Programmatic media buying is going to undergo a revolution in the next few years, and DSP’s (demand-side platforms) are facing their biggest challenge since the ad-buying technology platform emerged in 2007. The arrival of AI and the demise of third-party cookies are the main drivers of change as new forms of ad creation and audience addressability challenge or threaten existing methods, and the demise of the Chrome third-party cookie reduces signal loss for advertisers. Throw in the roll-out of new state-based privacy legislation across the US, and the ad targeting world is clearly in fl ..read more

Google’s plan to cull third party cookies in Chrome before the end of this year met with a fresh hurdle last month – at least according to a glut of trade press articles. Firstly, the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority – which is leading the charge and running the regulatory rule on Google’s plans to deprecate and replace the internet’s tracking and targeting currency – said Google wouldn’t be hitting the off switch without its say so and “until our concerns are addressed”. In brief, the UK competition regulator’s unease includes interoperability concerns and fears that Google’s cooki ..read more

The major media agency holding groups have been conspicuously quiet since peak US advertiser body ANA published its media supply chain transparency report. It’s the latest in a long line of probes attempting to shed light on the questionable returns and practices of some pretty sizable parts of the programmatic supply chain. P&G CMO Marc Pritchard in 2017 famously rained on the IAB’s industry parade by calling out digital advertising’s ad tech middlemen, agencies and the major walled gardens as “murky at best, and fraudulent at worst”. Since then there have been variations on the same ..read more

As the adtech industry forges ahead into this new year, and confusion and uncertainty reigns over new restrictions on audience tracking, it’s worth reflecting on the big seismic shifts that will happen independent of a shake-up in the ad targeting landscape. The battle between the Walled Garden platform players and the Open Marketplace adtech providers will be intense. However, while that fight for ad dollars will dominate headlines all year, there will also be major disruptions in the areas of mobile and retail. Mobile apps will continue their pivot to video, and see the emergence of an ..read more

At the top end of town, big money M&A appears likely. Warner Bros Discovery and Paramount Global are mulling a deal, though some analysts suggest the latter may instead be sold piecemeal.  Ongoing pressure on traditional TV revenues – which will only get worse as Amazon joins Netflix and Disney+ in trying to build scaled ad businesses – also increases the likelihood of Comcast and Disney joining the deal-making fray. As Lightshed Partners analyst Rich Greenfield told the Financial Times: “TV advertising is falling far short, cord-cutting is continuing to accelerate, sports costs ..read more

The ANA’s transparency report, which mapped open web programmatic spending for brands including Mondelez, Shell, Nissan, Dell, Molson Coors and Walgreens, makes for interesting reading. For one of the top 25 SSPs that was found to be pushing 71 percent of spend to made for advertising sites, it makes highly uncomfortable reading. Eight of the top 25 SSPs, i.e. around a third, were directing more than the average of 15 percent of spend to made for advertising – or made for arbitrage – websites, according to the study, which mapped 35 billion impressions. Another eight SSPs, however, had ne ..read more

It’s indicative of the turbulence of adtech and digital media that predictions for 2024 by industry players have come thick and fast in the last month of the year.  The competitive climate has intensified in the last quarter of 2023, characterized by concerns over weakened ad spending in many corners of the global economy, digital eating traditional media for ad spend share, the unrelenting dominance by the MAMAA collective (Microsoft, Amazon, Meta, Apple, Alphabet), and the rolling thunder of Generative AI.  There are even more unknowns in the mix. The rise of privacy legislati ..read more

While some in adtech and media may remain skeptical around Google’s hard deadline to cull third party cookies, the company is insistent there will be no further delays. “Cookies will be phased out completely at the end of 2024,” Dan Taylor, Google’s VP of Global Advertising said last month, Either way, kicking the can down the road for the last few years has at least given the industry time to prepare alternatives. Given the mounting pressure on data privacy regulation across major markets including the US, Europe, Canada, Australia, and others, that’s a smart move – at least for those th ..read more

The first wave of open web advertising technology companies were founded around 2006 and 2007, marking a key launch phase for data-driven programmatic advertising. These data exchanges and trading platforms focused on the holy alliance between the DSP and the SSP, enabling brands to buy digital advertising inventory across the publisher landscape. Then along came the DMP (data management platform) for brands to house and manage a myriad – and ever increasing – data sources. However, DMPs had their limitations and could not scale. They were also sideswiped by the inexorable growth of the b ..read more

The major independent adtech companies are pinning significant growth hopes on CTV and retail media, the two fastest growing markets available to them. Follow the money – or marginally front-run it – is usually a smart strategy. But with CTV, there are question marks around appetite at the top end of town to open up TV inventory to the fully open programmatic world. The likes of The Trade Desk, Magnite, and PubMatic in November posted relatively solid quarter three earnings results. But while share prices for Magnite (revenues up 3%) and PubMatic (revenue down 1%) are both up double digit ..read more