PayPal’s Jenna Griffith on how the rise of AI parallels programmatic adoption

Jenna Griffith, VP of global ad operations at PayPal, sees many similarities between how programmatic came to be a driving force in the advertising industry and how AI is becoming an essential new advertising technology.

Having joined MediaMath in 2007, she had a front-row seat to the evolution of programmatic — and the adoption of AI feels familiar.

“A lot of the benefits and the mindset that we needed to take to approach programmatic are very similar to those we need to take as we move into AI,” Griffith recently told The Current Editor-in-Chief Stephanie Paterik in an interview.

Griffith also talked about PayPal’s burgeoning advertising business that is powered by transaction data and the innovation she expects to see in retail media.

How do you see the evolution of programmatic? Where are we right now?

We’re at an interesting moment for programmatic. The line between programmatic and non-programmatic are going to continue to blur, particularly as AI scales in the market.

The opportunities that programmatic brought into the market were [about] being able to release some control and saying, “I have some very clear boundaries that I want to put in place. But as an advertiser, I prefer to focus on the outcomes. What experience am I actually driving for the consumer within a set of boundaries?”

How people are starting to utilize AI in marketing and advertising is very similar. You can’t exert so much control because you’ll eliminate the benefits and it’s harder to scale. A lot of the benefits and the mindset that we needed to take to approach programmatic are very similar to those we need to take as we move into AI.

We’re starting to see a generation of advertising leaders who, like you, grew up in programmatic and are moving into higher levels of decision-making. Is that changing the media mix and the way that people are planning their media budgets?

When you think “what is programmatic?” — it’s automation and it’s technology brought to the media that people consume. That should unlock opportunities that would not be there if the technology were not there.

When I joined MediaMath in 2007, Google was just buying DoubleClick; Microsoft [bought] AdECN; Yahoo [bought] Right Media. We had all of this inventory, and it necessitated technology in order to make it work for good for the consumer and for the merchants.

[Decision-makers enthusiastically embracing programmatic] is [the result of a] mix of [things]. [It’s] people that like to talk about ad tech and programmatic, but also that it has worked. I don’t think it’s just because it’s fun to talk about and people grew up in it that now, here we are. [Programmatic] has to come down to the outcomes in order for it to stick around.

How is PayPal’s relatively new ad business going and what are you learning?

Advertisers are really excited about the transaction graph that we are bringing to market. The transaction graph itself is a capture of the shopping moments that people are creating, but also the insights that we can derive from that. So it’s not just [looking back and saying] “what did people buy?” but being able to craft that into actionable insights and then using that graph to develop strategies and drive growth.

How is PayPal similar or different to other retail media networks?

We’re unique because we are sitting across 30 million merchants. We don’t just have a single view of one particular merchant or retailer; we are able to bring this full transaction graph idea across merchants.

When you think about the future of retail media and commerce, what innovation do you see that gets you most excited?

I am most excited about the creative side of it. It’s exciting for us to be able to create much more seamless experiences for our consumers. To us, that means bringing shoppability directly into the ad that somebody is interacting with. That brings a tremendous amount of convenience and value. The personalization that can be unlocked with being able to leverage this transaction graph [really drives] that personalized experience. So those two pieces [are exciting]. [As is] going beyond the targeting and into the actual consumer experience.