podcast

Temu pulled back on its US ad spend this week, as tariffs loom. Plus, in France, the ATT prompt was deemed anticompetitive and, as a result, will likely need to be changed.

What’s old is new. Time is a flat circle. Trends are cyclical. Choose your idiom, because this week’s episode grapples with two topics that are back in style (so to speak): bot traffic and the tantalizing dream of scaling programmatic in-game advertising.

The IAB Tech Lab is proposing that ad auctions move to a Trusted Server from the browser. Why its prototype attracted controversy. Plus, should data privacy be viewed as a badge of honor, or a baseline standard?

Alphonso shareholders won their lawsuit against LG Ads, clearing the way for an IPO. Then, as TikTok counts down the days until its stay of execution expires, Oracle might buy a minority stake.

Programmatic algorithms optimize for performance, which can leave digital media companies floundering. Inside programmatic’s pursuit of “premium.” Plus: an ad tech acquisition forged on matchmaking buy-side and sell-side IDs.

In her last week at AdExchanger, Senior Editor Alyssa Boyle reflects on three years of change, and stasis, in the CTV space. Then, how Ozempic is changing the marketing world.

When an ad shows up next to illegal content, there is often not a single point of failure. Adalytics Krzysztof Franaszek walks us through why he found ads showing up next to the worst kind of criminal content — and the simple and complex solutions to this problem.

The Google Chrome team is getting closer to deciding on its cookie consent mechanism. And  Paramount resolves its four-month standoff with Nielsen, as the mechanics behind currency change forever.

TikTok was granted a 75-day stay of execution this week. We discuss what’s next for the social media platform, why it was classified as a threat to national security and how advertisers are responding.

M&A started off with a bang in 2025. T-Mobile bought Vistar Media, and The Trade Desk bought Sincera. With a special guest from LUMA Partners, Conor McKenna, we explore the rationale for these ad tech acquisitions.