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AdTech AdTalk

Adam and Gareth

Buy Side Meets Sell Side.

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

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  • 24 episodes
  • weekly
  • Avg 1 hr 1 min
  • English

Episodes 24

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  • S1 · E48
    April 17 · 1 hr 8 min

    Dynamic Bulldinky

    Adam and Gareth reunite in the virtual studio after a week apart, and they have a lot of philosophical ground to cover. Gareth shares a bizarre realization about startup growth—comparing a mature company to a "disembodied brain"—and how AI is acting as the ultimate force multiplier for lean teams. They debate the value of the "founder struggle," questioning if the current generation of entrepreneurs will lose resilience now that AI can write complex code and solve technical crises in 30 seconds.On the industry front, they tackle the latest IAB Tech Lab standard (DTE) and whether "traffic shaping" is just a polite word for throttling. Gareth explains why the "split brain" architecture of DSPs and SSPs makes optimal decisioning impossible, and why the Agentic Realtime Framework (ARTF) is the only real fix. Plus, a look at Allbirds pivoting from sneakers to AI data centers, the rise of AI-generated "slop" on LinkedIn, and why Salesforce's new Agentforce might be a desperate defense against Claude disintermediating their entire business model.Key Topics:The Disembodied Brain: How a startup evolves as you hire, and what it means when AI becomes your hands and feet.The Death of Getting Lost: Does the convenience of AI tools strip founders of the resilience needed to survive crises?Traffic Shaping vs. Throttling: Breaking down the IAB's new DTE standard and the architectural impossibility of the "split brain."Allbirds Pivots to AI: Why the market rewarded a failing DTC sneaker company for becoming a GPU rental service.Salesforce vs. Claude: Is Salesforce's Agentforce a true innovation, or a defensive moat against demand aggregation?00:00 Intro: Adam Returns from Vacation01:05 Startup Burn Rates & The "Disembodied Brain"03:08 AI as a Force Multiplier04:24 The Value of the Founder Struggle06:22 The 90s: When You Could Actually Get "Stood Up"11:32 AI "Slop" and the Premium on Human Content16:49 Can AI Replace the Enterprise Sales Playbook?19:51 The 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership24:39 The OpenAI "Molotov" Backlash30:12 What Knowledge is Playbookable?35:54 News: Allbirds Pivots from Sneakers to AI39:31 IAB Tech Lab's New DTE Standard41:19 The "Split Brain" Problem in Ad Tech48:39 Postmortem: ADCP vs. ARTF (The IAB Standard Wins)01:01:46 Salesforce's Agentforce vs. Claude

  • S1 · E47
    April 10 · 35 min

    The GAMpire Strikes Back

    With Adam out this week, Gareth flies solo to drop four massive predictions about the next five years of ad tech. Spoiler alert: The current system is unsustainable.Gareth argues that the traditional DSP/SSP paradigm is dying , crushed under the weight of Deal IDs and conflicting decisioning engines. He explains why the future of ad tech architecture lies in open, modular bidding frameworks (like ARTF) where custom logic can be executed natively without "middleman" friction.But the spiciest prediction? Google Ad Manager (GAM) is about to have a massive resurgence. Gareth theorizes that if ADCP (Automated Direct Sales) succeeds, GAM will emerge as the ultimate direct sales engine, bypassing DSPs entirely for enterprise buyers who want to set up cross-publisher campaigns with zero tech tax. Plus, he tackles the inevitable rise of "orchestration layers," why the mid-market is about to see a DSP renaissance , and why the shift away from ID-based buying will finally force publishers to reduce ad density and increase quality.Key Topics:The Death of DSPs & SSPs: Why splitting campaign logic between two platforms using Deal IDs is no longer architecturally viable.The Return of GAM: How ADCP could turn Google Ad Manager into a direct competitor to traditional DSPs.The Orchestration Era: Why modern bidding systems will look less like DSPs and more like open hubs for modular valuation and data vendors.The End of Ad Density: Why the shift to predictive modeling (and away from IDs) will finally reward publishers for running fewer, higher-quality ads.The LiveRamp EU Struggle: Why strict European privacy laws (GDPR) are making PII-based identity graphs incredibly difficult to operate abroad.00:00 Intro: Gareth Flying Solo01:57 Prediction 1: The End of the DSP/SSP Paradigm04:08 The Architectural Flaw of Deal IDs08:34 Prediction 2: The GAMpire Strikes Back (Google Ad Manager)10:14 How ADCP Turns GAM into a DSP Competitor12:27 Prediction 3: A Proliferation of Mid-Market DSPs15:01 The Approaching SSP Bloodbath18:22 The Rise of the "Orchestration Layer"22:50 Prediction 4: Publisher CPMs Will Go Up24:55 Why User IDs and Cookie Syncing are Commodities27:09 The Frequency Capping Problem with ADCP30:14 The LiveRamp EU/UK Privacy Struggle33:49 The Bull Case for Fingerprinting & Synthetic Audiences34:21 Outro

  • S1 · E46
    April 3 · 52 min

    Hunting a White Whale

    Adam and Gareth are joined in the virtual studio by Laura Manning, SVP of Data and Measurement at SINT. They break down the fundamentals of Brand Lift 101, explaining how SINT acts as the infrastructure matching survey-takers across the internet with relevant ad exposure data. Gareth details exactly why traditional attribution models fail massive enterprise brands like Procter & Gamble. The trio also discusses the agonizing eight-year waiting list to get into Google's Ads Data Hub (ADH), and why allowing walled gardens to report their own brand lift metrics is essentially letting them grade their own homework. Finally, Adam explains why the shift from linear broadcast to digital resulted in an "epidemic of waste" due to algorithms driving frequency instead of true reach.Key Topics:- What is SINT: Acting as a DSP for online research that matches respondents with surveys.- Attribution vs. Brand Lift: Why enterprise CPG brands don't rely on clicks and e-commerce tracking.- The "O" Word: Using survey response data via API to actually optimize campaigns in real-time.- The White Whale: SINT's years-long quest to integrate with Google's Ads Data Hub.- The Reach Problem: Why digital algorithms inherently favor frequency over reach, unlike traditional linear TV.00:00 Intro00:57 Introducing Laura Manning & SINT 06:40 Attribution vs. Brand Lift 08:28 How SINT Measures Brand Lift 12:10 Standard Survey Questions 14:12 The "O" Word (Optimization) 25:16 Google's Ads Data Hub 28:50 Linear TV vs. Digital Reach 39:10 Post-Mortem: Is Brand Lift a "Cope"?

  • S1 · E45
    March 27 · 1 hr 3 min

    Gold in a Mine

    Gareth powers through a blown-out back to join Adam for a loaded episode exploring the true value of data and the hidden mechanics of media buying. They kick things off by breaking down Gamera's new viewability segments in the Index Exchange marketplace, exposing how antiquated, manual ad slot labeling in Google Ad Manager is suppressing publisher yield, and how AI is fixing it.The duo dives deep into the philosophy that raw signal is just "gold in a mine" without the right prediction models to extract its value. They also unpack the ANA's latest study on Principal Media buying, shedding light on the clandestine world of agency secondary liquidation and "barter" agencies. Plus, a look at Microsoft’s baffling apathy toward its own ad tech stack, the dirty Facebook arbitrage secret that fueled Made For Advertising (MFA) sites, and the landmark negligence ruling against Meta for social media addiction.Key Topics:Automating Viewability: Why manual ad ops labeling is costing publishers money, and how Gamera's on-page AI creates predictive viewability segments.The "Gold in a Mine" Philosophy: Why data is commoditized and the real competitive moat is modeling.Microsoft's Missed Opportunity: Why a tech giant with Azure, LinkedIn, Xander, and OpenAI is ignoring the ad tech wars.Principal Media & Barter Agencies: Breaking down how holding companies liquidate bulk media buys (and occasionally trade ads for pizza sauce).The MFA Arbitrage Secret: How MFA publishers used Facebook remarketing to poach high-value programmatic users.Social Media Liability: Meta's landmark loss in a social media addiction case and the rise of "digital citizenship" in elementary schools.00:00 Intro & Gareth's Blown Back02:44 Gamera Viewability Segments in Index04:49 The Manual Nightmare of Google Ad Manager10:32 Data is Gold in a Mine14:51 Google's MMM & The Enterprise Fight18:18 The "Affinity for Yogurt" Trap20:41 How Big Tech Captured All Marginal Value24:15 Microsoft's Baffling Ad Tech Apathy33:48 ANA Study: Demystifying Principal Media38:36 Barter Agencies & Pizza Sauce Trades42:41 Why Google & Facebook Broke the Agency Model46:01 Value vs. Cost & Vinnie Rinaldi's Post49:25 The Dirty Secret of MFA Arbitrage51:53 Meta Loses Social Media Addiction Case58:21 The Guardian & Publisher Direct Sales01:01:36 Outro & The Ibuprofen Overdose Story

Showing 21–24 of 24 episodes