Explore every episode of the podcast The Big Story

Just two weeks before Google’s antitrust trial, we discuss revelations from a cache of documents released in advance of the trial – plus, a primer on what’s ahead as header bidding goes to the stand.

Special guest and prolific ad tech investor Eric Franchi of Aperiam Ventures discusses his firm’s recent bet on attention metrics startup Adelaide. Plus: What’s up with Meta’s new third-party attribution partnerships?

Inside Publicis’ play to be both an agency and an ad tech company. Plus: the dissolution of GARM and what it means for the future of brand safety.

 Google is a monopolist. We bring on a guest that’s both a lawyer and a CEO of a search ad business to offer his perspective on the antitrust ruling, and what happens next for Google in light of this decision.

What will Chrome's third-party consent look like? We offer our best guess based on existing information (which is thin). Plus, we spotlight the controversy around ID bridging. The tactic supplies IDs for cookieless inventory through a spectrum of approaches, and not all of them are buyer approved.

Keep the cookies; hold for consent. We unpack Google’s reversal on third-party cookies and what it means for the ad industry, which was preparing for a cookieless future.

We set the scene for Google’s upcoming antitrust trial in September, including details from the recently released witness list, a who’s who of the ad tech world.

For our 300th episode, we do a post-mortem (don’t do a brand safety block on us for using this term!) on Oracle’s ad business. Then, we go through the ins and outs of reaching LBGTQ+ audiences online, a category that requires extra attention to data privacy.

This week, we bring on the CEO and CTO of privacy tech startup Anonym, which was acquired by Mozilla, to talk about PETs (privacy-enhancing technologies) and how Mozilla plans to use its tech to create a more private internet.

At the Cannes Lions, generative AI applications for advertising were out in force. Plus: takes from the Croisette on retail media and cookie conspiracies.

The move from in-store to digital shopper marketing continues, as United Airlines, Costco, PayPal, Chase and Expedia make new retail media plays. Plus: what the DSP Madhive saw in advertising sales software company Frequence.

SPO is moving from efficiency to curation to ranking the top 500 publishers. We talk through industry reactions to The Trade Desk’s SP500+ product. Plus: Seedtag acquired Beachfront, a deal that’s emblematic of multiple trends in CTV, privacy and the rise of contextual.

The open web is getting smaller, with the squeeze happening in two directions. Curated deals are skimming the cream off the open web, and exposed made-for-advertising websites are shuttering.

Our other “a-ha” moments from the conference, including observations on CTV, the state of commerce media, programmatic transparency – and the lack thereof. (Oh, and as an aside, somebody at the show told me they’d fed my AdExchanger articles into an LLM that could practically reproduce my work in a snap. Which is cool. Not.)

Made-for-advertising sites are roosting in reputable publishers’ subdomains. IDs are declared inconsistently. And the established third-party measurement companies are sitting on the sidelines.

Will data dazzle media buyers at this year’s TV upfronts? Plus: Why recent changes to Google search results have decimated traffic for some digital publishers – and rewarded others.

Debrief on the CMA’s biggest issues with the Privacy Sandbox highlighted in its latest report. Then, a vibe check on the Newfronts.

Cookies aren’t going anywhere. Behind Google’s third missed deadline to remove third-party cookies from Chrome and what it means for ad tech.

 One side effect of signal loss? Media mix modeling is coming back in fashion. Google’s Meridian is the latest entrant in the MMM space, which is being embraced by large ad platforms and startups alike. Plus: Differentiating between shoppable TV and T-commerce.

Inside Forbes’ hidden MFA site, and the industry reactions to the ad-crammed subdomain. Plus: a dispatch from the Global Privacy Summit in Washington D.C., where ad tech is a hot topic.

TV ad buying platform Cadent acquires AdTheorent, setting its sights on omnichannel. Also in this episode: The less-than-kosher attribution game that retail media networks are playing with brands.

Inside the Nubai Ventures lawsuit against Outbrain. Plus: The broadcaster-backed joint industry committee and the Media Rating Council clarify their complementary roles.

More granular video classifications are replacing outstream video. But the move may devalue some inventory. Plus: GPTs are coming for contextual.

Why the 4A’s is hosting secret meetings to redefine MFA from “made for advertising” to “made for arbitrage.” Plus, a new report from Adalytics reveals that MFA-blocking solutions aren’t as effective as tech vendors claim.

In a world without cookies, ads aren’t viewable and yield goes down. But it’s still early days. Mediavine SVP Amanda Martin shares early results from its Privacy Sandbox tests.

Need ad creative? Here’s what you need to know about using a generative AI startup to make your ad. Plus: Reddit opens its books before a planned IPO.

Walmart bought Vizio for a foothold in streaming – a move that will take the retailer’s ads business to new levels. Then, a deep dive into the “sky bridges,” a new term for partnerships between walled garden platforms.

After Temu’s 5+ Super Bowl ads and billions in ad spending, will people shop like a billionaire? We discuss the strange profligacy of the discount shopping app.

The gap analysis of the Privacy Sandbox is out. And the gap is…large. Then, a case for why hype about first-party data hasn’t been matched in reality.

After going through denial and anger over the death of third-party cookies, the ad tech industry enters the bargaining stage. Plus, top takeaways from the FTC's first-ever AI tech summit.

Getting personalization right remains tricky, and AI will only make it trickier. Then, inside Privacy Sandbox testing and the rise of curation tech.

This week’s theme is programmatic excess. We start with bid duplication and end with VideoAmp’s fall back to Earth.

As the ad world descends upon Vegas for CES, streaming services from Netflix to Amazon to Disney are turning out in force. Then, all the intrigue unearthed from the lawsuit that pitted LG Electronics against the startup it acquired, Alphonso (now LG Ads).

The end of third-party cookies is upon us, and independent ad tech is diverging on the best approach for cookieless targeting. Meanwhile, agencies and marketers are zooming out from programmatic to a bigger picture that’s focused on first-party data.

In 2023, supply-path optimization took off, brands took their scalpels to made-for-advertising websites and DSPs and SSPs launched SPO products to cut down on hops. Plus: lessons from the year in data privacy.

Marketers are choosing either Nielsen or alternative currencies (or both) for TV measurement. Learn what’s ahead for alternative currencies in 2024. Plus: the latest outlook on programmatic audio.

Marketers are wasting 25% of their ad spend on inefficiencies and made-for-advertising websites, and the ANA thinks consolidation and education are the solutions. Plus: In 2024, ad spend will grow, but at a slower rate than 2023. And streamers will grapple with CTV’s rising ad spend and linear TV’s accelerating decline.

Google search ads appear on a host of unsavory and offensive sites, according to recent Adalytics research. And without any transparent reporting from Google, marketers can’t do anything about it.

This week we take a look at the rise of new specialist DSPs that thrive in respective categories, regardless of the power of omnichannel giants. Also, why targeting US Hispanic audiences – and targeting by language and ethnicity in general – has been so messy and inaccurate.

DSPs and SSPs are being graded by TAG TrustNet on whether they comply with a key transparency initiative: sharing log-file data. Find out who’s passing and who’s failing. Then, we count the ways CTV suppliers are embracing programmatic buying.

As Omnicom’s $835 million acquisition of commerce specialists Flywheel Digital attests, commerce media is flush. Then, why the most sophisticated and data-rich programmatic marketers are intrigued by custom algorithms.

The impact of tech on monetization – from SPO sustainability initiatives to the looming end of the cookie and the challenges of implementing its replacements – has publishers feeling jaded. Plus, for retail media fans: inside the Pantry Wars.

Yahoo Backstage is a “sorta SSP” that’s emblematic of a larger SPO trend that hops over either DSPs or SSPs. Plus: a primer on the ecommerce ad metrics and tools that are changing how marketers buy digitally, from ACOS to TROAS to cost capping.

Scam ads featuring AI-generated celebrities are catching the FTC’s attention. Hear what the creator economy fears about generative AI. Plus: the latest on the US v. Google trial.

Does Google have a monopoly on search? The trial to answer that question is underway, and we go through the juiciest highlights.

The AdExchanger editorial team recaps what we learned in data privacy, retail media and connected TV at this year’s Programmatic IO.

The widening “trust gap” between consumers and the ad industry is enough to make a chief privacy officer quit. So Arielle Garcia did. She explains why.

Media mix modeling is back in fashion. Meta, Amazon and Google are finding ways for marketers to measure the effectiveness of their entire advertising spend. Should we trust them?

While everyone feared the worst for the ad ecosystem in 2023, Q4 will finish out with 8% growth. Madison and Wall analyst Brian Wieser explains why he sees green shoots of growth across the industry.

Personalized ads aren’t supposed to run on YouTube’s kid-focused content. But they’re showing up anyway. We bring on Adalytics researcher Krzysztof Franaszek to discuss his growing body of research into YouTube’s murky ad practices.