It’s been 15 years since this comic first ran in January 2011, and there’s something both quaint and timeless about it. The core power and trust issues between middlemen and buyers still haven’t gone away – if anything they’ve become more acute. But there’s been a heartening push for transparency across the supply chain and we’re seeing progress.
Here’s to more (and more) transparency in 2026, and happy New Year!
Ad industry experts call out trends to watch in 2026 and separate the real AI use cases having an impact today from the AI hype they heard at CES.
Fraud is eating into retail profits. A new startup called Pinch AI just launched with $5 million in funding to fight back.
On Wednesday, retail and CPG data company SPINS added a new piece with its acquisition of MikMak, a click-to-buy ad tech and analytics startup that helps optimize their commerce media.
Believe it or not, car oil change service company Valvoline is in the midst of a fascinating retail marketing transformation.
Agents, streamers and robots, oh my! Live from the C-Space campus at the Aria Casino in Las Vegas, our team breaks down the most interesting ad tech trends we saw at CES this year.
From afar, it looks like Google had a rough year in antitrust court. But zoom in a bit and it becomes clear that the past year went about as well as Google could have hoped for.
Ad industry experts call out trends to watch in 2026 and separate the real AI use cases having an impact today from the AI hype they heard at CES.
Retail’s Big Show, the annual NRF event in New York City, was big on agentic commerce, unsurprisingly, as well as influencer and creator marketing, which was an eye-opener.
Returning to the news desk after a year away from CTV beat reporting is like discovering a time capsule with the industry’s core dilemmas. One thing that has changed, however, is the CTV industry’s infatuation with agentic AI.
Linkby, which connects brands with publisher content that advertisers pay for based on reader engagement, announced its $15 million Series B on Tuesday.
Traffic is down, but publisher content is still driving purchases. Partnerize’s new attribution model lets publishers see what’s working and strike fair compensation deals.
