This headline and article has been updated.
After a five-year run as GM of Comcast-owned video ad tech platform FreeWheel, Dave Clark made the jump to programmatic ad platform TripleLift, which hired him as CEO in October.
Clark came on during a period of transition for TripleLift. A year and a half before, Vista Equity Partners purchased a majority stake in the company, which at the time was valued at $1.4 billion. During the executive shakeup, Founder and CEO Eric Berry, Chief Strategy Officer Ari Lewine and Chief Revenue Officer Jacqueline Quantrell all left the company.
Clark oversaw FreeWheel’s evolution into a programmatic player in the CTV space. Bringing on Clark as CEO was seen by industry watchers as a boost to TripleLift’s fledgling CTV business.
Clark spoke to AdExchanger about TripleLift’s IPO plans, how close its ambitious CTV ad formats are to market, and more.
AdExchanger: What made you decide to join TripleLift?
DAVE CLARK: TripleLift is a company that I always admired. The founders, Eric [Berry] and Ari [Lewine], created this native advertising space, and they’ve started to apply those muscles in other arenas, like CTV.
The 1plusX acquisition was intriguing, given the single biggest topic on everyone’s mind is privacy. And it’s not just about the cookie. You’ve got to think about the regulatory environment. There’s a larger question about surveillance marketing, fundamentally, and should we be doing this at all.
What are your priorities for the company?
Data. And staying committed to native [ads]. There’s a lot of innovation left to happen, in terms of formats designed for particular categories or bringing more video and interactive experiences into display environments, and how native plays in retail media and gaming.
Third is CTV. With the advanced ad formats we’ve been building, we can open up revenue streams for streamers, most of whom are underwater right now and spending a lot on content development, but their unit economics don’t make sense. Their ad loads are probably going to remain low, [so we want to] help their ad time work harder.
What did you think of Netflix choosing Microsoft to run its ad business?
Netflix is in great hands. Microsoft has some significant ad tech in Xandr. The commercial terms Microsoft brought to the table were very fair for Netflix.
It’s a great move for Microsoft, because it gets them in the video business in a way that they hadn’t been before. The most sought-after inventory in the ad market for the next cycle will be in Netflix.
Is Netflix charging a $65 CPM sustainable?
I don’t think anybody thinks it’s sustainable. But it makes sense. There’s a huge amount of demand and very little supply.
[The price] isn’t going to stay this high. [Pricing] is governed by how many people are signing up to the ad-supported tier, how much content they actually watch and the ad loads. Those are all unknowns. There are questions around how much cannibalization is happening within existing subscribers. There was an [Insider Intelligence] report [that forecasted a drop in Netflix viewers over the next year].
How has Disney’s decision to choose Google Ad Manager for its DTC business worked out?
I don’t think anyone close to the day-to-day ad operations at Disney felt like that was a good decision for Disney at the time. That said, since then, [Disney EVP of ad platforms] Jeremy Helfand has come in and taken over ad tech there. He’s done a good job of using the Hulu tech chops to build out Disney’s ad tech platform. And they’ve actually become less reliant on Google over time as they build stuff in house. You can’t argue the fact that Disney is in a great position today.
Are there any takeaways from what these big players in streaming are doing that other streaming channels need to emulate?
Right now, people are looking to [FAST channels like] Pluto or Xumo for innovation. Pound for pound, Pluto has done a better job of monetizing their inventory than anyone else out there. They’re digital first. Paramount did a good job of integrating that company and letting its leaders have a voice. And it’s paid off.
What do you think a recession next year would look like?
When you see a stock market pull back like we’ve seen, it’s usually followed by a year or two of recession, and then 10 years of growth. We need to focus on the 10 years of growth.
These downturns tend to be good for programmatic-first companies, because it takes fewer people to do the work and money shifts to lower-funnel efficiency platforms, as opposed to broad-reach brand campaigns that get booked via direct IO. If you’re not outpacing the market right now, you should be concerned.
What are TripleLift’s plans for gaming?
Gaming is hard. It’s not standardized. They tend to be high-frequency, low-reach environments. We’re waiting for those environments to open up a little bit, especially console gaming. And we’re paying a lot of attention to the Robloxes of the world.
TripleLift founder and former CEO Eric Berry said last year the company was exploring an IPO. Have TripleLift’s IPO plans changed, given the uncertain economic environment?
We’re focused right now on building enterprise value. There’s an opportunity for us to take share and be really aggressive. And we’re very lucky to be private right now and have the backers that we have in Vista. We probably won’t be thinking about [an IPO] for a few years.
Going back to TripleLift’s advanced ad formats, like in-show product placement—are brands currently using that tech, or is it still in the aspirational phase?
If you fast-forward three to six months, you probably will see most of the major streamers doing something visible, even if it’s just experimental.
This is very entrepreneurial for us right now. The team has been working for years on getting the product to show up in the stream with the right lighting, size and camera angles.
What about TripleLift’s other CTV formats, like split-screen video and messaging overlays?
Those are scaling faster, because there are less technical integration issues. There are corollaries in television advertising, so all of that is more understandable from the buyer’s and publisher’s perspective.
Back in May, we reported TripleLift can integrate ads into more than 48,000 episodes of CTV content. How has that changed?
The last time I saw something, it was about double.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
Correction 11/17: A previous version of this article said TripleLift was valued at $2 billion at the time Vista Equity Partners purchased a majority stake in the company. The article has been corrected to reflect that Vista acquired a majority stake in TripleLift, which at the time was valued at $1.4 billion.
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