Episode 104: Year in review, awards, and predictions with Ari and Eric
Dec 27, 2024
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Ari and Eric reflect on the highs and lows of the past year, celebrating achievements and discussing future trends. They introduce their new 'Sweet Suites' series ahead of CES, sharing personal holiday stories. Insightful discussions about AI's evolving role in ad tech and the challenges posed by cookie regulations highlight the complex landscape advertisers navigate. They also explore significant industry trends, from mergers to the rise of agentic AI, and predict how upcoming changes will shape the advertising world.
Ari and Eric reflect on the successes and failures of their previous predictions, highlighting AI’s unforeseen slow integration in advertising agencies.
The podcast emphasizes the resurgence of mergers and acquisitions in ad tech, driven by the need for enhanced technology and capabilities.
Deep dives
Azerian's Comprehensive Ad Tech Integration
Azerian stands out as a leading full-stack digital advertising partner, offering a proprietary platform known as Azerian Infinity. This platform integrates various technologies, including owned, Demand-Side Platform (DSP), Supply-Side Platform (SSP), Data Management Platform (DMP), and ad server functionalities. By leveraging cookie identity data and contextual signals, Azerian enables custom audience activation across multiple digital channels, such as Connected TV (CTV), online video (OLV), and audio. Their services offer agencies and brands the ability to choose between direct or private marketplace (PMP) activation to enhance performance and efficiency in advertising.
Retrospective on Last Year's Predictions
The hosts reflect on their predictions from the previous year during the Marketecture Awards, discussing both successful and failed calls. They highlighted the positive calls regarding public CEOs, particularly Adam from AppLevin and Tim from Viant, whose stocks performed well. However, they also admitted to making poor predictions, such as identifying Ross from VideoAmp as a top private company CEO shortly before his departure. They noted that while AI was anticipated to be a significant trend, the expected rise of AI-enabled agencies has yet to be realized, indicating uncertainty in the ad tech landscape.
M&A Activity and Industry Predictions
The podcast emphasizes the revival of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in the advertising technology space, citing recent strategic acquisitions like Audigent and Innovid. The hosts speculate that the M&A landscape will continue to heat up as companies seek to fill gaps in their technology and capabilities, particularly regarding AI and customer data management. Predictions also include a potential spin-out of Google's ad tech assets in response to legal pressures, reflecting ongoing regulatory scrutiny. The conversation underscores the importance of adaptability and foresight in navigating the rapidly evolving marketplace.
Key Trends for 2025: AI and Curation
Looking ahead to 2025, the hosts discussed the intersection of artificial intelligence (AI) and advertising, predicting significant advancements in how ad tech leverages AI for campaign planning and operations. They anticipate that the focus will shift from creative applications of AI to optimizing planning and execution processes, potentially revolutionizing agency workflows. Additionally, they highlight the theme of curation that emerged throughout the year, noting its potential to reshape how inventory is managed and sold. This shift towards curation is expected to benefit both advertisers and publishers by providing better-targeted advertising opportunities.
Ari and Eric review the best and the worst of 2014 and make some predictions about the future.
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