The Big Story features a roundtable discussion with the AdExchanger editorial team on the week’s top news stories. New and previously published episodes are available on this page and on your preferred podcast app.
CPRA, BSAA and antitrust: We close out 2022 with (acronyms and) a repeat of a January 2022 episode that took the pulse of the legal world’s latest moves in data privacy.
Data privacy. Clean rooms. Measurement. Gaming. M&A. Which trends deserved the hype – and which ones didn’t – in 2022? We dig into some of the biggest topics of the year
Google’s Performance Max performs – but with a caveat. Marketers can’t control their campaigns and have no say over where their ads run or even, in some cases, what the creative looks like. And flying blind can lead to problems. Plus: Digital media layoffs and a recap of Google Ad Manager’s recent outage.
Fingerprinting, an alternative to third-party cookies, uses a constellation of browser signals to identify a person. The browsers don’t like it, but can they actually stamp it out? Plus: Advertising will grow, albeit slowly, in 2023, according to recent ad agency forecasts.
Brand safety has a hypocrisy problem. Violence that gets a pass when it’s a fictional TV show becomes flagged if it’s part of an online news story. But to what end? Plus: what Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales results portend for retailers’ prospects in Q4 and beyond.
Android has a Privacy Sandbox, too, and it’s going into open beta next year. Learn why this initiative isn’t generating the same ruckus as its close Chrome cousin, which is being hashed out at the W3C. Plus: a rundown on transparency (or the lack thereof) and the related data land grab in CTV.
Facebook’s ad platform is still misfiring and ad buyers are resorting to desperate measures, including a pay-for-access fee scheme that led to the firing of multiple Meta employees. Plus: It’s ad tech earnings week … and the category isn’t doing too hot.
The state of advertising at Twitter is a hot mess. And advertisers are starting to react. Plus: a primer on the Google Analytics deadline delay and changes to Google’s clean room, Ads Data Hub.
Political advertising is in full swing for the US midterm elections. We go deep into where candidates are spending their digital ad dollars and how they’re using data, with special guest Grace Briscoe, who oversees some 850 ad campaigns as head of political business for Basis.
Transparency. Privacy. Signal Loss. Coming out of Programmatic IO New York, the full editorial team debriefs on the hottest topics driving ad tech conversations in 2022.
Once you start looking, dark patterns are everywhere – and the FTC is determined to do more about enforcing against these unfair and deceptive design practices. Also: Brands are using incrementality measurement to transform their marketing plans and boost performance.
Media planning is evolving in the lead-up to the midterm elections. Geotargeted CTV campaigns are winning over local media placements. Plus: Is Meta the new AOL? The argument for and against a behemoth’s slow decline.
Data clean rooms and regulation could be topics on The Big Story any week this year. But despite the tsunami of news coverage on both topics, each remains largely unknown or misunderstood.
Recent speeches by DOJ and FTC leaders share a common thread, each organization sees a need for more aggressive market intervention and action to deliver on its mission. Plus: Getting the industry to weigh in on the definition of “premium.”
As measurement challenges intensify for DTC marketers, TikTokalytics vendors have been filling the gap. Plus: Analyzing the language at an FTC hearing on “commercial surveillance.”
The fate of the American Data Privacy and Protection Act hangs in the balance. With strong support by voters in favor of data privacy, along with bipartisan momentum, the federal privacy law should be advancing – but current detractors say it’s not strong enough.
There’s a storm brewing and wildfires are raging. We’re not talking about hurricane season or climate change, though, but rather the fallout for ad tech from the macroeconomic downturn and privacy lawsuits, including the FTC’s recent complaint against Kochava which challenges the programmatic data-selling model writ large.
The latest weapon in the streaming wars is HBO’s “House of the Dragon.” But behind the glamour of this high-profile project, the bean counters are busy cutting costs, as streaming services rationalize after the pandemic. Plus: the lowdown on the latest privacy lawsuit against Oracle.
Signal loss combined with privacy concerns is helping bring old-school panel measurement back in style. Google just started recruiting for a panel this week. Plus: the future of attention metrics.
AppLovin wants Unity – but only if Unity calls off its planned acquisition of ironSource. Why doesn’t AppLovin want ironSource? And how is Apple’s ATT driving consolidation in mobile ad tech? Listen in. Plus: The Trade Desk claims to benefit whenever a regulator starts investigating Google.
Meta just got sued over an alleged violation of HIPAA. But where exactly does the health privacy law apply? With the recent overturn of Roe v. Wade, it’s more important than ever for digital advertisers to understand how HIPAA protects (and doesn’t protect) the use of sensitive health data in ad campaigns. Plus: Understanding the resurgence of MMM and the rise of incrementality measurement.
The expiration date for third-party cookies has been extended for another year. We talk through what the delay will mean for ad tech. Plus, an entire corner of the LUMAscape now exists within the Tremor-Amobee deal, the ultimate example in ad tech consolidation.
Netflix shocked the ad tech world with its selection of Microsoft to run its AVOD business. But the deal actually makes sense, and it’s helped calm nerves on Wall Street to boot. Plus: Why the IAB Tech Lab’s seller-defined audiences is slow to take off.
Google is signaling it may spin off its ad tech business. A DSP and SSP change would create new winners and losers and potentially open up access to walled-off inventory, says our guest, Ari Paparo, founder of Marketecture. Plus: How Google Analytics’ coming change will affect publishers.
The overturn of Roe v. Wade, the ongoing war in Ukraine, a stock market collapse – it’s all the news that’s fit to print, but how are publishers going to monetize it if brands are skittish about serious topics? Plus: The dangers of data collection in a post-Roe world.
Google has tried – and so far mostly failed – to get its customers on board with major new migrations for its online advertising platform. But Google means business this time, with the migration to the new GA4 analytics solution. You’ve got one year. Also: Tech layoffs are on the rise.
If there is one constant in ad tech, it’s change. When the AdExchanger team recorded its first episode four years ago, ad tech was in the middle of one of its acquisition sprees. IPG had just bought Acxiom Marketing Services. Agencies were buying up data platforms as they sought to differentiate and help clients with […]
Google may open up YouTube to outside programmatic demand as a bargaining chip to EU regulators. And a looming recession won’t deflate digital advertising – although don’t expect pandemic-level growth.
After Apple’s WWDC, the company’s next step will be to clamp down on fingerprinting … the question is, when? Plus, industry orgs struggle to build a path forward with new signals.
We read between the lines of Google’s progress report to the UK’s antitrust regulator on its plan to remove third-party cookies from Chrome. Could Google miss its own self-imposed 2023 deadline? “Signs point to yes.”
