Marketing, Media & Adtech

Jeff Greenfield doesn’t just work in adtech — he’s lived long enough to watch it become a tragicomedy of dashboards and delusion. He’s been a magician, a chiropractor, a pilot, and a data scientist — which makes him uniquely qualified to explain how this entire industry pulled a coin out of your ear, called it “attribution,” and invoiced you twice for it.In this episode of The ADOTAT Show, Pesach Lattin sits down with Jeff to unravel the most absurd, revealing, and occasionally magical truths about advertising’s obsession with proof. Together, they dissect the “data is the new oil” myth that turned measurement into a religion, analyze how last-click attribution became the Church of Denial, and explore why “optimization” now sounds suspiciously like “creative bankruptcy.”Greenfield explains what happens when you treat marketing like math — you get precision without persuasion, certainty without soul. He walks us through his now-famous “hose story,” where one brand cut awareness spend and accidentally proved that faith-based measurement isn’t just for religion anymore. And he dives into the Garden State Parkway analogy: a system clogged with SSPs, DSPs, exchanges, and verification vendors, all extracting tolls on the way from advertiser to audience.There’s talk of magic and measurement, of Jungian archetypes and the “collective unconscious” of advertising — that deep, emotional undercurrent brands used to tap before the spreadsheet became the creative brief. “People don’t actually want the truth,” Jeff says. “They want the story that feels true.”And that’s the point. AI can mimic creativity, but it can’t feel wonder. Data can measure engagement, but not belief. Great advertising isn’t a product of optimization — it’s a human act of imagination.Pesach and Jeff pull no punches as they expose how adtech’s “innovation layers” became little more than rent extraction, why Supply Path Optimization turned into “spiritual theater,” and how ad fraud remains the highest-reward, lowest-risk crime in the world. They end with the one metric that matters: the Return on Meaning.This episode closes the series “The Illusion of Precision,” where ADOTAT explores the gap between what the industry claims to know and what it actually understands. It’s a rare mix of humor, insight, and uncomfortable honesty — proof that data might tell you what happened, but only imagination can tell you why.🧠 Topics Covered:The Gospel of “Less Wrong” MeasurementThe Death of the Upper Funnel and the Rise of Left-Brain MarketingHow Over-Targeting Destroys Reach and ProfitThe Toll-Booth Economy of Adtech: Fraud, Fees, and Fake EfficiencyJungian Archetypes and the Lost Art of StorytellingAI’s Limits: Why Machines Can’t Channel InspirationThe Island Test: Can Your Marketing Survive Without Dashboards?Proof Without Magic Is Just Math💬 Best Quote:“All models are wrong,” Greenfield says, “but some are useful.”Sponsored by Troutman Amin and Incremental.com, who keep the lights on, the servers running, and the hosts just depressed enough to stay interesting. Without them, this show would be powered entirely by irony, caffeine, and broken attribution reports.🎩 Watch if you’ve ever wondered:Why your brand feels smaller even as your data gets bigger.#TheADOTATShow #JeffGreenfield #Adtech #MarketingPodcast #Advertising #AI #Creativity #Data #MediaBuying #Programmatic #Measurement #Attribution #LessWrong #adtechgod #adtechlearnbd

Welcome to The ADOTAT Show, where integrity meets insanity — and the only thing more dangerous than ad fraud is honesty.This week, Pesach Lattin sits down with Mattia Fosci, the lawyer-turned-activist-turned-ad-tech-CEO who’s been kicked out of Congress, nearly killed in a jungle, and somehow decided to take on the wildest beast of them all: programmatic advertising.Now leading Anonymized, Fosci is on a mission to prove that advertising doesn’t need to spy on you to work. He calls out the industry’s biggest myth — that IDs and endless data syncing make ads more effective — and explains why the obsession with attention metrics, click-through rates, and PowerPoint transparency reports is nothing but performance art.He doesn’t stop there. Fosci breaks down how AI should supervise machine learning, not replace it, why large language models are too slow to keep up with real-time bidding, and how his custom algorithms have already outperformed human planners two-thirds of the time. And yes, he actually says:“We’ve got access to all the world’s knowledge in our pockets, and we use it for cat videos.”Between jokes and truth bombs, Fosci talks about leadership, rebellion, and the art of staying human in a system designed to turn people into data. He explains why he’ll never sell out to Big Tech — even when offered millions — and why his grandfather’s old-fashioned lesson still guides him today: “There’s right and there’s wrong, and you always want to be in the right.”And then, with the dry grin of a man who’s survived both politics and ad tech, Fosci sums up his own legacy:“Smart guy with a bold vision — and two balls the size of coconuts.”It’s not just a punchline. It’s a business plan.Featuring:– Brutal honesty about ad tech’s supply chain rot– A masterclass in how AI actually works in programmatic– Leadership that’s part rebellion, part rationality– A reminder that decency still scales — if you let itSponsored by:Incremental – Helping marketers measure what really matters.Troutman Amin LLP – The legal sharp minds who keep innovation on the right side of the chaos.The ADOTAT Show:Where candor still counts, jargon dies young, and every guest leaves slightly more self-aware than they arrived.Stay bold. Stay curious. And know more than you did yesterday.

In this episode of The ADOTAT Show, Pesach Lattin sits down with Graeme Blake, founder of BluTui, a platform built to save agencies from themselves.From indie agency trenches to building infrastructure for the idea-sellers, Graeme breaks down why most agencies are sitting on gold but too distracted by Slack chaos and “circle back” culture to notice. He calls out the industry’s addiction to hours-for-dollars billing, the myth of digital projects with “no margin,” and the creative maverick mentality that’s holding real progress hostage.💡 What You’ll Learn:Why agencies are leaving money on the table (and how to fix it)How to survive the chaos of digital builds without losing your mindWhy “10x” should be banned from every deck and LinkedIn postHow value-based pricing could save the creative industryPlus: Graeme’s desert island picks featuring Larry David, Chelsea Handler, and Banksy🎙️ Hosted by Pesach Lattin, The Rabbi of ROAS🎧 Presented by ADOTAT, powered by Troutman Amin LLP and IncrementalStay bold, stay curious, and know more than you did yesterday.#AdTech #AgencyLife #ADOTATShow #Marketing #CreativeIndustry #BlueTui #PesachLattin #DigitalTransformation

Simon Poulton joins The ADOTAT Show for one of the smartest, funniest, and most brutally honest conversations about where marketing is headed — and why so many of us are in denial about it.In this episode, Simon takes us deep into the AI-driven search revolution, where users don’t really “search” anymore — they just ask questions and hope their algorithmic butler doesn’t hallucinate an answer. We talk about how Google’s shiny new interfaces are rewriting discovery itself, what “agentic ecosystems” actually mean, and why the real war isn’t over keywords — it’s over who teaches the machines what truth looks like.Simon also tackles the cult of measurement with the precision of a surgeon and the wit of a man who’s seen one too many PowerPoints. He argues that marketers don’t really want precision; they want validation. That we’ve turned data into a deity, and dashboards into confession booths. And that most of what passes for “optimization” is just highly organized anxiety wrapped in acronyms.Along the way, he drops truth bombs about:How removing levers from ad platforms doesn’t make marketers smarter — it just exposes who never knew what those levers did in the first place.Why creative teams are trapped in an A/B testing purgatory where innovation dies in decimal points.Why failing fast isn’t just a startup mantra — it’s survival advice for CMOs who’d rather risk big than die beige.And yes — there’s a dance-off. Because when you’re done fighting attribution models, sometimes you just need to prove your point with bad rhythm and good lighting.Brought to you by Troutman Amin LLP, the legal lions who keep adtech’s wildest players out of the headlines, and Incremental, the measurement masterminds reminding the industry that causation still matters.🎙️ The ADOTAT Show — Stay bold, stay curious, and know more than you did yesterday.

Welcome to the Season 6 Premiere of The ADOTAT Show, where host Pesach Lattin kicks things off with a powerhouse guest — David Cohen, CEO of the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) — for one of the most important conversations in adtech right now.Cohen sits down with Lattin to unpack how the IAB is navigating the AI revolution, the collapse of legacy ad models, and the rebuilding of the open web in real time. From the death of the click-through rate to the emergence of attention, incrementality, and new creative standards, this episode cuts through the noise with brutal honesty and sharp analysis.If you want to understand where the digital economy is actually heading — beyond the buzzwords and PR decks — this is your roadmap.In this episode:How AI is upending 30 years of digital ad architecture, and how the IAB is rewriting the playbook.Why federal privacy reform is dead, and what Cohen’s “three-state model” really means for brands.The comeback of Marketing Mix Modeling (MMM) and incrementality in the post-cookie world.The IAB’s battle to standardize CTV, commerce media, and AI creative labeling.Cohen’s unfiltered take on leadership: “Progress over perfection — just get sh*t done.”It’s the conversation that defines the moment — candid, data-driven, and just irreverent enough to feel like adtech therapy.💡 Keywords: IAB, David Cohen, AdTech, AI, Digital Advertising, Programmatic, Privacy, Measurement, Incrementality, Attention Metrics, CTV, Commerce Media, Retail Media, Open Web, Marketing Mix Modeling, Publishers, Data Ethics, ADOTAT, Pesach Lattin🎧 Watch now — the Season 6 Premiere of The ADOTAT Show — and hear how the IAB plans to keep the ad world from eating itself alive.🔥 Special thanks to our Season 6 sponsors:Troutman Amin, LLP — the powerhouse law firm guiding advertisers, platforms, and agencies through the minefield of privacy, compliance, and adtech regulation.Incremental.com — redefining measurement with causal data science that proves what truly drives performance and growth.👉 Subscribe to the ADOTAT Newsletter for exclusive interviews, data-driven deep dives, and bold commentary from inside the adtech industry.Go here: https://new.adotat.com/subscribeStay bold. Stay curious. And know more than you did yesterday.

🚨 Season Five Finale of The ADOTAT Show 🚨We’re closing out Season Five with one of the most provocative conversations yet. Naama Manova-Twito returns to The ADOTAT Show—and this time, she’s not just talking about AI as a productivity hack. She’s showing us what happens when AI becomes a colleague.Yes, a colleague. With résumés, cover letters, LinkedIn profiles, and job interviews. Naama’s AI agents aren’t “copilots” or “assistants”—they’re coworkers that run campaigns, crunch analytics, optimize budgets, and even file their own performance reviews.In this episode we dive into:🔹 How SMBs are leapfrogging big enterprises by hiring AI “employees.”🔹 Why vanity metrics like CTR, CPA, and ROAS are charming liars that don’t reflect business reality.🔹 The HR identity crisis: what happens when the candidate isn’t human—but is still qualified.🔹 Naama’s philosophy on startups: forget balance, conviction is the only currency that matters.🔹 How Israel’s startup resilience under pressure shaped MarkeTeam.ai’s approach.🔹 Why AI might actually bring the fun back to marketing by freeing humans from the grind.This episode isn’t just about technology—it’s about values, resilience, and redefining creativity in the age of agents.✨ Season Six Teaser: After a short break for the Jewish holidays, The ADOTAT Show will return in October, kicking off with David Cohen, CEO of the IAB, headlining our new season.🙏 Special thanks to our sponsors:Troutman Amin LLP – the legal lions of adtech.Incremental – proving that ROI isn’t a feeling, it’s math.🔔 Don’t forget to subscribe, hit the bell icon, and stay tuned for the next season.📢 Stay Bold, Stay Curious, and Know More Than You Did Yesterday.

What happens when you walk away from adtech chaos for the so-called serenity of the yoga industry—only to discover the “founder as guru” cult is just as messy as programmatic? You come back stronger, sharper, and funnier. That’s exactly what Kurt Donnell, CEO of Freestar, did. In this episode of The ADOTAT Show, Pesach Lattin digs into Donnell’s journey from Om shante to OpenRTB, and why he’s leading a quiet rebellion against the industry’s addiction to “more.”This isn’t your usual buttoned-up PR fluff. Kurt lays it out:Why publishers need to stop hoarding partners and ad slots—and how cutting down can actually raise CPMs and RPMs.The OpenPath effect: 3× win rates, 20% CPM lifts, and why direct pipes don’t always cannibalize SSP spend.How buyers are now sniper-rifle hunting, not shotgunning impressions, and what that means for publishers stuck in the “more is better” trap.The hard truth on identity providers, SSP sprawl, and M&A roll-ups—why half the logos in Lumascape could disappear without anyone shedding a tear.Freestar’s remote culture playbook: cameras on, uncomfortable transparency, radical trust, and llama yoga jokes that actually matter.The eternal culture debate: is a hot dog a sandwich? Kurt’s team still hasn’t solved it.And yes—we talk AI. Kurt’s take? “AI has to be the frosting on the cupcake, not the sprinkles.” In other words: stop slapping AI labels on useless chatbots that make customers want to throw their laptops. Use AI to exceed human potential, not replace it.If you’re in programmatic advertising, digital media, CTV, yield optimization, supply path efficiency, or even identity solutions, this episode is your cheat sheet to what’s next. From snipers vs. shotguns to remote leadership hacks, Donnell’s lessons are both tactical and big-picture—and you’ll leave either smarter, more paranoid, or both.👉 Don’t just read the headlines—watch the full interview and hear why sometimes subtraction is the real growth hack.🙏 Thank You to Our SponsorsThis episode of The Dōdge Show is made possible by:Troutman Amin LLP — the legal heavyweights keeping adtech honest.Incremental.com — the measurement pros helping brands prove what really works.Without their support, we wouldn’t get to ask the kind of questions that make PR teams sweat.Keywords: Freestar, Kurt Donnell, Pesach Lattin, The Dōdge Show, programmatic advertising, adtech podcast, adtech interview, header bidding, OpenRTB, SSP, DSP, identity solutions, supply path optimization, CTV advertising, digital media, AI in adtech, advertising technology, marketing technology, yield optimization, RPM, CPM, advertising consolidation, mergers and acquisitions, remote culture, ad management, OpenPath, future of programmatic.

This week, Rio Longacre, a marketing transformation expert with over two decades of experience, dives into the world of Agentic AI. He emphasizes its potential to revolutionize media planning, highlighting the shift from traditional dashboards to real-time decision-making. Longacre addresses ad fraud, skepticism about brand motivations, and warns that junior media staff may be left behind in the AI revolution. He also discusses the evolution of agencies into strategic governance roles, and the future where AI could eliminate verification duopolies.

Advertising has always loved its own lies—clicks that pretend to be insight, dashboards that look like truth, and “engagement” that usually just means someone fat-fingered a banner while trying to close Candy Crush. In this episode of The ADOTAT Show, I sit down with Anders Lithner, CEO of Brand Metrics, to dismantle the entire circus.Anders is Swedish, armed with data, and just dangerous enough to say the quiet part out loud: most marketers don’t actually want the truth—because the truth might get them fired.We cover everything the industry doesn’t want you to think too hard about:🔹 Why clicks are cheap dopamine and optimizing for CTR is “optimizing for stupidity.”🔹 Why you can’t buy behavior—you can only influence minds and hearts.🔹 How Whirlpool and Heinz prove that perception always precedes behavior.🔹 Why publishers like the Guardian and Financial Times leaned into Brand Metrics to survive the CPM race to the bottom.🔹 How millions of survey responses are now training predictive engines that may replace panels entirely by 2030.🔹 Why attention ≠ viewability, and why frequency is misunderstood (hint: too little frequency kills campaigns faster than too much).🔹 The brutal truth about CTV measurement: your TV being on doesn’t mean anyone’s paying attention.Anders doesn’t pull punches. He tells us directly: “You can’t skip the step. You can’t buy behavior. You can only influence people.”This isn’t about dashboards or vanity metrics. It’s about the future of brand measurement: predictive models, attention as currency, and brand lift as the new ROI. If you think your quarterly report is safe behind CTR and impressions, Anders has some news for you.👀 Watch if you want the truth about advertising’s future.💬 Comment if you think clicks still matter (spoiler: they don’t).📌 Subscribe for more conversations where we ruin PR spin for sport.https://new.adotat.com/subscribe#Adtech #BrandMetrics #AdvertisingTruth #AttentionEconomy #CTV #MarketingMeasurement

From Comic-Con to CPMs: How Fandom Turned Pop Culture into the Ultimate Marketing EngineMost brands trying to “connect with Gen Z” are basically fumbling around in the dark with a 1998 marketing playbook. They’re chasing trends after they’ve cooled, leaning on outdated audience buckets, and confusing “moviegoers” or “gamers” with actual insight.This episode blows that approach to pieces.I sit down with Jeremy Steinberg, CRO of Fandom, to talk about how the world’s largest fan platform—350 million monthly users across 300,000+ communities and 60 million pages—has become the gold standard for cultural targeting. Forget generic categories—Fandom’s FanDNA Helix uses AI and probabilistic modeling to uncover the why behind fandoms, predicting cultural overlaps and next-big-thing trends before anyone else sees them.You’ll hear:Why lazy audience targeting is the “Blockbuster Video” of marketing strategiesHow Helix spots wild but valuable overlaps (think Fantastic Four fans also obsessed with Lilo & Stitch and Baldur’s Gate)Why AI will blow up the “open web” as we know it and trigger the coming “algorithm wars”Special Thanks to Our SponsorsThis episode is made possible by the folks who keep the lights on and the caffeine flowing:Troutman Amin, LLP – The legal lions of adtech. If there’s a fine print, they’ve read it, rewritten it, and made it purr.Incremental – The masters of measurement who make sure your marketing dollars aren’t out there wandering the internet without adult supervision.Without them, this show would just be me shouting into the void about CPMs.The real reason gaming remains wildly under-monetized—and how to win there without getting roasted by the communityHow to activate inside fan culture so it feels authentic, not like you barged in with a press releaseWe also dig into the massive Gen Z reach Fandom commands, the “halo effect” of showing up where passions run hottest, and the future of brand positioning inside closed AI ecosystems.If you care about marketing in 2025—whether you’re in adtech, brand strategy, gaming, or just want to stop wasting media dollars on people who don’t care—this is a conversation you can’t miss.NEWSLETTER: https://new.adotat.com/subscribe