TTDTV, retail media tech, more curation news

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AdTech God
November 21, 2024

Welcome to The Refresh, a weekly newsletter from AdTechGod and Marketecture. Every Thursday we’ll bring you the latest advertising news, commentary, and memes.

  • Netflix sued over alleged backroom deal With meta to stand down on streaming (Hollwood reporter)

  • AI Briefing: Index Exchange and Cognitiv integrate to use generative AI for programmatic curation (Digiday)

  • Comcast to spin off NBCU's cable channels (Axios)

  • Justice Department reportedly pushing Google to spin off Chrome (TechCrunch)

  • How influencer shops and agencies are adding content studios to boost production speed, revenue (Digiday)

Podcasts, Videos and more

Xander Kotsatos from Beeswax

Xander highlights the importance of focusing on strengths, putting in the effort, and adapting to industry changes. He addresses challenges in fragmented content distribution, the rise of private marketplace deals, audience targeting in CTV, and the evolving future of the industry.

Maximizing Incremental Revenue

Tom Wall, from Influent Media, shares strategies for identifying and measuring incremental revenue for publishers. He highlights balancing user experience with revenue growth while stressing the importance of brand safety and managing publisher relationships effectively. Sponsored by Duration Media.

Hot takes on the news of the week

TTD is developing a new connected television operating system called Ventura

The system, set to launch in 2025, aims to improve transparency and measurement in the CTV advertising ecosystem by partnering with hardware companies and television distributors.

The Trade Desk believes its lack of content ownership will provide a more objective solution compared to existing OS providers like Roku, Amazon, and Google.

Ari’s View: If nothing else this is a way to get some leverage over broadcasters and walled gardens so they don’t get shut out of valuable supply. At the most, this is way to collect both content and user data at scale.
Read the Axios Article

Retail Media Tech Stack! Original Post by Danilo Tauro

Retail media has experienced unprecedented growth, reaching $30 billion in just five years (2016–2021), a pace far faster than that of search or social advertising. This rapid expansion shows the rising importance of e-commerce platforms like Amazon, which have leveraged their vast troves of first-party data to offer highly targeted and measurable advertising opportunities. The success of retail media signals a shift in advertising, as brands increasingly prioritize performance-driven strategies tied to consumer purchase behavior.

It also shows the growing reliance on closed ecosystems where advertisers can directly influence shoppers at the point of purchase, creating a new era of media buying focused on measurable ROI and precision targeting.

Ari’s View: The largest retailers are largely building their own tech and on the buy side there is huge fragmentation. Being a vendor in retail/commerce media seems quite challenging, and I don’t think it will be winner-take-all like in more liquid markets (Trade Desk, AppLovin, DoubleClick).

Index Exchange and Cognitiv integrate to use generative AI for programmatic curation

Generative AI and ad curation are being seen as the next big thing in programmatic advertising and it seems Cognitiv and Index Exchange feel the same way! Their partnership announcement last week states that Cognitiv’s ContextGPT is integrated with Index’s Marketplaces platform, using deep learning and large language models to target audiences without cookies. This tech is aimed to deliver more precise ad placements by analyzing millions of websites daily, predicting conversions in real time, and balancing audience, context, and timing.

Proponents argue this could be a game-changer, offering publishers more control, reducing reliance on DSPs, and unlocking new revenue streams. Companies like Cognitiv are tackling bias concerns with inclusivity measures, while platforms like Google and Chalice AI are also validating its potential.

While the promise of smarter targeting and better results is appealing, the reality of adoption, scalability, and addressing AI biases will ultimately determine if this is the future of adtech or just clever “nice to have”.

Ari’s view: I’m a big fan of curation and it opens up a lot of business models. Consider how much work it is for Cognitiv to convince a media buyer to switch budget to their platform versus, say The Trade Desk. With curation, you don’t have to switch, you just use a deal ID.

Updates on the community and events

Marketecture Live!

Marketecture Live is where Ad Tech and digital marketing pros come together for an awesome day of learning, networking, and industry deep dives, all happening in March 2025 in NYC. Born from the Marketecture podcast, this event is all about exploring hot topics in Identity and the latest tech shaping our industry. Expect breakout sessions, top-notch speakers, hands-on insights, and plenty of chances to connect with like-minded folks.

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