AdTech AdTalk

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 jus...

In the final episode of 2025, Adam and Gareth look back at a chaotic year in ad tech and look forward to the "fewer, better pages" of the future. The duo tackles the persistent myths plaguing the industry, from the zombie-like return of domain spoofing (it's solved, guys) to the shady practice of ad stuffing via carousels. Adam rails against the concept of "scale" as a soft...

In this episode of AdTech AdTalk, Adam and Gareth break down the big news of the week: Pinterest acquiring TV Scientific. Is it about CTV tags, or is it really about IP address stuffing to juice attribution? The duo goes deep on the AI wars, debating whether Google’s "stack" strategy will crush open standards, the "vertical integration" lesson from the browser wars, and the sus...

In this episode of AdTech AdTalk, hosts Adam and Gareth are joined by Hillary Slattery, Director of Product Management at IAB Tech Lab and the "designated asshole" charged with shepherding OpenRTB.They dive deep into the granular realities of programmatic advertising, from the importance of OpenRTB's 107-page spec to the contentious debates around video ad placement definitions and the widespread...

It’s a special Thanksgiving episode of AdTech AdTalk! Adam and Gareth are holding down the fort solo, ready to dive into the latest ad tech news, from Google's ongoing antitrust saga to the impending IPG/Omnicom mega-merger. The duo explores the competitive landscape of header bidding management, why it’s such a tough business, and the unique position of Index Exchange’s new containerization p...

In this "old school" episode of AdTech AdTalk, Adam and Gareth fly solo (mostly) to vent about the industry and answer chat questions without the pressure of being nice to a guest. The duo dives deep into the technical weeds of PMP duplication, explaining the bizarre reality where sending the same deal ID five times actually results in more spend due to DSP throttling and QPS caps. They...

Adam Heimlich and Gareth Glaser are back for another AdTech AdTalk, this time sitting down with a true ad tech veteran, Keith Gooberman, the CEO of Pontiac DSP and Programmatic Mechanics. Keith takes the hosts through his 18-year career, starting from the publisher side at Conde Nast ($20 CPMs) to the ad network days at Glam Media, and eventually to the agency trading desks. He discusses the &quot...

Adam Heimlich and Gareth Glaser kick off the "Post Mortem" segment with the "deadly serious" LinkedIn breakup of Jeff Green and Brian O'Kelly, complete with a surprisingly high-quality, AI-generated musical tribute. The episode's main guest is Joe Zawadzki of Aperiam Ventures, who shares his "typosphere" investment strategy, how he uses AI as a "product c...

In this "Meet the Moment" Halloween episode, hosts Adam Heimlich and Gareth Glaser welcome Stephanie Layser of AWS to unpack the industry-shaking announcement of AWS RTB Fabric. Stephanie explains how "customer obsession" led AWS to build a superstructure for ad tech containerization, designed to slash the massive "egress" costs that have historically plagued real-tim...

How do you keep a 20-year-old ad tech company on the cutting edge? You rewrite every single line of code. In this episode, Adam Heimlich and Gareth Glaser are joined by special guest Andrew Casale, founder and CEO of Index Exchange, for a deep dive into the past, present, and future of programmatic infrastructure. Andrew shares the story of starting his company in high school and the massive &quot...

Hosted by two ad industry renegades, this is where the buy side and sell side drop the jargon and get real. Come with what you always wanted to know about the other side — stay to see what happens when innovators come together. Fridays. Noon ET.

In a can't-miss episode of AdTech AdTalk, hosts Adam Heimlich and Gareth Glaser are joined by a very special guest: Jeff Green, the founder and CEO of The Trade Desk (TTD).Jeff dives deep into the strategy behind The Trade Desk's recent moves, explaining why the ad tech ecosystem has been dominated by a strategy to "Duplicate, Obfuscate, and Sometimes Lie." He provides a masterclass on the history...

Welcome to the AdTech AdTalk show! This week, hosts Adam Heimlich and Gareth Glaser dive into the "Peak of Bullsh*t" in the ad tech world. The episode kicks off with a deep dive into the ongoing Google antitrust trial, focusing on the controversial testimony from a WikiHow publisher. Is she pro-Google, or just exhausted by the constant uncertainty and potential disruption to her business...

0:00 Intro & Adam's Stressful Week 6:40 Special Guest Introduction: Gio Sollazzo of Aidem Ads10:50 Aidem Ads Platform Deep Dive27:00 Gareth's ID-Bridging Conspiracy Theory37:00 Google Remedies Trial48:00 Headlines of the Week48:30 IAS Acquired by PE Firm Novacap for $1.9B54:30 OpenAI Looks to Build In-House Ad Infrastructure

YEAH YOU KNOW ME!0:00 Intro and Gareth "Old Yellering" TIDs12:30 The Future of Ad Tech and Rising Above the "Doom and Gloom"32:00 Agent-Based Content37:00 MCP's40:40 AI + OOH Advertising45:45 Headlines of the Week!46:20 Rembrand x Spaceback Merger49:15 Magnite Acquires streamr.ai53:30 TTD Sunsets Periodic Table UI

Gareth hosts former Goodway Group CEO, Jay Friedman.1:40 – Introducing Jay – the outcomes OG6:20 – Demand creation, harvesting, and measurement16:30 – What’s real?25:26 – How does AI connect strategy and execution?43:26 - TID Drama reality check

0:00 Special Guest Intro: Jana Meron of Lioness4:00 Jana's Google Experience, "The Trial", and Everything in Between15:10 Jana's Business Insider Tenure23:45 Are Advertisers Really the Devil?29:00 The Influencer Effect37:00 Fees, Fees, Fees40:00 Lioness: Startup Progress47:00 The Philosophies of Hiring the Right Seller

0:00 Intro, "Yield" by Ari Paparo, and Gareth's Dramatic Morning 6:00 Special Guest Reveal: Justin Wohl of Aditude 17:00 Open Path Deep Dive 29:00 ID-Bridging and Trust Issues in the Ad Tech Ecosystem 39:00 Gareth Breaks Down the Latest Jounce Report 42:00 Contextualization: Application or Infrastructure? 55:00 Vibe Coding and Justin's Pod Feedback

Featuring a special surprise appearance by Sincera founder Mike O'Sullivan. The boys talk markets, markups, and potential regulation.

0:00 Intro, Gareth's Viral Tweet, and "Jeans Parties"5:00 Prebid Server, Snowflake, and Modularization10:00 Gareth's Fundraising and Pitch Updates18:00 Publishers and Their 1P Data26:50 "Post-Taxonomy World"35:00 Open Web vs the Big Guys42:00 Viewability's Advantages and Disadvantages45:00 Quality Companies Hate Pubs?48:00 Resellers: What to Look Out For

Logs don't lie: Adam and Gareth talk middlemen, markets, and clarity.0:00 – Intro1:40 – The Möbius Strip of Adtech4:30 – Dynamic Rev Shares18:00 – Publishers, Buyers & Hidden Fees36:00 – Why Log Files Matter50:00 – Throttling Mysteries

01:00 – What Is AI, Really? Data, Predictions & Modeling04:40 – OpenAI, Feedback Loops, and Magic Tricks09:10 – Comprehension vs Prediction in LLMs12:30 – Profitability in AI: OpenAI's Next Business Model17:00 – AdTech’s Infrastructure Problem22:42 – Micropayments & Pubs27:00 – On-Prem vs. Cloud vs. Bare Metal43:00 – Data Access, DSPs, and Log Transparency46:00 – Should Google Be Broke...

In this 4th of July edition of AdTech Ad Talk, Adam and Gareth go deep on everything from privacy theater to clickbait economics.

This week we get into sell-side decisioning: how it works, why it matters, and where it’s headed. We also dig into why Chalice isn’t a DSP, RMN value, and Gamera's upcoming seed round.

Hosted by two ad industry renegades, this is where the buy side and sell side drop the jargon and get real. Come with what you always wanted to know about the other side, stay to see what happens when innovators come together.