The Digiday Podcast

“Trust” is one of those words that gets thrown around a lot in ad tech circles. But it’s going to become even more important if ad tech completes its server-side shift. In response to Apple’s identity resolution crackdown, the online ad industry has rallied around server-side ways to sidestep browser-based controls. IAB Tech Lab’s Trusted Server is the biggest example of this. Not only does the op...

Apple has reminded ad tech how much power the browser holds. Ad tech’s reaction: Get out of the browser. With iOS 27, Apple’s Safari browser has begun blocking domains tied to identity resolution providers, such as The Trade Desk and ID5, that link people’s browsing to their email addresses. In response, ad tech firms and IAB Tech Lab are pushing to move ad calls server-side, including through the...

Indie agencies have client ad dollars to spend, but demand side platforms don’t seem eager to take said dollars. At least, that’s the sentiment coming from indie agencies as of late. Indies say they're fed up with DSP fees, barriers to direct access and are starting to question the value of the platforms. At the same time, AI agents promise to automate media buying and negotiations. The question i...

Publishers’ hemming and hawing over the Google Zero post-search era has reached a fever pitch. Now, they’re finally doing something about it. The publishing industry has been forced to reckon with declining referral traffic from Google as the tech behemoth prioritizes its AI-powered search, or AI Overviews. Companies like Axios, The Verge and Time have starting sprouting greenshoots, turning gripe...

Gone are the days of the one-size-fits all influencer deal. On one hand, creators are being treated like programmatic buys, measured on performance and scale. On the other hand, mega creators are locking down Hollywood-style brand integrations and long term equity deals. In this episode of the Digiday Podcast, Portal A co-founder and president Zach Blume breaks down what's behind the creator econo...

Is Omnicom to the ad industry what The Brooklyn Nets are to basketball? Or maybe Omnicom is more like Blanche Devereaux of The Golden Girls. Depends on who you ask. On this episode of the Digiday Podcast, executive editor of news Seb Joseph and senior editor, media buying and planning Michael Burgi took a look at the current ad agency landscape, including Omnicom's IPG takeover, WPP's attempted co...

OpenAI has billion-dollar goals for its ChatGPT ads by the end of this year.  Just seven months after its initial launch, OpenAI’s ad business is running at a $1 billion annualized revenue run rate. By the end of the year, the tech company projects its ads business will rake in $.25 billion in ad revenue. That projection surges to $100 billion by 2030. The question is: Can OpenAI woo advertis...

Semafor technically had had a head of video before Adam Banicki stepped into the role this summer. But the role has changed with Banicki’s appointment. Instead of being strictly a newsroom role, Banicki’s position spans the editorial and business sides of Semafor.“I feel like I have like a really fun job where I get to talk to Ben [Smith, co-founder and editor-in-chief of Semafor] every day about...

Ads are coming for smart refrigerator screens, car dashboards and AI search results. So what happens when everything becomes ad inventory? On this episode of the Digiday Podcast, hosts Tim Peterson and Kimeko McCoy dig into how far advertising can expand before the business of selling attention starts to break down.

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission’s lawsuit against Amazon’s on-platform search advertising business appears to be a tempest in a teapot. Amazon’s alleged opaque ad auction dynamics aren’t exactly beyond the pale when it comes to what ad buyers experience across platforms and the programmatic ad marketplace today. In this week’s episode, Digiday executive editor of news Seb Joseph joined the show...

A lot can happen in a few months. A few months ago, NBCUniversal was secure within Comcast, LiveRamp was an independent ad tech company, Hank Green was unbesmirched, and publishers’ complaints about Google were simply that. Then this summer happened. In this week’s Digiday Podcast episode, hosts Kimeko McCoy and Tim Peterson recap the season’s biggest developments in the media and marketing indust...

Google’s AI crawlers are eating away at publisher traffic by serving answers directly in search, but blocking them comes with risks. Digiday media reporter Sara Guaglione and executive editor of news Seb Joseph join this episode of the Digiday Podcast to break down what publishers actually stand to lose in the zero-click era—a core theme at the upcoming Digiday Publishing Summit in Miami this Sept...

Agencies are pushing AI deeper into everyday work while still figuring out what should and shouldn't be automated. Digiday caught up with agency leaders and early-career marketers about AI, automation and where they're drawing the line.

Butler/Till is quickly moving its AI agent media buying work from experimentation to implementation across more clients, platforms and channels. Controls, however, look different from client-to-client and channel to channel. In this episode of the Digiday Podcast, Scott Ensign, chief strategy officer at Butler/Till, joins the Digiday Podcast to discuss how the agency is putting agentic media buyin...

Inventory access has become a tug-of-war between agencies and ad tech companies. In this episode, Matt Adams, global CEO of Stagwell Media Platform, joins the Digiday Podcast to talk about why Stagwell is building its own inventory marketplace and what agencies hope to gain by moving closer to supply.

The IAB has a new acronym—the RMT, short for Redefining Media Types Standard. But this acronym could actually matter. In this episode of the Digiday Podcast, Jamie Finstein, vp of media center at the IAB, unpacks what the proposed framework means for advertisers, agencies and media buying.

As AI takes on more repetitive marketing tasks, agencies are being forced to rethink what they’re selling. Omnicom Media Group North America CEO Ralph Pardo joins Digiday from the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity to talk about the future of agency talent, the rise of “capability companies” and why human judgment still matters.

For a channel expected to rake in $5.3 billion between 2026 and 2030, a logo on a jersey isn't enough anymore. On this episode of the Digiday Podcast, Ally Bank CMO Andrea Brimmer breaks down the anatomy of a sports marketing deal and why emerging media is Ally's next bet.

Is there a difference between a creator and an influencer. If so, what’s the difference and why does it matter to marketers? On this episode of the Digiday Podcast, Digiday staffers debate the topic.

Creators are no longer a media channel or transaction. It’s an entirely new marketing model, at least that’s what the infrastructure behind Unilever’s creator strategy indicates. In this episode, Digiday catches up with Selina Sykes, global vp of digital, social and Al transformation at Unilever’s Beauty and Wellbeing, to learn about its scale and automation.

At the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity this week, Meta announced a slew of even more automated marketing tools, further lowering the barrier to entry for advertisers to manage campaigns directly. Nicola Mendelsohn, Meta’s head of global business group, joins this episode of the Digiday podcast to talk about how that does and doesn't change the agency-platform relationship.

Spotify’s ad business is trying to evolve beyond audio. At this year's Cannes Lions, Digiday senior marketing reporter Kimeko McCoy catches up with Brian Berner, VP of advertising partnerships at Spotify, about automation, AI, video and Spotify’s push for bigger media budgets.

Digital twins are helping brands scale content and talent deals. Marketers are still navigating the tradeoffs. On this episode of the Digiday Podcast, hosts Kimeko McCoy and Tim Peterson unpack the rise of digital twins, AI sprawl and authenticity.

The upfront marketplace has long been built on relationships and negotiation. Now, automation and AI are changing how deals get done.

OpenAI's ad pilot is plagued with reporting hiccups and under-delivery issues. It's testing marketer's patience, but the fear of missing out on AI's next big platforms seems to outweigh their frustrations.