Welcome back to the NDA Podcast, hosted as always by Justin Pearse, Editor-in-Chief and Andy Oakes, Publisher of NDA. After a longer-than-planned summer break, we are back with our usual ramblings on the digital media and marketing indusrtry. In this episode, Andy kicks things off by sharing his experiences from Advertising Week in New York, touching on the burgeoning creator economy, why creators are bypassing traditional agencies to work directly with brands, and the ever-shortening duration of event panel discussions. We also discuss the shifting tone around AI, moving away from future-gazing speculation into real-world operational changes. This week also marks the launch of a brand-new weekly strand on the podcast: The NO NDA Interview: The real person behind the job title. NO NDA is NDA’s new series meeting some of the most influential people in media, marketing, and technology to get to know who they really are. We don't want to talk about their actual job. Instead it's an honest, unfiltered discussion about personal beliefs, career mistakes, and key influences. Our very first guest on the series is adtech legend Ari Paparo. A prominent leader and veteran in the adtech space for over two decades, Ari played pivotal product roles at DoubleClick, Google, AppNexus, and Nielsen. He went on to co-found and lead Beeswax as CEO, creating the industry’s first Bidder-as-a-Service platform before its acquisition by Comcast, authored the foundational VAST specification for video advertising, wrote the book Yield, and is currently the founder and CEO of Marketecture Media. In this conversation, Ari opens up about his career journey, his biggest missteps, and the individuals who shaped his perspective on the industry. And why getting fired by Brian O'Kelley was actually a good thing.
