What’s more important?

Plenty of white space for innovation in the freezer aisle. One of the few CPG areas that hasn’t seen as much new competition as other aisles, mainly because DTC companies can’t enter due to inability to ship

It’s 2026 and an ad-network is the most profitable company in the United States

In NYC experiencing FOMO with everyone enjoying @marketecturetv in Chicago. Coping by sharing this photo from last Martecture live with some AdTech Twitter legends @douglauretano @EricTilbury_RTB @aripap

Nothing gets brands more excited for their next JBP negotiation than hearing, “We’re giving retail media networks the ability to capture every cent of margin.” How I sound day in and day out: “RMN margins are…

Is the agentic buying future going to be made up of 100s of containerized DSPs on agentic rails where a buyer agent can optimize between all these different DSPs for one campaign? Each DSP basically being its own customized bidder with its own logic… someone tell me I’m wrong

Ternus’ background is in hardware, but one can hope $AAPL becomes more advertising friendly under new leadership 🤞

“in the most ironic programmatic practice, principal-based buying. (More on this next week. I know...I'm such a tease.)” Did I miss it or did Jeff never drop his expose on principal-based buying? This was the equivalent of $TTD going nuclear against the HoldCos

One of my favorite conferences of the year: Jounce’s SPOSummit

Interesting campaign… Just a picture of a smiling Brett Baier with zero copy, driving to his IG profile. Fascinating 🧐

In the spirit of March Madness How would everyone classify this video ad unit? In the IAB guidelines “if the video content remains the primary focus” it would no longer qualify as in-stream. At what percentage of the screen does the ad unit lose in-stream status?

*moment

As @ChrisHarihar said - Every. Single. Client. is going to demand an audit. The article provided the 3 rocks 🪨 to look under. I don’t see TTD budging on this point “TTD did not provide information to prove that the “media and data costs were invoiced at cost.”

I defended $TTD when they had their dispute with the HoldCos about OpenPath but this isn't a good look. Publicis is accusing The Trade Desk of these three improprieties related to fees 1) The Trade Desk improperly applied their DSP fee to other fees charged by TTD and in a way that is not supported by the terms of the MSA 2) The Trade Desk of charging its clients for “additional features which were automatically opted into 3) The Trade Desk did not provide information to prove that the “media and data costs were invoiced at cost, without mark-up adage.com/agencies/aa-public…

No hiding from ads at @marketecturetv!

This is true vast majority of “the industry” doesn’t want transparency because they benefit from the status quo and/or make money from undisclosed margin. As long as impressions keep getting bought agencies, DSPs, SSPs and publishers* get paid. The losers are the brands who continue to fund ineffective media. Brands who <50% of their programmatic budget is getting non transparently siphoned by agency schemes (SSP post auction rebates one such example) and the AdTech tax. The real losers are all of us who are dedicating their careers to programmatic advertising. As programmatic is less effective, less and less advertiser’s budgets are going to programmatic, less resources are needed. Less people are getting hired, less people getting promoted and less start ups are funded. Instead budgets are going to walled gardens where the complexity and opaqueness don’t require a PhD to know all the nuances. This is why it’s important for everyone with a presence on X an LinkedIn to continue educating the industry, calling for transparency and shining a light on bad actors. They aren’t just hurting their clients/customers but the industry as a whole.

Lots of discussion about OpenPath. I am pro OP. My thoughts below. Someone tell me where I’m wrong. OpenPath has value to both the buy and sell side. It has value to the buyer because TTD claims (and I’ll take their word for it) they run OP at cost. They claim their ~5% take rate is just to run it at break even. TTD is making all their money on DSP fees (different discussion) where the other SSPs have higher yields and dynamic pricing so they can make a profit which OP doesn’t need to. The pubs don’t have the same margin rate across all SSPs (it’s dynamic and essentially the SSPs is trying to take the highest margin while also trying to win the auction in the Pub’s adserver/header). Hypothetically OP would have the lowest margin (because they are running it at break even) but the bid would still have to be the highest to win the auction in the pub’s adserver. The one benefit for pubs using OP should be that they get more volume from TTD they wouldn’t otherwise get if they didn’t use OP. If TTD isn’t outright lying about OP and they are running it at breakeven and aren’t favoring it beyond it being the most efficient path to supply then I only see a benefit for buyers to use them. The inherent problem is, Google poisoned the well on this, when a company is on the buy and sell side they have a conflict of interest. Makes them an easy target for all of AdTech to bash them. OP doesn’t do rebates so holdcos who’s SSP rebates go right to their bottom line have every incentive (besides their clients media performance) to use SSPs who give them the biggest rebates. Has any advertiser ever talked about turning off Amazon Publisher Services? Amazing to me they have been able to fly under the radar for scrutiny when unlike TTD I don’t believe they have ever claimed to run it at cost or not to favor their own pipes.

How many tens of millions see this every month on the ESPN app? UFC (no longer on ESPN) + Tom Brady (Fox’s NFL golden boy) This outdated placeholder is the canary in the coal mine for ESPN’s streaming business. Still not updated in 2026. Sloppy work. @TVGrimReaper