Technology is evolving faster than we can blink and it’s becoming clear that it’s time creativity and control were reclaimed. As monopolies and walled gardens dominate and limit access, the balance between innovation and content creation is more crucial than ever. In a rapidly changing ecosystem,  publishers are exploring strategies to navigate an open internet increasingly challenged by distribution obstacles and signal loss.

Once a beacon of free and open access, the open web faces an identity crisis. Media companies that once thrived on direct consumer connection are struggling with the rise of walled gardens. Marketers, for their part, acknowledge their role in building these silos as they increasingly funnel media budgets into tech giants. Reclaiming control of data, creative strategies, and audience engagement is critical to preserving the future for both sides.

Publishers should not look at these shifts as threats but as opportunities to develop new strategies that align with consumer behavior and market demands. 

From the rise of social-driven search and FAST channels to Google’s ongoing antitrust trial, ProgIO spoke to many of the challenges facing publishers today. As the industry continues to push for transparency, fairness, and a more open ecosystem, the path forward depends on innovating while maintaining trust with consumers and each other. 

Here are our top takeaways from Day 1.

Breaking Free: How Marketers Can Reclaim Creativity in a Tech-Driven World

Eoin Townsend, Chief Product Officer at Cadent, talking about convergence at programmatic IO. Photo by Donna Alberico.

Eoin Townsend, Chief Product Officer at Cadent, walked us through industry shifts driven by audience, inventory, optimality, and privacy. He says, “The technology we have today is not the technology we’ll have tomorrow.”

Let him tell it: marketers need more control to move away from monopolies and hone in on new technologies to transform their roles in the industry. Eoin emphasized that marketers spend too much time on tech rather than creative marketing. We are evolving from scale, automation, and walled gardens to a new phase focused on integration, alignment, and collaboration. 

More highlights from his talk:

• Let AI automate the hard stuff.
• Take advantage of multi-faceted solutions that integrate third-party data and work across walled gardens.
• Adopt new technology and legal frameworks to ensure compliance and consumer trust.

Eoin’s main argument is: “Let marketers be marketers” free them from technological constraints!

The Future of the Open Internet Is?

Allison Schiff, Managing Editor at AdExchanger, Ben Hovaness, CMO at OMD, Cavel Khan, Chief Growth Officer at Group Black, and Ari Paparo, CEO & Contributor of Marketecture Media discuss the future of the open internet. Photo by Donna Alberico.

What is the open web? The term has gotten lost in the mix, and AdExchanger’s Allison Schiff ensured the panelists revealed the definition from their perspectives early in the session. According to Ari Paparo, CEO & Contributor at Marketecture Media, if you can access a website for free and buy ads freely, it is part of the open web. 

Media companies are losing distribution channels and struggle to connect directly with consumers. What are the biggest challenges of the open web? Walled gardens and signal challenges. Can marketers blame consumers for this mess? Not exactly. Marketers helped create the walled gardens by continuing to invest in and work with them.

“The open internet lost the resources to create the content and do a lot of things that it did to keep the communities it had built,” revealed Cavel Khan, Chief Growth Officer at Group Black. “That’s why we are all seeing the decline over the last three years. Big publishers are going out of business or restructuring.”

More key points from this session:

• The cloudiness around Chrome’s plan for cookies makes it difficult for publishers to determine the best strategy to combat signal loss. 
• Publishers have great tools like WordPress, Beehiiv, and Ghost, along with podcasting, as new solutions for reaching people and monetizing those connections. 
• When asked what the future of the open internet was, the panelists responded bright, sleek, diverse, and changing. 

TikTok, The Latest to Step In the Search Game

AdExchanger’s Executive Editor Sarah Sluis sits down with Blake Chandlee, President of Global Business Solutions at TikTok, to talk about the platform entering the search business. Photo by Donna Alberico.

TikTok is the app beating Google as the number one search engine. With data showing significant search activity on the app, we’re learning that rich, social media-driven search results are key for connecting with consumers and influencing their discovery and purchase intent. It’s no surprise the company is investing in bringing advertising to search. 

“There are two key data points that triggered this for us. One is that independent research proves that 55% of people get their search results from social media and video,” said Blake Chandlee, President of Global Business Solutions at TikTok. “It was just a very good box of rich examples. An example might be if you’re planning to travel to Singapore when you visit a traditional search engine, you’d find links to guide you through that process. On the other hand, you go on to TikTok or some other platforms where you’ll get really rich videos of people like you going through the same decision-making with their experience. It’s a very different experience in the back end of this.”

Ads have been part of TikTok’s monetization model for a while now, but the TikTok shop shook up the game when it came to fruition last year. Live-streaming allows creators to earn money by getting “tipped” from their audience, while the TikTok shop facilitates seamless transitions within the app. TikTok’s investment in logistics and the closed-loop shopping experience allows it to fully capitalize on the commerce generated by creators.

More interesting insights:

• The social media company’s motto: “Don’t make ads, make TikTok’s” works.
• TikTok caters to its users’ diverse interests, allowing brands to connect with highly engaged audiences.
• Ensuring that ads are native is key; don’t oversaturate because ad fatigue can be real.
• TikTok stands out because it is independent and doesn’t rely on partnerships or external links for e-commerce.

Why The Trade Desk is Winning According to Wall Street

Shweta Khajuria, Managing Director of Wolfe Research shared her predictions for the industry from an investor’s perspective. Photo by Donna Alberico.

With the ongoing regulatory scrutiny of Google and the pending cookie deprecation, scale and first-party data are both emerging as leaders in the industry.

Shweta Khajuria, Managing Director at Wolfe Research, dove deeply into The Trade Desk’s success. Partnering with agencies leads to higher retention rates. Product innovations like CTV and UID2 have kept The Trade Desk at the top of the industry. Also, their independence and omnichannel approach allow them to maintain objectivity and avoid conflicts of interest. 

“Trade Desk saw the potential of bidded programmatic and connected TV before most others in the industry,” said Shweta. “As a result, with the head start that they saw, they saw a step change in their growth rates and trajectory.”

Shweta also predicts that Google will spin off one of its ad tech businesses, which could level the playing field. 

Shweta’s other predictions:

• The Trade Desk’s Open Path and Magnite’s clear line anticipate the convergence of the demand and supply sides.
• Efficiency gains will be necessary, and pricing pressures might arise as DSPs and SSPs merge.
• Larger publishers may develop their yield management systems, leading to supply-side consolidation.
• The demand side might gain an upper hand due to its proximity to ad budgets.

Google on Trial: The Battle for Fairness, Transparency, and the Future

Allison Schiff talked to Claire Atkin, Co-founder & CEO of Check My Ads and Jason Kint CEO of Digital Content Next about the ongoing DOJ vs. Google antitrust trial. Photo by Donna Alberico.

Google’s monopolistic practices have heavily hindered the publishing industry, and we are all standing on our toes, waiting to see the outcome of this decision. Jason Kint, CEO of Digital Content Next, explained how Google is extracting value that should go to newsrooms and entertainment companies. 

Jason talked about “dynamic revenue sharing,’ where Google manipulates bid prices to maintain its margins, often behind publishers’ backs. With a press box seat at the trial in Virginia, he says Google’s defense strategy is to confuse the market and redefine it to include more competition, like TikTok or TV. Isn’t this what we’ve all been thinking? Isn’t this a weak defense?

It was great seeing Claire Atkin again doing her best: exposing the real. According to Claire, Google plays a huge role in monetizing misinformation and lacking transparency. Smaller businesses suffer since they don’t receive funds or adequate support from Google when campaign issues arise. Claire argues for log-level data transparency and know-your-customer laws to ensure fair practices. 

Other important highlights:

• Judge Leonie Brinkema is skeptical of Google due to evidence purging, which impacts the credibility of Google’s witnesses. 
• The trial is part of a broader antitrust movement against major tech companies, and breaking them up could lead to more opportunities and fairness in the industry. 
• Both speakers hope to see a future where advertisers can better track and verify their ad placements, leading to more accountability and fewer fraudulent practices.

FAST is Moving Fast

Katie Barrett, Head of Strategic Sales at LG Ad Solutions talks the future of FAST at AdExchanger’s Programmatic IO Day 1. Photo by Donna Alberico.

Several factors are contributing to the rise of FAST, such as subscription fatigue and evolving audience behavior. On a daily basis, consumers are shifting their mindset from avoiding ads to accepting them if they come with free content. 

“We see that 53% of our consumers are spending at least 2 hours a day in FAST, and the average time of the session is 73 minutes,” said Katie Barrett, Head of Strategic Sales at LG Ad Solutions. “Eighty-seven percent of FAST users have free streaming channels they watch regularly. This shows high levels of habitual viewing. Eighty-one percent believe that FAST streaming channels offer high-quality content. This is important because this perception of fast being low quality is being challenged here.”

Contrary to popular belief that FAST viewers are less engaged or loyal, Katie argues they are developing strong followings due to curated content. The stereotype that FAST viewers are solely budget-conscious is false, as the data shows a diverse and affluent audience.

Other Factors of FAST:

• The median income of FAST users is $85,000, with an average of $110,000, and 43% earning over $100,000 annually. 
• FAST is popular among family units, with a high percentage of users owning homes, being married, and having children, underlining its family-friendly nature.
• FAST is a valuable platform for brands aiming to reach key demographics.

On the Horizon: A New Era for Publishers and Marketers

Publishers and marketers are standing on the brink of significant change. With walled gardens tightening their grip and signal loss challenging traditional methods, publishers are redefining their approach to audience engagement, while marketers are pushing for more autonomy in how they reach and connect with consumers. 

From publishers exploring innovative content distribution methods to marketers reclaiming creative control, the next chapter is about pushing beyond the familiar and embracing new opportunities. 

The journey doesn’t stop here. Day 2 included more revelations and strategies, so stay tuned for our Programmatic IO Day 2 wrap-up on Monday. We’ll dig deeper into the discussions, highlighting key takeaways and what lies ahead for publishers and marketers in this fast-moving space. 

The post PROGIO Day 1: The Next Chapter for the Open Internet, Google vs. DOJ Face-Off, and More appeared first on AdMonsters.

Reaching the right audience at the right moment is critical to business success. However, if the company’s budget is limited, this is not easy. Modern technologies, such as programmatic buying, may come to the rescue, allowing small and medium enterprises to advertise cost-efficiently and reach their marketing goals faster.

Why Programmatic (and What’s That, Really)?

Traditional advertising was mainly manual: it required finding a website where you’d like to place your banners and communicating with its owners. It was a time-consuming and suboptimal solution, plus often, it was expensive. Today, there’s a modern alternative called programmatic advertising. The word “programmatic” refers to how it operates: instead of people, the algorithms buy and sell ad space.

But it’s not just automation that makes programmatic so enticing – it’s also relevance. This technology can ensure your ads will be seen by the right audience in the right context. For instance, you’ve seen programmatic ads when shopping on Amazon. This company shows customized ads to visitors based on their purchasing and browsing history. 

Programmatic advertising revolutionizes the industry, making it easier for global companies and small and medium businesses to access large target groups.

Let’s look at some data to prove this point. According to Statista, in 2023, global spending on programmatic advertising reached $558 billion. By 2026, this number will likely grow to $700 billion. Also, the share of programmatic advertising in digital spending worldwide has increased since 2020. In 2020, it constituted 77.04%, in 2023 – 81.06%, and in 2029, it’s projected to reach 84.92%.

In 2021, 45% of small business respondents in the USA said they paid for digital advertising. They spent $534 monthly on average, and 93% of small companies planned to increase this amount.

So, programmatic advertising is undoubtedly the future. And it’s worth delving deeper into the subject. 

A Closer Look at Programmatic Advertising and Its Benefits 

Basically, the programmatic advertising process looks like this:

• A company creates an ad campaign, describes the audience (demographics, location, etc.), and decides on a budget.
• The ad is downloaded to the programmatic exchange via a dedicated platform. The exchange conducts auctions for ad space: who’s willing to pay more for showing their ad wins.
• A user visits a website participating in the exchange and sees the winning ad. 

Companies can use various types of programmatic ads, such as video ads, audio ads, and out-of-home (OOH) ads on billboards and displays. Today, video format is the most popular option, although OOH usage is growing in retail and other industries.

Every business, regardless of size, can experience the advantages of programmatic buying. But what are the benefits, exactly?

1. Cost-Effectiveness – Programmatic buying allows SMEs to control their budget and spend exactly as much as they are ready. Moreover, you can always be sure your ad will reach the right audience, so your money won’t go to waste. Companies often spend a significant share of their marketing budgets on traditional ads, like in magazines or on TV. Sure, many people will see this campaign, but how many belong to your target audience? With programmatic buying, every time your ad is displayed, counts.

According to Google News Initiative, direct ads cost two to four times more than programmatic ads. The numbers are $10-20 per thousand impressions for direct ads and $1-5 for programmatic ads.

For example, capturing the right audience’s attention was challenging for the Canadian clinic Whistler Medical Aesthetics. They tried traditional advertising channels like radio and magazine ads but weren’t satisfied with the cost-efficiency ratio. The company wanted to attract new customers, but the conversion rates were low. 

Eventually, with the help of consultants, they changed the strategy and focused on several types of programmatic ads. After the first month, traffic to their website grew by 60%. The clinic spent 50% less but got 25% more in return.

2. Advanced Targeting – Programmatic buying helps small and medium businesses identify and reach the right target groups, which is challenging with traditional advertising. The secret behind it is the approach’s core: focus on the audience, not the website. After all, for a company, it doesn’t really matter where the potential customer sees its ad. What matters more is what happens next. The programmatic approach suggests delegating the choice of websites to algorithms. 

So, to run an efficient campaign, a company needs to target the audience appropriately. It can choose among multiple targeting options and combine several in one campaign. The most popular criteria are demographics, interests, and online behavior. The better you describe the audience, the higher the engagement and conversion rates.

For example, a non-profit organization, The Amanda Foundation, wanted to speed up the process of adopting homeless cats and dogs. They decided to try programmatic advertising to reach people interested in hosting pets. Advanced targeting helped the organization identify the right audience and create a profile for potential pet owners. For instance, young people prefer more active dogs, while older people would likely adopt a calmer animal. The campaign’s results exceeded expectations: all the pets found new homes.

3. Real-Time Optimization – Programmatic campaigns are more flexible than traditional advertising. Moreover, the ad’s performance is measured in real-time, and the campaign can be adjusted on the go to get better results. Data on total views, conversions, impressions, etc., is recorded all the time while the campaign is running.

Here are the mechanisms enabling real-time optimization:

• Bid adjustments allow changing the frequency of ad showings depending on the device, location, time of day, etc. There’s also an option to adjust bids based on performance metrics. This helps a company maximize its return on investment in advertising.
• Ad placement optimization. Programmatic buying allows placing ads in the best possible location on the web pages and changing it if performance metrics aren’t good enough.
• Audience retargeting. Programmatic advertising aims to increase conversion rates. Hence, it can reach people who have already interacted with a company. It helps to engage non-customers and offer something new to existing clients.

4. Flexible budgeting – Programmatic advertising allows companies to set a spending limit, and they can decide whether it will be per day or for the whole campaign. Small and medium businesses often can’t afford pricey advertising, so it’s crucial to keep the budget under control. Luckily, programmatic buying helps prevent overspending.

As you can see, the benefits of programmatic advertising are convincing. Now, let’s determine how to achieve the best results using this technology.

Better Targeting for Better Outcomes

Programmatic buying isn’t a magic wand. Companies still need to do their homework to make it work, i.e., get to know their customers. With demographics, it’s not hard; you just need to analyze the data you already have. But if you aim for advanced targeting, you’ll have to discover more: what are your customers’ interests? What do they do in their spare time? What do they value the most? Consider conducting an online survey or interviewing your customers to collect this data.

The more you know about your audience, the more targeting options you can use. Among them:

• Behavioral Targeting – This option focuses on customers’ online activity, such as visited websites, cart abandonments, purchases, etc. A simple example is ads with a particular product you start seeing after visiting an online store and looking at similar products. If implemented correctly, behavioral targeting helps companies increase sales and conversion rates. For example, the children’s clothes brand Sunuva couldn’t afford a big sales team but needed a sales boost. Behavioral targeting was the answer: the company focused on cart abandonments and offered visitors relevant product recommendations. It helped increase turnover by 8.9% since the first day.

• Contextual Targeting – This option allows ads with relevant content to be placed on websites. For example, watching an interview with a famous athlete on YouTube and seeing the ad for a brand-new sneakers model results from contextual targeting. Marketers discovered that such advertising increases conversion (and irritates the audience less). Some more examples are knife ads on the website with recipes and sports equipment ads next to the article about the exercise routine.

• Geotargeting –  is a location-based option. Simply put, you reach customers in a certain geographical location and show them your ad. For instance, a restaurant may target people within a 3-block radius. Another popular tactic is to target customers in locations (country, state, city, ZIP code, etc.) that have already shown high conversions. For example, the cider maker Marners launched a campaign in four UK cities to sell tickets to its sponsored events. The company chose the locations where, according to the data, people were the most likely to buy tickets spontaneously. The campaign was a huge success: not only were all the tickets sold, but people also ended up on a waiting list.

For small and medium companies, a wise ad placement strategy requires considering relevance, time, and exposure. This is when targeting options come into play. Any business can choose one of them or combine a few to ensure the best possible result.

Managing Campaigns with Programmatic Platforms

Modern programmatic platforms offer small and medium companies practical solutions to manage their ad creatives effectively. For instance, businesses can:

• Customize Their Digital Ads – If a company has done its homework, it knows much about target groups. So, it can customize ads for different customer segments and channels. After all, the “one fits all” approach rarely works; you often need more than one creative option.

• Conduct A/B Testing – A company can test two or more different ad creative options and compare the results. For example, a clothing store can experiment with different images and offers, monitor their performance and draw conclusions. This helps make more informed decisions, reach the right audience with the right message, and, eventually, save money.An impressive example here is Lacoste. A designer brand decided to boost its summer sales in France, the UK, and Germany and turned to programmatic advertising. First, they conducted audience analysis and defined customer profiles. Then, they harnessed the power of A/B testing: they ran various versions of creatives, adjusted them, and tested new ads. The process continued until the company reached the best results. The campaign resulted in 19,749,380 impressions and 2,290 new sales.Sure, small and medium companies’ budgets are much more humble than Lacoste’s, but they still can analyze data and experiment with A/B testing.

• Use Dynamic Creative Optimization –  Since the programmatic approach includes permanent performance tracking and users’ behavior, it allows companies to adjust creatives, such as images and messages, in real time to ensure their ads are as relevant as possible for viewers. How does it work? A company must create a flexible template with elements that may change, such as calls to action (CTAs), images, etc. Then, track the metrics of each option, if necessary, eliminate inefficient versions, and add new ones.

Creatives play a vital role in engaging customers and increasing conversions. So, one of the company’s primary tasks is to ensure they deliver the message to the right audience in the best possible way. 

Customer segmentation is essential to achieving outstanding results. Dynamic creative optimization will be the most efficient if you’ve identified critical segments of potential clients. You can divide them by demographics, interests, or online behavior. Later, it will help you connect to each segment with the most relevant version of the ad. 

Last but not least, programmatic platforms measure ad performance and create sophisticated reports that companies can use to improve their decisions. The typical set of metrics includes clicks, impressions, conversions, and return on ad spend (ROAS). This data is enough to evaluate the campaign results and compare your expectations with reality.

Today, programmatic buying is changing the market rules. With its cost efficiency, budget allocation flexibility, advanced targeting, and real-time optimization features, small and medium businesses can achieve the success they could only dream about, reach a wide new audience, and learn much more about existing clients. So, why not try it as part of your marketing strategy?

The post Smarter Advertising: How Small and Medium Businesses Can Harness the Potential of Programmatic Buying appeared first on AdMonsters.

From an early age, Vanessa was inspired by her mother’s determination and perseverance. Her mother’s journey from Hong Kong to a successful career in the United States and her father’s hard work deeply influenced her values and work ethic. Growing up in New Jersey, Vanessa learned the importance of diligence and resilience, which have propelled her through her career.

Moving to the US at 13, her mother learned a new language and established a successful career as an accountant at Mount Sinai Hospital. This example of hard work and dedication set a strong foundation for Vanessa, who saw firsthand the importance of balancing professional ambitions with family responsibilities.

Vanessa’s journey is a testament to continuous learning and maintaining a hands-on approach, even as one climbs the corporate ladder. Unsurprisingly, Vanessa is also a 2024 Top Women in Media & Ad Tech honoree in the Programmatic Storytellers category. 

Despite facing hurdles as a young Asian-American woman in a male-dominated industry, Vanessa has carved out a successful career. Her deep understanding of her field has earned her respect and recognition. She emphasizes the importance of representation and the need for more Asian women in executive roles, advocating for diversity and inclusion within her team and the wider industry.

Learn more about Vanessa’s journey by reading our discussion below. 

Yakira Young: Tell me more about yourself. Where is your family from, and what was it like growing up?

Vanessa Eng: My mom grew up in Hong Kong and moved to the United States when she was 13. My dad was born here in the US. He grew up in West New York, New Jersey, and I grew up in North Bergen.  On my dad’s side, my grandparents came on a boat from China. My grandma was pregnant with my dad at the time from what I remember. 

I remember my grandpa fondly because he lived to be around 83 when I was about 30. He used to share stories about our family’s journey to the States, and their decision to migrate to the US to provide a better life for my dad, which ultimately impacted my own life and my children.

My mom worked hard, commuting to New York to work from the burbs in NJ, and making dinner for us. Although it was a dual household income, I remember my mom struggling with it a little. She would never say anything about it and always had a very tough exterior. 

One aspect of Asian culture is the ability to identify one’s needs versus one’s wants. There were instances when I wanted to buy something when I was younger, and my mom would say “no, it’s too expensive.” That also shaped how I raised my kids, and not wanting to tell them no because of something we couldn’t afford financially but the ability to say “no” to prevent them from being spoiled and entitled. 

I don’t hold my mom in any mean regard with that whatsoever; in fact, I deeply respect her for it because I knew financially we weren’t as well off as some other people. That also inspired me to strive to be very career-driven and offer a better life for my family.

YY: How has your heritage influenced your upbringing and values?

VE: My upbringing helped me understand foundational principles. As I mentioned, my mom worked hard, and my dad also worked hard and would stay late in the office. Watching them work hard taught me to work hard as well. 

At some point, as you climb the corporate ladder, you start to have a team under you and begin to delegate, and with that, people start to forget the nitty-gritty of how things work. I like to give 110% no matter how small the task is, which has instilled in me the ability to always work hard at everything I do. 

As I climb the corporate ladder, I want to ensure that I still know how things work intimately to be knowledgeable in my role. It’s important to know what’s happening in the industry, so I’m always making sure I stay on my toes, which is part of my “perfectionist” demeanor.

YY: Any key moments or milestones in your 14-year career that have been particularly significant to you?

VE: At a point in my career, I preemptively discovered my manager was trying to fire me. I took that to heart because I became very complacent in my role, lacking passion and genuine enjoyment for my work. While I don’t have any ill will towards that manager, this experience deeply affected me and served as a wake-up call.

Conversely, I’ve also been fortunate to have excellent managers. Some have stayed with me late at night in the office to whiteboard and help me comprehend the entire ecosystem. These experiences provided me with a solid foundation in terms of knowledge. 

Sometimes, you need a great teacher and mentor to guide you to where you are. It’s great to read industry-related articles and converse with other folks in the space, but nothing compares to someone who takes the time and patience to help you understand all the nuances and various acronyms.

YY: What challenges did you face as an Asian-American woman climbing the corporate ladder, and how did you overcome them? 

VE: Some of the challenges I face are definitely related to my appearance. I’m often told I look young, and as a woman in tech, I face additional hurdles. This means I have to work even harder to earn the respect of others and to be taken seriously. 

Adtech can very much feel like a boys’ club, and as an Asian woman, I sometimes face the stigma of not knowing what I’m talking about. 

This motivates me to read a lot of documentation within our industry and research various topics because the best way to challenge misconceptions is to be exceptionally knowledgeable. When you know your stuff inside and out, no one can outmaneuver you.

I’ve dedicated significant time to learning every aspect of the ad tech life cycle to ensure no one can undermine me due to a perceived lack of knowledge, and I will continue to do so. I understand that I have to work harder to earn respect. 

YY: What does representation of Asian Americans in the industry mean to you? How have you seen it evolve throughout your career? 

VE: There’s a better presence now regarding where Asians are in the industry, some holding leadership positions, myself included. But I think there’s more work to be done. There are still very few and finite women, Asian women, who hold executive level and c-suite positions. It’s gotten better, and it will continue to improve over time.

It also comes down to companies genuinely supporting and embracing diversity. We can all talk about it, but company cultures must actively change to reflect these values. There have been instances where I’m on a company’s profile, and if you look at their investor relations page, board members, etc., they’re primarily white males. 

YY: Did you have any mentors or role models from your cultural community who impacted your career path?

VE: I have had the privilege of working with many women leaders. My first boss, my most memorable from when I was an intern at Viacom, is someone I still keep in touch with. She’s held numerous executive roles and has always been so supportive and an incredible role model. She’s been my number-one cheerleader to this day. 

If I ever show any uncertainty, she immediately counters with, “Vanessa, what are you talking about? You absolutely can do this.” Sometimes, you need that person who’s in your court—your coach—who always encourages you that you can do this as long as you apply yourself. 

YY: Do you have any advice for young Asian-Americans aspiring to enter the advertising industry?

VE: I think there is a stereotype about Asian individuals suggesting that we are inherently analytical, number-focused, and diligent worker bees. My advice is to always assert your opinion. Don’t just do what you’re told and follow instructions blindly. Speak up if your instincts tell you there’s a better way or a different approach.

It’s crucial to transition from a “doer” and become a leader. Express your opinions and ensure your voice is heard. Don’t settle for being the quiet one in the room. I find this is a confidence issue. When you’re confident in your knowledge, this will naturally lead to a domino effect.

The post ​​From Hong Kong Heritage to Programmatic Leadership: Vanessa Eng’s Ad Tech Journey appeared first on AdMonsters.

Supply path optimization is a topic that has the industry buzzing right now because a lot of changes are happening, and not all of them are easy to understand. Whether you’re on the sell or buy side of the equation, tracking these changes and understanding how they may impact your business going forward is important. 

A panel at AdExchanger’s Programmatic I/O in New York City on September 26 titled “The SPO Squeeze” dove into this subject headfirst. The chat was moderated by Sarah Sluis, Executive Editor, AdExchanger, and featured Jess Breslav, Chief Customer Officer, Index Exchange; Will Doherty, VP Inventory Development, Publishers, The Trade Desk; Katie Evans, Chief Operating Officer, Magnite; and Lara Koenig, Global Head of Product, MiQ. 

Increasing Value and Efficiency in SPO

Koenig is on the buy side of the SPO journey, and she shared that SPO is a crucial problem for buyers to tackle right now. The current setup creates a slew of problems for marketers. 

For example, there are too many intermediaries in the supply chain. “About three years ago, we  got supply chain logs from our DSPs. We thought we were buying from six different supply vendors, but when we looked at the logs, we figured out that in reality 384 downstream vendors are participating in our auctions, which leads to so many safety, suitability and economic risks,” Koenig explained. 

Marketers can succumb to many pitfalls, and almost as many folks are trying to solve the problems with SPO. The problem is that with the multitude of emerging platforms the goal of programmatic – to simplify the process for buyers – is being lost. 

One potential solution to this problem is bidding through open paths. This eliminates some of the hops back and forth and saves time. Doherty says this also ensures you see the true number of avails, giving the buyer a more accurate depiction of a supplier’s inventory, which allows them to compare and contrast publishers. 

“What open path has allowed us to do and where the market is going is it’s starting to consolidate around the top. As that consolidation occurs, the economic benefits for both the publisher and the buyer become much clearer,” Doherty notes.

As an industry, we need to start redefining the word “value” in terms of partnerships. Breslav says, “Gone are the days where you add a partner and expect immediate outcomes, immediate ad spend.” The value may be in benchmarking performance and relaying that information to partners. 

Open path is future-facing, says Evans, toward new technologies like CTV, which operates very differently. “We’re trying to create an ecosystem that is going to be successful for the future, based on all the technologies that have developed over the last five or six years,” she says.  

Seeing Double: Duplicate Impressions Limit Value

Duplication in impressions is a concern when each publisher is partnering with 35-40 SSPs. SSPs are all sending the same things to DSPs, and the DSPs are not getting the rest of the picture, creating problems for buyers. 

From a buyer’s perspective, says Koenig, partner companies are largely doing the same thing – collapsing intermediaries to make buying more direct. The pressing question now is whether supply chain intermediaries add any value. 

Doherty notes there are two types of duplication – publishers working with multiple partners and within SSPs themselves, tuning up or tuning down traffic, which leads to intra-SSP duplication. Some DSPs will lean into solely getting their match traffic, possibly even only for what they historically bid on. This can reduce your bottom line and limit your reach.

Decisions based on a DSP’s customer portfolio and what buyers have bought in the past can limit pathways for new buyers and over complicate the process, forcing buyers to work with multiple DSPs to get the reach they’re looking for. Koenig believes there should be transparency in the process that empowers buyers to advocate for the pathways they want to pursue. The current process also hurts the SSP because they are sending avails that aren’t monetized. 

To combat this, Breslav recommends better communication between SSPs and DSPs. “Filtering done correctly helps our partners to be more successful and buyers on the other side of it. Part of that is about a conversation making sure that we are all aligned on what we are sending each other and using traffic shaping as a tool when it’s effective,” she shares. 

A View Toward the Future

Communication within the industry is crucial for making sure pain points continue to be addressed and that we remain on the same page. In the face of a shifting digital landscape with emerging technologies, ultimately we all want the same thing – to succeed. 

The complicated landscape makes it more difficult than ever for SSPs to drive positive outcomes for publishers. According to Breslav, there is a flight to quality and safety as well as a focus on sustainability, and all of these considerations are changing how the industry views strategy and innovation. 

She adds, “I think there’s an incredibly healthy dialogue happening in our ecosystem right now, and I really appreciate it. I think about what I read in the trades and the push towards sustainability. Our community feels incredibly active. I think that that’s a wonderful thing.”

Looking ahead, experts agreed that it is important to avoid letting new technologies like CTV fall into the same trap we’re currently in with duplication and intermediary traffic. In the coming years, there will likely be some consolidation of players, particularly intermediaries, in addition to greater efficiency and quality. The consensus was cautious optimism about what the future holds. 

The post Escaping the Trap: Supply Path Optimization Can Create Transparency and Increase Efficiency appeared first on AdMonsters.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Phase one:

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

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

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

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

Phase two:

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

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

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

YY: What does this mean for the creative?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Michelle Kim emphasizes that she has often encountered preconceived notions about her leadership style. Overcoming these barriers has necessitated her adoption of diverse approaches tailored to different individuals. As her career advanced, this experience nurtured her innate capacity for empathy and collaboration, enabling her to cultivate a more harmonious and cooperative work environment.

We’ve all come face to face with not realizing our greatness, and Kim is living proof that there is nothing but positivity on the other side of those thoughts. By stepping out of her cultural comfort zone and into a management role, she realized she needed to be vocal and celebrate her accomplishments to better serve herself and her team of direct reports.

According to Kim, being a leader means ensuring every team member understands the value of their work and that they’re truly making a difference. Learn more about Michelle and her leadership journey in the Q&A below.

Yakira Young: How have your experiences as an Asian American impacted your career, both positively and negatively?

Michelle Kim: I used to find it challenging to vocalize my accomplishments because I grew up believing that success and recognition came from putting your head down and working hard. I was expected to tackle every situation humbly, and praise and reward were not a given.

I’m not saying to start going on a roadshow with every single accomplishment, as there is always a time and a place. But I’ve learned that it’s important to stand by your work and not assume that someone is championing your wins for you. I recognized that taking pride in a job well done isn’t boasting and needed to exercise this muscle.

On the flip side, being Asian American has had an immensely positive impact on my career. It has helped me become adaptable. There has often been a preconceived notion of my leadership style. Breaking those barriers sometimes requires different approaches with different people. It’s helped me become more empathetic and collaborative as my career progressed.

YY: What advice would you give to Asian American individuals pursuing a career in programmatic and analytics?

MK: It’s never too late to get into programmatic. It’s a constantly evolving, fast-paced industry, and there’s definitely a learning curve. But what I love most about it is that you’re always learning, and there’s a genuine collaborative spirit with your peers across the industry to find solutions to major challenges in real time together.

The world of data, CTV, and programmatic is always changing and growing, and it truly is an exciting space to be in. This environment sometimes comes with situations where making an important business decision is accompanied by a lack of precedence. Leveraging analytics and business intelligence to make the best data-driven decision truly puts you at an advantage.

YY: How do you balance your identity as an Asian American with your role as a Vice President in a predominantly non-AAPI industry?

MK: Balance is the operative word here. Good leadership isn’t being aggressive and pushy. It’s about shifting that paradigm and fighting the narrative that I am just a hard worker lacking confidence or ambition. That stereotype is not who we are; that leadership model is not who we must strive to be.

YY: How have you seen the AAPI community evolve and grow in the ad tech industry throughout your career?

MK: When I joined the ad tech industry eight years ago, I struggled to find Asian representation amongst my peers, let alone in leadership positions. As time passed, I saw a noticeable growth in numbers and a concerted effort to make networking easier and more organized in the Asian American community.

I’m also grateful to my non-Asian peers and mentors for the introductions they’ve made. The willingness to help make that connection is greatly appreciated because they recognize the value of connecting people who will benefit from it and can relate in more ways than just work.

YY: What are some of the proudest moments of your career, and how have they shaped your perspective on being an AAPI leader?

MK: It sounds cliché, but my proudest moments are when I can be a sounding board to other Asian Americans in the workplace and be someone they can relate to. The obstacles won’t always mirror each other, but I hope that bringing a level of empathy and listening to anyone who is having a challenging time in the workplace as an Asian American is helpful. I was lucky enough to have incredible mentors and peers to talk through situations with, and seeing the community’s growth is encouraging.

The post Celebrating AAPI Month: NBCU’s Michelle Kim Cracks the Code on Shattering Self-Doubt appeared first on AdMonsters.

This is a serious issue given the high cost of recruiting, hiring, and training campaign traffickers. It’s a situation that begs the question: What can we do to make these jobs more attractive so that experienced team members stay longer in their positions?

The answer is to eliminate the tedious and manual tasks that take up so much of their time, allowing them to focus on more strategic tasks instead.

Consider this: According to research by Central Research Inc., AdOps teams spend about seven hours each week performing manual, repetitive (and, let’s face it, boring) tasks. That’s a full day out of the work week. In an industry that prides itself on smart automations and efficiency, that’s just unacceptable. But there’s good news on the horizon.

When Automation Works Well

Recently I met Daniel Opler, CEO of Adwallet.io, which is a Danish company that has automated one of the most mind-numbing jobs that AdOps spends several hours each week doing:

• Taking screenshots of ads as they appear in real environments.
• Packaging them into a PDF or PowerPoint.
• Sending them to the advertiser, agency, or both.

Screenshots are the modern-day tear-sheets that show clients that their ads are in working order.

I was a bit surprised by how much time taking screenshots required, but I quickly got an education. “It’s ludicrous that here we are in 2022, and AdOps teams in large publishing houses must manually take hundreds, sometimes thousands of screenshots per month, then insert it into a PowerPoint deck and email it to their clients,” he told me. “And because it’s so manual, these publishers can’t provide screenshots to all their clients, as much as they’d like to. Only the biggest clients get screenshots of their ads as they appear on their sites.”

Opler did what any entrepreneur does when they see a gap: He launched a company to automate this task. Think of it as a platform for programmatic screenshots. 

Here’s how it works: Before a campaign goes live, the AdOps user determines which campaign screenshots to provide for the client — banner ad desktop, mobile, interstitial ad mobile, etc. Once the campaign goes live, the platform takes the screenshots automatically and stores them in a folder for that campaign. The platform takes screenshots of campaigns sold directly and those that appear “in the wild,” as Opler refers to programmatically placed ads.

AdOps user then selects which screenshots to send to the client. The platform then inserts them into a PowerPoint or PDF that includes the publisher’s logo and branding elements and sends it off. Some clients would rather import those screenshots into their internal systems via an API, which AdWallet.io easily supports.

What is the impact of this automation on AdOps teams? “In the world of AdOps, screenshots can be a pain point,” explained Sharon Goldsmith, Manager of Digital Advertising Operations for Tribune Publishing, Inc. “Eliminating a manual and mundane task, such as screenshots, has opened up time for growth opportunities. This has led to higher job satisfaction for our employees.” Now that process is automated, Goldsmith’s team can focus on optimizing and booking new business, a more rewarding task for all involved.

The Democratizing Effects of Automating AdOps Tasks

Automating repetitive tasks has a democratizing impact on everyone involved in the ecosystem.

The AdOps teams within publishers and agencies are relieved from repetitive tasks, like taking screenshots, essentially giving them back a full day of work to concentrate on other high-value and more personally rewarding work. “Nobody goes to university so they can take screenshots all day,” Opler said.

Conversely, employees who feel valued and engage in more meaningful work are far more likely to stay than look for another job. In addition to saving on recruitment and training costs, publishers or agencies benefit by keeping that hard-earned experience and industry knowledge on their payrolls. And their clients benefit from continuity.

It also means premium services like screenshots of ads appearing on a publisher’s website or in programmatic land can be made available to all advertisers, not just the ones with the million-dollar ad spend.

The post Let’s Get Serious About Automating the Last of AdOps Tedious Tasks appeared first on AdMonsters.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

On Sundays, we hear about Tom Brady or Drew Brees, but they are the first ones to take their offensive line out to a steak dinner after a game. They get it.

The advertising industry also has its pit crew or offensive line and they are equally critical to success, yet often not discussed as intensely as the world’s coolest creative director’s latest idea or the CMO unveiling the next big ad.  They are the advertising operations, technology and revenue leaders for the world’s largest brands, news outlets and social media companies.

Last week, I had an opportunity to speak at the AdMonsters Publishing Forum in Austin on the subject of “Forget Advertising: Let’s Talk Storytizing”.

What really hit me was a rather simple observation.

We spend an enormous, perhaps you could say “monstrous” amount of time on analytics, data science and what it can bring to the table. This is smart. However, we’re missing a major piece of this puzzle that will lead to the next breakthroughs in our industry.

The “other geeks” of the media world are equally important. They are the “engineers” of the advertising publishing world.  They understand why opt-in videos are leading to increased engagement or they can explain how mobile SDKs are critical to mobile app success for brands or what advanced programmatic will look like or why location data is no longer the right term and we should start referring to it as movement science.

This audience knows exactly how the media world runs.  They see all of the data and they can see trends that could lead a next generation of algorithms, machine learning and practical uses of AI.

And this gets me to an “A-ha!” moment.

The biggest lesson I have learned, thus far, is that you can innovate when you go deep with the people who understand what the problems or unmet needs are in the marketplace. You don’t have to know the solution, but you do need to be swimming in the sea to understand what is relevant and missing.

Every model we have created in digital media was born this way.

The AdMonsters audience knows exactly how media is working, where the opportunities are, what is failing and what should be built, but doesn’t exist today.

It’s kind of been bugging me to figure out where the next big wave of innovation will occur.  At AdMonsters, I believe I just saw it up close. Data science will progress, as will technology. And because of this awesome progress, we are now ready to listen with both ears to what the technical experts of the media world are saying.

They know what is missing with a level of granularity that data scientists and creatives can’t see as clearly. The next models aren’t far away… if we get to know the “engineers of the media world”.

For me, that was a monstrous insight that will drive what I focus on in the years ahead.

The post The Unsung Heroes of the Advertising and Media World appeared first on AdMonsters.

But again, you might both be right. Media and tech are complicated that way. Ops puts you in the same room as all these other people whose work is similar to yours, but different. You hear a lot of voices, and you can make decisions about who’s really speaking your language.

I was thinking about this while we were organizing this Ops panel discussion about demand partner evaluation. I had recently written a playbook on the subject, and the playbook was informed in part by a publisher survey we’d launched. One of the takeaways from that survey, and also from conversations I’d heard at AdMonsters Publisher Forums this year and last, was that publishers were getting more assertive, kicking aside (or at least pausing) demand partners who were too much trouble to work with, at too low a reward.

And in the first phone call we had with all the panelists (Jana Meron from Insider Inc., Jim Hischfield from the panel and playbook’s sponsor GeoEdge, Stephanie Layser from News Corp and Ron Duque from WeatherBug), that first takeaway was challenged straightaway. For premium publishers, was it even a new thing to hold demand partners to a very standard? Maybe, then, the marketplace has evolved so that more publishers can make the demands the super-premium pubs have been making all along.

But certainly other things have changed. Here’s some of what I heard from that panel at Ops itself. None of these takeaways alter what was in the playbook, but they certainly add to it:

• Sure, this current crop of redirects can seem more severe and more disruptive than certain malvertising attacks we’ve seen in the past. If it’s true that publishers today are quicker than they once were to put misbehaving demand partners on hold, the severity of these attacks may not be the primary instigator. Header bidding, and the transparency it opened up, has been a major driver in giving publishers a new understanding of their demand partners’ performance. By opening the header and allowing publishers to measure bid analytics, it’s easier to see which of your partners are adding quantifiable incremental value.

• In spite of the panel’s subtitle  positive user experience and overall ad revenue are not necessarily opposed to each other (but we’ve been talking about this for a while). Good user experience can foster a more loyal audience. Poor user experience will drive the audience away. It’s pretty simple.
• Publishers need to push back on their demand partners when they’re served poor-quality ads—not only for their users’ sake, but to aid their broader business strategies. No publisher wants to develop a reputation among vendors and other publishers as “the one that doesn’t care about quality.” You have to keep your house in order, too: The ops team doesn’t want other teams within their company coming after them for messing with the ad stack. And no one wants to get an email about a bad ad over the weekend from a senior-management-level person in their company… not again, that is.

• When publishers have the ability to integrate a bunch of demand partners in the header, that means putting just one partner on pause may not affect their own bottom line very much. The downside is, it’s the same on the vendor’s side. The barrier to entry is lower for integrating with publishers. They can make up the lost business elsewhere if one publisher cuts them off.
• Cutting partners off entirely isn’t necessarily the way to go. If a publisher is unsatisfied with the response they’re getting from a partner, they can think of it as putting the partner in the penalty box. Give them time to respond in full and to fix the problem.
• There is a difference between a publisher and just a vendor. A partner keeps communication open, understands your goals, clearly responds to problems, and gives you access to the data you need to understand the value they’re delivering. Sometimes a partner’s value is less in the demand they deliver, and more in the tools they bring to the table.

The post How Ops 2018 Added Nuance to Demand Partner Evaluation appeared first on AdMonsters.