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. 4 days ago

    I Have a Thesis

    After recovering from a truly bizarre pre-roll video featuring an opossum massage, hosts Adam Heimlich and Gareth Glaser dive deep into defining their core operating philosophies for Chalice and Gamera. Adam lays out his "Two Architectures" thesis, arguing that enterprise advertisers require unique, one-at-a-time AI stacks based on their own data, rather than the "pooled stacks" used by small businesses, to prevent brand equity erosion and slows growth. Gareth counters with a critique of the shaken faith in programmatic, specifically among publishers moving back toward direct sales, necessitating a new thesis on "Trust in Programmatic." The hosts litigate the complete lack of standards and enforcement in "seller-defined" programmatic fields, which publishers have historically gamed to satisfied generic, pooled DSP algorithms that fail to spread value across opportunities. The conversation shifts to the distinction between data, measurement, and optimization. Adam asserts that Chalice is uniquely optimizing empirical page metrics—like network calls and refresh rates—against robust per-advertiser valuations. Gareth advocates for a zero-trust approach, positioning Gamera as the necessary neutral third party to objectively label inventory and create feedback loops for publishers. In the news segment, the hosts analyze Omnicom’s recent earnings call, slamming CEO John Wren for punting on analyst questions regarding whether AI efficiency savings benefit the agency or the advertiser. Adam and Gareth express deep skepticism over agency claims of multi-year internal AI builds, suggesting they are likely relying on generic tools from Google and Microsoft. They close with Ian Whitaker’s analysis of Microsoft versus Meta capex spending, analyzing why the market rationalizes Microsoft’s compute investments as widgets to be sold, but remains skeptical of Zuckerberg’s ability to translate massive hardware bets into an impregnable advertising moat. 00:00 Apossum Massage Madness & Intro02:29 The Adam Loves AdTech Blog Engagment04:31 Adam's Thesis: The Two Architectures of AI Advertising08:23 Gareth's Thesis: Shaken Faith in Programmatic09:37 The Lack of Trust & Standards in Bidstream Fields11:44 Publisher Shenanigans & The Failure to Spread Value13:20 The Need for Neutral Third Parties & Zero Trust16:40 Objective Site Assessment vs. Gamed GPIDs22:00 The App Nexus Origins of Curation24:30 Why Curation Works: Beating the DSP Algo29:23 Does AdTech Actually Care About Advertiser Performance?31:47 Dissecting Data, Optimization, & Measurement34:54 Viewability Table Stakes vs. Gamed Inventory39:50 JS Logs, iframes, and Closing the Pub Loop43:30 Gamera Business Model & Free Publisher Monitoring45:41 News Pubs & Oracle's Brand Safety Vacuum50:50 News: Agency Earnings, AI Savings & The John Wren Punt52:55 Moving too Fast: The Pony Scheme Analogy55:51 News: Meta vs. Microsoft Capex & Ian Whitaker Analysis59:12 Social Media is Just a Website1:00:32 Singularity & Next Week: Kaiju Open Weight Model Fight

  2. 24 Jul

    Is It Recipe Sites? Or Is It Cake?

    Adam and Gareth return after a week off, diving straight into high-level ad tech analysis. The hosts tackle how user IDs and audience targeting are evolving in modern advertising. Rather than viewing IDs as rigid segment buckets, they explore how advanced buyers like Chalice treat IDs as correlation fields to drive flexible propensity scoring and true incrementality modeling.The conversation moves into market economics, the shifting balance of power between CMOs and CFOs, and the bull vs. bear cases for programmatic technology. Gareth and Adam break down why ghost bidding often produces messy data compared to clean public service announcement (PSA) control groups, why retail media networks are primarily useful for conquesting rather than loyalty targeting, and how programmatic tech fees could theoretically compress down to a lean 15% to 18%.Finally, the hosts unpack technical mechanics on the supply side, explaining how open web native ads operate at a component level and why supply-side platforms (SSPs) like Media.net, TripleLift, and Magnite lead format innovation. They close out with a candid discussion on publisher revenues dropping 40% in Q2, an infuriating case study of a luxury brand irrationally blocking news publishers, and a witty critique of Sam Altman's rumored $100 billion AI ad network ambitions.Key TopicsUser ID Propensity Scoring & Incrementality: Adam and Gareth explained that user IDs should be treated as flexible correlation fields for propensity scoring and incrementality rather than rigid target audience buckets.The Flaw of Retail Media Networks & Ghost Bidding: Adam noted that retail media networks mostly hold repeat-buyer data best suited for brand conquesting, while ghost bidding creates unreliable data compared to clear PSA control testing.Bull vs. Bear Cases for Programmatic & AI: Gareth presented a bear case where middleware vendors re-complicate ad tech and Google Cloud locks in buyers, while Adam shared a bull case where tech fees compress to 15-18% and programmatic expands into mid-market performance budgets.SSP Formats & Mechanics of Open Web Native Ads: Gareth detailed how true native advertising delivers structured component arrays rather than pre-assembled banner tags, explaining why SSPs like Media.net, TripleLift, and Magnite drive format creation.Publisher Squeeze & Irrational News Blocking: Adam and Gareth discussed how search retention hurts publisher traffic, sharing a real-world story of a luxury brand cutting news inventory despite high campaign performance.00:00 Toilet Privacy Sensor & Show Intro01:19 User IDs, Audience Targeting & Chalice04:02 Propensity Scoring vs. Rigid Bucketing06:10 The Retail Media Network Conquesting Dilemma08:27 Incrementality: PSAs vs. Ghost Bidding12:02 CFO Power & Marketing Mix Modeling (MMM)15:15 The Branded Search Tax & ADT Security Story18:15 Low Viewability Waste & Zero-Trust Bid Fields24:24 Bull vs. Bear Cases for AI & Ad Tech Efficiency36:30 Open Web Video Distribution & Maldo's Birthday39:22 Media.net & Why SSPs Own Format Innovation45:19 How Open Web Native Ads Actually Work49:20 Publisher Q2 Traffic Squeeze & Google Retention53:31 Luxury Brands & The Irrational News Block55:40 Blog Plugs, Twitter Feuds & Sam Altman's Ad Dreams

  3. 2 Jul

    Barrage of Buzzwords

    Adam and Gareth return from their post-Cannes Lions haze to break down a wild week of acquisitions, executive manifestos, and deleted LinkedIn posts. The guys kick off with a recap of the Cannes "boondoggle," where ad exchanges and platforms throw massive yacht parties and take over entire hotels to woo CMOs. Shifting to the tech stack, they discuss how AI is supercharging CRMs and customer service, including the shock for Pylon's CEO when their Claude enterprise pricing jumped from $600k to $3M. Adam and Gareth then dissect Sir Martin Sorrell's critique of holding company bureaucracy, as well as Keith Weisberg's quickly deleted post calling out agencies for pitching a "barrage of buzzwords" rather than proving their AI capabilities. They also unpack the juicy details of a controversial Meta tell-all book, Walmart's rumored $1.4 billion acquisition of Vibe, Satya Nadella's AI manifesto, and Alex Karp's buzzword-heavy Palantir-Zeta Global partnership. Key Topics: - The Cannes Lions Boondoggle: Why the festival is less about shared events and more about massive corporate flexing and yacht parties. - The Cost of AI in SaaS: How tools like Pylon and Granola are revolutionizing asynchronous communication, but facing massive enterprise API costs. - Holding Company Bureaucracy: Sir Martin Sorrell's debate on whether agencies should organize by market or capability. - Fake Agentic AI: Calling out the industry's habit of selling "a barrage of buzzwords" instead of showing real ROI and case studies. - The Vibe Acquisition: Breaking down the massive 17x multiple and $180M founder earnouts in Walmart's reported acquisition of Vibe. - The White-Collar Industrial Revolution: Satya Nadella's pushback on AI doomerism and why LLMs are uniquely targeting the bourgeoisie. Chapter Timestamps: 00:00 Intro & Cannes Lions Recap 11:27 AI in Sales, Pylon, & The Cost of Claude 19:03 Sir Martin Sorrell on HoldCo Taxonomy 28:04 Keith Weisberg Calls Out Fake Agentic AI 33:54 The Meta Tell-All Book "Careless People" 40:08 Walmart's $1.4B Acquisition of Vibe 54:18 Satya Nadella's AI Manifesto 58:48 Alex Karp, Palantir, and Zeta Global

  4. 5 Jun

    Natural Born Clickers

    Adam and Gareth break down the mind-bending "Data Gravity Theory of Adtech" introduced by industry gadfly Tom Truscari. Using a literal physics equation, they litigate whether consolidating data sets actually drives better outcomes for marketers, or if it simply forces enterprise brands into a "platform average" that dilutes their private modeling advantages. Adam shares a historical perspective on how big brands accidentally "donate" their data to ad networks, which then use it to fuel and spawn copycat competitors. The guys also dive into the return of click-driving campaigns, revisiting Comscore's famous 2008 study "Natural Born Clickers" to remind everyone that 10% of users generate the vast majority of web clicks. They expose why Google's mobile interstitial ads are their most profitable unit, look back at the 1990s Sears & Roebuck mail-order math that birthed modern addressable marketing, and laugh at a tech CEO's "new" warning about AI optimization traps that Adam actually published a decade ago. Finally, the conversation takes a wild turn into psychedelic 70s cinema, Werner Herzog, and how an ancient Persian mathematician's name evolved into the word "algorithm." Key Topics: - The Data Gravity Theory: Breaking down Truscari’s equation on data mass, friction, and M&A consolidation. - The Market Expansion Trap: How pooling enterprise data accidentally creates and scales your direct competitors. - Natural Born Clickers: Why optimizing for clicks is a dangerous heuristic that targets a tiny, non-representative slice of humanity. - The 19th-Century Roots of AdTech: Why addressable targeting is actually just rehashed Sears & Roebuck catalog math. - The Origin of the Algorithm: A quick historical detour into Al-Khwarizmi, algebra, and ancient Persian mathematics. Chapter Timestamps: 00:00 Intro: Singularity Hype & The Knicks Finals Run 03:05 Who is Tom Truscari? (Newsletter Idiosyncrasies) 04:53 Explaining the Data Gravity Equation: Mass vs. Friction 11:37 Does More Data Scale Marketer Performance or Just the Platforms? 17:49 The Data Bypass Mechanism and Private Valuations 22:20 19th-Century Ad Math: Sears & Roebuck and Capital One 25:27 Industry Debates: Bemoaning Paid Publisher Traffic 33:29 Are Clicks Coming Back? (Bottoming Out vs. New Demand) 35:49 The "Natural Born Clickers" Study & Mobile Interstitials 38:09 The Unintended Consequences of AI (A Decade-Old Rant) 43:24 XAI Valuation & Suing the Advertisers 46:31 Is LLM Search Intent Real or Just Hype? 49:34 Detour: 'The Holy Mountain' (1973) & Werner Herzog 52:23 Public School Calendars & Zoroastrian Sky Burials 54:30 From Al-Khwarizmi to Algebra: The First Algorithm

  5. 17 May

    I'll Take Any Test You're Willing To Take

    Adam and Gareth reunite to unpack an explosive Q2 in ad tech, kicking things off with the "triple hockey stick" growth driving Meta’s 33% revenue surge. The guys discuss how Meta’s ruthless AI shift and integration of massive server compute is crushing Google in the enterprise ad market, and why Google's strategy of over-servicing holding companies is backfiring.They also dive into the backlash against Trade Desk CEO Jeff Green and his "open internet" messaging, debating why retail media networks (RMNs) are growing so fast despite the inherent conflict of interest between retailers and CPG brands. Plus, Gareth explores the terrifying new "split brain" architecture between DSPs and SSPs, Adam makes the case for why "barter" and "trade" agencies still exist to liquidate bad media buys, and they examine how Swivel's new agentic tools are finally bringing automated, human-like operations to Connected TV (CTV) yield management.Key Topics:Meta's AI Dominance: Why Meta’s massive AI efficiency is crushing Google in the enterprise ad market, despite Google's bloated service teams.The Trade Desk Backlash: Unpacking the industry's frustration with Jeff Green's "open internet" pitch and why the growth numbers don't match the story.Retail Media Networks (RMNs): Why companies like Kroger and Albertsons won't share their data, and how it hurts CPG advertisers.The End of "Getting Lost": A philosophical take on how AI tools are stripping younger generations of resilience and problem-solving skills.Agentic Ad Ops (Swivel): How new AI agents are outperforming human traders in the CTV market by running 100 manual interactions per hour.00:00 Intro: Hangovers & Detroit Style Pizza04:55 Defending Jeff Green’s "Open Internet" Pitch11:15 Q1 Earnings: Meta Crushes the Competition13:12 The Conflict Within Retail Media Networks (RMNs)20:49 Why Amazon Built Ad Tech from Scratch22:50 The Risk of a Google Display Network Collapse25:27 Swivel's Agentic CTV Case Study34:04 The Problem with Barter and Trade Agencies41:19 The "Split Brain" Architecture of DSPs vs. SSPs48:39 Postmortem: The IAB Tech Lab's New DTE Standard57:30 Cash Patel and The Ad Tech Investigations01:00:23 Closing Thoughts: Why We Need ACRONYM

  6. 8 May

    The Grand Bargain (ft. Matt Sattel, OpenX)

    Adam and Gareth return to the virtual studio to debate the definition of Supply Path Optimization (SPO) and why the sell-side and buy-side can never seem to agree on what it actually means. They are joined by OpenX CEO Matt Sattel to discuss his transition from the agency world to the SSP side, and why OpenX made the expensive, grueling leap to cloud infrastructure back in 2019 to prepare for the AI era.The trio unpacks the industry's so-called "Grand Bargain," debating whether a multilateral committee can truly fix the adversarial relationship between DSPs and SSPs. Gareth argues that ID Bridging is secretly a brilliant conversion-optimization engine in disguise, while Adam pitches his "Premium Coffee" theory to explain how publishers can finally escape the MFA (Made For Advertising) race to the bottom. Plus, a look at why 50% of programmatic ad requests are filtered out, and what OpenX really means by their new "Intelligent SSP" rebrand.00:00 Intro: The "Bright Lights" of Live Shows03:03 The Arc of the Sophisticated CMO06:56 Introducing Matt Sattel (CEO, OpenX)10:04 The Two Definitions of SPO13:16 The Premium Coffee Theory (Escaping MFA)14:52 Filtering Out 50 Billion Requests a Day16:41 The "Grand Bargain" Between Buyers and Sellers19:39 Gareth's Take: ID Bridging is Actually Optimization24:14 The True Cost of Eliminating MFA27:28 Google's Role in the MFA Epidemic32:41 The "Lego Baseplate" Strategy38:42 Why OpenX Moved to the Cloud in 201944:07 Direct Sales & Agentic Buying (ADCP)51:30 Differentiated Demand for Publishers57:40 The Intelligent SSP Rebrand

  7. 1 May

    Claude the Gaude (ft. Adam Markey)

    It's an all-Adam episode this week! With Gareth out, Adam Heimlich is joined by stealth startup founder and product leader Adam Markey to discuss the reality of building an ad tech company from scratch in the AI era.The guys dive deep into the philosophy of AI adoption, contrasting Anthropic's enterprise-focused "Constitutional AI" against OpenAI's consumer-driven, entertainment-style models. Markey shares how using Claude as a "full-stack" co-founder has drastically reduced product development cycles from six months to just three days. Plus, they explore why treating AI as a "replacement human" is the wrong starting point, how to avoid AI-generated "slop" in both creative and media planning, and why Anthropic's $20 billion valuation might actually be justified if they can maintain their compounding context moat.Finally, they touch on the IAB’s Agentic Realtime Framework (ARTF), the return of "frenemy" collaboration in ad tech, and why Meta's insane 33% revenue growth is tied directly to their massive investments in server compute.00:00 Intro: Welcome to Planet Ad Tech03:45 Bootstrapping a Startup in the AI Era06:40 Using AI for Complex Rule Prioritization08:13 Anthropic vs. OpenAI: Enterprise vs. Consumer12:03 Claude’s "Compounding Context" Moat14:28 Building a RevOps Dashboard in 2 Hours16:45 Change Management and Full-Stack Founders19:59 AI as a Force Multiplier, Not a Replacement25:35 The Value of Markdown Files for Context28:06 AI as the Ultimate Information Condenser32:28 Anthropic’s Path to Profitability37:25 Working with Google’s "Stitch" Design Agent39:07 The Edge of AI: Humor, Differentiation, and "Slop"44:09 Agentic Standards (ADCP & ARTF)51:03 Advice for Product Managers at Legacy DSPs53:50 The Enterprise Rush to Adopt AI59:49 Meta's 33% Growth and the Server Compute Race

  8. 24 Apr

    Triple Hockey Stick

    Adam and Gareth dive into a chaotic start to Q2 in ad tech, leading off with Meta's jaw-dropping "triple hockey stick" growth in revenue per employee. They discuss how Meta’s ruthless AI shift—including tracking employee keystrokes for training data—is driving massive margins, even as hands-on buyers complain about constant bugs and platform outages.The guys also cover the rise of "Index Cloud" and Bedrock (a DSP living natively inside an SSP), explaining why the traditional DSP/SSP divide is collapsing and how this new architecture enables ultra-low-latency bidding for live sports. Plus, Gareth goes on a rant about the rampant QPS duplication problem in programmatic, they debate the return of Vickrey (Victory) auctions, and they react to a spicy $18M legal battle between TV measurement giants EDO and iSpot. Finally, Adam shares his frustration with the IAB's new Programmatic Governance Council and pitches his own "ACRONYM" coalition to guarantee 80% working media for advertisers.00:00 Intro: An Explosive Start to Q201:36 We Are in the Third Inning of AI in Ad Tech04:23 Meta's "Triple Hockey Stick" Revenue per Head05:15 Tracking Employee Keystrokes for AI Training09:08 The Broken Meta Ad Experience & Bugs16:19 Meta's Internal AI Models (Andromeda & Muse Spark)20:14 Can the Open Web Compete with Walled Gardens?30:37 News: The Trade Desk Launches AI Agents31:39 Index Cloud & Bedrock (A DSP Inside an SSP)37:59 Data Scientists vs. DSP Engineers43:21 The 3 Million QPS Myth & Bid Duplication45:31 Vickrey Auctions and Bid Shading48:22 EDO vs. iSpot: The $18M Lawsuit & Spicy Quotes50:45 The IAB's New Programmatic Governance Council51:54 ACRONYM & The Push for 80% Working Media57:56 The Lutnick / Epstein Ad Tech Connection

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About

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
    59
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Adam and Gareth
  • Show Website
    AdTech AdTalk

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