AdTech consultant. Drive demand by making complex products easier to understand for buyers - and easier for sales teams to sell. Advisory, GTM, custom research.
San Francisco, CA
Joined June 2008
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Here are @WMediaResearch's Top 10 Trends in Advertising in 2026!
1. The Big Short: The Hidden Risks Lurking Beneath the Forecasts
2. There Will Be Blood: The Supply-Chain Shakeup
3. Honey, I Shrunk the Art Department: Gen-AI Taking Over
4. Advertising Wars: The Rise of AI Agents
5. Rules of Engagement: The Protocols Fueling the Agentic Era
6. No Country for Old Cookies: The New Identity Playbook
7. Measure for Measure: Can We Keep Up With Signal Loss?
8. The Verdict: The Post-Google Era Begins for the Open Web
9. The Day After Tomorrow: The Zero-Click Search Apocalypse
10. I, Agent: When Bots Buy - What Happens to Advertising?
READ all 10 trends for FREE here:
Everything Everywhere All at Once: The Advertising Revolution Of 2026
wmediaresearch.com/2025/12/0…
Companies covered: @Adobe, @AdRoll, @Albertsons, @amazon, @AppLovin, @criteo, @Disney, @doubleverify, @epsilon, @Google, @humansecurity, @IABTechLab, @IndexExchange, @integralads, @Meta, @Microsoft, @MSAdvertising, @Novacap_HQ, @OpenX, @prebidorg, @PubMatic, @Rockerbox, @Sincera, @TheTradeDesk, @TikTok, @Yahoo.
Late Friday, OpenAI announced bigger ChatGPT ad cards, full-width mobile images, upcoming multi-image ads, better conversion dashboards, weekly performance summaries and new measurement partners, including Northbeam, Rockerbox and several mobile measurement partners (MMP).
Every ad channel goes through puberty. First, it's a shiny experiment funded from marketing's petty cash drawer. Then finance asks what it actually delivers.
Third-party measurement is a new platform's ticket out of the play pen. Nobody likes to commit serious money to a platform that grades its own homework. Independent conversion data will help turn ChatGPT Ads from an interesting novelty into a routine budget line item - eventually.
Bigger visuals follow the Meta playbook: more pixels per impression, using existing creative. OpenAI is testing what is both effective and tolerated by users.
If you're buying ChatGPT Ads, connect independent measurement and run a holdout.
@AirbridgeHQ, @doubleverify, @incrmntal, @kochavaofficial, @Meta, @northbeam, @OpenAI, @Rockerbox, @TenjinMMP
Karsten Weide retweeted
Das historische Rathaus von Limoges ist soeben vollständig eingestürzt, nachdem radikale Krawallmacher es in Brand gesetzt haben.
1876 erbaut, hat es zwei Weltkriege überstanden. Nun ist dieses historische Gebäude zerstört.
Karsten Weide retweeted
Our columnist Karsten Weide writes about one of the biggest topics out of AWNY — how agents are changing the agency landscape — and the top stories spinning out of that: bit.ly/4i7g2VT
Take a look at a few additional stories in The Current this week 👇
Because viewing house per user are down.
Big news: Bela Bajaria, Netflix's chief content officer since 2023, is leaving the company. Her replacement is a familiar name in Hollywood. Details ⬇️⬇️ puck.news/netflix-chief-cont…
Now that the dust has settled and everybody has recovered from last week’s Advertising Week in New York, here are the top headlines.
Advertising Week’s biggest story: AI agents are slowly moving from recommendations toward executing ad campaigns. The technology is advancing; trust, permissions and proof of performance remain the bottlenecks.
Five developments stood out.
1. Meta wants the whole campaign in the chat
Meta is testing agents for campaign creation, creative, targeting and budget changes, with advertisers approving actions before launch. It’s also expanding Ads Creative Studio and testing Shopify checkout in Messenger.
For agencies, that’s a warning shot. As platforms automate campaign work, agencies must prove their value in judgment, distinctive creative, cross-platform strategy and independent performance assessment. Meta’s tools are still in testing, but its scale could turn experiments into industry practice.
2. ChatGPT wants to become a buyable medium
OpenAI plans to start showing labeled visual ads beside generated images in the U.S. It’s adding measurement partners, while DoubleVerify and IAS test brand suitability.
A new ad format can be fascinating, but budgets won’t grow until marketers can measure results and assess where their brands appear. OpenAI is only beginning to build commercial credibility.
3. TikTok wants to own discovery, advertising and checkout
TikTok announced an ad network reaching nearly 400,000 outside apps through TikTok Ads Manager, plus Buy Direct checkout, a shopping assistant and Smart+ Creative Selection. Its connector also lets outside AI agents work with TikTok’s ad tools.
The ambition: control the path from discovery to purchase, then sell access to the rest of the mobile web.
4. Agents may give agencies a new job
NBCUniversal, FreeWheel, Carat and Newton introduced a buying agent to route upfront TV spending across linear and connected TV against business outcomes. Stagwell and Tinuiti are also rolling out orchestration tools.
Agencies face automation from the platforms they buy from. Their counterpitch: let machines handle the heavy lifting, while agencies govern the process and keep budgets from catching fire.
5. Apple’s blocklist put the open web on edge
While not an Advertising Week news, this was the news that overshadowed it. Apple’s iOS 27 changes restrict Safari and other WebKit browsers from connecting to selected adtech companies, including The Trade Desk, LiveRamp, ID5, Permutive and Audigent. The Trade Desk’s ad server reportedly received a reprieve in an iOS test build; identity providers have no equivalent fix.
If advertisers recognize fewer users across the open web, publishers may find inventory harder to target and less valuable. Logged-in platforms retain an advantage. Apple calls this privacy protection; the industry worries one company can set selective rules across a large part of digital advertising.
@Apple, @Audigent, @CaratGlobal, @doubleverify, @FreeWheel, @integralads, @ID5_io, @LiveRamp, @Meta, @NBCUniversal, @OpenAI, @Permutive, @Shopify, @stagwell, @TheTradeDesk, @tiktok_us, @Tinuiti.
Don't miss tomorrow's @AdExchanger webinar presenting the results of an @OpenX research project looking into what is going on with ad targeting on the supply-side, conducted by me. Lots of cool insights - you will not be disappointed.
Thursday, October 14, 8am PT/11am ET.
bigmarker.com/AdExchanger/th…
Tough competition from other streamers, especially Youtube, and content that nobody wants to see. Viewing hours per user are down.
Karsten Weide retweeted
Today we announced an agreement to acquire Bumble.
Over the past six months, we’ve looked at hundreds of companies, asking which businesses would become more valuable as AI advances.
Bumble stood out.
As intelligence becomes more abundant, we believe connecting with the right person and forming meaningful relationships will become even more precious. And frontier technology can help more people find and build those relationships.
Our purpose at Ithaca is to apply frontier technology to things that matter. We acquire enduring businesses, transform them with technology, and hold for the long term. We focus on businesses not only for their financial potential but their ability to enrich lives.
Whitney and her team have built something extraordinary. Millions of relationships began on Bumble, and we’re honored to help take it into its next era. Together we intend to build the best company in the world for helping people find each other.
Let’s get to work.
Karsten Weide retweeted
Airbnb is dead. Well it’s not dead but it’s going to be dying soon.
The Bear case for Airbnb.
I’ve been bullish on Airbnb as a company for many years. But my outlook on the business changed this week.
Let me tell you why.
In 2012 I purchased my first Airbnb property. Over the years that one property has turned into a portfolio of high-end Airbnb’s that generates almost $1M a month in rental income.
Using ai agents for the first time this week has completely changed my outlook on the company.
Airbnb is facing an existential threat that most of the market is completely missing.
With Airbnb pushing its mandatory host-side commission to 15.5%, the middleman tax has never been higher.
Enter AI agents. (Hark, Dot, Muse, Grok Bot, etc)
Right now, booking a vacation rental requires navigating a siloed app and paying heavy platform tolls.
But your AI agent won't care about Airbnb's brand wall. When you know the property you want to book and you ask it “what’s the cheapest way to book the property” it will query property management system APIs directly, find the exact same home, and execute a direct booking that saves everyone 15%.
Airbnb's entire model relies on holding supply captive behind a closed interface.
When AI agents can autonomously search, verify reviews, negotiate terms, and book direct with property operators, that walled garden turns into a leaking pipe.
The middleman tax's days are numbered.
I’m predicting that Airbnb’s growth rate will slow down significantly in the next 24 to 36 months. And within 5 years they will be seeing negative growth.
The same can be said for most other online marketplaces that don’t have unique inventory that can only be booked directly on their platform and nowhere else.
We want justice for Hanako and Elizabeth.
@DanielLurie @SFDAOffice
⚖️ STOP CRIME SF | COURT WATCH
Hanako Abe and Elizabeth Platt were killed in a San Francisco hit-and-run on New Year’s Eve 2020. Nearly six years later, their families are still waiting for justice.
Prosecutors have reportedly agreed to a plea deal with Troy McAlister, the man charged in their deaths, over the objections of Hanako’s family.
Her mother, Hiroko Abe, will deliver her victim impact statement on Oct. 15, a right guaranteed by Marsy’s Law. Pack the courtroom and stand with her.
Justice and accountability matter. #CourtWatch #StopCrimeSF
Nice catching up with Basis' EVP of Client Development, Michael Olson. Their Compass product, which came out in April, is an agentic planning system that turns a campaign brief into an omnichannel media strategy and an activation-ready campaign in minutes instead of in hours.
@basisglobaltech
Wonderful meeting in person with Sylvie Schnaier, HUMAN Security's VP of Corporate Marketing.
Their new Ad Integrity Suite's motto: the first era of verification was built to measure media. The next era must determine what can be trusted.
@SecureWithHUMAN
