The Big Story

This week on The Big Story, the AdExchanger team welcomes three special guests – Goodway Group president Jay Friedman, PricewaterhouseCoopers partner Sam Tomlinson and ISBA director of media Stephen Chester – to dig deep into last week’s incendiary study about the programmatic supply chain. The study, executed by PwC and commissioned by ISBA, which represents […]

When AT&T debuted its advertising division Xandr in 2018, it had the bold remit to reinvent advertising, starting with television. But instead, television, with all of its competitive interests, old tech and legacy business models, reinvented Xandr. Its leader, Brian Lesser, resigned unexpectedly and, one week ago, the unit – which debuted as a significant […]

This week on The Big Story, we delve into Google’s Q1 earnings to get an early sense of how the pandemic has impacted the world’s biggest ad supplier. Like others in the industry, the good vibes at the beginning of 2020 soon soured as the pandemic took hold of our way of life. The loss […]

The Trade Desk is cracking down on bid duplication – a byproduct of header bidding in which wrappers such as Google Open Bidding, Amazon TAM or Prebid, as well as the exchanges, all send the same impression. As a result, DSPs such as The Trade Desk might see up to 18 bids for one impression. […]

The past few weeks haven’t been great for the digital advertising industry, with many companies enacting layoffs, furloughs and salary cuts. So how do you, as either an individual or as a company, recover after a tough slog? This week on The Big Story, the AdExchanger team welcomes special guest Martin Kihn, SVP of marketing […]

This week on The Big Story, James Hercher provides some color into what’s going on with Amazon’s affiliate program. Earlier this week, he reported how Amazon had removed third-party vendors from the program. We’ll explore what’s going on and why Amazon came to this decision. In short, removing these vendors boosts Amazon’s margins. Affiliate networks […]

Google’s Ads Data Hub (ADH) is beta testing new audience targeting features. That shift is significant, considering ADH was originally positioned as a way for marketers to get post-campaign analytics and measurement. AdExchanger senior editor James Hercher breaks down what he knows about this expansion of ADH. How granularly can you target? Is search and […]

This week on The Big Story, we take a break from your minute-by-minute coronavirus coverage to bring you the latest on Apple and its anti-tracking practices. On Tuesday, the tech giant reemphasized its infamous (or famous, if you’re a consumer privacy advocate) stance and, in an added measure, said it would quash any and all […]

We now live in a world where euphoria is a 24-pack of toilet paper on a Duane Reade shelf. The Big Story – the only story, really – is the unsettling pall of COVID-19. This week, the AdExchanger team will tell you how we’re doing, but we also want to know how you’re doing. At […]

The Big Story this week (this month, rather) remains the impact of the Coronavirus on media, marketing and global economies. The team examines how the pandemic and ‘social distancing’ affects the advertising industry, which is notoriously built around personal relationships and networking. As Allison Schiff notes, many ad deals come about extemporaneously, whether it’s sitting […]

The new coronavirus is wreaking havoc worldwide as uncertainty reigns, and marketers aren’t immune. This week on The Big Story, the team diagnoses the effect of COVID-19 on 2020 ad budgets, work productivity and the industry conference circuit. Advertisers won’t necessarily spend less, but they will probably start shifting budget to channels where they know […]

If advertising wants to keep using big data sets filled with consumer information, they’ll have to do a better job protecting them. And differential privacy is one of the most promising weapons in the privacy-protecting arsenal. This week on The Big Story, senior editor Allison Schiff dishes on differential privacy. It might sound like an […]

Presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg’s wealth couldn’t buy him a great debate Wednesday night. This week on The Big Story, the team looks at how his money has affected the paid media space. As our own James Hercher points out: “The ROI only shows up when people turn out to vote.” And, despite vaulting into second […]

Cookies in Chrome might be on the way out, but the IAB has a plan for a new identifier. Project Rearc is still in its infancy, and while its goal is clear, its methodology is still TBD – though the slide deck the IAB shared during its annual leadership conference on Sunday and Monday, indicated […]

This week, Alphabet did what investors have been clamoring for: It released YouTube’s revenues, which were $15 billion strong in 2019. Or maybe “strong” isn’t the right word. By most metrics, a business driving $15 billion in annual revenue is great, but many analysts on Alphabet’s earnings call were surprised that the number wasn’t higher. […]

It’s been a few weeks since Google’s monumental announcement that Chrome would stop supporting third-party cookies. This week, we recorded The Big Story live at AdExchanger’s Industry Preview event, with special guests Paul Bannister (cofounder and EVP at CafeMedia) and recurring special guest Ari Paparo (cofounder and CEO of Beeswax) joining the editorial team. The […]

Last week, NBCUniversal unveiled the money-making apparatus behind its upcoming streaming service, Peacock. Not surprisingly, NBCU has an ambitious advertising initiative to ensure its bird takes flight. But the introduction of Peacock isn’t significant because it’s introducing a bunch of new NBCU ad formats into the wild. Instead, it marks a major entrant into the […]

Those maniacs. They blew it up! In a Tuesday blog post by Chrome engineer Justin Schuh, Google announced its fateful decision to stop supporting third-party cookies within two years. But whether or not you’re slamming your forehead repeatedly into the panic button depends on who you are in the ad industry. This week on The […]

This week on The Big Story, we check in at CES, ground zero for meatless sausages. It’s also where programmatic people have resumed their 2019 freak-out about the California Consumer Privacy Act and death of the cookie – but for good reason. The uncertainty there didn’t vanish over the holidays, as we’d all hoped. Meanwhile, […]

It’s the last episode of the year, and the AdExchanger team looks at the biggest moments and biggest personalities that rocked the advertising industry from 2010 to 2020. If the early 2000s were about innovation and finding new ways to transact advertising, then the 2010s were about maturation and cleaning up the Wild West that […]

Here’s your pre-holiday call to action: Flag your cookies. In February, Google’s Chrome browser will stop sending third-party cookie requests cross-site, unless they’re flagged using SameSite internet standard. What in the Sam Hill does that even mean? Listen to this week’s episode of The Big Story – or read Allison Schiff’s meticulous breakdown of what […]

The TV revolution is in full swing, as ratings decline, prices increase, viewers leave for non-ad supported services and new entrants offer video inventory. This week on The Big Story, we look at recent ad forecasts showing that the ratings decline is catching up to the TV market. In other words, the high prices broadcasters […]

As much as Amazon’s advertising platform has grown in recent years, will it ever surpass Google or Facebook? This week on The Big Story, the AdExchanger team looks at that question, and addresses some of the factors holding Amazon Advertising back – from availability of inventory, availability of data and the usability of its technology. […]

Even with doom-and-gloom headlines, our AdExchanger community has much to be thankful for. In a special Thanksgiving episode of The Big Story, we asked our readers and listeners, “What are you grateful for in ad tech?” As it turns out, many see a world of regulation and cookie pressure from a glass half-full perspective. They […]

Programmatic auction dynamics can be arcane, even for the most technical among us. Google has Open Bidding (nee Exchange Bidding), Amazon’s got Transparent Ad Marketplace (TAM) and Prebid predates them both, not to mention a host of other wrappers on the scene. But what do buyers, exchanges and publishers have to say – and, more […]

Everyone has an opinion about the death of the cookie, especially the ones who have something to sell. That something could be a product that will help alleviate the pain of the cookie going away, or targeted media that relies heavily on cookies. It’s hard to get a straight answer, and as Sarah Sluis and […]

For ad tech companies Criteo and Viant, it’s onward and… upward? Last week, Nielsen Chief Commercial Officer Megan Clarken was announced as Criteo’s new CEO, replacing JB Rudelle. (Incidentally, Clarken’s exodus from Nielsen makes a lot of sense, considering the measurement company’s decision to split into two.) This week on The Big Story, the team […]

The most sophisticated marketers want direct deals with exchanges; it’s hard to wean yourself from Google; and Facebook’s political ads policies continue to roil the public. This week on The Big Story, it’s all about relationships – both building them and moving on from them. First, we look at how some big brands – including […]

Ten years after dataxu raised its first round (and $87.5 million later), the demand-side platform has found its forever home. Roku intends to acquire the company for $150 million, a move that gives it the tech it needs to launch an open marketplace similar to what Xandr is doing with AppNexus. Because dataxu plugs into […]

Change is in the air. To wit, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, topping the polls of Democratic presidential candidates, has made the breakup of big tech into a pet issue on the campaign trail. At the same time, regulatory and privacy concerns are driving state legislation that could transform the way consumer data is collected and, thus, […]