Newsletter
That time of the year again, when I spend the first week of January reflecting and getting ready for the new year after making the time between Christmas and New Year just for family and friends. As usual, rather than predicting the future, I'd like to offer some
Newsletter
The regular drip of reports by watchdogs like Adalytics is normally followed by widespread – more or less genuine – outrage. This pattern reveals two facts about the digital advertising industry. One: The road to (real) accountability is still long and winding. Two: The way most of the industry is tackling the
Newsletter
The digital advertising industry faces conflicting interests, leading to polarised perspectives on various topics, which slow down its progress and transformation. Media alliances and curated marketplaces are not an exception, both emerging as two of the most promising trends in the aftermath of the near-miss disappearance (for now) of the
Newsletter
Without a real and engaged audience, a media company would generate no revenue. In the first-party web, where the primary client of a premium media company is its audience, a content strategy plays a crucial role in media monetisation and supports the overarching goal of the company. Beyond Traffic: The
Newsletter
I call that rabbit hole many media owners find themselves in, the “perpetual cycle of emergency”. It begins with short-term decisions, or a complete lack of them, at key strategic moments in time. It leaves the media brand weaker. It makes them more vulnerable to the consequences of whatever is
Newsletter
Part of the industry is celebrating Google’s decision to halt the deprecation of third-party cookies. Another group is speculating Google’s next moves, sometimes with subtly implied suggestions that it was all part of a cunning plan (I find it overly conflictive and more akin to a conspiracy theory
Newsletter
In the multiverse that exists at the intersection between media and digital advertising, reality is perceived and interpreted in various ways, often with opposing viewpoints. It’s normal, it’s human nature. Nevertheless, we must all be fully aware of it, to be able to develop stronger and more effective
Newsletter
Another Cannes Lions is behind us. The senior advertising execs who convened on La Croisette confidently shared their visions for the future of transparency, AI, attention, identity, privacy and curated marketplaces. I have been writing about these topics for AdExchanger for years and have sometimes been considered naïve and utopian
Newsletter
There is nothing to joke about when a business is terminating a product or a department, but Oracle shutting down their ad business, with the division generating $300 million last fiscal year, down from $2 billion in 2022, represents a very noisy crash in the collapsing phase of the old
Newsletter
The trend of “curated” marketplaces has been further reinforced by The Trade Desk’s announcement of their SP500+ marketplace and their ranking of the “best of the open internet” 100 websites. As per TTD’s own description, the SP500+ “is a dynamic marketplace, with publishers following in and out based
Podcast
I was invited by Alkimi, a decentralised programmatic ad platform built on the Ethereum network, to chat with them about the future of the industry and the importance of self-sustaining media owners. I am sharing it here.
Newsletter
If money were paid for every argument against the current content recommendation plague affecting media brands, a few people in the industry would be rich. Not the media companies employing third-party recommendation solutions, though, which will later certainly pay the price for the quick and easy revenue they are making