AdTech AdTalk

Adam and Gareth

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

  1. −1 D

    Coverage of the Carnage

    Adam and Gareth are back to sort through the noise in an episode packed wall-to-wall with industry drama. From the Pentagon to the Cayman Islands, it’s a pure news day on AdTech AdTalk, and the theme is "Carnage."First up, the guys unpack Anthropic's "woke AI" feud with the Pentagon and Palantir, complete with a bizarre Gen-X fun fact about Peter Thiel's childhood in Namibia. Then, they tackle the slow adoption of AI by CMOs, debating whether "Agentic AI" is actually driving innovation or just finding new ways to cut jobs.The drama heats up as they cover Jeffrey Epstein's strange (and brief) connection to programmatic futures, the controversy over ICE buying location data, and the explosive Digiday report about WPP and Dentsu pulling out of The Trade Desk's Open Path over hidden fees. Plus, Adam and Gareth weigh in on the ADCP vs. ARTF standards "showdown," Mark Zuckerberg's landmark child safety trial, and why LinkedIn's search bar remains the worst product on the internet.00:00 Intro: Cold Weather & Ad Tech Carnage02:34 Anthropic, The Pentagon & Woke AI06:04 Peter Thiel's Namibian Childhood09:44 CMOs & Slow AI Adoption11:53 The Day of the Yellow Square16:41 Sheep Dogging the Algorithm22:40 Agentic Buzzwords vs. Real AI27:18 Jeffrey Epstein's Ad Tech Connections30:42 ICE's RFP for Location Data36:56 Digiday Scoop: Agencies Exit Open Path46:01 Agency Rebates to the Cayman Islands49:22 Showdown: ADCP vs. ARTF Standards53:41 Zuckerberg Testifies on Child Safety58:24 Intent IQ's Cross-Device Patent Lawsuit01:01:00 StinkedIn: The Worst Search Bar Ever

    1 tim 7 min
  2. 6 FEB.

    Container Explainer

    In this special episode, Adam and Gareth present a deep dive into the industry's most complex new standard: The IAB Tech Lab’s Agentic Realtime Framework (ARTF).The duo uses three distinct metaphors to break down how "Containerization" is moving the ad auction to the edge. They explain how High-Frequency Trading (HFT) infrastructure revolutionized finance (and why ad tech is next), why the modern DSP should be treated like a Bento Box rather than a prix fixe meal, and how the history of Shipping Containers predicts who will actually get rich from the AI boom (hint: it’s probably not the AI companies).Featuring guest commentary from Index Exchange and OpenX, this episode cuts through the noise of "Agentic AI" to explain the actual plumbing, how 1-millisecond microservices are unbundling the stack and restoring yield to publishers.00:00 Intro: The "Container Explainer"01:08 Metaphor 1: High-Frequency Trading & Flash Boys04:46 Containerization vs. Colocation06:08 The Meditation (100ms vs. 1ms)08:50 Metaphor 2: The Bento Box (Unbundling the DSP)11:00 The Agentic Framework Architecture12:56 Metaphor 3: Shipping Containers & Value Capture16:09 Prebid’s Legacy: Moving Integration to the Edge19:10 The DSP Identity Crisis: Enterprise vs. SMB21:08 Intro to ACRONYM (Non-Profit)22:00 Index Exchange on Sell-Side Decisioning24:54 OpenX on Unbundling & Data Security26:00 Future Use Cases: Mutations & Bid Shading29:12 ARTF vs. ADCP: What’s the Difference?32:50 Closing Thoughts: Collaboration is Key

    37 min
  3. 30 JAN.

    Ask an Expert (ft. Tylynn Pettrey, Chalice AI)

    Gareth is out, and the "most interesting person on the planet" is in. Adam is joined by Chalice AI’s SVP of Data Science, Tylynn Pettrey, for a high-speed masterclass on the history of predictive modeling, from 19th-century planetary orbits to the transformer architectures powering 2026’s agentic workflows.Tylynn breaks down complex math into plain English, explaining why "more data" isn't always better (the curse of dimensionality), why some algorithms break the bank on computing costs, and why AdTech is finally catching up to High-Frequency Trading. Plus, we answer audience questions on Quantum Computing, the death of the R programming language, and why Tylynn kept a mass spectrometer in her garage during the pandemic.00:00 Intro: The Data Science Takeover02:40 Linear Regression: Connecting the Dots05:37 Logistic Regression & The S-Curve09:12 Decision Trees: The Medical Diagnosis Logic10:56 K-Nearest Neighbors & Lookalikes13:13 Neural Networks: The Factory Assembly Line16:18 Back Propagation: Learning from Error18:32 Random Forests: Crowd-Sourced Math19:50 Support Vector Machines (SVM) & Big O Notation22:25 Skills for 2026: Python vs. R vs. Rust24:54 Deep Learning & Sparse Data28:40 Transformers & Attention Mechanisms33:18 The Imbalance Problem: Synthetic Data38:54 Scoring: AUC and Probability41:42 Q&A: Is Agentic AI Hype?43:10 Q&A: Quantum Computing in AdTech48:25 Q&A: Is R Dead?51:15 The Mass Spectrometer in the Garage53:20 Curate AI: Low Latency Scoring in Rust

    1 tim 1 min
  4. 23 JAN.

    Cynicsthesia (ft. Mike McNeeley, Index Exchange)

    Things are getting spicy on AdTech AdTalk. Adam (Buy Side) and Gareth (Sell Side) are joined by the industry’s unofficial oracle, Mike McNeeley (SVP of Product, Index Exchange), to tackle the erosion of trust in the programmatic supply chain.The trio dives deep into the controversy of "publisher-declared fields", why letting sellers grade their own homework is leading to ID spoofing, and why the OpenRTB spec is long overdue for a rigid overhaul. Mike pulls back the curtain on how Index Exchange polices inventory quality and why "friction" is a necessary feature, not a bug.Later, the crew pivots to product management philosophy, debating how to build for "fragmolidation" without over-engineering. Plus, they break down the massive news that Amazon is adopting Prebid (a win for open standards?), and Gareth roasts the "robotic m-dash" plaguing everyone's LinkedIn feeds.00:00 Intro & The Ad Tech Oracle02:39 The Lying Field Problem 04:41 OpenRTB Specs 10107:32 The Stock Market Fraud Analogy 10:56 Who Is Accountable for Fraud? 12:44 Index Exchange’s Quality Gates 17:45 Fixing the OpenRTB Spec 22:25 Brand Safety Lag Kills News 26:14 Salience vs. Suitability 29:49 Scaling Product Teams 35:48 The "Loss URL" Rabbit Hole 43:00 Agentic Frameworks & Sidecars 46:11 WSJ: CEOs vs. Workers on AI 48:03 Stop Using AI for LinkedIn 53:45 The "Tinder for Networking" Idea 58:07 News: Amazon Adopts Prebid1:02:30 A Win for Open Standards 1:08:21 Rapper Wars & Snowfalls

    1 tim 11 min
  5. 16 JAN.

    Working Media, So Hot Right Now

    In this episode, Adam and Gareth embrace the chaos of 2026. Adam recounts a hilarious (and almost illegal) run-in with the NYPD at a "massage parlor," while Gareth laments the inflation of a $75 midtown haircut.The duo announces the formation of ACRONYM (The Ad Tech Coalition to Restore Openness and Normalize Yield Markets) and declares "Working Media" the buzzword of the year. They dive deep into the latest industry debate sparked by Brian O'Kelley, arguing whether OpenRTB is for "day trading" while Agentic AI is for "investing", and review a technical rebuttal from former Chalice engineer Will.Plus, the debut of the Kreative Korner with Marley and Sasha breaking down the "uncanny valley" horror of the AI-generated McDonald's ad, a check-in on Grok's disturbingly specific bikini generation capabilities, and a look at why AI might actually lead to marketing layoffs (per the WSJ).0:00 Intro & Pontiac Intelligence Shoutout 03:06 Adam’s "Illicit" Massage Parlor Story 07:46 Gareth’s $75 Haircut & Ad Tech Inflation 13:58 The Data Quality Problem (Serge AI & Human Review) 17:50 Announcement: Launching ACRONYM (The Ad Tech Coalition) 20:15 Why "Working Media" is the Buzzword of 2026 22:30 Grok and Trolls: Pete Hegseth in a Bikini 25:43 Kreative Korner: The Creepy AI McDonald's Ad 31:39 Is AI Art? (The "Drawing a Chair" Analogy) 43:59 Post-Mortem: Brian O'Kelley: "OpenRTB is Day Trading" 50:51 Post-Mortem: Will’s Rebuttal: Recommendation Systems vs. Agents 59:43 Q&A: Affiliate Links in Custom GPTs 1:04:13 Prediction Check-In: Amazon vs. The Trade Desk 1:11:44 News: WSJ on AI-Driven Marketing Layoffs 1:17:27 Outro

    1 tim 10 min
  6. 2 JAN.

    2026 Predictions

    Happy New Year and welcome to 2026! In the first episode of the year, Adam and Gareth kick things off with their boldest predictions for the future of ad tech.From the rise of the "Ad Tech Singularity" (where DSPs, SSPs, and data companies finally merge) to the inevitable comeback of open web banners (yes, really), the duo covers it all. They debate whether retail media networks are just selling "fancy value-click" inventory, why performance CTV is bringing IP-address attribution "home to roost," and why AI won't make investors rich (but might make you rich).Plus, Gareth explains why Elon's unhinged tweets might actually be good for Grok's credibility, and predicts the end of the "trust era" in inventory quality. It's a jam-packed episode to set the stage for a wild year ahead.00:00 - Intro & Pontiac Intelligence Shoutout02:59 - The Joys of Parenting Toddlers (AKA "First Principles of Humanity")06:53 - Post-Mortem: The Looming Retail Media Scandal10:04 - Is Retail Media Data Actually Any Good?15:50 - Elon, Grok, and the Future of Truth on X24:35 - Adam vs. DigiDay: The Trade Desk Whisper Campaigns36:58 - Adam's Prediction #1: The Revival of the OLV Market40:34 - Adam's Prediction #2: New AI-Native Agency Models44:01 - Adam's Prediction #3: AI "Gravity" & The Valuation Reality Check46:07 - Adam's Prediction #4: Muscular Behavioral Remedies for Google47:40 - Gareth's Prediction #1: The Ad Tech Singularity (Unbundling is Over)54:46 - Gareth's Prediction #2: Performance CTV & The Return of IP Attribution1:01:17 - Gareth's Prediction #3: The Banner Market Will Grow in 20261:04:13 - Gareth's Prediction #4: Amazon Will Not Beat The Trade Desk1:09:30 - Gareth's Prediction #5: Disappointment with LLM Ad Revenue1:11:44 - News: Marketing Layoffs Due to AI Pressure1:17:27 - Outro

    1 tim 19 min

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

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