The Big Story

Cookies aren’t going anywhere. Behind Google’s third missed deadline to remove third-party cookies from Chrome and what it means for ad tech.

 One side effect of signal loss? Media mix modeling is coming back in fashion. Google’s Meridian is the latest entrant in the MMM space, which is being embraced by large ad platforms and startups alike. Plus: Differentiating between shoppable TV and T-commerce.

Inside Forbes’ hidden MFA site, and the industry reactions to the ad-crammed subdomain. Plus: a dispatch from the Global Privacy Summit in Washington D.C., where ad tech is a hot topic.

TV ad buying platform Cadent acquires AdTheorent, setting its sights on omnichannel. Also in this episode: The less-than-kosher attribution game that retail media networks are playing with brands.

Inside the Nubai Ventures lawsuit against Outbrain. Plus: The broadcaster-backed joint industry committee and the Media Rating Council clarify their complementary roles.

More granular video classifications are replacing outstream video. But the move may devalue some inventory. Plus: GPTs are coming for contextual.

Why the 4A’s is hosting secret meetings to redefine MFA from “made for advertising” to “made for arbitrage.” Plus, a new report from Adalytics reveals that MFA-blocking solutions aren’t as effective as tech vendors claim.

In a world without cookies, ads aren’t viewable and yield goes down. But it’s still early days. Mediavine SVP Amanda Martin shares early results from its Privacy Sandbox tests.

Need ad creative? Here’s what you need to know about using a generative AI startup to make your ad. Plus: Reddit opens its books before a planned IPO.

Walmart bought Vizio for a foothold in streaming – a move that will take the retailer’s ads business to new levels. Then, a deep dive into the “sky bridges,” a new term for partnerships between walled garden platforms.

After Temu’s 5+ Super Bowl ads and billions in ad spending, will people shop like a billionaire? We discuss the strange profligacy of the discount shopping app.

The gap analysis of the Privacy Sandbox is out. And the gap is…large. Then, a case for why hype about first-party data hasn’t been matched in reality.

After going through denial and anger over the death of third-party cookies, the ad tech industry enters the bargaining stage. Plus, top takeaways from the FTC's first-ever AI tech summit.

Getting personalization right remains tricky, and AI will only make it trickier. Then, inside Privacy Sandbox testing and the rise of curation tech.

This week’s theme is programmatic excess. We start with bid duplication and end with VideoAmp’s fall back to Earth.

As the ad world descends upon Vegas for CES, streaming services from Netflix to Amazon to Disney are turning out in force. Then, all the intrigue unearthed from the lawsuit that pitted LG Electronics against the startup it acquired, Alphonso (now LG Ads).

The end of third-party cookies is upon us, and independent ad tech is diverging on the best approach for cookieless targeting. Meanwhile, agencies and marketers are zooming out from programmatic to a bigger picture that’s focused on first-party data.

In 2023, supply-path optimization took off, brands took their scalpels to made-for-advertising websites and DSPs and SSPs launched SPO products to cut down on hops. Plus: lessons from the year in data privacy.

Marketers are choosing either Nielsen or alternative currencies (or both) for TV measurement. Learn what’s ahead for alternative currencies in 2024. Plus: the latest outlook on programmatic audio.

Marketers are wasting 25% of their ad spend on inefficiencies and made-for-advertising websites, and the ANA thinks consolidation and education are the solutions. Plus: In 2024, ad spend will grow, but at a slower rate than 2023. And streamers will grapple with CTV’s rising ad spend and linear TV’s accelerating decline.

Google search ads appear on a host of unsavory and offensive sites, according to recent Adalytics research. And without any transparent reporting from Google, marketers can’t do anything about it.

This week we take a look at the rise of new specialist DSPs that thrive in respective categories, regardless of the power of omnichannel giants. Also, why targeting US Hispanic audiences – and targeting by language and ethnicity in general – has been so messy and inaccurate.

DSPs and SSPs are being graded by TAG TrustNet on whether they comply with a key transparency initiative: sharing log-file data. Find out who’s passing and who’s failing. Then, we count the ways CTV suppliers are embracing programmatic buying.

As Omnicom’s $835 million acquisition of commerce specialists Flywheel Digital attests, commerce media is flush. Then, why the most sophisticated and data-rich programmatic marketers are intrigued by custom algorithms.

The impact of tech on monetization – from SPO sustainability initiatives to the looming end of the cookie and the challenges of implementing its replacements – has publishers feeling jaded. Plus, for retail media fans: inside the Pantry Wars.

Yahoo Backstage is a “sorta SSP” that’s emblematic of a larger SPO trend that hops over either DSPs or SSPs. Plus: a primer on the ecommerce ad metrics and tools that are changing how marketers buy digitally, from ACOS to TROAS to cost capping.

Scam ads featuring AI-generated celebrities are catching the FTC’s attention. Hear what the creator economy fears about generative AI. Plus: the latest on the US v. Google trial.

Does Google have a monopoly on search? The trial to answer that question is underway, and we go through the juiciest highlights.

The AdExchanger editorial team recaps what we learned in data privacy, retail media and connected TV at this year’s Programmatic IO.

The widening “trust gap” between consumers and the ad industry is enough to make a chief privacy officer quit. So Arielle Garcia did. She explains why.

Media mix modeling is back in fashion. Meta, Amazon and Google are finding ways for marketers to measure the effectiveness of their entire advertising spend. Should we trust them?

While everyone feared the worst for the ad ecosystem in 2023, Q4 will finish out with 8% growth. Madison and Wall analyst Brian Wieser explains why he sees green shoots of growth across the industry.

Personalized ads aren’t supposed to run on YouTube’s kid-focused content. But they’re showing up anyway. We bring on Adalytics researcher Krzysztof Franaszek to discuss his growing body of research into YouTube’s murky ad practices.

Streamers are raising prices amid a challenging environment to win subscribers. Plus: what big changes in data privacy and portability in Europe mean for ad tech.

 Is the ad tech freeze starting to thaw? The tides may be changing after a private equity firm bought Cadent for $600 million this week. Plus: Programmatic ads hit the big screen, brought to you by National CineMedia.

Why DoubleVerify is acquiring Scibids. Plus: How the ascent of YouTube TV has led to CTV advertisers landing premium inventory for a song.

Publishers are feeling the ripple effects from MediaMath’s bankruptcy, as SSPs claw back media spend. Plus, Twitter rebrands to X.

We dive into the muck that is YouTube’s partner network. Plus, how that lack of transparency relates to its burgeoning YouTube TV supply.

Get the inside baseball on MediaMath’s bankruptcy. Plus,what its demise means for the rest of ad tech.

Why retail media is going in-house. Plus, Prebid.org’s latest update addresses three biggies: SPO, data privacy and the end of third-party cookies:

"How did they let us into this thing?" After a week at the Cannes Lions, Sarah and Allison share what they learned from advertising's networking festival, set against the backdrop of White Lotus and Below Deck.

Everyone is infusing their tech with generative AI, from startups to Salesforce to Google. Understand the throughlines of these product updates. Plus, the challenge of finding publisher playmates in the Privacy Sandbox

 Twitter ad revenue is down, brand safety is MIA and the product appears to be breaking. As newly appointed Twitter CEO Linda Yaccarino starts her first week on the job, can she engineer a turnaround? Plus: the launch of The Trade Desk’s Kokai and Apple’s privacy manifests.

Happy birthday, GDPR! On this week’s episode, we dissect how GDPR, now five years old – and a few billion dollars accumulated in fines – has affected the online economy. We also dissect the end of AddThis, a third-party data company and GDPR casualty.

From a data-fueled TV upfronts to recent changes in streaming pricing, ad load and bundles, the TV industry is making progress under pressure. Plus: Google’s third-party cookieless plan and new AI features.

Where does ad tech see future growth? And where do expanding areas like retail media, privacy tech and connected TV need a reality check? Listen in to hear both cases as the editorial team recaps the Programmatic IO conference.

Cutting out hops in the supply chain means skipping over a DSP or an SSP – especially for video inventory. Plus, inside Cadent’s bid for bankrupt SSP EMX.

If you thought ad tech was technically tricky, listen to this saga, in which too-short timeouts in an identity wrapper put publishers in peril.

With a mostly silent response to marketer outrage after an outage, Meta has lost the pulse of its customer base. Plus: the tricky yet worthwhile challenge of targeted health care marketing.

Digital out-of-home (DOOH) is growing, but it’s still the minority of the market, and programmatic is just a fraction. Learn what’s accelerating the industry’s transition to digital and programmatic and what’s holding it back.

Ad tech vendors who scrape content to build contextual segments are irking publishers. And the latest tweak in Safari will cut down on vendors that camouflage themselves in first-party cookie tech.

What are data privacy lawyers (and regulators) thinking most about these days? Allison Schiff reports from Washington D.C. Plus: the effects of ATT, nearly two years later.

TikTok CEO Shou Chew is no Zuck. The social media app activated a fan army after congressional hearings last week. Plus: State laws are emerging to protect kids from social media, which could squeeze the ad ecosystem.

Programmatic veterans are pivoting to become founders of privacy tech companies. Plus: Nielsen ONE and the currency battle continues leading up for the TV upfronts.

From FLEDGE to SDA to MSPA, publishers are overwhelmed by new identity solutions and data privacy requirements. Plus: in-game advertising’s next level and understanding why smart TVs enabled with ACR tech could transform TV measurement.

Temu is buying its way into the ecommerce business. Plus, reconciling philosophical views on data privacy with a reality that’s more ho-hum and bureaucratic.

Agencies get paid to spend time creating and planning things. So what happens when generative AI tech creates and plans things for them?

Section 230 protects tech platforms, but the Supreme Court is hearing a challenge to the statute. Plus, the latest in the courtroom battle between Kochava and the FTC.

The SSP category is facing some rough times. They’re either going bankrupt (EMX), undergoing layoffs (TripleLift, Magnite) or shuttering (Yahoo). Should we blame SPO?

Balkanizing retail media. The need for data without betraying trust. Potential buyers of Criteo. During this live recording at AdExchanger’s Industry Preview, we give a rundown on ad tech’s most sizzling topics.

How should the ad industry treat consumers’ call for data privacy? The IAB, ANA and 4A’s are at odds on how to tackle a thorny issue.

The big one is here, as The Big Story examines the DOJ’s suit against Google for anticompetitive practices. Also: The IAB pulls no punches in its criticisms of Apple). 

ISBA and PwC rang alarm bells in 2020 about the complexity of programmatic. But increased transparency is making it easier to track impressions from start to finish. Plus: YouTube Shorts is taking on TikTok through a new revenue sharing model.

First, get our boots-on-the-ground CES rundown on all things TV. Then: a roundup of Big Tech’s antitrust troubles in 2023.

We share our 2023 New Year’s resolutions. We’re cracking down on the terms “cookieless” and “privacy safe.”  And for the sake of experimentation, we’re cautiously embracing ChatGPT.

CPRA, BSAA and antitrust: We close out 2022 with (acronyms and) a repeat of a January 2022 episode that took the pulse of the legal world’s latest moves in data privacy. 

Abstract: Data privacy. Clean rooms. Measurement. Gaming. M&A. We go through some of the biggest topics that shaped the year, and recap the trends that deserved the hype (and which ones didn’t) in 2022.

Abstract: Google’s Performance Max performs – but with a caveat. Marketers can’t control their campaigns and have no say over where their ads run or even, in some cases, what the creative looks like. And flying blind can lead to problems. Plus: Digital media layoffs and a recap of Google Ad Manager’s recent outage.

Fingerprinting, an alternative to third-party cookies, uses a constellation of browser signals to identify a person. The browsers don’t like it, but can they actually stamp it out? Plus: Advertising will grow, albeit slowly, in 2023, according to recent ad agency forecasts.

Brand safety has a hypocrisy problem. Violence that gets a pass when it’s a fictional TV show becomes flagged if it’s part of an online news story. But to what end? Plus: what Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales results portend for retailers’ prospects in Q4 and beyond.

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, we're sharing a recent episode of our sibling podcast, AdExchanger Talks. With a sharp but empathetic perspective on the responsibility that technology providers have to their users, this interview with The Markup’s CEO, Nabiha Syed, is one you don't want to miss.

Android has a Privacy Sandbox, too, and it’s going into open beta next year. Learn why this initiative isn’t generating the same ruckus as its close Chrome cousin, which is being hashed out at the W3C. Plus: a rundown on transparency (or the lack thereof) and the related data land grab in CTV.

Facebook’s ad platform is still misfiring and ad buyers are resorting to desperate measures, including a pay-for-access fee scheme that led to the firing of multiple Meta employees. Plus: It’s ad tech earnings week … and the category isn’t doing too hot.

The state of advertising at Twitter is a hot mess. And advertisers are starting to react. Plus: a primer on the Google Analytics deadline delay and changes to Google’s clean room, Ads Data Hub.

Political advertising is in full swing for the US midterm elections. We go deep into where candidates are spending their digital ad dollars and how they’re using data, with special guest Grace Briscoe, who oversees some 850 ad campaigns as head of political business for Basis.

Transparency. Privacy. Signal Loss. Coming out of Programmatic IO New York, the full editorial team debriefs on the hottest topics driving ad tech conversations in 2022.

Once you start looking, dark patterns are everywhere – and the FTC is determined to do more about enforcing against these unfair and deceptive design practices. Also: Brands are using incrementality measurement to transform their marketing plans and boost performance.

Media planning is evolving in the lead-up to the midterm elections. Geotargeted CTV campaigns are winning over local media placements. Plus: Is Meta the new AOL? The argument for and against a behemoth’s slow decline.

Data clean rooms and regulation could be topics on The Big Story any week this year. But despite the tsunami of news coverage on both topics, each remains largely unknown or misunderstood.

Recent speeches by DOJ and FTC leaders share a common thread, each organization sees a need for more aggressive market intervention and action to deliver on its mission. Plus: Getting the industry to weigh in on the definition of "premium."