Media measurement is at a critical juncture, with the industry racing to adapt to new technologies, shifting consumer behaviors, and evolving regulatory frameworks. 

As TV and video consumption splinters across devices and platforms, the need for consistent, reliable identity resolution (IDR) has become increasingly urgent. The complexities of audience fragmentation and data loss have forced companies to rethink how they approach identity and measurement at scale.

To that end, CIMM, in collaboration with OpenAP, launched a strategic review of the identity resolution ecosystem to address the challenges of stitching together data across disparate identity spines. 

David Levy, CEO of OpenAP, has been at the forefront of these efforts, emphasizing the importance of durable, privacy-safe identity solutions that can serve both buyers and sellers in the advanced TV landscape. OpenAP’s commitment to this project reflects its broader goal of establishing a more transparent and interoperable marketplace, ensuring that IDR evolves to meet the growing demands of advertisers and consumers alike.

Dennis Buchheim, Managing Director of ThinkMedium, shared that while identity resolution has made strides, the current environment is “fragmented and inconsistent,” calling for data quality and interoperability improvements. He emphasized the need for more transparency, saying, “The industry must work together to create an adaptable, privacy-safe identity ecosystem that can evolve with changing regulations and consumer expectations.”

At the recent CIMM Summit, sessions provided a look at the industry today with a roadmap for what lies ahead as data quality, transparency, and interoperability dominate the conversation.

5 Big Ideas We Took Away From CIMM Summit

Insight 1: Identity Resolution Is Still Fragmented — But Progress Is Being Made

The complexity of identity resolution continues to challenge the TV and video marketplace, but significant advancements are being made.

• Fragmentation Issues: The TV identity ecosystem is fragmented, with different identity spines and providers offering disparate solutions, making it difficult to track audiences across multiple screens and devices.
• Comcast’s Solution: Comcast’s deterministic signal authentication offers a promising privacy-safe solution to unify fragmented audience data, yet broader industry standardization remains elusive.
• Data Quality Challenges: The lack of data quality in some identity resolution practices is a consistent concern, with many speakers calling for more transparency and better labeling of data sources.
• Need for Buyer Education: As identity solutions evolve, marketers need more education around data quality and transparency, ensuring that they understand the signals they are working with and how those signals influence campaign outcomes.

Insight 2: Fragmentation of Media is Both a Blessing and a Curse

The rise of programmatic buying and connected TV (CTV) is transforming how media is bought and sold, but the growing complexity is a double-edged sword for buyers.

• Opportunities for Personalization: In the session Building the TV Ad Market of the Future, speakers like Freewheel’s Mark McKee and LG Ad Solutions’ Michael Hudes pointed to opportunities that media fragmentation offers. McKee described how personalization across fragmented content creates new touchpoints for audience engagement.

• Challenges in Measurement: As content spreads across different platforms, buyers face the growing challenge of managing reach and frequency. As Katie Klein noted, the difficulty lies in tracking audiences across a fragmented media landscape while delivering meaningful performance metrics.
• The Role of LG Ads Innovation Lab: Hudes emphasized that behavioral and emotional cues are critical to surfacing relevant content, making personalization even more integral to managing fragmented content across multiple devices.

Insight 3: The Shift to Multi-Currency Measurement is Gaining Momentum

Multi-currency measurement is quickly becoming necessary in advanced TV, but implementation is still in its early days.

• Enabling Optionality: During Ready or Not, The Advanced TV Ad Market Is Here, panelists like Paramount’s Michele Stone stressed that offering measurement flexibility — allowing buyers to transact based on the currency they’re comfortable with — is critical to the future of advertising. As agencies work with multiple measurement providers, they are increasingly focused on aligning these metrics to serve both buyers and sellers effectively.

• Growing Complexity: Publicis Media’s Sam Armando highlighted the complexity agencies face when dealing with multiple currencies during major events like the Super Bowl, where several measurement systems must work together. The challenge lies in ensuring consistency across these systems while maintaining accuracy.

Insight 4: AI’s Role in Measurement is Just Beginning

AI-driven media measurement is still in its infancy, but it has the potential to revolutionize how media is planned, bought, and measured.

• AI for Personalization and Automation: In the session Into the Future of Media Measurement, panelists discussed how AI will drive more personalized and immersive experiences by 2030. Automating content delivery and optimizing audience engagement is seen as a major benefit.

• Ongoing Challenges: AI also introduces challenges. As Sonata Insights’ Debra Aho Williamson pointed out in the AI-Driven Roadmap to 2030, questions around transparency, data ethics, and the accuracy of AI-driven insights remain unresolved. CIMM”s Tameka Kee stressed the importance of industry-wide collaboration to address these issues and ensure AI can deliver on its promises.

Insight 5: CTV’s Growing Influence on Performance Metrics

Connected TV (CTV) now plays a bigger role in performance-based advertising, offering brands opportunities to drive outcomes that were once difficult to measure with linear TV.

• Impact of Live Audiences: IPG Media Brands’ Maureen Bosetti noted that while linear TV still offers significant reach, CTV complements it with advanced performance metrics. Brands are increasingly using CTV’s flexible formats to deliver both brand-building and performance-driven campaigns.

• Cross-Screen Attribution: As highlighted by the panelists in Building the TV Ad Market of the Future, the ability to track audience behaviors across multiple screens is improving, with programmatic buying allowing advertisers to optimize reach and frequency in previously challenging ways.

Navigating these growing complexities — identity resolution, audience fragmentation, and measurement standardization — requires collaboration across the sell-side, buy-side, and tech platforms. 

The future of media measurement depends on the industry’s ability to adopt multi-currency frameworks, embrace AI-driven solutions, and improve the cross-screen attribution model to reflect today’s fragmented viewing habits. As AI integration advances and CTV continues its rise, the next steps will involve finding ways to unify fragmented data ecosystems and develop scalable solutions for cross-screen measurement.

Moving forward, the industry must keep pace with technological innovations and regulatory shifts to ensure that identity resolution and media measurement evolve together to support advertisers, publishers, and viewers alike.

The post 5 Big Ideas We Took Away From CIMM Summit — Identity Resolution Was the Biggest appeared first on AdMonsters.

As we hit the home stretch in the Presidential election and other federal and statewide races, digital advertising spend continues to flourish.

But, candidates and their marketing teams may be fumbling on a key component of their playbook that could be the difference between first and second place: advertising to cookieless voters.

Google’s about-face (or flip flop) on deprecating cookies could lead advertisers — including political ones — to abandon their cookieless plans, but that would be shortsided as I explain below.

While the bulk of media attention is on the presidential election, there are also 468 Congressional races and a multitude of local elections. I would go as far as to say that a few politicians could sway their races by embracing cookieless, especially if their opponent neglects over half of the open web using Safari or Firefox browsers for example. There is an ocean of previously unreachable voters right in front of you, the billions of US consumers viewing content on cookieless browsers via mobile and desktop web.

It’s incredibly important to reach consumers where they consume content across mobile, desktop, or CTV. With emerging digital channels growing, those who do not advertise in cookieless environments may miss out on this campaign season’s biggest advantage.

Two Roads Ahead for the Candidates

Elections, at least in the United States, are often about choosing between two options. It’s either Republican or Democrat; left wing or right wing; yes or no on a proposition. Political candidates have some duality choices as well: whether to advertise only with third-party cookies, cookieless, or both. The good news is that candidates can — and should — advertise on both. But, like their for-profit corporate brethren, too few are embracing cookieless.

The polls make one thing abundantly clear: this will be a very close presidential election with multiple states currently within mere percentage points of each other. Even if the polls move in one direction or the other, there’s enough uncertainty that no one will know the winner until election night (and maybe thereafter).

The volume of ads seen in battleground states by the people who are legitimately swing votes are inundated with ads from both parties maligning their opponents and making conflicting claims. And while we historically think of TV ads as the bulk of political advertising, the money spent on digital continues to grow. Some estimates put it at 28% of all spent this cycle; 3x the figure from the last full election.

Valuable Audiences

Would Hillary Clinton have won the 2016 presidential election if she spent any time at all in Wisconsin? Flipping that state alone wouldn’t have procured enough electoral votes, but it was seen as emblematic of a campaign too confident in its superiority to a candidate to not do the simple work. She ended up losing the state by 23,000 votes as well as other important Midwest swing states like Michigan and Ohio. Today’s candidates need to assume nothing is certain and continue to reach every possible voter across the US.

Advertising allows candidates to  reach both cookieless and cookied users across all browsers.

Yes, Chrome dominates the browser market share with 52% in the US, 15% of those users have opted into cookieless settings, Safari has 32% and Firefox has 4% of audiences. There are plenty of registered and likely voters who may not watch much TV and are therefore only going to see political messages if those candidates advertise in cookieless environments.

Increased Attention Share

There’s a reason why both candidates prefer not to campaign in the same state at the same time. You don’t want to share the spotlight. Any candidate who embraces cookieless in a race where the competition doesn’t have a clear space to reach out to key audiences while the competitor is in the noisy cookied environment. Cookieless has a much lighter ad load overall, so every impression you serve has more impact.

It’s always interesting when someone living in an uncontested state travels to a swing state and suddenly sees the political ads they were missing.

Well, right now Internet users in swing states who are using cookieless browsers are just like those travelers. Campaigns that embrace cookieless can reach undecided voters in key regions on previously considered unreachable browsers.

Higher Performance

An underrated component of cookieless advertising is that ad load is generally faster in cookieless environments. Imagine paying good money to get in front of an undecided voter, only to waste that opportunity because the ad didn’t load before the user moved on. Finding the right audience is only one part of the equation; delivering your message clearly and completely is just as important. Cookieless achieves that.

Bigger Gains

Politicians love winning. Since there are far fewer bidders on ads in cookieless environments, win rates can be as high as 10X higher than bidding on third-party cookies. We also see engagement rates as high, if not higher, as in third-party cookie environments. This is crucial in the final weeks of the campaign when politicians have to spend before election day. Being in an environment with higher win rates alleviates stress that ads won’t run and allows the campaigns to focus on other pressing matters.

The Home Stretch

As with all campaign decisions, the best advertising strategies are built upon common sense. If you were driving to the polls, would you take the traffic-filled road or the wide open lane to get you to the polls before everyone else? Political campaigns often need everything to go right to win. Embracing cookieless this 2024 season could be the difference between getting elected versus giving a consolation speech.

The post This Campaign Season, Vote to Embrace Cookieless appeared first on AdMonsters.

Fresh out of college as a computer science student, Jon Schulz knew that he wanted to be a marketer, and from day one of his 12-year stint at Ford, he did just that. Throughout his career ups and downs, Jon strategically navigated climbing up the corporate ladder to achieve career success.

Fast-forward and Jon is now CMO at Viant Technology, a role he never expected to hold for 16 years. A background in information technology made the transition into ad tech smoother than expected, especially now with advertising completely reliant on technology.  

“It translated pretty well because it was pre-internet when I got all my training. So I took classes like DOS, D-Base, and Qobuz, which are archaic today. But coding languages tend to be pretty consistent,” Jon explained. 

Nowadays, he’s shifted his focus to sustainability. While some question whether digital advertising has a real environmental impact, the data says otherwise. Digital ads are an invisible yet significant polluter. The advertising industry accounts for 3.5% of global carbon emissions, a percentage destined to climb without changes.

Digital Ads Pack the Carbon Punch of Thousands of Global Flights

Yes, you read that right. Although that ~3.5% sounds small, there is more than meets the eye. When it comes to factories, airlines, and all other aspects that produce carbon, the waste digital advertising produces is not traditional. It’s like seeing a car driving down the road and emitting harmful fumes. It can be hard to understand.

Ad tech uses a lot of electricity, and much of that energy is fossil fuel-driven. 

“Everything’s shifting to digital, and digital requires electricity,” Jon explained. “That’s where the carbon comes from. The evolution of AI is even hungrier for processing and computing. It uses even more electricity.” 

A recent report by The Times entitled “Making AI Less Thirsty” reveals that the latest Big Tech sustainability reports show double-digit increases in water consumption by Google (17 percent), Microsoft (22.5 percent), and Meta (17 percent). What’s worse? ChatGPT and other Gen AI platforms need four times more water to respond to queries than previously presumed. You may be wondering how AI and water are connected, but the water is used to cool down the data centers. This demand is growing as AI is only getting more advanced. 

The environmental impact extends far beyond electricity. Production costs associated with the many events and conferences we attend also contribute to the carbon footprint. Giveaways also have an effect. 

“I was at a Detroit Lions game where they handed out electric wristbands to the crowd,” Jon says. “By the end, about 60,000 were discarded on the ground. That’s a lot of unnecessary waste.”

Signage and creative also play key roles in stifling sustainability. Production, travel, and logistics for advertising campaigns also contribute to the waste. “Every time we shoot an ad, whether in LA or Poland, the travel and resources add up,” Jon points out. “We can’t erase it overnight, but we can start being more mindful.”

The Road Ahead: Balancing Profit and Planet

Very few companies are acting on sustainability efforts, despite widespread interest. According to Viant research, 70% of advertisers express interest in sustainability, but only 10% take real steps to implement changes. Viant’s Adtricity initiative aims to shift this by rewarding advertisers with renewable energy credits for every dollar spent, helping decarbonize the entire programmatic supply chain.

“Green inventory is already a reality,” Jon explains. “Publishers have started adopting carbon-free practices, and we’re empowering the industry to make more sustainable choices.”

While many companies are eager to adopt sustainability practices, the challenge lies in maintaining them when revenue metrics start to dip. “The real test comes when sustainability efforts impact the bottom line,” shares Jon. “Will companies stick with it?”

There may never be a perfect solution, but the industry is moving in the right direction. The push for greener practices in ad tech is just beginning, and while it may be a slow process, progress is being made.

“We can’t change everything overnight, but small, conscious steps will drive us toward a more sustainable future,” Jon explains.

The post The Unseen Environmental Cost of Digital Advertising and the Push for Sustainability appeared first on AdMonsters.

Rumors are swirling that The Trade Desk (TTD) is quietly working on a smart TV operating system. If true, this bold move could shake up the CTV market.

According to a scoop from Lowpass TTD  has been secretly assembling a team, including former Roku employees, to develop this OS. They’ve been working on this project since the pandemic, and are said to go live in 2025.

So, what’s the play here? Is this about controlling CTV ad inventory? Absolutely. If this project comes to fruition, it won’t just pit TTD against CTV giants like Roku, Amazon, and Google — it will fundamentally reshape how ads are bought and sold in CTV land.

Owning the Ecosystem: More Than Just Ads

The Trade Desk’s ambitions go way beyond simply building a TV OS. This is about controlling the entire advertising infrastructure — from retail media to CTV to the open web.

It’s no secret, TTD has been digging into the $500 billion retail media pie, building partnerships with Walmart, Target, and Home Depot to leverage their goldmine of first-party data for ad targeting — while going head-to-head with rivals like Criteo and CitrusAds.

If TTD controls the smart TV OS, they won’t just be competing with Roku and Amazon; they’ll own the pipes through which ads flow, transforming themselves into the ultimate gatekeeper.

This move dovetails perfectly with TTD’s other plays. Think about how OpenPath bypasses SSPs to create a direct line between advertisers and publishers. Now imagine OpenPath combined with control of the smart TV OS — TTD wouldn’t just control ad spend, they’d dominate how the entire ecosystem operates.

A Unified Consumer Profile: The Holy Grail of Targeting

Retail media gives TTD an edge, providing crucial data for advertisers in a world where third-party cookies are phasing out.

Combining that data with CTV viewing habits opens a treasure trove of insights about consumers — from what they’re binge-watching to what’s in their shopping carts. For advertisers, that’s the holy grail of targeting. Talk about a 360-degree view of the consumer journey.

According to AdAge, TTD’s smart TV OS project is also about safeguarding data. With data signals like third-party cookies and mobile identifiers diminishing, this OS would allow the ad tech giant to create a data-rich environment, integrated with their Unified ID 2.0 identity solution.

This move is about more than just controlling ad delivery — it’s a way for TTD to hedge against future restrictions on data collection. By owning the OS, TTD would have deeper access to first-party data, including key signals like hardware addresses and IPs, making ad targeting and measurement much easier.

The Real Power Play: Controlling the Pipes

TTD’s smart TV OS could become the new middleman for CTV advertising, deciding who gets access to ad inventory and who doesn’t. By providing better-revenue-sharing deals and more flexibility for hardware manufacturers than their competitors, TTD could easily entice them to adopt their system. This could also mean attracting publishers who are frustrated with the rigid terms of existing platforms.

What makes this move even more powerful is the potential to bake Unified ID 2.0 right into the fabric of the OS<. With privacy regulations tightening, controlling the OS would position the ad tech behemoth to offer the granular targeting advertisers crave — without relying on third-party platforms like Roku or Amazon.

For Publishers: Is This a Goldmine or a Trap?

But things could get tricky for publishers. On one hand, TTD’s OS could offer more transparency and control, streamlining the process of accessing high-value inventory. TTD’s Top 100 Premium Publishers List already hints at the company’s desire to curate who is considered “premium” in ad land. If this OS follows that pattern, publishers could find themselves inside a new lucrative ecosystem — or left out in the cold.

If TTD can cut out the middlemen by building their own OS, they can offer publishers better revenue splits while controlling the data that flows through the system. This would also give them a massive competitive advantage.

The potential downside? With TTD controlling the data and distribution, the ad-buying process would be streamlined. But it could also increase publisher reliance on TTD’s ecosystem — a double-edged sword if there ever was one.

The Challenges Ahead: Not So Fast

TTD’s ambitions are grand, but their road ahead isn’t paved smoothly. The company faces stiff competition< from established players like Roku, Google, and Amazon, all of whom currently dominate the CTV market. Convincing TV manufacturers to adopt a new OS is no easy task, especially when TTD would be relatively new to this space.

Additionally, TTD’s reliance on Android AOSP (the same open-source foundation that Amazon’s Fire TV OS uses) could create conflicts with Google. In the past, Google has clashed with companies using forked versions of Android, and TTD could find itself caught in similar struggles. Technical hurdles aside, TTD has to convince consumers to adopt their platform — a significant challenge given the dominance of today’s streaming kingpins.

The Bigger Picture: TTD’s Long Game

Ultimately, TTD’s play for a smart TV OS is a bold move to integrate retail media, CTV, and open web advertising into one seamless ecosystem.

For advertisers, the appeal is clear — seamless, cross-platform targeting powered by first-party data from multiple sources allowing them to track and target consumers across every screen. This could redefine targeting as we know it.

For publishers, the opportunity to tap into TTD’s unified infrastructure could mean more revenue, but it also comes with risking over-reliance.

One thing’s for sure: The Trade Desk isn’t just building a smart TV OS — they’re building the future of digital advertising, one pipeline at a time. With each move, TTD is tightening its grip on the ad supply chain, positioning itself as the essential middleman for advertisers, publishers, and consumers.

The post Is The Trade Desk Building a Smart TV OS? Here’s What This Could Mean For the Advertising Ecosystem appeared first on AdMonsters.

For as long as retailers have existed, they have sought ways to monetize the audience they bring to suppliers. From end caps to circulars, retailers have been a pervasive, but understated, media partner to brands of all sizes. 

But nothing in history has the scope and potential of retail media–the process of selling inventory on their websites, and other owned channels, to brands. 

It’s quickly becoming a huge market for advertisers, reaching $46B of ad spend in 2023. That is significantly higher than CTV, which was estimated at $25B. It is also expected to reach $100B by 2026. 

While some might consider retail media a performance marketing channel, Upwave data busts that myth, showing it is also a brand-building powerhouse.

Upwave’s recent analysis of over 500 retail media campaigns, spanning 300+ brands, found that 96% of campaigns had a positive lift on at least one brand KPI, 87% of campaigns had at least one brand KPI that was above Upwave Norms, and 18.8% of campaigns exceeded Upwave Norms for all brand KPIs.

The Rise of Retail Media

As with other eCommerce advancements, Amazon deserves credit for building the modern retail media network environment. Once Amazon became the online store for virtually everything, they realized millions of people were coming by daily to buy a variety of things. Amazon could sell space on its various product and category webpages to companies looking to influence those visitors. That first-mover advantage has paid off. Over 75% of the current US Retail Media investment is spent on Amazon advertising. Walmart is second, via its advertising solutions division, Walmart Connect.

There’s a simple reason why so many retailers are joining the ranks of retail media: the channel can produce margins of up to 90%, according to the Boston Consulting Group. We’ve even heard that it’s not hyperbole to suggest retailers would gladly do away with selling goods if they could just make the same amount of money in the media. 

Now, brands as diverse as Uber, Sephora, Sam’s Club, and Best Buy all have their retail media networks.

Unsurprisingly, performance marketers have flocked to retail media as a way to monetize that audience immediately. And, sure, it makes perfect sense that people browsing a retailer’s website are considered to be in the market to buy now.

However, retail media is a huge opportunity for brand building, one not nearly enough companies are taking advantage of. That means industry watchers are potentially even underestimating the future revenue opportunities from retail media.

Here’s why.

• The massive first-party data retailers are sitting on. It’s no coincidence that retail media is at the top of the minds of all advertisers at a time when cookies are going away. Retailers are better equipped than almost anyone else to offer targeting capabilities to advertisers and their agencies. They have a plethora of data on hand about households, such as if they have kids. For example, a car manufacturer can more accurately advertise its suite of cars to the right buyers (e.g. a minivan to those with multiple children).

• Not everyone on those websites is in the market to buy. It’s hard to track down specific stats for how many people visit a website without adding something to their shopping cart but the overwhelming majority of visitors do not purchase at the time of visiting. Sometimes people are browsing and not looking for something specific. Even those looking to make a purchase could be stopped in their tracks by a brand-building ad regardless. 

• Non-endemic ads performed as well, if not better than endemic ones. Another myth busted for this channel, Upwave’s study found that advertisements featuring products not for sale on retail media sites outperformed those that you could buy in several key areas, including ad recall, consideration, and purchase intent. One reason is the ad stands out as unique amid dozens of product listings. For example, an ad for insurance may be more noticeable among kitchen staples on a grocery store website. 

• Its reach extends beyond the retail domain. Amazon has Prime, a video platform increasingly winning high-profile deals like NFL broadcasts and producing large-budget shows like Lord of the Rings. Walmart has agreed to acquire Vizio, a manufacturer of smart TVs. Rakuten purchased eBook company Kobo. That’s in addition to their ability to place ads on third-party sites they don’t own. Retailers and eTailers alike are looking to expand their reach as far as possible, given the data advantage they have on many other websites. Retail media offers much more than on-site placements because they can better validate those audiences.

• A strong trust factor. Individuals browsing their favorite retail websites, apps, or streaming from retailer-owned platforms, are likely to trust those who run ads on the site. A 2024 eMarketer study found consumers trusted ads on retail sites almost double that of social media or third-party marketplaces. Furthermore, slightly over 50% of respondents were more likely to buy items and try out a new brand they hadn’t purchased before if a retailer advertised them. This is especially important for newer brands looking to build up their name recognition and trust. Our study found retail media tied with online video as driving the most consideration against all other mediums. Frequent shoppers of a particular website could learn about a brand one day through a well-placed ad intended to drive consideration, and then return days or weeks later to make a purchase.

Now is the time for brand marketers to reevaluate their channel mix and take another look at this medium. By understanding that brand-building is a possibility in retail media it opens up the category for more growth than what is being predicted. All of our data demonstrates it’s a huge opportunity for brands looking to impact consumer behavior along the mid-lower brand funnel. Now is the time for brand builders to embrace the opportunity before the rest catch on.

The post Retail Media: As Important for Brand Builders as Performance Marketers appeared first on AdMonsters.

In response to challenges posed by privacy regulations and AI-driven changes in search traffic, 71% of publishers plan to invest in new technologies. To sustain revenue growth, publishers are investing in AI-driven analytics, customer data management, and identity resolution. As one publisher noted, personalizing content and engaging audiences will be key in the coming year.

But, it’s not all smooth sailing. Publishers are grappling with significant challenges, including privacy regulations and changes in consumer behavior. These factors underscore the importance of diversifying revenue streams. With audience data, subscriptions, and licensing emerging as planned new streams, publishers are laying the groundwork for sustainable growth in an evolving digital ecosystem.

While the digital ad landscape faces headwinds, the coming year looks promising for publishers who are agile enough to navigate these challenges. Publishers who invest in direct deals, audience development tools, and diversified revenue streams are well-positioned to thrive in 2024 and beyond.

For more insights and a look at the full study results, visit the Publisher Pulse report page, and enter your information at the bottom to download your copy.

The post Publisher Pulse: Key Revenue Drivers and Strategic Shifts for 2024-2025 appeared first on AdMonsters.

The past few years have been tumultuous for publishers. The on-again/off-again deprecation of cookies, concerns over MFA sites making programmatic advertising risky, and the rise of generative AI search decimating referral traffic have all posed significant challenges. Despite these hurdles, publishers continue to innovate. As a result, the majority anticipate revenue growth in the coming year.

In July 2024, we surveyed and interviewed publishers to gain insights into their revenue outlook and identify their top opportunities for growth. This report summarizes our findings.

Of course, much has changed since our survey, including Google’s decision to forgo cookie deprecation for the foreseeable future. Still, what’s clear to us is that the talk of cookie deprecation has prompted them to rethink the way they do business and how they can generate revenue.

Key Findings: Direct Deals & Audience Data

• On the whole, revenue will grow. Most respondents (60%) anticipate revenue growth, with 19% expecting significant growth and 41% anticipating moderate growth.
•  2025 will be the year of the direct deal, with 68% of publishers saying it represents their best opportunity for revenue growth.
• Monetizing audience data (50%) and creating new products (46%) are also seen as significant opportunities for growth.
• Looking ahead, 33% plan to leverage audience data, and 23% each consider subscriptions and licensing/syndication as new revenue streams.
• To support these growth plans, 71% of respondents plan to invest in new tools or technologies to ramp up revenue.
• The most invested tools include audience segmentation (65%), identity resolution (50%), and AI-driven/advanced analytics platforms (40%).

Enter your info to download your copy below!

The post Ramping Up Your Revenue: Digital Publishers Reveal Key Growth Strategies appeared first on AdMonsters.

The streaming wars are  entering a new generation, marked by Paramount’s potential revival through Skydance and the emergence of unconventional social media entrants like LinkedIn, X (formerly Twitter), and TikTok. 

Increased merger and acquisition (M&A) activity is also shaping the advertising space as legacy media players adapt to shifting consumer preferences toward streaming. This transformation underscores the growing complexity of the media landscape and the necessity for advertisers to diversify their campaigns and reach their audiences effectively.

The revival of Paramount through Skydance exemplifies how traditional media companies are reinventing themselves to stay relevant in the streaming age. Skydance, known for its high-quality content and production capabilities, can potentially breathe new life into Paramount’s streaming offerings, attracting new subscribers and retaining existing ones. This move highlights the importance of content quality and brand recognition in the highly competitive streaming market. Here are other ways to approach the new generation of entrants while still ensuring effective reach and campaigns.

Programmatic and CTV Integration

At Dstillery, we have seen firsthand how brands and marketers are refreshing their strategies to navigate this evolving environment. Integrating Connected TV (CTV) into hands-on programmatic buying platforms and leveraging clean room data matching are key strategies that marketers and brands use to better understand the impacts of CTV advertising compared to standard linear television.

With its ability to deliver highly targeted ads to specific audiences, CTV is rapidly gaining traction among advertisers across all parts of the funnel and becoming a factor when looking at budgets. By using programmatic buying platforms and clean rooms to combine fragmented reporting from walled gardens, advertisers can better target the right audience and optimize budgets. Yet, this tactic is still in its early growth stages

Adopting AI Targeting and Measurement Technology

Adopting AI targeting and measurement technology is crucial. These advanced tools help media buyers understand and then find customers on the most relevant types of content, genres, networks, or categories. AI-driven insights can reveal patterns and trends in consumer behavior that might not be immediately apparent through traditional methods. 

For instance, an AI system can analyze vast amounts of data such as aggregated historical reporting or ACR data related to their campaigns to better understand and optimize against their desired KPI and audience. 

One of the critical aspects of effective targeting in  streaming is understanding how ID-based targeting translates into CTV delivery to better identify your audience. While cookies allow for a 1:1 relationship between an ID and a single browser for targeting, these cookies do not exist on other devices, and so must often be probabilistically matched to a household via an IP address. This means that while one person in a household may belong to a given audience, ads will be shown to everyone in that household. It is essential to consider this when selecting your audiences or using content-based optimizing features to better fine-tune your targeting.

The Streaming Players

The continuing growth of ad-supported tiers on leading streaming platforms and potential entries of social players like LinkedIn, X, and TikTok further intensifies the competition. These platforms bring unique strengths and audiences, challenging traditional media companies to innovate and adapt. 

LinkedIn, for instance, could leverage its professional network to offer niche content tailored to career development and industry insights, while TikTok’s short-form video format appeals to younger audiences looking for quick, engaging content. X’s vast user base and real-time engagement capabilities could position it as a formidable player in live-streaming events.

Increased M&A activity among legacy media players reflects their efforts to consolidate resources and expand their streaming capabilities. These media giants aim to enhance their content libraries, technological infrastructure, and market reach by acquiring or merging with other companies. This trend will likely continue as companies strive to stay competitive.

What Is in Store for Advertisers

These developments mean advertisers must navigate a more fragmented media environment. Diversifying campaigns across multiple platforms and formats is essential to reaching the best audiences. Advertisers must stay abreast of the latest trends and technologies to engage viewers and measure the impact of their efforts.

Overall, the new generation of streaming wars presents challenges and opportunities for advertisers. By starting to take CTV into your programmatic buying platforms, leveraging clean room data matching, and adopting AI targeting and measurement technology, advertisers can better navigate the fragmented media landscape and reach their desired audiences. 

Understanding the nuances of both ID-based and content-based targeting, as well as staying informed about industry trends will be crucial for success in this dynamic environment. As the streaming wars evolve, advertisers must remain agile and innovative to stay ahead of the competition.

The post Conquering the Streaming Wars: An Advertisers’ Guide to Reaching Audiences in  Fragmented Media  appeared first on AdMonsters.

The revolution in live-streaming sports is unfolding before our eyes, disrupting the broadcast and cable industry as new media giants, including Amazon, Netflix, and YouTube, enter the field. Sports organizations are finding themselves negotiating deals with lots of layers, where specific streamers get a certain night, like Amazon while free streaming is available on Twitch and aired on local broadcast stations. 

The stakes are incredibly high as everyone figures out the rules for live-streaming sports. The NBA’s rights are valued at $75 billion over 12 years, and the NFL’s rights are worth upwards of $110 billion. The current court case against the NFL won’t just affect NFL franchise revenue, but the entire advertising and streaming ecosystem, which relies heavily on these extremely popular mass live events. 

With all of this upheaval and complexity, it seems logical for advertising to follow the same path — with digitization, fragmentation, targeting, and more. But that’s actually the opposite of what’s going to happen. Live sports events on streaming channels actually work very much like linear broadcast sports events, and both streamers and advertisers need to understand why the industry will succeed.

Streaming Can’t Change Live Sports

Streaming sports has hit a tipping point — 53% of adults stream sports at least once per month, and it now accounts for 30% of all streaming views in the US. For multi-channel media companies like NBC, striking a balance on live sports is critical to ensure they aren’t out-maneuvered by a native digital competitor.

Tech giants like Amazon, Google, Apple, and Netflix have the resources to dominate streaming sports. Unlike traditional broadcasters, they lack legacy relationships and dependencies, allowing them to operate more flexibly. Without the constraints of politics, multiplatform contracts, and outdated technology, these companies can leapfrog traditional broadcasters.

However, streaming might be upending most things about watching TV, but a lot about live sports looks a lot like linear. People can binge-watch shows, watch new movies in their living room, and access content from around the world, but sports are resistant to a lot of these elements.

The excitement of the game happening live doesn’t change much just because it’s streamed instead of broadcast — few people time shift an important game. Sure, some people might discover they love Canadian curling or Indian cricket on streaming, but most people are going to root for the same local teams that they always have, streaming or broadcast. The big games like NBA finals, the Super Bowl, and the World Series will draw huge audiences all watching at the same time.  

Premium Content Demands Premium Prices

The mass live appeal of sports means that the digital, often programmatic advertising that digital companies know and love isn’t as relevant. Amazon might have an advantage of cash and streaming technology, but their advertising savvy doesn’t come into play. It doesn’t make sense to allow a performance-oriented advertiser to bid on individual impressions during an NBA game when a brand-oriented advertiser is willing to pay premium CPMs for an entire audience – maybe even several national ad slots during a single game. 

Live sports advertising makes media companies the most money when they stick to old-school ratings-based metrics and price-based on branding at scale, not precision targeting. This means that any streaming sports rights-holder is still going to consider the UpFronts important. They’re going to want some direct premium ad sales executives. And, they’re going to need to be able to program advertising directly coded into the content, not dynamically serve it to individual households through a big complex supply chain.

The Trickle-Down Effect to All Streamed Sports

By leading with brand awareness and following with addressability on major sports events, streaming platforms create a valuable ecosystem, avoiding the race to the bottom seen in programmatic advertising. 

However, betting solely on brand advertising carrying streaming sports at the long tail is risky. The math of sports broadcasting shows that larger audiences generate greater revenue, but not every game attracts millions of fans. Mid-season baseball games for a mediocre team, college basketball, hockey, and many other popular but smaller sports streams can and should deliver a hybrid of premium brand advertising and targeted advertising. 

As all of these details get worked out, the future of live sports streaming will remain complex. Half of American households still have cable. Sports rights holders need licensing deals that cater to both groups and offer flexibility for a variety of ad-sales strategies. Converged media planning across platforms will be essential. Convergence means different things for buyers and sellers, with varying performance KPIs. Success with converged platforms requires unified sales, delivery, performance metrics, and reporting. 

Streaming will continue to grow in importance, but it won’t lead to an all-programmatic world. The ad market will resemble network TV more than walled gardens, with mergers and acquisitions likely shaping the future landscape as linear slowly fades out and streaming evolves. The convergence of live streaming and traditional advertising will define the next era of sports broadcasting.

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Video advertising has always been a bright spot for the industry: effective, profitable, and malware-free. Because it’s threat-free, AdOps teams don’t need to spend a lot of time scanning for scams. Sadly, that is changing rapidly. 

Earlier this year, I wrote about ScamClub’s breach into the video channel, successfully injecting malicious redirects through VAST and VPAID tags in Q4 2023. Since then, video malvertising attacks have proliferated and show little sign of abating anytime soon. Worse, other scammers have no doubt noted the success of ScamClub’s assault on video ads. In the months ahead, we should expect a surge in automatic and malicious redirects, and everyone — publishers, SSPs, and video platforms — should begin hardening their video tech stack immediately.

How Video Automatic Redirects Work 

In case you missed the first article, here’s a rundown of the ScamClub scheme, the first industry-wide attack against video ads. GeoEdge discovered the scheme injected malicious redirects through VAST tags, sending users to a malicious website regardless of whether they played the ad or how long they watched it.

Essentially, the scammers run fingerprinting tests on both the client and the server sides, looking for malware detection systems. Once the information from the client is sent and checked by the malicious server, the POST request’s reply or response includes instructions that tell the user’s device to navigate to a new website. This redirect code includes several different methods to initiate the forced redirect. This diversified attack strategy increases the chances of successful redirects, making it harder for security vendors to detect and identify the attack.

Bad Actors Have Breached Video Advertising

For a long time, video has been considered the safest channel in digital advertising. The high inventory cost has deterred scammers from attacking the channel, concentrating on the abundance of low-cost and vulnerable display ad units. As a result, many publishers, SSPs, and even video platforms haven’t screened for malware even as they actively screen for it in their web and mobile inventory.

But we need to understand that scammers have breached the video world. GeoEdge’s security research first exposed the video malware epidemic in July 2023, but as you can see in the chart below, the number of instances has escalated dramatically. 

We’ve seen dozens of SSPs—all the major industry players—affected by the ScamClub malicious VAST and VPAID attacks. The same goes for video platforms, which scams have infected in equal measure. Any publisher that relies on an SSP or video platform to fill video inventory is likely exposed. 

In fact, AdOps teams are now receiving complaints from publishers, who are receiving complaints from their users and editorial team about sketchy ads that pop up on landing pages that look like system messages prompting users to download fake software updates or fake antivirus software that records and transmits their bank information or credentials to the scammer’s servers.

Even though we already see hockey stick growth in the ScamClub version of the attack, we are at the beginning of the growth trajectory. For this reason, we should assume that automatic redirects in video will dramatically increase over the next 12 months.

Time to Harden the End-to-End Video Tech Stack

This means it’s time to harden the video tech stack. Publishers must recognize the importance of monitoring and safeguarding their video technology infrastructure, as it’s no longer secure. This shift in mindset is crucial.

SSPs need to begin to reassess their video demand, with an understanding that they can no longer assume it’s safe. They must acknowledge the presence of malvertising in the channel, which many expect to increase significantly.

Additionally, the entire video platform segment, which supports video players and previously remained unscathed, now faces new threats. These platforms must start monitoring and addressing security issues at their own level.

This, of course, brings up the question of CTV. Is that channel safe? It’s unlikely that consumers will click on ads, visit landing pages, and fill out forms from their smart TVs. However, as QR codes become common in CTV advertising, they will introduce new risks, as fraudsters will have the opportunity to redirect the user who scans that code via a mobile device.

A New Approach Required 

Because of the multiple mechanisms that block attacks from security vendors, new approaches are needed. In our experience, it’s not enough to monitor the video ad units themselves but the entire page itself. By monitoring the entire page, security teams can identify, analyze, and classify copycat and emerging variants of redirect scams immediately and proactively block them every time they appear. 

A Call to Action

Video is no longer a safe haven; we need to pay attention to it. The channel has been breached, and fraudsters are rushing in. However, we are by no means defenseless. To combat this rising threat, we must embark on a new era of cooperation across the entire industry. By working together, we can identify and mitigate video threats more effectively and share our learnings to strengthen our collective defenses.

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