Weekly episodes featuring marketing leaders of the world’s most influential brands and agencies

Podcast

SVP, monetization and business strategy, Mediavine

President & CEO, Index Exchange

Managing Director, Uplift Campaigns

COO, Flashtalking by Mediaocean

General Manager of Data Partnerships, The Trade Desk

VP Product, The Trade Desk

Chairman and CEO, InfoSum

Co-founder, CEO, Attain

GVP, strategy and business development, Oracle Advertising

SVP Director of Media Services, 160over90

SVP sales and partnerships at Experian

Executive Vice President, VAB

Executive Director, Partnerships & Business Development, S&P Global Mobility

Co-Founder & CEO, Mediavine

VP of strategy and partnerships, Intent IQ

VP of ad technology and programmatic revenue, Advance Local

SVP, Product, The Trade Desk

Chief Revenue Officer, The Trade Desk

CEO, Founder & Chairman, The Trade Desk

Co-founder and EVP of innovation and strategy, Strategus

Chief Revenue Officer, Snopes.com

Chief Product Officer, Experian Marketing Services

Senior Director of Content Programming and Strategy, Tubi

CEO & founder, AJL Advisory

CEO, Stagwell

Co-founder and CEO, ID5.io

SVP, Product Sales and Strategy, Nielsen One

partner, Bully Pulpit Interactive

Head of Brand Media, PMG

Global Solutions President, Circana

VP, General Manager; CVS Media Exchange (CMX)

VP U.K., The Trade Desk

Co-Founder and CEO, PubMatic

Research Director - Consumer Research Lead, Ampere Analysis

EVP of Business Development, iSpot.tv

CMO, Iris.tv

SVP of technology, The Trade Desk

Chief Strategy Officer, The Trade Desk

President of Media, dentsu Canada

Chief Executive Officer, LiveRamp

COO, Paramount Advertising

Senior Director, European Identity, The Trade Desk

Managing Director, Exverus Media

Chief Commercial Officer, The Trade Desk

SVP of Activations and Addressability, LiveRamp

VP Inventory Development, The Trade Desk

Writers

Placing ads in the right places, like alongside high-quality journalism, matters for consumers and advertisers. In those credible places, ads can attract more attention.

Let’s cut ad waste and invest in high-quality media that attracts attention

Roku offers scale, reaching an estimated 120 million households in the U.S., along with a low barrier to entry for fans on its free ad-supported platform.

Roku–MLB partnership marks a first for live sports on FAST platforms

A new report by Stagwell surveyed thousands of American adults about ads placed next to various news topics. It found little for brands to be concerned about.

A new study aims to convince advertisers that the news is brand-safe

Streaming became a larger force at the upfronts this year, with Amazon and Netflix presenting to advertisers and NBCUniversal, Disney, and Fox giving significant time to streaming services.

Streaming takes over the upfronts with Netflix’s NFL news and the Great Rebundling

The business model for news journalism has been hurt by misconceptions of brand safety around placing ads in proximity to news.

Turning the vicious cycle of news and advertising into a virtuous one

NBCUniversal kicked off upfronts week with key figures for its machine-learning ad platform and a focus on its live sports offering.

‘We did not create another opaque walled garden’: NBCU touts transparency (and sports) at upfronts

NBCU’s ad president talks upfronts, strategic audiences, brand storytelling, and the Paris Olympics.

NBCUniversal's Alison Levin on strategic audience buying, the power of brand storytelling and the Paris Olympics

If you say “AI” enough times, will it become reality?

3 big insights from OMR 2024, Europe’s top marketing summit

The Trade Desk's Jed Dederick explores the pervasiveness of the nontransparent ad network monetization model in advertising.

The murky world of ad networks

EssenceMediacom Canada CEO Urania Agas on the state of the news industry in Canada, and how marketers are responding.

5 minutes with EssenceMediacom Canada’s Urania Agas

To advance the open internet, publishers and advertisers need to align on better measurement

Chris Ebmeyer, SVP Director of Media Services at 160/90  explores how marketers can account for the “messy” nature of today’s digital advertising landscape.

How to manage this messy moment in digital advertising

The industry innovator is leading the market again, shifting its focus to the metrics that matter

Doubt Netflix at your own peril 

The former LA Times journalist breaks down the future of journalism after Google removed news links from search results in response to the California Journalism Preservation Act (CJPA).

5 minutes with journalist Matt Pearce

Fresh data indicates Americans surveyed increasingly prefer ads with their streaming plans over commercial-free subscriptions.

66% of U.S. streamers would rather watch free video content with ads than pay for ad-free subscriptions

Retail media shines in 2023’s digital ad revenue surge despite industry concerns, according to IAB’s 2023 Internet Advertising Revenue Report. 

Retail media ad revenue hit $43.7 billion in 2023, surging 16.3%

New data suggests an opportunity for streaming services to focus their attention on winning back those who canceled, at a time when the metrics of success are shifting.

32% of U.S. streaming cancellations are ‘won back’ after 6 months

Streaming’s premium environment lifts brand impact and outperforms social media across all points along the purchase decision journey, according to a new report by Magnite.

71% of TV viewers in Southeast Asia watch ad-supported streaming

Viewers are increasingly turning to smaller streamers to satisfy their appetite for original programming.

Smaller streamers’ share of global demand for originals increased 36% in a year

A new report surveying 150 U.S. agency and brand leaders reveals the industry is tipping further toward connected TV (CTV).

63% of U.S. advertisers are prioritizing CTV at least as much as linear TV during upfronts

Over-the-top (OTT) users in India are up 13.5% as of the end of 2023; however, the rate of growth seen during the pandemic has since subsided.

Post-pandemic, 34% of people in India — 481 million consumers — are now streaming content

Connected TV (CTV) and other digital platforms are poised to take 28 percent, or approximately $3.5 billion, of U.S. political ad spending in 2024.

U.S. political ad spend on digital projected to jump 156 percent over last presidential election year

More consumer purchasing power meets the growing popularity of ad-supported streaming.

Japan’s end of negative interest rates could be CTV advertisers’ golden opportunity

As live sports and other events increasingly shift to streaming, appointment television is helping drive engagement for SVOD platforms.

Appointment TV isn’t dead. It’s making a comeback on streaming platforms.

As some sports gain traction outside of their main markets, streamers could benefit from identifying those that are spiking in popularity around the world.

How sports could be a global gold mine for streamers and advertisers

Starting next year, Netflix plans to no longer report quarterly subscriber numbers; experts say the path forward lies in ad revenue over subscriber growth.

Netflix’s latest move shows how streaming TV is tipping toward ads

What’s at stake? Only the future of European media.

European broadcasters are reinventing themselves for the future of TV

LG Ad Solutions is integrating UID2, which will allow advertisers to tap its ecosystem of millions of connected TVs in a privacy-conscious way.

LG Ad Solutions hopes to change the narrative of CTV advertising by adopting UID2

Marketers are not surprised. Many are preparing for a post-cookie future already.

Marketers unfazed as Google delays cookie deprecation for third time

Two of France’s biggest broadcasters to adopt alternative identifier EUID.

Streaming giants will face stiffer competition for CTV ad dollars in France

At the IAB Tech Lab’s “As the Cookie Crumbles” event, engineers and members of IAB Tech Lab’s Privacy Sandbox task force discussed their main challenges when analyzing the privacy technology.

Engineers sound off on Google’s Privacy Sandbox at IAB Tech Lab cookies event

Could retail data be the perfect expression of deterministic data?

Just for conversions? Why marketers may be missing the bigger picture on retail data.

TV has long been valued for its reach, but omnichannel strategies are showing their ability to scale

How consumer health giant Reckitt is future-proofing its marketing efforts by going omnichannel

As Generative AI rises and Google deprecates third-party cookies, digital news outlets have an opportunity to create more direct relationships with readers.

With AI looming as a threat to news sites, publishers push back

Social media remains a key source of traffic for news publishers, but changing audience preferences could bring unexpected benefits to publications.

As Meta tightens the traffic tap, where will news publications turn for audiences?

During this election year, growing levels of misinformation on social media are giving rise to advertising alternatives like CTV.

As U.S. election looms, political advertisers shift focus to CTV

Super fans shape much of their identity around their favorite movies, music and more. Advertisers could benefit from getting to know their fandoms.

Understanding fandoms could be key for streaming and advertising strategies

Some ad industry forecasters just increased their projections for this year, suggesting optimism around political spend, the Olympics, CTV, and other factors.

What’s driving the rosy outlook for the U.S. ad industry this year?

Premium streaming services are showcasing their benefits for advertisers with authenticated audiences as Generative AI surges on the likes of YouTube and TikTok.

As AI junk floods YouTube and TikTok, premium content could prove its value for advertisers

Thanks to advances in AI’s analytical power, the technology has the potential to cut down browsing time for viewers on streaming platforms.

Don’t know what show to stream next? AI can help

Or, how some news publications are looking to the future by turning to advertising and niches.

The great restructuring of digital news media

The electronics giant saw a major improvement in online to offline sales attribution after implementing a custom solution leveraging Unified ID 2.0 (UID2).

How Samsung Electronics Canada is 'future-proofing' its business with UID2 as cookies crumble

CBC announced that it’s offering ad inventory programmatically for the first time, reflecting changing media strategies and viewing habits for live sports in Canada.

How programmatic is changing the game for live sports in Canada

Connected TV (CTV) is picking up steam as a way to get more small, local and regional businesses to advertise, especially programmatically.

Why streamers like Disney, NBCUniversal and Paramount are courting small businesses

As retail media evolves beyond retail networks, many in the audio industry see an opportunity to strike a harmonious relationship that could benefit both parties.

Audio and retail are getting in tune with one another

Measurement is becoming a bigger factor in the upfronts as networks’ authenticated ad space matches up with retailers’ verified buyers.

Retail data is entering the upfronts as measurement gets more important

A wave of retail data is sweeping Europe, with advertisers increasingly relying on it amid cookie deprecation and an evolving regulatory landscape.

Retail data has taken over Europe. Now what?

More and more people are engaging with sports around the world, and brands can capitalize on these fans’ newfound interest.

It’s not just Swifties: There are more sports fans, and brands see a way to score

Advertisers lean on first-party data, retail data, shoppable ads and more to earn a spot on Christmas wish lists.

First-party and retail data will be tested this holiday season as cookie sunsetting approaches

From connected TV to digital out-of-home to audio, DTC brands are finding new ways to reach their customers.

DTC brands increasingly see the advertising opportunity on the open internet

The 2024 IAB NewFronts sees news publishers sound off on brand safety lists, women’s sports enter the scene and a cluster of new CTV offerings.

The IAB NewFronts puts a spotlight on news publishers and women’s sports in a critical year for both

Universal measurement standards for carbon emissions are set to be released by GARM and Ad Net Zero this year at Cannes Lions.

Sustainability could get a boost when universal standards come out at Cannes Lions

Welcome to the first Olympics in the live sports era of the streaming wars.

French advertisers eye the opportunity of a century in Paris 2024

During the Green Media Summit in New York last week, ad industry professionals expressed that a more sustainable future may require regulation and peer pressure.

The ad industry grapples with going green

B2B brands are becoming more consumer-like and leaning on live sports to reach their audiences.

Why are so many B2B firms sponsoring the Olympics?

More than 14,000 people attended the inaugural Web Summit Qatar in February 2024 to hear about the Middle East’s digital transformation.

The AI revolution is coming for advertising: Top takeaways from Web Summit Qatar 

In today’s marketplace, women are still very much underrepresented in ads, despite holding the majority of spending power.

What brands can learn from Stanley and the buying power of women

Measurement is emerging as an important part of this upfronts season, as advertisers are searching for more than just scale.

Inside the upfronts’ measurement and attribution transformation

Hearst Newspaper's Vice President of Programmatic, Mike Irenski, joins The Current Podcast to explore the value of local journalism and what advertisers need to know about it.

Hearst Newspapers’ Michael Irenski on the value of local journalism, keyword blocklists and Popeye

News publishers and the IAB are making the case that advertising alongside news has positive business consequences.

IAB, news publishers push how news is good for advertisers at NewFronts

Ford’s Chief Futurist joins The Current Podcast to discuss how preparing for the future is imperative for marketing.

Ford’s Chief Futurist imagines how AI could grow the relationship between drivers and their cars

If journalism isn't around, how will generative A.I. models feed new information?

Why it makes business sense for A.I. models to keep journalism around

Big tech is battling journalism over proposed legislation in California that would force companies like Google to pay to carry links to news articles.

Big Tech and journalism battle over proposed legislation in California

Advertisers felt ‘March Madness’ after the intense demand for women’s basketball. We're breaking down why the game is breaking through.

Advertisers are taking notice of the power and scale of women’s sports after March Madness

Advertisers take notice of the power and scale of women’s sports after March Madness

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Chris Brooklier

How streaming is transforming how we watch television.

Streaming

How marketers are adapting their strategies to societal shifts and industry trends.

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