Marketecture: Get Smart. Fast.

Scott Messer, founder of Messer Media and co-founder of Ad Tech Therapy, brings a therapist’s eye to ad tech’s biggest fractures. He explores publishers’ traffic crisis, AI content licensing, Google’s antitrust ruling, Prebid’s future, and whether agentic buying can cut programmatic fees. The conversation also tackles Safari privacy changes, OpenAI’s ad strategy, agentic commerce, and the rise of retail media partnerships.

Claire Magruder, Director of GO Studio at Global Overview, and Santosh Gunaseelan, Amazon Ads’ creative intelligence leader, explore AI-powered streaming TV advertising. They discuss Amazon’s Creative Agent, Traditional Medicinals’ video campaign, brand guidelines, performance signals, and why human strategists remain essential. They also examine how faster, lower-cost production can open streaming TV to more brands.

A rapid-fire tour of Advertising Week’s biggest ad-tech storylines: Apple’s Safari restrictions disrupt identity strategies, Walmart pushes deeper into retail media and CTV, and AI starts making moves in television buying. The discussion also covers OpenWeb’s financial woes, Zeta’s data-focused acquisitions, Paramount’s uncertain ad-tech direction, and PubX’s pivot toward agentic advertising.

Adam Epstein, CEO of AI commerce company Gigi, explores how agents could move shoppers from searching to taking action. He discusses consumer trust, permissions, Amazon’s push to protect its ad ecosystem, and why travel may become agentic commerce’s breakthrough use case. He also tests where AI assistants succeed or stumble, and considers Meta, Shopify, and the race to become consumers’ preferred AI gateway.

Ari Paparo sits down with Ryan Walker, Senior Director of Commerce at PMG, at Amazon unBoxed to explore how PMG helped IQBAR expand its full-funnel marketing strategy. Ryan explains how Amazon Marketing Cloud, audience segmentation, CTV, video, and AI-powered campaign tools helped the brand reach new shoppers, improve acquisition, and connect advertising performance to long-term customer value.TakeawaysFull-funnel marketing goes beyond conversion: PMG builds messaging around each stage of the customer journey, from discovery to purchase. New customer acquisition required a targeting shift: Amazon Marketing Cloud helped PMG identify that IQBAR was repeatedly reaching existing audiences and needed to expand to new shoppers.CTV helped expand reach: Live sports and other CTV inventory helped IQBAR acquire new customers while measuring profitability against expected lifetime value.Closed-loop measurement connects media to sales: Amazon allowed PMG to connect upper-funnel video and display exposure with actual purchases.Chapters00:00 Introduction: Ari Paparo and Ryan Walker00:38 Full-Funnel Marketing at Amazon unBoxed01:17 How PMG and IQBAR Use Amazon Marketing Cloud02:54 Reaching Customers Across the Purchase Journey03:22 Identifying IQBAR’s Growth Plateau04:39 Shifting Targeting Toward New Customers05:34 Tailoring Creative and Messaging06:03 Performance Plus and Brand Plus06:33 Expanding Across CTV and Video07:11 Using Live Sports to Reach New Audiences08:29 Amazon’s Closed-Loop Measurement Advantage09:46 What’s Next for Full-Funnel Advertising10:51 If PMG Commerce Were an AnimalGuests: Ari Paparo Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Johnny Hilbrant, comedian and creator of the satirical P.E. Guy, joins Steven Galanis, Cameo co-founder and CEO, for a lively look at creator economics. They discuss Cameo’s leap into brand partnerships, micro-influencers, LinkedIn distribution, and diversified creator income. Plus, Meta’s Muse AI shopping agent, ad tech consolidation, Scope3’s rebrand, and the booming world of commerce media networks.

Corey Ferengul, managing partner at Aperiam and a seasoned ad tech executive, explores the rise of Unified Media Platforms, AI-powered systems coordinating buying, creative, budgets, and optimization across channels. The conversation also covers Google’s ad tech remedies, AI-fueled ad spend, Mediaocean’s startup initiative, shifting agency dynamics, and OpenAI’s vision for sponsored agents.

Mike Zeman, Life360’s CMO and a veteran of Google, Square, agencies, and ad tech, discusses what marketing leaders really want from advertising partners. He covers relationship-building, proving value through pilots, balancing brand and performance, incrementality, location-based advertising, and bold creative. Ari Paparo and Eric Franchi then explore Trade Desk layoffs, ChatGPT ads, connected-device privacy, AI assistants, and auction lawsuits.

Jeremy Hobson, public-radio journalist and creator of The Middle, discusses bringing live call-in radio into the digital age through podcasts, video, and social media. He explores audience growth, political communication, and building a sustainable media business. Ari Paparo and Eric Franchi also unpack Google’s ad-tech remedies, OpenAI’s emerging advertising model, and Amazon’s alleged auction practices.

Nick Troiano, CEO of Cadent, leads an independent ad platform reinventing TV-era tech for CTV, YouTube and digital. He talks about unifying audience planning, activation and measurement across walled gardens and the open web. He explains why audience and ROI should drive media decisions, how AI needs integrated data to work, and why independence and shared intelligence matter.