AdExchanger Talks interviews key figures in marketing who are transforming digital advertising and media. New and previously published episodes are available on this page and on your preferred podcast app.
Ad measurement is becoming more challenging due to signal loss. But there was never such a thing as perfect measurement, says Jen Faraci, chief data officer at Publicis-owned Digitas North America.
Television advertising has the reputation of mainly being a vehicle for branding. But that’s a misconception, says Arjun Kapur, managing partner and founder of Comcast’s Forecast Labs.
Emily Essner, CMO of Saks explains why Saks Fifth Avenue made an unusual move to split its ecommerce business and physical stores into two separate companies.
Brands that don’t invest in diverse media are missing out on revenue. “Audiences in those communities reward you for noticing them,” says Mark Walker, CEO of Direct Digital Holdings.
The digital advertising industry has been too focused on data perfection, according to Analytic Partners CEO Nancy Smith. But as data disappears due to signal loss, brands have an opportunity to regroup around “commercial analytics,” a different measurement approach focused on driving outcomes with less user-focused data.
Performance marketers once turned up their noses at creative, seeming to only care about audience targeting. But signal loss is putting creative back into the spotlight by highlighting how essential even the smallest of details can be, says VidMob CEO Alex Collmer. Also: Hot takes on generative AI art. (Spoiler: Humans aren’t obsolete – yet.)
Are retail media networks overhyped? “It’s a very fair question,” says Ali Miller, Instacart’s VP of product management for ads. The answer is yes and no. Yes, companies are jumping on the RMN bandwagon – but it’s not hype, as long as retail media can prove its value.
Roughly one-third of the US population has a direct connection to the military. And yet many brands “still struggle to authentically connect with this key demographic,” says Mark Harper, GM of military and defense at Recurrent Ventures.
With 100 million customers and a homegrown CDP, Intuit is a data-driven brand, says Intuit CMO Lara Balazs. But beyond conversions, the owner of TurboTax and Credit Karma closely tracks brand reputation as a measure of success.
The combination of attention across streaming and linear television is a massive, undermonetized opportunity, says Blockgraph CEO Jason Manningham. But if traditional TV players don’t get more creative with their data, they’ll lose out to the Big Tech platforms. It’s a familiar tale.
