Advertising Perspectives

As brand safety standards evolve and oversight shifts from platforms to third-party vendors, Brittany Scott, SVP of global partnerships at Zefr, explains what the rise of generative AI – and Meta’s decision to step away ... read more

This year, programmatic companies faced tough decisions about privacy, awkward acquisitions and the cookie die-off that never quite happened. The post Top 10 Stories of 2025 appeared first on AdExchanger. ... read more

Competition between DSPs and SSPs was extra spicy this year. The Trade Desk’s aggressive posture against SSPs – which it branded as “resellers” contributing little to the programmatic supply chain – sparked countless hot takes ... read more

Enjoy this weekly comic strip from AdExchanger.com that highlights the digital advertising ecosystem …  The post Comic: Season’s Beatings appeared first on AdExchanger. ... read more

TV ad measurement is breaking down. Privacy restrictions are mounting, traditional identifiers are disappearing, and the deterministic measurement advertisers once relied on is harder to maintain.  On this episode of Inside the Stack, Cynopsis’ Lynn ... read more

AI is fueling advertising, and AI agents are running ads. As we close out 2025, take a moment to listen to this AdExchanger Talks interview with Paul Longo, GM of AI in ads for advertising, ... read more

Two years ago, it was so quiet on the M&A front that you could almost hear the tumbleweeds rolling through the conference rooms. But, over the past two years, the ad tech deal machine began ... read more

A brief heads-up that December 24 will be our last Daily News Roundup of 2025! We’ll return on January 5, 2026, right before CES begins. Until then, happy holidays!  Discontent To Commerce Starting around 2019, ... read more

Programmatic media buying is expected to account for the majority of growth in the CTV market in 2026. This year alone, over 90% of CTV ad dollars were transacted through programmatic pipes. That data isn’t ... read more

The founders of six AI startups offer insights on the founding journey and what problems their companies are solving. The post 6 (More) AI Startups Worth Watching appeared first on AdExchanger. ... read more

H&R Block’s marketing strategy focuses on Gen Z and relatability, both during tax season and beyond. The post H&R Block’s Marketing Strategy Is To Make Taxes Feel A Little Less Taxing appeared first on AdExchanger. ... read more

FAO Schwarz is getting into data; ChatGPT is better at driving traffic than we thought; and Honey’s bad behavior might go beyond affiliate hijacking. The post In-Store Shopping, Up Close And Personal; AI Traffic ... read more

Roku’s streaming data will now be integrated into Nielsen’s campaign measurement and outcome tools, the two companies announced on Monday, The post Nielsen and Roku Renew Their Vows By Sharing Even More Data With Each ... read more

Snapchat is only for teenagers and Gen Z. That’s a common misconception that Ajit Mohan, Snap’s chief business officer, encounters often among advertisers. Although Snapchat tends to skew younger – it’s got strong usage among the ... read more

Agencies are shifting away from third-party ad tech; ChatGPT is throwing all kinds of monetization spaghetti at the wall; and Axel Springer is looking to buy. The post Programmatic’s Transparency Problem; ChatGPT Backs Into ... read more

On this episode of Inside the Stack, Brian Gleason, CEO of Seedtag, explains why contextual is experiencing a resurgence, just as cookies, clicks, and predictable discovery paths are breaking down. The shift isn’t just technical, ... read more

The VAB has a bone with pick with Nielsen about its Big Data ratings, and Pinterest and TVScientific pair up. Then: Google Ad Manager is making changes in the EU, from getting rid of Unified ... read more

It’s that time of year again – the time when we all start saying things like, “It’s that time of year again!” The post AdExchanger’s Top 4 CTV Stories Of 2025 appeared first on AdExchanger. ... read more

Enjoy this weekly comic strip from AdExchanger.com that highlights the digital advertising ecosystem …  The post Comic: Ads Yule Never See appeared first on AdExchanger. ... read more

Anthropic's AI-operated vending machine sparks chaos; ad revenue should remain a top priority; and Roblox has potential for in-game ads – and concerns. The post Anthropic’s Vending Machine Goes Rogue; OpenAI Won’t Take Its Medicine ... read more

Broadcast radio inventory is coming to programmatic. Viant struck a deal with iHeartMedia and its Triton Digital advertising platform that will make iHeart’s broadcast radio inventory available through Viant’s DSP, the companies announced Thursday. Viant’s ... read more

Lionsgate is ready for its ad tech close-up. The film and TV studio has chosen Comcast’s FreeWheel as its exclusive ad server to help manage and sell the growing volume of ad inventory Lionsgate creates ... read more

The open internet is at a turning point.  Our ecosystem needs transparency, accountability and collaboration from the buy side and the sell side if we are to truly thrive.  Industry leaders recognize this reality, including ... read more

Attribution measurement is still a mess; video podcasting struggles with effective advertising; and NIL deals are taking off for student athletes. The post The Attribution Goldilocks Problem; Video Is No Escape Pod appeared first on ... read more

2026 is going to be a big year for NBCUniversal. Not only will it play host to the 2026 Winter Olympic Games in Milan, it’s also going to broadcast the Super Bowl, the NBA Playoffs, ... read more

The Trade Desk is cutting its workforce. A company spokesperson confirmed the news with AdExchanger. The layoffs affect less than 1% of the company. The Trade Desk’s current headcount is approximately 3,900. TTD is hosting ... read more

Matt Kalish had long been frustrated by the lack of growth in creator media on channels like Twitch, YouTube, and TikTok. The DraftKing co-founder and long-time leader of the company’s North American business saw creator ... read more

How does Amazon strike a balance between AI-driven efficiency in creative production and the risk of commoditization? It’s a question Jay Richman, Amazon’s VP of product and technology, is often asked, he says on this ... read more

Coca-Cola’s Secret Recipe Clicks, carts and content are all part of the same recipe, Manolo Arroyo, Coca-Cola’s EVP and global CMO, tells The Drum. The modern media system brings together retailers, shoppers, online content creators ... read more

The VAB is accusing Nielsen’s Big Data + Panel of producing “instability, inconsistency and irrational” TV audience measurement results, particularly when compared to its legacy panel-only product. The post The VAB’s Latest Report Puts Nielsen’s ... read more

Hot: Automating digital advertising with a centralized platform. Not: Trying to bring that platform to market right as the COVID-19 pandemic struck the country. Though, according to Mike Lane, CEO and co-founder of Fluency, the ... read more

CTV isn’t an emerging channel anymore; it’s a fully established, essential part of the media mix. Advertisers now understand its reach, flexibility and ability to drive measurable outcomes. What’s shifting heading into 2026 for CTV ... read more

Ashes to ashes, dust to dust, 3-letter acronyms to 3-letter acronyms. Specifically, in this case, APIs to MCPs. Model Context Protocol (MCP) is an open-source standard that connects AI systems to outside sources, like data ... read more

Meta’s not beating the scam ads allegations; SEO tools are getting into AI prompts; and the telcos are at it again. The post Why Meta Doesn’t Mind A Scam; Working Backwards into AI Prompts ... read more

The grocery chain Albertson’s is trying to reduce the time and number of clicks it takes to add an item to an online shopping cart. It’s new click-to-cart product should help. On Monday, Albertson’s Media ... read more

Samsung Ads built a new integration with Amazon Publisher Cloud (APC), which is a clean room solution within the larger Amazon Publisher Suite (APS), the companies announced on Monday. The post It’s Getting A Bit ... read more

For the past three decades, most of digital advertising has revolved around one obsession: performance. Marketers leaned on channels that could prove conversions: search ads, programmatic retargeting and affiliate links. A purchase trackable to a ... read more

Auctions aren’t just for programmatic ads anymore; fashion influencers are turning to Substack; and AI-generated recaps continue to get the facts wrong. The post Will Shopper Auctions Try Ad Auctions?; I Thought Instagram Wants ... read more

The direct-to-consumer cookware company HexClad was founded in 2016, and celebrity chef, Gordon Ramsay, joined as investor-ambassador in 2021. HexClad surfed a huge wave of new business 2020 and 2021, as many people began cooking ... read more

Netflix could acquire Warner Bros., unless Paramount swoops in or regulators intervene. How rearranging the streaming leaders could affect the CTV ad business. The post Warner Bros., Netflix, Paramount: The CTV Chessboard appeared first on ... read more

Enjoy this weekly comic strip from AdExchanger.com that highlights the digital advertising ecosystem …  The post Comic: Festival Of Flights appeared first on AdExchanger. ... read more

Traffic! At The Disco Tired: Google possibly divesting its Chrome browser. Wired: Google launching a new browser entirely. The Google Chrome team has built a generative AI-infused browser called Disco, The Verge reports. Disco takes ... read more

This week, the AdExchanger Commerce Media Newsletter took a look at AquaSonic an oral care manufacturer and – in my humble opinion – an emblematic case study for digital-native consumer brands. AquaSonic, founded in 2017, ... read more

Looks like Pinterest has its eyes – or its pins, rather – fixed on connected TV. The post Pinterest Acquires CTV Startup TvScientific (Didn’t CTV That Coming) appeared first on AdExchanger. ... read more

Bundle Of Joy The cable TV bundle is making a minor comeback – with an assist from YouTube TV. Next year, Google will introduce 10 genre-specific skinny channel bundles that combine broadcast and cable channels ... read more

These days, every dollar counts for publishers. And the comments section offers one more way for publishers to monetize their engagement. Kelly Andresen, the former president of national sales at USA Today, recently jumped to ... read more

Shopify launched its latest advertising business line on Wednesday, called the Shopify Product Network. The Product Network shows items from across participating merchants where? Shop App? even if it that item isn’t carried by the ... read more

Remember the Cinnamon Challenge, when people filmed themselves trying to swallow a spoonful of ground cinnamon in under a minute?  For a short window in the early 2010s, it was everywhere – until it was ... read more

At What Cost? You probably don’t need to be told that grocery prices have skyrocketed since the pandemic – up 25% in five years. But the bad news only continues: Retailers are seeing how far ... read more

Bringing programmatic ads to AI chatbots marks a shift in the business model for AI search, while traditional publishers must find new ways to monetize. The post Programmatic Ads Are Coming To AI Chatbots appeared ... read more

On Tuesday, TV advertising company Cadent announced the acquisition of VuePlanner, which specializes in contextual advertising and media planning for YouTube. The post Cadent Acquires YouTube Advertising Company VuePlanner appeared first on AdExchanger. ... read more

Marketers used to wait for obvious signals, like a product page view, a cart add or a keyword search, before triggering campaigns. But in today’s fractured landscape, those signals can arrive too late. Shoppers drift ... read more

Some publishers are striking licensing deals with large-language model developers. Others are suing them. Some publishers are doing both. The Economist is doing none of the above. And that’s intentional, says Nada Arnot, EVP of ... read more

You are not immune to shopaganda; AI responses are more limited than retailers would like; and FIFA is forcing ad-mandated water breaks. The post Targeting The Influential; Who’s Doing The Shopping, Really? appeared first on ... read more

Back around 2015 through early 2018, telcos were very excited about ad tech. They spent billions of dollars betting that they could monetize their rich subscriber data and compete with the walled gardens by acquiring ... read more

AI has changed content creation overnight. What once required time, skill or a production budget can now be spun up in seconds.  That’s led to an explosion of low-quality, made-for-advertising (MFA) content, not just across ... read more

People want news, but not from news outlets; X’s blue checkmarks are coming home to roost; and Meta is finally paying publishers (kind of). The post When News Becomes Entertainment; Check That Off The ... read more

Thanks to mitigated tariff effects and the AI boom, WPP Media's 2025 ad spend forecast has good news for marketers. The post WPP Raises Its Ad Growth Forecast Thanks To The AI Boom – But ... read more

After a prolonged will-they, won’t-they phase between Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros. Discovery, Netflix swooped in with an $83 billion offer on Friday to acquire the Warner Bros. side of the business. The post Netflix ... read more

Hopefully everyone feels good coming out of Thanksgiving and America’s November shopaganza, BFCM, the Cyber Five, or whatever you call it. May your Q5’s be merry and bright and full of attributable sales. Now back ... read more

Consumer spending on Black Friday Cyber Monday was up 7%. But prices are high, and the most affluent customers are doing the most spending in the US. Plus: the challenges faced by the ad buyers ... read more

Is it too soon to start thinking about New Year’s resolutions? Since taking on AdExchanger’s CTV beat at the beginning of March, I’ve learned a lot about the industry from the perspectives of publishers, measurement ... read more

Enjoy this weekly comic from AdExchanger.com that highlights the digital advertising ecosystem … and happy Thanksgiving! The post Comic: Resold Actually appeared first on AdExchanger. ... read more

The metaverse hype is over; Apple Maps forays into advertising; and streamers vie for HBO Max and the WBD studio archive. The post A Meta Success; From Paradise To Ad Placements appeared first on AdExchanger. ... read more

We all know that we’re supposed to eat our veggies and skip the junk food. But knowing isn’t the same as doing. Marketers instinctively know that better data and higher-quality media drive better outcomes. But ... read more

Mobile apps are now at the center of the consumer relationship. They’re where customers browse, buy, stream, check balances and redeem loyalty rewards. However, app measurement remains one of the weakest links in modern marketing. ... read more

The people who know how best to market to college students are other college students – and that’s doubly true on a social media platform whose entire user base is college students. Teddy Solomon and Ashton ... read more

On Google and Meta platforms, AI search becomes the default; TTD might cut its costs; and apparently, toddlers like AI slop on YouTube. The post AI Mode, Activate; The Trade Desk Bends On Agency Incentives ... read more

There’s a paradox at play in how marketers are adopting artificial intelligence. Eighty-seven percent of US advertisers say they plan to increase AI usage over the next 12 months. But only 45% feel confident in ... read more

Agency buyers who manage portfolios of Google Ads and Merchant Center accounts are being targeted by sophisticated scam artists who hijack those accounts, drain client funds and sometimes lock out admins for weeks or even ... read more

One of The Trade Desk’s longest-tenured leaders on the product side has left the company. Jud Spencer, who served as one of TTD’s lead engineers for the past 12-plus years, confirmed to AdExchanger that his ... read more

Broadsign’s acquisition of Place Exchange last week is a defining moment for programmatic out-of-home (OOH).  But it is not the endgame; it is merely the setup. The OOH stack is being rebuilt from the inside ... read more

Homepage Hero? If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em. That’s Newsweek’s course of action to combat the dip in traffic publishers are seeing due to growing chatbot use and Google AI Overviews, Digiday reports. It’s ... read more

America’s biggest department stores are changing, and changing fast. In the past quarter, for instance, Target has piloted a new store model in Chicago, where it’s begun segmenting some stores into more backroom operations and ... read more

Nearly every ad tech company is out there promising some form of AI-powered magic. The vendor landscape is turning into a sea of sameness. So what’s worthwhile and what’s worth chucking in the bin? The ... read more

Omnicom is making more cuts; investors aren’t interesting in publishing; and OpenAI is still on the fence about ads. The post Omnicom Downsizes But OmniPlusses; VCs Aren’t Buying Dotcoms appeared first on AdExchanger. ... read more

You know that cliche about “what keeps you up at night”? For agency buyers, it’s often procurement. Procurement teams at brands are responsible for controlling client spending and driving cost efficiencies. From a buyer’s perspective, ... read more

Differin, which produces over-the-counter gels and patches to treat acne, wanted to connect with teens experiencing breakouts for the first time. But the brand knew it needed to reach these users authentically. The post Why ... read more

YouTube is more transparent than CTV. Let that sink in.  In 2025, the fastest-growing segment in programmatic media is now less transparent than the walled garden we have spent the last decade criticizing for opacity. ... read more

More Better Ads For all the talk of “enshittification” on the web thanks to advertising, evidence suggests that increased ad loads don’t always repel consumers. That was the argument put forth by US District Judge ... read more

Enjoy this weekly comic from AdExchanger.com that highlights the digital advertising ecosystem … and happy Thanksgiving! The post Comic: Frenemies-giving appeared first on AdExchanger. ... read more

When Marcelo Kertész joined Manscaped roughly five years ago – before becoming CMO in 2022 – the men’s grooming brand was spending nearly three-quarters of its budget on performance marketing. It was a page right out of ... read more

AI search is a very different animal from traditional search. You can’t buy your way to the top of a large-language model. At least not yet. If you want your brand to show up – and ... read more

The Daily News Roundup will return on Monday 12/1, as the AdExchanger team will be too stuffed with Thanksgiving turkey to get off the couch until then. News You Can Use DMG Media, the publisher ... read more

The data marketplaces powering programmatic advertising have exploded, with DSPs, SSPs and third-party platforms offering solutions for curating custom audiences. But, for marketers, combining data segments to reach their target audience can be a confusing ... read more

There’s a big world (of screens) out there. So it makes sense that we’re seeing more consolidation in the out-of-home advertising sector. On Tuesday, digital out-of-home (DOOH) ad tech startup Place Exchange was acquired by ... read more

As artificial intelligence transforms advertising analytics, many organizations are rushing to adopt AI tools, hoping for a “magic button” that instantly democratizes data access. It’s an appealing vision: marketing teams asking questions in plain English ... read more

E.l.f. Beauty's "So Many Dicks" campaign targets corporate leaders via contextual advertising with the goal of increasing diversity in corporate boardrooms. The post Behind E.l.f. Beauty’s Data-Driven Campaign To Call Out Gender Imbalance In Boardrooms ... read more

Is TJX recession proof?; Amazon is blocking OpenAI; and Meta is in hot water with the US Senate. The post TJX Wins Without An RMN; Unlearning To Crawl appeared first on AdExchanger. ... read more

Performance marketers are turning to AI to navigate rising costs, data loss and increasingly complex shopper journeys – and it’s working. Creative is more personalized, targeting is sharper and optimization happens in real time. AI ... read more

Merry Glitchmas! To all who observe. For the uninitiated, “Glitchmas” is our name for what’s become an annual tradition when, from between roughly late October through November, Meta’s ad platform just seems to go bonkers. ... read more

Generative AI is the new ad land obsession: a shiny promise of a fully autonomous world of self-driving advertising.  But behind the hype lies the costly delusion that automation can replace judgment and more content ... read more

The Trade Desk gets insistent with Korai again; the EU is rethinking hashed IDS; and is the AI industry becoming a cartel? The post Trying To Make Kokai Happen; EU Readies GDPR Changes appeared first ... read more

The publisher-focused DOJ v. Google ad tech antitrust trial is finished. A judge will now decide the fate of Google’s sell-side ad tech business. On Friday, both sides presented their closing arguments and fielded final ... read more

Take a moment to think about how your day sounds. Maybe you start with the sound of your alarm, followed by a quick news briefing from your smart speaker while you scroll through emails. Your ... read more

Inside Omnicom's shift in spend from The Trade Desk DSP to Amazon DSP. The post The Shifting Dollars Flowing Through Programmatic Pipes appeared first on AdExchanger. ... read more

Enjoy this weekly comic from AdExchanger.com that highlights the digital advertising ecosystem …  The post Comic: Christmas Creep appeared first on AdExchanger. ... read more

InstaGrand Wizards?  Looks like X isn’t the only social media platform with a Hitler problem. Instagram is also becoming a home for AI- and user-generated content that features hate speech, antisemitic rhetoric and Holocaust denialism, ... read more

Add Vibe.co to the list of CTV ad platforms that are kicking supply-side resellers to the curb. The post Why CTV Startup Vibe Is Dropping Resellers In Favor Of “Certified Supply” appeared first on AdExchanger. ... read more

It takes a certain kind of advertiser to want to promote its brand alongside a headline like “RFK Jr. Greets Trick-Or-Treaters With Big Bowl Of Ape Glands.” That’s a real headline on The Onion, by ... read more