Opinion

It won’t fail because the protocol is bad; it will fail because you’ve been sold a simplistic dream – a “universal API” for ad tech – and that’s what you’re budgeting for.

Artificial intelligence has become marketing’s favorite headline. Every platform, publisher and technology partner now promises “AI-powered” solutions that will make campaigns smarter, faster and cheaper.

Our industry has done a terrible job rewarding publishers for monetization choices that align their supply to quality and outcomes vs. short-term yield bumps. But is it overly optimistic to think The Trade Desk’s recent moves prove that’s changing?

Understanding where AI agents make financial sense today is the difference between building a sustainable competitive advantage and burning through your margins in pursuit of buzzwords.

Publishers, brands and agencies today are navigating a new landscape. With rising consumer expectations and evolving regulations, delivering personalized campaigns requires a fresh approach.

To get to the heart of the TID debate, you have to understand the definition of a healthy marketplace and how our tendency to limit transparency for the other side of the supply chain is holding us back.

Viamedia has transformed into Viamedia.ai, a next-generation ad tech company built to solve the challenges of today’s fragmented media ecosystem. The firm has rebranded as Viamedia.ai while also introducing a fresh AI-powered platform built from the ground up to effectively manage campaigns and represent providers across traditional linear, streaming and digital channels. New capabilities available […]

As the pendulum swings hard toward 1:1 personalization, a critical question emerges: Just because we can personalize every interaction, does it mean we should?

A quarter of all Connected TV (CTV) bid requests can’t be trusted.

That doesn’t mean fraud every time. Sometimes, it’s incomplete data. Sometimes, it’s oversimplified or mislabeled content. And sometimes, it’s more intentional misrepresentation. But the effect is the same: Advertisers don’t know if they’re getting what they paid for and publishers can’t be sure they’re getting fair value for their inventory.

CTV has become a powerful full-funnel channel, attracting advertisers of all sizes – and the momentum isn’t slowing.

CTV ad spend is projected to rise another 16% this year to $26.6 billion, according to the IAB. But with rapid growth comes complexity. Advertisers now face a maze of platforms, apps and channels, each with different buying models, audience access and inconsistent measurement. For SMBs without large teams or budgets, this fragmentation is especially challenging to navigate.

It has long been understood that brand is advertising’s most powerful driver of growth. Yet, in a marketplace worth more than one trillion dollars, less than 10% of digital campaigns track brand outcomes.

In today’s economic climate, every marketing dollar is under scrutiny. CMOs aren’t just required to build brands and grow demand; they’re expected to prove that their budgets drive measurable business value. And no one is more invested in that proof than the CFO.

For all of the ad tech industry’s sophistication, fragmentation remains its original sin.

The solution isn’t a mystery. Everyone agrees that greater interoperability is the answer. So what’s standing in the way?

For as long as I’ve been in marketing measurement, people have been searching for the “easy button,” the one tool, model or platform that will finally tell them which marketing dollars truly drive growth. But, after 15 years and four attribution startups, I can tell you with confidence: The easy button doesn’t exist.

The fate of the open web will be decided on who controls the data that drives monetization and the AI that determines distribution. Google controls both, and proposed remedies to its ad tech monopoly do not address this imbalance.

You just launched a new campaign across multiple channels, from search to social. Perhaps you’ve gone out on a limb – maybe even against the recommendation of your CEO or board – and included streaming TV in the mix.

Publishers must coalesce to gain a credible bargaining position and stop the bleeding caused by AI search. From there, we must put the processes in place to actually operate a licensing mechanism.

ChatGPT and others continued the fragmentation of the search journey, which today hops between platforms and intents. The funnel no longer exists. Here’s how to pivot your brand’s SEO/GEO strategy.

Retail media networks (RMNs) burst onto the scene as a transformative solution for lower-funnel, point-of-purchase conversions. It’s no wonder the category is surging: eMarketer projects retail media spending will top $60 billion in the US alone this year (up 20% from 2024) and reach $100 billion in the US by 2028.

Healthcare and life sciences have long lagged in digital advertising, still focused on mass-audience approaches. But as the blockbuster drug era fades and precision medicine rises, broad strategies often fail to make precision therapies commercially viable – leaving life-changing treatments underutilized.

The number and scope of U.S. laws that require advertisers to disclose the use of AI are limited. But there are some restrictions and guidelines that advertisers must follow to ensure their compliance.

Principal-based buying isn’t inherently bad. When incentives are aligned, clients get more precision and speed than traditional agency models often allow. The issue isn’t the mechanism; it’s the incentives.

The AI moment in advertising is exiting the trough of disillusionment and entering the slope of enlightenment, but video is still a glaring blind spot.

The real risk isn’t in running robust tests; it’s in wasting money or cutting high-performing channels based on misleading conclusions from bad measurement.

Marketing has long struggled to prove itself as a growth engine. What if agentic AI isn’t the threat many fear but the breakthrough marketing always needed?

Marketers are pouring billions into CTV – but without the right tools, duplication, fragmentation and murky measurement can drain ROI.

Agencies that dismiss in-house development are limiting their potential for differentiation. Here are five questions to ask yourself before committing to in-house tech.

In today’s digital advertising landscape, first-party data and clean rooms remain highly relevant. However, artificial intelligence (AI) has also been dominating much of the conversation lately.

SSPs are staring at their own demise. And it’s because, for over a decade, SSPs have positioned themselves as agnostic platforms.

The old approach to media and measurement is no longer sustainable. AI is now embedded across every step of the media value chain, and AI is only as good as the data it’s fed.