AdTech AdTalk

Adam and Gareth
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  • Technology
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Buy Side Meets Sell Side. Live Q&A with CEOs telling the truth about where Ad Tech is headed.

  1. 4d ago

    On Safari

    Adam Heimlich and Gareth Glaser open with a classic Wilford Brimley "Diabetes" intro before launching into a chaotic week in ad tech. Apple sent shockwaves through the industry by updating Safari to aggressively block URLs associated with browser fingerprinting. Among the affected companies—including LiveRamp, ID5, and Permutative—Apple took the drastic step of blocking The Trade Desk’s primary ad-serving and impression-tracking domain. The hosts debate whether browser makers are overstepping their bounds, examining common carrier laws, net neutrality, and the blatant double standard of Apple giving Google search a pass in exchange for $20 billion annually while crippling independent ad tech. The conversation turns to the future of identity resolution, with Gareth predicting an accelerated migration from client-side scripts to server-side processing and CDN edge workers to bypass browser-level blocking. The hosts also explore Server-Side Ad Insertion (SSAI), ad stitching, and the rise of Unified Media Platforms (UMPs) as big tech companies build proprietary ad networks. Closing out the episode, Adam and Gareth react to a sobering economic projection claiming that current AI investments would require American households to spend $300 per month (9% of US GDP) on AI bills. Finally, they dissect the bankruptcy of Open Web (formerly Disqus/Vocal), with Gareth delivering a fiery rant on how third-party comment widgets act as "leaky buckets" that undercut publisher ad yields. KEY TOPICS • Apple Safari Blocks The Trade Desk: Apple updated Safari to block URLs associated with fingerprinting, targeting ID5, Permutative, LiveRamp, and notably blocking The Trade Desk's core ad-serving and tracking domain. • Browsers as Common Carriers & Tying: The hosts discuss whether browsers should be treated as common carriers prohibited from altering web content, contrasting Apple’s crackdowns with the $20 billion exception given to Google search. • Identity Moving to CDN Edge Workers: Gareth predicts that identity vendors will abandon client-side scripts in favor of server-side processing and CDN edge compute to make identity requests indistinguishable from publisher content. • The $300/Month AI GDP Projection: Adam breaks down a professor's study showing that for current AI valuations to pay off, AI spend would need to reach 9% of US GDP, equating to a $300 monthly bill per American household. • Open Web Bankruptcy & "Leaky Buckets": Following Open Web's Chapter 11 filing, Gareth explains how third-party comment widgets create "leaky buckets" by running separate, cheaper ad auctions that cannibalize publisher yield. CHAPTER TIMESTAMPS 00:00 Wilford Brimley Intro & Show Opening01:14 Q4 Instability & Industry Shockwaves03:27 Apple Safari Blocks The Trade Desk & ID Vendors06:33 DoubleClick Exemption vs. Trade Desk Impression Tracking07:50 Browser Tying, Monopolization & Apple’s $20B Google Deal10:27 Browsers as Common Carriers & Net Neutrality13:08 Frequency Capping on Safari (UID1 vs. UID2)16:22 Ian Meyers vs. Apple Engineer ("Hardest Hit Keystrokes")19:51 Voluntary CTV Inventory Deals vs. Unilateral Browser Bans21:37 Ad Blockers, Direct Mail & Consumer Privacy Hypocrisy26:13 AI Browsers & Government Option / Post Office Analogy30:06 In Defense of the Open Web as a Standardized Ad Network32:00 Moving Identity Server-Side to CDN Edge Compute35:49 Server-Side Ad Insertion (SSAI) & Brutal Ad Blockers38:09 The Evolution of CDNs: From Dumb Storage to Edge Compute40:36 Unified Media Platforms (UMPs) & Open Web Ad Networks44:36 Enterprise vs. SMB Ad Tech: AI Agents & Data Collaboration47:19 The Economic Reality of AI: 9% of US GDP ($300/Mo Bills)51:22 Open Web Bankruptcy & Publisher "Leaky Buckets"58:18 Caddyshack Quotes & Wrap-Up

  2. Sep 25

    Coins in the Wishing Well

    Adam and Gareth kick off with a vintage 1980s diet pill commercial before diving into an overlooked AWS blog post from June 2026. Amazon is quietly building advanced algorithmic decisioning infrastructure, specifically deploying agentic bidding using NVIDIA GPUs within AWS Bedrock. The hosts break down how this allows real-time inference and model hosting directly in the bidstream, potentially positioning Amazon as the master layer controlling all programmatic agents.On the sell side, Gareth revisits the stigma of "buying traffic," explaining how smart publishers are now using paid social channels for "user exfiltration"—rescuing users from walled gardens like Facebook to build direct lifetime value (LTV). The conversation also touches on the death of Google Reader, the clunky nature of email newsletters, and the desperate need for a modern RSS feed experience.The buy side discussion focuses on the race for agentic supremacy. As ChatGPT launches its own ads manager and Amazon Bedrock strikes deals to be the master UI for ad agencies, the hosts debate whether big tech giants will cooperate or ice each other out. Finally, Adam and Gareth explore the limitations of clean rooms, why Palantir’s enterprise lock-in pitch is gaining traction with holding companies like Stagwell, and why Google's return of price floors in GAM is just another tool to manipulate bidding algorithms.__________________________________________________KEY TOPICS- Amazon Bedrock’s Agentic Bidding Architecture: Amazon is building an advanced programmatic bidding infrastructure utilizing NVIDIA GPUs in AWS Bedrock, allowing for real-time model inference and containerized decisioning directly in the bidstream.- "User Exfiltration" & Buying Traffic: Gareth argues that publishers buying traffic on Facebook is not MFA spam, but rather a valid arbitrage strategy to exfiltrate users from walled gardens and build direct lifetime value.- The Return of the RSS Feed: The hosts lament how email has become a disorganized RSS feed and advocate for a unified content consumption experience to replace the clunky newsletter format.- The Agentic Master UI War: As ChatGPT rolls out an ads manager, Amazon is aggressively positioning Bedrock Agent Core as the master interface for agencies, sparking a debate on whether tech giants will block each other's agents.- The Return of GAM Price Floors: Google has reintroduced price floors in Google Ad Manager, leading to a debate on whether yield management is meant to protect inventory value or simply manipulate bidding algorithms for higher prices.__________________________________________________00:00 1980s Ayds Diet Pill Commercial & Show Intro01:34 Amazon's Secret AWS Bedrock & NVIDIA GPU Ad Tech06:24 Breaking Down the AWS Agentic Bidding Architecture09:24 Inter-Channel vs. Intra-Channel Optimization11:46 The Clunky Newsletter Problem & The Need for RSS Feeds14:06 How Advertising Attribution Boosts GDP16:16 The AI Application Layer is Just Coins in a Wishing Well17:44 Palantir's Alex Karp & The Illusion of Data Sovereignty20:30 Stagwell's Seven-Year Palantir Deal25:27 Why Agency "In a Box" Offers Fail Enterprise Brands33:26 The High Cost and Limitations of Clean Rooms44:11 OpenAI's $100 Billion Goal & ChatGPT's Top Advertisers46:50 Why Bottom-of-Funnel DR Ads Fail on ChatGPT48:28 Google Reintroduces Price Floors in GAM51:21 The True Purpose of Yield Management & Price Discrimination59:23 Payday Loans vs. Creatine Gummies

  3. Sep 18

    The Remedies Episode

    Adam Heimlich and Gareth Glaser tackle the unsealing of the government's 108-page Google ad tech antitrust remedies document. Adam and Gareth break down the core structural issue in digital publishing: why every major website is forced to maintain two separate demand setups—Google Ad Manager (GAM) for Google demand and Prebid/TAM for everything else—rather than running a single unified auction. Gareth explains that if AdX and AdWords are forced to bid into Prebid on equal terms, up to 80% of publishers who lack direct sales teams could abandon GAM entirely, speeding up web page loads and opening up true competition among sell-side ad servers. The hosts dive into Scott Messer's viral analysis highlighting a glaring loophole in the remedies that permits AdWords to continue favoring AdX whenever Google claims it provides superior advertiser value, privacy, or fraud protection. Adam counters with a historical parallel to the 2001 Microsoft Windows antitrust settlement, arguing that behavioral remedies can succeed when executive leadership tires of regulatory litigation and chooses to compete on product quality rather than illegal ties. To wrap up, the hosts analyze an Ad Age report detailing OpenAI's path toward a $100 billion ad business. They examine why top early spenders like Capital One and Expedia are experiencing disastrous direct-response performance on ChatGPT. Gareth and Adam explain that unlike Facebook or Fox News, where passive scrolling environments drive impulse clicks, reading-focused LLM users simply do not engage with performance ads. KEY TOPICS The DOJ Remedies Document & The "One Line" Unified Auction: Adam and Gareth analyze the government's 108-page antitrust filing, explaining how forcing AdX to bid directly into Prebid could allow the 80% of publishers without direct sales teams to abandon GAM entirely. Scott Messer's Loophole & AdWords Favoritism: The hosts discuss Scott Messer's warning that Google can exploit a remedy clause allowing AdWords to prioritize AdX whenever Google asserts that AdX delivers higher ROI, better data, or superior privacy. Microsoft 2001 Parallels & Corporate Mindset Shifts: Adam draws a direct comparison to the 2001 Microsoft Windows settlement, predicting that Google's executive leadership will eventually tire of fighting regulators and choose to win through genuine product innovation. OpenAI's Ad Revenue Dreams vs. Diabolical DR Performance: The hosts dissect ChatGPT's ad network ambitions, noting that top early spenders like Capital One and Expedia are seeing terrible direct-response results because LLM users are actively studying rather than browsing for impulse buys. Legacy Ad Server Latency & Taboola's UK Acquisition: Gareth highlights Taboola's £27 million UK publisher acquisition, while Adam points out that legacy GAM implementations artificially add 600 milliseconds of unnecessary latency to every page load on the internet. CHAPTER TIMESTAMPS 00:00 Show Intro & Mind Sticker Pre-Roll 01:05 Reading the 108-Page DOJ Google Antitrust Remedies Document 02:39 The "Two Lines" Problem: GAM vs. Prebid 05:14 Can Publishers Move to a Single Prebid Line? 07:52 Why 80% of GAM Users Don't Actually Need an Ad Server 11:46 Large Publisher Legacy Infrastructure & Offboarding Hurdles 15:10 Scott Messer's Loophole: How AdWords Can Still Favor AdX 21:48 Microsoft 2001 Parallels: Will Google Leadership Just Stop Cheating? 25:47 Why Google Harvested Third-Party Publisher Data 32:48 Tobin's Question: Buy-Side Policy & Thin Auctions 38:32 Capital Inflows & The 600ms Ad Server Latency Tax 44:11 Ad Age OpenAI Story & ChatGPT's Top Ad Spenders 46:50 Why LLM Users Don't Click DR Ads (The Fox News Comparison) 52:28 Innovid, Video Ad Serving, & Taboola's £27M UK M&A 57:48 Top Ad Tech Nations & Next Week Preview

  4. Sep 11

    Consolidation & Aggression

    On the 25th anniversary of 9/11, Adam Heimlich and Gareth Glaser open with personal reflections on the anxiety of "Anthrax Night" in New York City before pivoting into a fiery breakdown of the latest ad tech shake-ups. Gareth kicks off the sell-side conversation by breaking down why "buying traffic" is finally shedding its MFA stigma. He explains how smart publishers are utilizing paid marketing for "user exfiltration"—extracting users from walled gardens like Facebook to build direct audience relationships and measure lifetime value. The buy side is just as turbulent. Adam reveals that Amazon is aggressively pitching its Bedrock Agent Core to major agencies and publishers, positioning itself to be the "master UI" that controls all other AI agents. This sparks a critical debate on whether tech giants like Google and Meta will ever allow Amazon's master agent to manage their platforms, or if they will freeze them out. The hosts also dive into the brutal consolidation happening at the publisher "last mile," discussing Raptive and other Prebid management platforms throwing around aggressive revenue guarantees in a race to conquer the mid-to-long tail of the open web. Wrapping up, the duo takes aim at the hypocrisy of agency holding company conflicts after Publicis snatched the Pepsi account while still servicing Coke in certain regions. Referencing industry legend Mark Ritson, Adam and Gareth point out the absurdity that agencies are forced to build physical walls between competitor teams, while Silicon Valley tech giants pool the data of bitter rivals into a single algorithm without anyone batting an eye. This sets the stage for a compelling argument on the true value of isolated, per-advertiser modeling. KEY TOPICS • Publisher Paid Traffic & "User Exfiltration": Gareth explains how the perception of publishers buying traffic is shifting away from MFA spam, viewing it instead as a legitimate arbitrage strategy to pull users out of Facebook and build direct lifetime value. • The Death of RSS & Clunky Newsletters: The hosts lament the loss of Google Reader and RSS feeds, criticizing the modern pivot to email newsletters as a clunky, disorganized user experience compared to unified feed consumption. • Amazon Bedrock's Aggressive Master Agent Play: Adam reveals that Amazon is moving quickly to sign deals with agencies for Bedrock Agent Core, attempting to become the central "master UI" that governs all other advertising AI agents. • Prebid Management Consolidation & Revenue Guarantees: Gareth outlines the intense, knife-fight competition among outsourced publisher ad stack managers, where massive revenue guarantees are sparking suspicion and driving rapid market consolidation. • The Hypocrisy of Holding Company Conflicts: Following Publicis winning the Pepsi account, the hosts laugh at the double standard where advertising agencies must build physical walls to separate competitors, while Google and Meta pool rival data into the same black-box algorithms without scrutiny. CHAPTER TIMESTAMPS 00:00 Vintage Coffee Commercial & Show Intro02:06 9/11 Memories and the Forgotten "Anthrax Night"05:46 The End of the MFA Stigma for Buying Traffic08:39 User Exfiltration: Stealing Audiences from Walled Gardens11:46 We Need RSS Feeds Back: The Clunky Newsletter Problem19:41 Amazon Bedrock's Aggressive Master UI Deals24:37 The Agent Wars: Will Google Talk to Amazon's Agent?27:48 Chalice's Bet on Modular Enterprise Architecture30:38 Brian O'Kelley's Scope3 Vision vs. Big Tech's Reality34:50 Holding Company Agent Swarms vs. Big Tech38:19 Publisher Prebid Management: Suspicious Revenue Guarantees45:12 "Competing with Knives": Consolidation in the Publisher Last Mile48:24 Amazon Publisher Services and the Death of S2S Header Bidding51:22 Publicis Wins Pepsi: The Hypocrisy of Agency Conflicts55:46 Clean Rooms and the Value of Per-Advertiser Data Isolation58:23 Back to School Season & Getting Kids to the Bus

  5. Sep 4

    They Didn't Win Sh_t

    Adam Heimlich and Gareth Glaser return for an action-packed episode following a chaotic 36 hours of breaking ad tech news. Adam kicks off the show by calling out Hightouch's recent case study against LiveRamp, explaining why claiming higher match rates than Google for CRM email uploads is fundamentally flawed and missing LiveRamp's true purpose as a modular identity translation layer. The hosts also examine Publicis' acquisition of LiveRamp alongside Epsilon and Conversant, building a fully integrated holding company tech stack while stealing the massive Pepsi account from Omnicom.The conversation pivots to a fiery breakdown of the Google antitrust ruling. Adam and Gareth dismantle the public misconception that Google "won" anything, detailing how Google's defense was laughed out of court by an 80-year-old judge and how Google launched Buyer Direct at 10% out of desperation. They analyze why a structural breakup failed, comparing the DOJ's potential behavioral remedies to the historic 2001 Microsoft Windows settlement. They also expose how Google Campaign Manager and Meta rely on probabilistic "modeled conversions" on iOS to trick automated AI budget allocators into handing them unearned attribution credit.To wrap up, Adam and Gareth break down the FTC's lawsuit against Amazon Sponsored Ads for artificially inflating winning bids in private second-price auctions, and recount how Meta's "Jedi Blue" deal with Google crippled mobile Prebid adoption. Finally, the hosts outline a joint plan to build guaranteed direct sales rules directly into Prebid, creating a open-source alternative to Google Buyer Direct.KEY TOPICSIdentity Translation vs. CRM Match Rates: Adam roasts Hightouch's case study against LiveRamp, explaining that uploading CRM lists directly to walled gardens requires no middleman, while LiveRamp's real value lies in modular identity handoffs above platforms.Publicis, LiveRamp, and the Pepsi Account Stunner: The hosts analyze why Publicis acquired LiveRamp to protect its per-advertiser modeling pipeline, while celebrating Publicis snatching the global Pepsi account from Omnicom.Google Antitrust Reality & "Modeled Conversion" Scams: Adam and Gareth explain that Google lost its antitrust trial badly, while exposing how Google and Meta use probabilistic "modeled conversions" to manufacture fake attribution credit on iOS devices.FTC Suing Amazon Over Second-Price Auction Gaming: The hosts break down the FTC's fraud lawsuit against Amazon Sponsored Ads for placing phantom second-price bids against buyers to artificially inflate final auction prices.Building a Prebid Direct Sales Competitor to Google: Gareth and Adam map out how priority direct-serving logic can be built into Prebid in weeks, giving publishers and buyers a way to execute guaranteed deals outside GAM.00:00 Grease Opening & Show Intro01:55 Hightouch vs. LiveRamp: The Flawed Case Study03:50 Publicis Acquiring LiveRamp & The End-to-End Stack09:22 Publicis Wins Pepsi Account from Omnicom12:23 Google Antitrust Ruling: "They Didn't Win Sh_t"17:00 Why Divestiture Failed & The Microsoft Remedy Model22:58 Google Campaign Manager & Fake "Modeled Conversions"28:06 Incrementality Modeling & Chalice Seed Controls31:00 B2B Programmatic & The Challenge of Tech Buying40:10 FTC Sues Amazon Sponsored Ads for Auction Gaming50:44 Meta, Jedi Blue & The Collapse of Mobile Prebid58:03 Building Guaranteed Direct Sales into Prebid

  6. Aug 21

    Rock Bottom = Good News

    Fresh off vacation, Adam Heimlich and Gareth Glaser return for an unfiltered look at digital advertising’s shifting landscape. The show opens with an honest discussion on leadership friction, founder existential dread, and the contrasting "publisher dread" currently gripping the open web. Gareth likens the current state of digital publishing to being stuck on a 150-year-old sinking ocean liner, exploring how publishers are navigating traffic declines, Google AI Overviews, and the transition toward lifetime value (LTV) tracking and direct audience relationships. On the buy side, Adam reveals a hilarious yet frustrating trend: major agency holding companies are sending Chalice RFIs that verbatim repeat Chalice’s own modular AI pitch back to him after seven years. The hosts dissect why agency data aggregation models inherently output average performance for enterprise brands, while analyzing the broader macroeconomic shift as traditional consumer ad spend contracts and migrates into growth sectors like pharma, GLP-1 weight loss drugs, sports betting, and gaming. The episode climaxes with a deep dive into Taboola’s game-changing deal to manage NBC Universal’s programmatic sales. Gareth and Adam evaluate Taboola’s closed-loop performance model, its massive SMB advertiser scale, and why Wall Street is severely hypocritical in its valuation of Taboola compared to trade DSPs. They close with a spirited debate on agentic ad tech protocols, Beeswax history, and why AI will inevitably accelerate the in-housing of $500M+ enterprise ad budgets. KEY TOPICS Publisher Existential Dread & The Traffic Plateau: Gareth described open web traffic decline as a sinking 150-year-old liner, noting that while traffic has hit rock bottom, bright spots exist in local news adopting LTV tracking and gaming sites with direct type-in audiences. Agency RFIs & The Flaw of Data Aggregation: Adam shared that agency holding companies are sending him RFIs repeating Chalice's exact modular AI pitch back to him, noting that generic agency stacks aggregate data to output average results rather than custom enterprise optimization. The Rise of Pharma & Shifting Consumer Economies: Adam and Gareth noted that traditional consumer brand categories like beer and snacks are contracting in a slowing economy, shifting ad spend into growth sectors like pharma, GLP-1s, sports betting, and gaming. Taboola’s NBC Deal & The Closed-Loop Performance Model: Gareth highlighted Taboola taking over NBC Universal's programmatic sales, arguing that Taboola's closed-loop 65/35 revenue split and SMB onboarding infrastructure make it a massively undervalued performance powerhouse. Agentic Ad Tech & Accelerating Brand In-Housing: The hosts discussed how AI agents will streamline campaign execution, predicting an accelerated wave of brand in-housing that will challenge traditional agency fee structures. CHAPTER TIMESTAMPS 00:00 Golf Shop Pre-Roll & Show Intro 01:10 Leadership Team Meltdowns & Founder Dread 05:43 State of the Open Web: Sinking Liners & Traffic Drops 07:32 Publisher Survival: LTV Tracking & Gaming Sites 12:13 Google AI Overviews & The Review Site Dilemma 17:30 Yahoo Finance, Weather & Black-Hat SEO Traffic 19:25 State of the Buy Side: Agencies Quoting Chalice's Pitch 22:22 Why Aggregated Agency Data Outputs Average Results 24:17 Contracting Economies vs. Pharma & GLP-1 Ad Spend 28:06 Free Trade, Inflation & TV Price Deflation 31:33 DSP Custom Algorithms & Beeswax History 37:47 Taboola Takes Over NBC Universal's Programmatic Sales 42:04 Why Taboola is Massively Undervalued vs. DSPs 49:01 The Open Web vs. Taboola's Publisher Guarantees 54:03 Agentic Ad Tech, ADCP & Swivel Debates 59:21 Reaching Rock Bottom: Reimagining the Open Web

  7. Aug 14

    In Defense of Defensibility

    Fresh off a vacation in Fire Island, Adam Heimlich joins Gareth Glaser for an episode that balances hilarious observations on human status-seeking—complete with a story about Brooklyn zoo-goers misunderstanding baboon mating habits—with deep strategic analysis on the future of ad tech defensibility. The hosts open by examining what happens to the internet as Google Search's dominance wanes, predicting how publishers will pivot toward "orthogonal" content (highly uncorrelated, novel, or real-world local news) and why Google will artificially feed referral traffic to prevent publishers from blocking AI crawlers.The core of the episode tackles software defensibility and enterprise ad tech architecture. Gareth shares inside details from defensibility meetings at Chalice, challenging engineers to scope out what it would take for a $100M competitor to clone their tech, while highlighting how engineers think in "mind castles." Adam breaks down the fifth and final installment of his "Two Architectures" blog series alongside a new Bayer case study, explaining why modeling on the joint outperforms standard lookalikes, why all ad tech data science problems are edge cases, and why pure SaaS models fail in enterprise ad tech compared to custom per-advertiser infrastructure.The hosts wrap up with a tour through industry news and earnings. They dissect the ongoing backlash against The Trade Desk and CEO Jeff Green, defending Green's long-term conviction around DSP longevity, data privacy, and agentic prompt interfaces. They also critique ADCP and audit chains, evaluate Mark Ritson and Byron Sharp's "share of search" metrics, discuss Martin Sorrell's take on agency holding company defensibility, and celebrate Uber's ad business success story under Mark Grether.00:00 Oatmeal Court Audio & Fire Island Vacation03:16 Baboon Mating Myths & Human Status-Seeking06:48 Accused of AI Writing & The Post-Search Internet14:43 "Orthogonal" Content & Local News Production20:00 Local News Attribution & Google Spotlight Tags22:05 Gareth’s Defensibility Meetings & Engineer "Mind Castles"28:15 Adam’s Bayer Case Study & Data Science Edge Cases32:15 The Myth of Pure SaaS in Enterprise AdTech34:27 Pooled Averages vs. Per-Advertiser Custom Models37:50 AWS Fabric, ARTF Adoption & Measurement Lock-In43:25 Google Buyer Direct, ADCP & The Audit Chain Myth47:11 Share of Search, Byron Sharp & The Dark Lord of Penetration51:20 Martin Sorrell & Holding Company Compute Aggregation55:08 In Defense of The Trade Desk & Jeff Green's Conviction1:01:06 Collapsing Agencies & DSPs into Agentic Systems1:04:00 The Seismic Leak Story & Uber's Ad Success

  8. Aug 7

    Revenge of the SSP

    Adam Heimlich (representing the buy side) and Gareth Glaser (representing the sell side) dive into a packed earnings season episode examining major structural shifts across digital advertising. The hosts open with a deep dive into the emerging "infrastructure layer" thesis, comparing cloud plays like AWS Fabric and Amazon Publisher Services (APS/TAM) to Prebid setups. They analyze how Amazon gains auction advantages by running proprietary code on publisher pages outside Prebid’s rules, while also highlighting Amazon Bedrock's leadership in multi-LLM model management.The central theme of the show turns to the "Revenge of the SSP". Gareth and Adam break down why supply-side platforms are reinventing themselves as ad tech infrastructure providers through real-time containerization (ARTF) integrations with companies like Chalice across Index Exchange, OpenX, PubMatic, and Magnite. They explore PubMatic's stellar earnings driven by a 30% reduction in infrastructure costs, Magnite's hybrid cloud/on-prem strategy, and how curation accidentally achieved the true goals of Supply Path Optimization (SPO).The hosts also contrast DSP data-hoarding with SSP log-file transparency, dissect Nielsen's acquisition of DoubleVerify alongside Cybids and Rockerbox, and engage in a spirited debate over biddable media versus packaged direct sales using an "omakase vs. buying the whole cow" butcher metaphor. They wrap up with a spicy "Postmortem" segment roasting Jonah Goodhart’s case study on serving ads to AI agents, with Gareth framing prompt-injecting LLMs as nothing more than black-hat SEO.2. Key TopicsThe Infrastructure Play & Amazon APS Advantage: Gareth and Adam examine how scaled ad tech is shifting toward cloud infrastructure layers, noting that Amazon's APS/TAM gains an edge by running outside Prebid's open-source rules and timeouts."Revenge of the SSP" & Real-Time Containerization (ARTF): Adam and Gareth explain that SSPs are thriving by transforming into open architecture and containerized decisioning hubs (ARTF), enabling tools like Chalice to lower infra costs and drive publisher revenue.DSP Data Hoarding vs. SSP Log Transparency: The hosts contrast SSPs' willingness to share raw log files for custom algorithmic optimization against DSPs' historical tendency to withhold logs under the pretense of privacy.Direct Sales ("The Whole Cow") vs. Biddable Programmatic ("Omakase"): Gareth and Adam debate inventory packaging, arguing that direct-sold packages force buyers to pay for unwanted filler ("the whole cow"), whereas impression-level biddable programmatic delivers targeted value ("omakase").Ads for AI Agents & Black-Hat Prompt Injection: In the Postmortem segment, Gareth critiques Jonah Goodhart's case study on context-injecting ads into LLMs, calling it spammy black-hat SEO that models like Claude will actively reject.00:00 Show Intro & Summer Earnings Energy02:26 The Fabric Architecture & Infrastructure vs Application Layer04:43 Amazon APS/TAM & Prebid Rule Bypassing12:15 Amazon Bedrock & Multi-LLM Modular Architecture14:42 Real-Time Containerization (ARTF) Across Index, OpenX & PubMatic16:58 PubMatic Earnings Blowout & Cost Reductions21:05 Magnite's Hybrid Cloud/On-Prem Whitepaper24:18 "Revenge of the SSP" & Accidental SPO27:04 DSP Shifts, Trade Desk & Log File Access34:02 John D'Souza Comment on Amazon Logs & AMC Clean Rooms36:58 Nielsen Acquiring DoubleVerify, Cybids & Rockerbox43:36 Ali Manning on AdExchanger & The Origins of ARTF45:21 Regional Allocation Optimization (YouTube, Meta & DSPs)48:24 The Great Packaging Debate: Omakase vs. The Whole Cow54:51 Agentic Buying & Strategy Selection58:07 Postmortem: Jonah Goodhart vs. Will Kakowski on Ads for AI Agents

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Buy Side Meets Sell Side. Live Q&A with CEOs telling the truth about where Ad Tech is headed.

Information

  • Creator
    Adam and Gareth
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    67
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Adam and Gareth
  • Show Website
    AdTech AdTalk

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