efforts. Sustainability has not fallen off the agenda at Cannes.”

Connatix – Mike Caprio, SVP, Americas 

“Cannes is back, with a crowd larger than even pre-pandemic levels. While POSSIBLE this year was impressive and quickly becoming a tent pole event in our industry, the reigning champ remains Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. Key themes of the week focused on the premium internet, leveraging data and other signals to enhance brand outcomes. Video and multi-device streaming continue to gain the most momentum, particularly through contextual targeting to expand audiences across CTV and OLV. Many emerging markets are looking to the US for guidance on transitioning from open linear television to streaming. And when it comes to the ongoing debate over generative AI, the industry is striving to find a balance across media, creative, and content sectors. However, a consistent outcome has yet to emerge.”

Peter Crofut, VP Business Development, Wurl

“In general, agencies seem to be pushing advertisers to widen the definition of’ performance‘. I found myself in many conversations with agency leaders both on and offstage, questioning whether we’re too focused on the lower funnel and ignoring the power of brand awareness metrics. Video completion, longer and more emotionally-invested attention agencies are making the case that these upper funnel metrics serve a real purpose and ultimately drive outcomes.”

The post Seen and Heard at Cannes Lions 2024 + Strategies for Survival Amid Change appeared first on AdMonsters.

As the role of Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) continues to evolve in the fast-paced world of digital advertising, the expectations and challenges faced by today’s marketing leaders are growing increasingly complex. 

We had a very informative discussion with Brace, during which she shared her insights on how CMOs are now embracing the dual priorities of building strong brand visibility while also managing budgets to optimize top-line growth. She highlighted the innovative strategies employed at XR Extreme Reach to ensure authentic audience engagement, address diversity and inclusivity through comprehensive data analysis, and leverage AI to unlock valuable insights.

In this conversation, you’ll learn how XR Extreme Reach sets itself apart by providing a holistic solution for ad delivery and data management, ensuring compliance through meticulous adherence to standards, and fostering inclusivity as a driver for better business outcomes. 

“In general, we do believe inclusivity is good for business, whether that’s represented in Diversity & Inclusion  rules or just at the core of the company,” Brace said. “Inclusivity matters, and we’re committed to bringing the data to market to help companies understand that. We’ll do whatever we can to make sure inclusivity is prioritized.” 

This commitment is reflected in XR Extreme Reach’s efforts to expand its global D&I report to encompass broader themes like sustainability and creative intelligence, ensuring a comprehensive approach to inclusivity.

Join us as we explore Meredith Brace’s vision of the evolving role of the CMO and her commitment to inclusive, data-driven marketing practices that resonate with global audiences.

Yakira Young: The role of CMOs is undergoing a significant transformation these days. How has the role evolved over the past few years, from your perspective?

Meredith Brace: I can talk from my perspective as a CMO and from the perspective of our customers. With CMOs, we’re seeing this shift to Chief Growth Officers. We’re really thinking more about revenue than we’re thinking about awareness, visibility, and perception.

So, it’s really the idea of taking a budget, balancing those two perspectives, and doing what you need to establish the brand and some of those upper funnel metrics. As marketers, we must ask the question: What are we doing to engage the people that we need to do business with?

There’s a lot more pressure on revenue, and that’s why I feel like you see the CMO tenures maybe shortening. This is too bad because I think sometimes it takes a long time to build a system to do that properly and build the right team and the right skill sets. So that’s what I’m seeing from the larger picture.

YY: You mentioned the importance of brands and companies engaging with the people they do business with. What are some of the strategies at XR Extreme Reach to ensure authentic audience engagement?

YY: Speaking of data, we did a LinkedIn Live with Madeleine Want, the VP of data at Fanatics Betting & Gaming. We discussed behavioral data. Are you guys working with any behavioral data at all? And if not, what other forms of data are there? 

YY: How do you go about finding the right data partners? 

YY: What sets XR Extreme Reach apart from what’s already available on the market?

MB: Nobody does what we do in aggregate. There are some companies that do linear delivery, some do digital delivery, and there are some that just do talent payments, but nobody but us can do each of these.

That is the secret sauce for what we do because we touch every aspect of production, content management, and content delivery. That is how we can provide incredible visibility. If you’re using 20 partners for all those different things, it’s hard to know what’s happening. It’s hard to track the efficacy and the management of all those assets using a single partner, which many of our customers do. It just unlocks incredible insight and value and streamlines the business for them.

So it’s not just an ease of workflow; for us, what we’re uncovering is unlocking all this business intelligence. And so what’s exciting to us is that we have a lot of different siloed competitors, but nobody does what we do in total.

YY: How does XR Extreme Reach ensure compliance with its clients?

MB: Before my current role, I worked at a measurement company, which means I know the complexities of being MRC accredited. We’ve done the tough work to ensure that we are MRC accredited, which is wonderful. 

We have a new Chief Information & Security Officer (CISO), an incredible woman, Donna Kladis, who ensures that our privacy remains intact. We really have the best of the best because we sit on very precious data. We do everything we can to make sure that it is handled appropriately. We also work with lots of industry bodies like the IAB Tech Lab, CIMM, and everything else to make sure that we are up to the standards that our customers require.

YY: Is AI helping XR Extreme Reach overcome any specific data challenges?

MB: We use AI to look at the massive amounts of assets in the system. When we manage global assets for a customer, and you multiply that by all the customers we use, the only reason we can look at things like skin tone representation, gender expression, and sustainability messaging is that we use AI to do that. You wouldn’t be able to do that with people scoring every asset. So we use AI to help us get to that data in real time.

YY: Any new products or technological advances that pertain to DEI&B?

MB: We do a global D&I report every year. This year, we plan to expand that report to include more than just D&I. However, in the last few years, we have discovered that this data resonates with people. Our CEO spoke at the LinkedIn B2B conference recently about inclusivity in advertising and inclusivity in leadership. It’s expanded beyond just advertising into inclusivity, which is good for business. 

We’re also part of BRIDGE, a member-driven 501c6 that helps companies bridge the gaps that have created inequalities for underrepresented and untapped communities in the workplace. We can track the measurement aspect of it and prove that it’s good for business. So, the D&I Insights, while we thought it was really interesting and got it out into the world, we’re seeing so much traction and appetite for what we can do.

We are looking at all sorts of things because, for some brands, it was really important and critical for them to understand how they were being represented in the market. So it’s been great momentum for us, and it’s just helped build this creative intelligence pillar that we’re leading our go-to-market.

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Today’s successful marketing strategies rely on accurate targeting and personalization.  Marketers who don’t have both aren’t likely to meet their KPIs.

TransUnion’s updated identity graph includes data representing 98% of the US population and with the help of advanced AI, it will deliver more precise identity resolution and better demographic enrichment. The new and improved identity graph leverages advanced AI by clustering and scoring identities. 

Now with detailed demographics, incorporating life events and interests, the identity graph provides buyers and sellers with tools to create highly relevant and engaging campaigns. The expanded reach allows for more personalized content and improves the overall quality of consumer insights. 

We spoke with Michael Schoen, EVP and Head of TruAudience marketing solutions at TransUnion about the company’s new identity resolution product, how they’re building the future of addressability, and how it can benefit advertisers and publishers alike.

Yakira Young: With the identity graph now covering 98% of the U.S. adult population, how does this extensive reach impact the accuracy and effectiveness of targeted advertising for publishers?

MS: The TransUnion identity graph’s 98% coverage ensures widespread reach for users, significantly improving precision and effectiveness. As a unified, offline-online identity graph, we can connect together a wide variety of consumer touchpoints and enable the measurement of media tied to conversions. 

With an impressive persistence rate of 99.5%, it offers a dependable perspective on individuals, enhancing the accuracy of targeted efforts. Publishers who leverage TruAudience marketing solutions receive increased access to marketable phone numbers and targetable IP addresses.  

YY: Given the surge in IP addresses and device IDs linked to U.S. households, what new opportunities does this open in terms of personalized content delivery and monetization?

MS: The increase in data presents new opportunities for businesses to customize delivery more precisely, leading to more relevant content across different devices. Richer data benefits advertisers and content creators by enabling more effective audience segmentation. This deeper engagement enhances user experience and creates opportunities for effective monetization with genuine customers.

YY: Can you explain how the advanced AI used in TransUnion’s upgraded identity graph enhances identity resolution and demographic enrichment for ad tech purposes?

MS: TransUnion uses advanced AI in a four-stage methodology. 

1. The process begins with the collection of consumer data. 
2. Followed by the application of matching algorithms to eliminate duplicates and establish a unified view. 
3. The AI clusters data into individual profiles and households, offering a thorough understanding of consumer behavior. 
4. By scoring identities based on data reliability, the enhanced identity graph attains heightened scale, precision, and effectiveness in ad targeting and the delivery of personalized content.

YY: TransUnion’s collaboration with The Truthset Data Collective seems to underscore a commitment to data accuracy. How does this partnership enhance the reliability of data used in ad targeting?

MS: TransUnion’s partnership with The Truthset Data Collective highlights our commitment to accurate data for ad targeting. This ensures that advertisers have a reliable foundation for targeting strategies and improved precision in reaching the desired audience. 

TransUnion remains dedicated to high accuracy levels and transparency, as seen through the exposure of linkage scores to customers. The verification of the graph by Truthset, along with its application in critical areas like marketing measurement, fraud, and compliance, strengthens the accuracy of its performance. 

This partnership also helps us identify areas for improvement, where we can iteratively improve our methodology or bring in incremental data sources.

YY: Looking towards the future, how does TransUnion plan to evolve its identity graph to keep pace with emerging trends and technologies in the ad tech space?

MS: TransUnion is adjusting its identity graph to navigate changes in the ad tech landscape, especially with the upcoming removal of third-party cookies in Google Chrome. The company is dedicated to a privacy-first marketing approach for scalability and precision without third-party cookies.  

Our approach is anchored on using multiple identifiers and cloud-based integrations for identity translation, interoperability, and activation. These efforts address security, privacy, and governance concerns to meet challenges from evolving privacy trends, legislation, and emerging technologies. The identity graph will evolve in alignment with changing needs, emphasizing streamlined processes for improved efficiency.

The post Targeting Precision Reaches New Heights with TransUnion’s Identity Graph appeared first on AdMonsters.

For better or worse, Publishers are always left bearing the brunt of industry shifts. With addressability shifting into something different, many wonder how we will continue to target and reach our audiences.

The cookie phase-out process is here, and word on the street is that Chrome will be obfuscating the IP address (the cookie of CTV) real soon.

During a panel titled “The Future of Addressability: The Portfolio View,” Anthony Katsur, CEO of IAB Tech Lab, sat down with Shobha Doshi, SVP of Programmatic Strategy & Operations at Raptive, Ryan McConville EVP of Ad Platforms & Operations at NBCUniversal, and Mike Nuzzo, SVP of Hearst Data Solutions at Hearst Magazines. Each panelist outlined how they are approaching addressability today.

One thing we all know to be true is that there is no one solution; publishers should instead consider the “patchwork quilt” of solutions that are at their fingertips. With a catalog of over 5,000 publishers, Doshi highlighted that Raptive is currently in the test iterative stage. She encourages publishers to continue testing and exploring to see what works and what doesn’t.

At NBCU, they are rebuilding their signaling around first-party identity. With Peacock and their other digital endpoints totaling around 300, they had to find a way to coordinate those varying identities across everything. Having recently launched the NBC Unified identity platform, their strategy is to elevate it to live primarily on first-party identity signals.

When asked how Hearst thinks about the future of addressability, Nuzzo kept it simple. “We’re doing a lot of testing, learning, and just making sure we’re following the law,” he shared. From his perspective, the onus has been on publishers to solve for innovation. Innovation and identity are increasingly challenging because, again, there is no one solution.

Future-Proofing Alongside Hefty Privacy Constraints

Privacy regulations are evolving in Europe, and while a handful of states with state-led privacy regulations are already in place, three more states will be enforcing privacy sanctions next year: Montana, Oregon, and Texas. India also just passed a privacy law. 

What alternative solutions are publishers seeking to maintain an addressable ecosystem while complying with privacy regulations? 

“I think it’s hard, and that’s why I said the legal piece earlier,” Nuzzo explained. “Consent management platforms are in a good place right now, we need them contextually.” At Hearst, the focus is on understanding common taxonomies and how they apply that to their audiences algorithmically. Gen AI is also something they are pushing towards. 

For McConvile and NBCU, the product team is essential to maneuvering the privacy landmine. Media and entertainment companies have privacy product managers who enforce all privacy regulations. Rather than creating nuances for each state’s privacy laws, they look to the states with the most conservative ones and use those as a baseline.

Privacy and big tech are the two big bad wolves of the industry, but which one is scarier? 

It’s no surprise that Nuzzo from Hearst says it’s the legal side. No publisher wants to come out of pocket and pay off the government for not having the right privacy policy. McConnvile went with big tech, considering the different platform policies that publishers must abide by. 

“Operating system policies like Apple’s override our terms and conditions, so if you sign up for Peacock on an Apple device and agree to NBCU’s terms and then opt out of Apple, it overrides our terms and conditions completely. I don’t think users actually understand that they’re making that choice,” McConvile explained. 

The IP Address Is the Cookie of CTV

While CTV doesn’t operate on cookies, it does use IP addresses for audience targeting. This makes IP addresses the cookies of CTV. One or both will put a velvet rope around the web and obfuscate the IP address.

What will happen next as the IP address becomes effectively deprecated by big tech?

Doshi, SVP of Programmatic Strategy & Operations at Raptive, thinks the IP address signal loss would reduce graph strength for everyone. “It makes regulatory compliance hard, especially if there are different state-by-state regulations that may conflict,” she explained. “There are no good solutions right away, and solutions will differ per environment since regulations differ per environment. We may see some advantages on desktop, but the long road ahead is to figure out how to make it work.”

Nuzzo had an opposite opinion, “I think the IP address for us opens up an opportunity that we haven’t explored as publishers,” he said. Also, stating that there are actually a lot of good use cases for the deprecation of the IP address that we haven’t thought of. “I hope the industry allows us to explore that before they cut off at the knees,” he said. 

The IP address powers a lot of how performance TV works since viewers don’t click on their televisions to buy something. The IP address connects the devices in your household. “You have a smart TV that lives on an IP address, and you have a mobile phone that lives on that IP address,” McConville explained. “So if you see an ad on Peacock on your smart TV, you can buy the sneakers from that ad on your mobile phone.”

The industry will have many holes to fill if the IP address is deprecated because, aside from targeting, the IP address is crucial for cross-device measurement. There is also some interesting work on an Internet service provider level to future-proof the ability to tie IP signals to a deterministic household in a privacy-compliant way.

From a fraud vector perspective, the IP address is used for many fraud detection and data security issues as you start to proxy through a single IP address or VPN on the web. This opens up many fraud and data security issues for advertising and health, tech, finance, and national defense implications. 

In short, IP addresses have many uses in the advertising ecosystem beyond targeting. Many publishers will have to think through and plan for the many implications.

Is First-Party Data the New Oil in Our Industry?

When it comes to first-party data, we are somewhat in a world of the haves and have-nots. The walled gardens have had identity for many years, but everyone outside of them had an alternative architecture through cookies they could function on. 

 Publishers and brands have to create a value exchange to get the data. There are tons of data-rich companies, like Amazon, for example. You are unable to use any Amazon entity without logging in. Publishers need to make sure that their consumer product teams are creating a system for authenticating users and communicating the value exchange to garner more logins. 

Now is the time, more than ever, for companies that have not traditionally collected first-party identity signals to figure out smart ways of doing it. “On the cohorting side over at NBCUniversal, they have done some really interesting tests with seed data using AI and content. 

“We fed our content into an AI engine, scanned all the contextual metadata for all the content, and then created lookalike models using that more granular data set. By using this AI deep contextual metadata, which is also our first-party data, we found that the segments performed much better,” said McConville. 

At Hearst, there are tiers of data assets at their disposal, so it doesn’t have to be explicit logins. They collect 4 trillion data points on their users monthly, which is precious data. Recently, they conducted a study and saw a 140% increase in click-through rate when they applied both contextual and behavioral into one segment for the advertiser. 

“We’ve lived on this behavioral journey for so long, where the mentality was just follow the consumer around, and they’ll buy my shoes,” Nuzzo said. “This may be true, but when you serve 5000 impressions to them versus if you serve them the right content, you’ll have to do far less of that, and the interaction rate will improve.”

Where Do We Go From Here?

As an industry, we have a nasty habit of waiting until the last minute before we react to changes. We have built a solid muscle on the third-party cookie, so is there a sense of urgency in Q1 of 2024? Probably not. 

Patrick McCann, SVP of Research at Raptive, also led a main-stage discussion highlighting how more publishers need to start testing the Privacy Sandbox. Raptive hopes that we will discuss how the buy side is ingesting and understanding some of that data next year. 

Clean rooms were also discussed, and McConville predicts that we will see some real commercial action coming out of Clean Room integrations because there was a long time when they weren’t being utilized. With Amazon and Google PAIR, we see real commercial examples of bringing first-party data service into these data clouds.

Nuzzo thinks we will talk about gen AI in the spring of 2024 and finally have some real learnings from it. We will finally have some metrics to see what works, and what doesn’t work. 

The post Addressing the Future: Publisher Perspectives on Data, Privacy, and the Road Ahead appeared first on AdMonsters.

With third-party cookies going away, mobile IDs in a state of flux, and the ecosystem constantly shifting we need innovative solutions to help publishers and advertisers securely collect, compare, and leverage audience data. Without new solutions it is darn near impossible to plan, activate, and measure campaigns. 

Recently, data collaboration platform and clean room solution, Optable closed a $20M Series A financing deal to beef up their global expansion and support a rapidly growing client base. Among the Series investors is Hearst, who has entered into a commercial agreement with Optable to amplify the value of the publisher’s first-party data and enable interoperability with other data clean room solutions.

We tapped in with Hearst and Optable for their perspective on this new deal and to learn what it really means. 

Darcy Frisch, Managing Director and VP, Hearst Ventures

Yakira Young: Can you tell us about your new partnership with Optable and how it aligns with your overall strategy for data collaboration and privacy?

DF: As an investor, Hearst Ventures is broadly interested in how companies are managing data privacy and governance. We invest in companies that are thinking ahead about how consumer and other data can be managed and deployed responsibly. In the case of Optable, we believe that their solution allows advertisers and publishers alike to effectively use data to collaborate and maintain consumer privacy.

YY: In what ways does Optable’s approach to data collaboration align with evolving consumer attitudes toward data privacy, and how do you see this trend impacting the advertising industry more broadly?

DF: We see Optable’s approach as largely driven by these changes in consumer behavior. It’s clear that audiences demand more control over their own data, requiring both media companies and their advertising partners to respect this sentiment. 

Ultimately, this isn’t just about technology, at the core of Hearst’s publisher value proposition is our emphasis on delivering high-quality content to our audiences. Data collaboration technologies simply offer a safer, more controlled way to align consumer demands with advertiser requirements.  

Vlad Stesin, Optable Co-Founder and CPO

YY: How can publishers and advertisers use Optable to better understand their audiences and deliver more effective, targeted advertising campaigns that respect consumer privacy?

VS: Optable’s platform enables publishers to enhance and scale our data-driven collaboration that they offer to advertising partners. This means that they can provide advertisers an “easy button” for leveraging first-party data in a privacy-safe environment, enabling them to build comprehensive media executions, provide seamless activation of targeted audiences across publisher properties and offer enhanced measurement that is rooted in first-party data.

The data clean room approach helps publishers understand exactly which audiences their advertising partners are trying to reach, build better media approaches, deliver better marketing results, and ultimately create better experiences for their audiences.

YY: How does Optable’s approach to data collaboration differ from other solutions in the market, and what benefits does it offer publishers and advertisers?

VS: Optable is laser-focused on the media and advertising industry which creates an emphasis on frictionless collaboration, offering partners a variety of ways to connect customer data. The platform offers an easy-to-use interface ranging from advanced analytics to easy activation of campaigns, at scale, directly from the clean room environment.

We apply industry-leading privacy-enhancing technologies (PETs) as well as advanced data security measures to ensure that the usage of data between publishers and their partners is both secure and protected.  Our unique approach to privacy balanced with interoperability-by-design allows publishers to scale this solution while assuring that data is never leaked or misused during the collaboration process – a notion the industry is feverishly trying to understand and implement.

All this results in more “clean room media” being transacted by our customers, offering advertisers performant campaign executions rooted in real data.

The post Hearst’s Commercial Agreement with Optable Transforms the Data Collaboration Process appeared first on AdMonsters.

Then, about four years later, the universe allowed her to bump shoulders with Amber Bracegirdle (Mediavine Co-Founder and Chief Brand Officer), and the two connected over personal and professional philosophies.

When Bracegirdle described Mediavine to Lieberman, the pair realized they had many of the same values, and helping content creators make money online was a core concept for both. Mediavine grew quickly, and it became apparent that it was time to bring the legal function in-house. Lieberman was honored when Mediavine asked her to join full-time as SVP and General Counsel. 

In her current role, Lieberman is responsible for all aspects of the company’s legal operations, including providing legal counsel and coaching on policies and procedures, intellectual property, contract negotiations, and compliance. She is Mediavine’s chief advisor in refining and enhancing corporate standard operating procedures with a focus on compliance to ensure Mediavine continues to provide innovative solutions, offerings, and services.

We talked to Jamie about running an all-women legal team at Mediavine and how she strives to promote diversity daily.  

Yakira Young: A small percentage of women run in-house counsel at tech companies. That percentage is even smaller for ad tech! At Mediavine, you run an all-woman legal team. How did that happen?

Jamie Lieberman: I started my law firm because I saw a problem in the Legal world that needed to be solved. I was a new mom who felt frustrated that I was being told there was no way to work full-time practicing law while being a mother. So, in response, I started a virtual law firm to do both without sacrifice. I think it naturally attracted other female professionals, not by design but because women found they could practice law, find support, and work in a balanced way.

In working as Mediavine’s external counsel, I saw how much the company cares about the health and well-being of its employees. When asked to join as in-house counsel, I knew the women from my firm transitioning with me would be well cared for in culture and benefits. We were really excited to keep the team together at Mediavine.

 YY: Since your start at Mediavine in December 2022, how have you helped implement positive change at the company?

JL: Mediavine really celebrates innovation, as evidenced by their ad tech. When I joined late last year, I wanted the company to experience that same innovation with regard to our legal department. I aimed to integrate our team so that legal was a welcomed partner in all business discussions. As lawyers, our role is equal parts counsel and education, and we set out to begin educating and meeting with employees to help them understand this. My team and I are here to collaborate across all business functions and streamline processes. 

The legal team has also centralized our contract management system and hired a new Director of Privacy and Compliance to create a new compliance program. We have made massive strides in a short period.

 YY: What are the core experiences from your career experience that helped prepare you for where you are in your career today?

JL: I didn’t begin my career practicing law, but I had a great mentor who suggested I go to law school. I worked while going to school full-time, so my work ethic was solid. Once I graduated, I began working at some large law firms. Through problematic encounters in those firms, I quickly realized what was missing in those working environments. I started to understand how vital a strong manager is to the growth of young attorneys. Before I started my law firm, I searched for an inclusive workplace that values its employees and had strong managers, but I could not do so.

This is a male-dominated industry, and unfortunately, in my first few jobs, I experienced all forms of harassment. I almost left the practice of law because of it. Still, instead, I’ve taken the negatives and have been able to use them as a learning experience so I could create a better working environment for my employees and be a better manager. I love practicing law, and when I started my firm and was able to remove some of these pain points, I began to love my job again. Joining Mediavine was a natural next step as the values of my law firm aligned with those here at Mediavine.

 YY: What unique challenges do you face as a general counsel in the ad tech industry?

JL: As general counsel in ad tech, I am often the only woman on an external phone call or meeting. It can be challenging to work in an industry when no one looks like you. To that end, my mission is to mentor others so they can find it in this field.

At Mediavine, the growth of our business has been extraordinary. Coupled with the fact that privacy laws are constantly changing, means my team and I need to be agile. We are lucky to work at a company that values innovation. It’s fun to solve problems and to be a part of this type of working environment that values diversity and collaboration. 

 YY: How do you ensure diversity and inclusion within your team and the company?

JL: I’ve dedicated over a decade to supporting and guiding content creators through my law firm’s work. Early on, I recognized that influencer marketing and content monetization on the web was critical to a free and fair Internet. I have used my legal expertise to help clients, usually women or underserved communities, understand the complicated and ever-changing content and privacy laws online. Mediavine also values helping small business owners create and maintain sustainable businesses; that type of inclusion resonates with me.

YY: What are the most pressing legal issues facing the ad tech industry?

JL: The most pressing legal issue facing ad tech is privacy compliance. The legal and regulatory landscape is constantly changing due to new laws and technologies. Because the internet is global, we must be aware of the constant updates to privacy laws, state-by-state regulations, changes to GDPR, and similar measures from international bodies. The size and speed of the programmatic ad space are immeasurable, so my team and I take Mediavine’s compliance very seriously. We are privacy forward and constantly dedicating more resources towards it.

YY: How does your legal team stay up-to-date on industry changes and developments?

JL: We prioritize involvement in industry events and trade groups like the Interactive Advertising Bureau, International Association of Privacy Professionals, Association of Corporate Counsel, and Tech GC. My team and I actively carve out time to ensure we can attend educational events that align with our interests and department goals. Mediavine prioritizes investing time and energy in training, which is helpful in an ever-changing industry.

 YY: Can you walk us through your approach to balancing legal compliance with business goals and objectives? 

JL: I view the legal department as a key partner to internal stakeholders. Our job is to assess risk and to work collaboratively to balance compliance requirements with the needs of our business. Legal should never be a roadblock but instead one part of a larger equation in making larger business decisions.

 Education comes into play here too. Suppose my team is involved with new initiatives from the beginning and can have meaningful conversations with the right people early on. In that case, we can lead from a place of collaboration as we assess risk versus return. 

YY: What advice would you give to women aspiring to become general counsels or lead all-female teams?

 JL: It’s really important to be true to yourself. Know your strengths, and don’t apologize for trusting your instincts. Women have been experiencing Imposter Syndrome for decades, but you rarely hear men talk about it. Advocate for yourself!

 In addition to knowing and understanding yourself, having a group of safe, trusted people around you is crucial. Find a mentor. Surround yourself with people who support you and your strengths. Women connect differently in business, and that should be celebrated. We should lift each other up.

The post Jamie Lieberman Opens New Doors With Her All-Women Legal Team in Ad Tech appeared first on AdMonsters.

Steven Goldberg, VP of North America Publishers, LiveRamp, shared post-cookie solutions for publishers at PubForum Miami. He told attendees why publishers should be testing strategies now and how to leverage authentication tools, ID solutions, and data clean rooms.

 Increase CPMs With Authenticated Traffic

“The good news is the majority of the publishers are already preparing for a cookieless world. The issue is how aggressive they are with their approach,” said Goldberg. 

Goldberg emphasized that publishers must start testing solutions before Google makes its move. The time is now when they still have a runway to try out opportunities. At LiveRamp, Goldberg works with North American publishers to deploy the Authenticated Traffic Solution (ATS) product and suggests that publishers should consider an authenticated traffic strategy that shows, from a CPM standpoint, far superior results against other inventory.

Newsweek, a LiveRamp premium partner, saw impressive increases using  ATS. The publisher saw a total eCPM as high as 224% versus cookieless browsers. Newsweek had an average lift of 52% across all web browsers using ATS against Chrome traffic.

Goldberg highlighted a LIveRamp study looking at 70+ global publishers with ATS. It found a 100% improvement in CPMs on Safari and 113% on Firefox. “When compared to traffic that still has cookies, we’re seeing anywhere from 20 to 50% lift on average from most of the publishers,” said Goldberg.

Addressable Inventory Is a Value Exchange

Goldberg pointed out that many publishers think addressable inventory creates friction. But he said they should look at it from the perspective of creating a value exchange. If publishers provide value to their users, then users are likely to provide something to capture in return, such as an email or a sign-up.

Several authentication strategies publishers have tried over the last couple of years include newsletters, paywalls, sweepstakes, and single sign-on from social media platforms.

“But there is not a silver bullet for any one publisher, and it’s not realistic to think that a publisher is going to ever get to 100% authentication,” said Goldberg. But once they reach the 30 to 40 percent authentication range, publishers then achieve a scale where they can begin to have beneficial conversations with advertisers about their data.

Clean Rooms for Data Collaboration

A division of LiveRamp’s business is the commercial side, where the company works with publishers, advertisers, and agencies on initiatives like data onboarding and clean rooms to ensure they can continue to generate advertising revenue and obtain measurable results.

“It has been the year of data clean rooms. Everybody wants to talk about them,” Goldberg noted. “But then, when you ask who is actually using them, the answer is not too many people. They are not used as often as they are spoken about.”

LiveRamp recently partnered with CafeMedia on deploying LiveRamp’s privacy-first data collaboration platform, which enables marketers to securely connect with readers on one of the largest digital properties on the open web.

ID solutions are being considered a promising alternative to cookies. But publishers are often confused about ID’s purpose and where to begin with so many available solutions in the marketplace. 

“The industry has relied on cookies for so long, and when you have a big cookieless problem, there are going to be a whole slew of companies that are going to try to solve it,” explained Goldberg. 

He does not think LiveRamp is the sole solution and advises publishers to look at multiple options for authenticated and non-authenticated inventory and select the most relevant ones to their business. Publishers should weigh the scale of the solution and its uses on both the demand and the supply sides.

The email hash is at the root of ID solutions and first-party data gathering, but companies such as Apple’s Hide My Email are impacting the availability of authenticated inventory.

 But Goldberg thinks the email hash is here to stay as a stable identifier even though he admits that the degree of authenticated inventory may decrease.   

The post PubForum Miami: LiveRamp Preps Pubs for Post-cookie Era appeared first on AdMonsters.

It’s a passion driven by a love of media and its role in our society. As of late, she worries about publishers and their ability to adapt to the impending cookie doom (along with the advertiser’s increasing unwillingness to fund the news). 

But she’s also optimistic that publishers can diversify their revenue and better engage their readers, and she has made it her mission to help them achieve those goals. We talked to her about publishers’ current risks and opportunities and how they can plot a path forward.

Helping Publishers Adapt and Thrive in an Ever-changing Digital Media World

Susie Stulz: Why did you start Lioness Strategies?

Jana Meron: There has been a lot of change in digital advertising and how we buy and sell ads over the last 15 years. I have been in the trenches, if you will, with all of those changes, and I’ve learned what works and what doesn’t work, but most importantly, I’ve learned what questions to ask.

I started Lioness Strategies to bring that expertise to more than just one company. I am very concerned that the cookie’s death will harm journalism, the open web, and consumers’ ability to access trustworthy information.

SS: How so?

JM: Consumers don’t necessarily understand that media has always been ad supported. We’ve done a terrible job explaining it to the consumer as an industry. We don’t have the resources or understanding to explain the value exchange to the consumer, or how to look at the revenue generation on-site.

We’re moving into an era where publishers should be doing holistic revenue management. Publishers must understand that the web is an ecosystem and on-site inventory is finite. This means they need to understand all the on-site revenue-generating opportunities and how they relate to one another. That way, when you change one revenue division, you understand the impact on another. 

SS: Can you give me an example?

JM: Sure. When you do an authentication process with a user, that’s a value exchange. The publisher is saying, “log in to read this article.” But if the reader doesn’t want to register, they’ll leave the site. That’s a missed opportunity for the publisher because they could have monetized that reader via advertising.

 We need to recognize that when a publisher puts up a paywall or register wall to drive subscriptions, it’s a valuable signal both for ads and subscriptions, and they need to think about how they affect one another.

We can use the data we get from the ads for audience development. The data we get from commerce can be used to understand the consumers’ buying behaviors, which can be used for ad targeting, subscriptions, and content development.

Are Publishers Set Up to Manage Revenue on a Holistic Basis?

SS: Are publishers set up to manage revenue on a holistic basis?

JM: Not really. Publishers need diversified revenue, and over the years, they built up different practices in siloes out of necessity. But now that the cookie is going away, they will need a way to understand their readers better, which they can do holistically using their data from all these points. If people don’t look at the same data, publishers could put up a paywall when they shouldn’t.

It’s very hard to combine all those things to understand what’s happening from a daily revenue perspective. Still, it needs to happen because publishers create scenarios that hurt user engagement and lessen revenue. We need data-driven insights into what works and what doesn’t so we can stop throwing things against the wall to see what sticks.

SS: Freeing data from siloes has been the industry’s mantra for as long as I can remember. What are the impediments to data sharing?

JM: Training and understanding. After that, it’s knowing where all the connection points for the data are.

Publishers are asking really difficult questions right now, such as whether or not they need a data lake or a DMP. These are costly investments, and they can be ROI positive. But all too often, publishers invest in technology, train everyone and then experience turnover. These tools need ongoing training, but that’s not happening.

SS: So, the tools just sit idle?

JM: Yes. Often, publishers add tools, stop using them, but never remove the code. I call this spaghetti in the server room. There’s no real technology strategy. Many publishers need to revise their tech setup so that they can both optimize their existing revenue as well as create new revenue streams.

SS: What are some of the publisher’s untapped opportunities for optimizing existing revenue?

JM: A big opportunity is to find the right way to create an ad hierarchy and to relook at how their ad servers are set up. These things change, sometimes quickly and sometimes over time. But there are a lot of publishers who haven’t updated their ad hierarchy. They may change their site taxonomy fairly regularly, but do they change the ad unit in the ad server? Are all the ad units firing?

One of the best things a publisher can do is to think about where they are in their journey of digital revenue generation and how to get to the next phase.

The other big opportunity I think is for publishers to explain to the consumer the value proposition and why it’s important for them to register for sites and support the news. I wish publishers would have those conversations with consumers, especially when using their data. We have a big opportunity to demonstrate the value of all this amazing technology to advertisers and consumers by giving them the best possible user experience on our site and the open web. We’re just not doing that today.

Finally, I’d like to see publishers lean into some of the privacy-enhancing technologies, such as clean rooms and other authentication solutions that can help tie their subscription businesses to their businesses. 

Advertisers Shouldn’t Be Afriad of the News

SS: What advice would you give news publishers who cover the news but advertisers don’t want to be anywhere near negative news stories?

JM: There’s no nuance in advertising strategy, and publishers are hurt the most because of it. They write about what’s happening in the world, and sometimes what’s happening in the world isn’t great. But brands still advertise on TV. Why do they buy TV news but not Internet-based news?

I understand the old concerns of buying inventory in the open exchanges because there was a lack of transparency. But private marketplaces address those challenges. We see highly curated marketplaces now, and they’re doing very well. Every SSP now has a demand team that curates deals and creates relationships with buyers for this very reason.

 At the end of the day, advertising funds the news, and we need the news. Advertisers shouldn’t be afraid of it.

The post A Mission to Help Publishers Adapt and Thrive in an Ever-changing Digital Media World — A Q&A With Jana Meron appeared first on AdMonsters.