Adtech Unfiltered

Advertisers and brands are hungry to capitalize on AI. But attempts to market and adopt the technology have grown so omnipresent that it seems the industry has skipped past gaining a solid understanding of what AI actually is.   Alex Castrounis is the Founder and CEO of Why of AI, an AI consultancy that educates and advises businesses on investing in AI in impactful ways. In this episode, he lays out the foundational knowledge marketers need to effectively harness this much hyped emerging technology.

Automation is an oft-mentioned word that can mean many different things in advertising. As the Founder and Chief Product Officer of automation solutions organization Fluency, Eric Mayhew has made it his purpose to improve how people buy digital media. He joins host Noor Naseer to highlight how automation and AI can reduce low-value manual labor, minimize friction in workflows and help people and organizations unleash themselves from the laborious aspects of media buying.

In this episode, host Noor Naseer delves into the intricacies of Supply Path Optimization (SPO) and Header Bidding with Basis Technologies VP of Product (DSP) Ian Trider. He sheds light on the supply path’s crucial role in impactful programmatic media buying. Ian explains how this strategy enhances transparency and efficiency in the digital advertising supply chain. The episode explores how advertisers can benefit from selecting optimal paths to reach their target audiences while minimizing costs and fraud. 

What does it take to uncover what’s really going on in adtech? A whole lot of effort that not every advertising professional knows they need to put forth. In a fast-growing multibillion dollar industry, it’s increasingly challenging to discern truth from the carefully crafted narratives propagated by ad solution providers. In this episode, industry thought leader and AdProfs founder Ratko Vidakovic joins host Noor Naseer to discuss how to find and distinguish adtech truths from not-so-hidden agendas.

After a dip in ad spend in 2020 due to COVID-19 lockdowns, digital out-of-home is back in a big way, with programmatic DOOH (pDOOH) projected to be a billion dollar category by the end of next year.   In this episode, Ian Dallimore, VP of Digital Growth and GM of Programmatic at Lamar Advertising, joins host Noor Naseer to discuss what digital and programmatic buyers should know about this channel, from misconceptions to big opportunities.

While many players in the advertising industry have reprioritized diversity, equity, and inclusion in the past few years, underrepresentation of historically marginalized communities in programmatic media inventory is an ongoing problem.    President of Advertising at Group Black, Kerel Cooper, is working to change that by building a publisher collective that aggregates programmatic inventory focused on reaching Black audiences. In this episode, Kerel discusses what advertisers and marketers can do to support the advancement of the Black media ecosystem.

To navigate the growing complexity of digital marketing and the rising importance of first-party data, marketers are deepening their tech stacks. In particular, more brands are considering investing in a customer data platform, or CDP. In this episode, Cory Munchbach, CEO of CDP company BlueConic, breaks down the use cases for a CDP, how to identify if a brand is well-positioned to leverage one, and best practices to help marketers reap the rewards of this popular but complex tool.

This recent era of uncertainty leaves little room for marketers who inadvertently hinder lifetime customer value. In this month's episode, Vera Shafiq, VP of Digital Strategy at Location 3, explores how and why advertisers must rethink turnkey but shortsighted marketing and media tactics that curb long-term success. Her conversation with host Noor Naseer touches on strategies for generating scalable and sustainable results for agencies and brands.

Nearly a decade after its debut, programmatic in-housing is having a moment. Many brands and agencies that buy programmatic media are expressing a renewed interest in bringing those capabilities in-house. The resurgence has organizations doing a deep evaluation on what in-housing means to them and determining what they seek to achieve by pursuing it. Host Noor Naseer chats with Raashee Gupta Erry, principal and founder of UpLevel Digital Media Consulting, about how an organization can determine if in-housing is right for them. They explore the many ways to interpret what in-housing can entail, discuss who needs to be involved when considering the possibility, and much more.

Marketers in the cannabis space face a host of unique challenges. From navigating advertising regulations, to reframing stigmas, to understanding under-researched audience segments, the opportunities presented by cannabis are accompanied by significant hurdles. Sam Hollander, Chief Digital Officer at Enlighten, joined the podcast this month to share what he's learned building an advertising framework for the largest digital retail and digital marketing company in cannabis. Listen in to learn why education should be a priority for cannabis marketers, what first steps marketers should take before launching a campaign, which consumer profiles they should pay attention to, and more.