The Programmatic Digest

🎧 Summary: Traders, when was the last time your creative team saw the same campaign report you did? Recorded live at Programmatic I/O, this conversation brings Hélène Parker together with Mike Toney, Global Creative Director of Custom Programs at Foundry, to explore what happens when paid media and creative teams actually share what they know. Mike explains how audience insights, interviews, and...

🎧 Summary: Knowing how to optimize a campaign is one skill. Explaining what it means to a CMO is another. In this episode of The Trader's Corner, our special Programmatic Digest series highlighting fellow programmatic ninjas and their everyday challenges, wins, and lessons, Hélène Parker catches up with Dennis Paredes of WMX, recorded at Programmatic I/O. Dennis shares how he approaches agency wo...

🎧 Summary: What does a programmatic trader's day look like when every platform has a new AI solution, your team needs hands-on guidance, and your clients operate in a highly regulated industry? Welcome to the first episode of The Trader's Corner, a special Programmatic Digest series spotlighting fellow programmatic ninjas and the everyday challenges, wins, and lessons that shape their work. In th...

🎧 Summary: When you select location targeting in your DSP, do you know what data you're actually using? In this episode of the Programmatic Digest Podcast, Hélène Parker sits down with Charlie Simon, Global VP for Private Advertising at RTB House, to unpack the data behind location targeting and the questions media buyers should ask before using it. Charlie discusses how privacy rules are changin...

Let's first highlight some "not so fun facts" about the topic covered in this episode, according to Anne Coghlan, COO of Scope3 in Digiday .  Programmatic advertising creates 100,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide every month in the United States, which is equivalent to burning about 11.2 million gallons of gas.  Serving 1,000 digital ad impressions uses the same amount of energy as doing a load of...

Gulshan started as a nurse and realised that her passion was outside of the medical field.  She knew she wanted to work in Marketing but did not know where to start. Luckily, her grad school professor recommended that she looked into programmatic and that is how she "fell" into the programmatic industry where she is now working for an ad agency who specialise in pharma and healthcare brands. Gulsh...

In Episode 209 of the Programmatic Digest Podcast, Hélène Parker sits down with Avani Oswal, founder of Catalyst, to explore what retail and ecommerce leaders need to know as AI reshapes discovery, technology decisions, and customer experiences. Avani shares how her career moved from finance and consulting at EY to strategy at Macy's, operational roles across ecommerce brands including IPSY, and e...

Programmatic advertising gives us more data, automation, and targeting options than ever. But behind every impression, click, and conversion is a real person whose circumstances, attention, and needs can change. In this episode of the Programmatic Digest Podcast, Hélène Parker speaks with Carole Lawson, founding partner of Marketstorm, about the relationship between data, technology, AI, and human...

In this podcast episode, Dr. Cecilia Dones and Iesha White discuss the complex evolution of artificial intelligence within the marketing and advertising industries.  They explore the shift of AI becoming a "middle layer" between brands and consumers, highlighting how automated systems can influence purchasing decisions using unverified information.  These outstanding ladies distinguish between clo...

AI-driven search is changing how people discover information, and challenging the intent-based funnel publishers and advertisers have relied on for years. In this episode of the Programmatic Digest Podcast, I sit down with Christian Robinson of Ozone to explore what this shift means for publishers, programmatic traders, and the future of the open web. Christian shares how Ozone helps advertisers r...

In this episode of the Programmatic Digest Podcast, host and guest Rob JAnes, Head of Product at AdButler, discuss the rapidly changing landscape of publisher monetization and programmatic ad operations heading into 2025. Check out the interview on YouTube here:  https://youtu.be/EFAuN7ce1Ag   They break down the industry-wide adjustments following Google's unexpected decision not to deprecate thi...

🎧 Summary: In this episode of the Programmatic Digest Podcast, Hélène Parker sits down with Sanarr McLaughlin to unpack one of the most overlooked challenges in programmatic advertising and digital marketing: martech structure. From disconnected tools and messy integrations to reporting confusion and operational inefficiencies, Sanarr explains why many agencies, brands, and media teams are strugg...

In this episode of the Programmatic Digest, Hélène Parker sits down with Dr. Augustine Fou, founder of Fou Analytics, to unpack the realities of ad fraud, attribution, AI, and programmatic optimization. Dr. Fou challenges some of the metrics and tools our industry has relied on for years, explaining how bots can manipulate signals like CTR and how algorithms can unintentionally optimize toward fra...

In part two of this special episode of the Programmatic Digest podcast, host Hélène Parker welcomes back Ed and introduces Jenny, the Head of Customer Experience at Pearl Diver  Building on the previous episode's focus on audience discovery, this conversation dives deeply into audience optimization and the critical role of true partnership in ad tech.  Jenny and Ed share insights on the optimal ti...

Most advertisers focus on people who are ready to buy today. But what happens when that audience runs out?  In this episode, I chat with Ed Hackney and Trinity Lawry from Pearl Diver about how to find high-intent audiences, why balancing every stage of the marketing funnel matters, and how AI is making audience discovery easier for media buyers. This podcast was made possible thanks to the incredi...

Celebrating 200 Episodes: Community, Representation, and the Future of Programmatic Digest Reaching 200 episodes is more than a milestone. It's a celebration of the incredible community that has supported Programmatic Digest from day one. In this special episode, Hélène Parker and Manuela Cortez reflect on the journey that brought them here, the lessons they've learned along the way, and the visio...

I attended a performance advertising workshop hosted by Infillion MediaMath and it reminded me of something I truly believe: The best way to learn something is to teach it. So this July, I'm dedicating all of our content to one topic: Programmatic Performance Advertising. Predictive targeting. Identity resolution. Dynamic budget allocation. Attribution. And more. New content every week. All month...

In this episode of the Programmatic Digest, Hélène Parker and Assetou Kone dive into the evolving role of AI in programmatic advertising and campaign optimization. The conversation explores how media buyers and traders can use tools like ChatGPT and Claude to streamline workflows, analyze campaign data more efficiently, and uncover deeper optimization insights. Hélène opens the session by reframin...

In this episode of the Programmatic Digest, Manuela Cortes sits down with Eric Tilbury, Head of Programmatic and Solutions Engineering at Anuvo, to discuss the evolution of ad tech and the industry's shift away from traditional identity-based targeting. With over 14 years in the space, Eric shares insights from his unique background working on both the supply side (monetization) and the buy side,...

Sign up to our FREE workshop on March 31st:  Optimization with AI for Programmatic Traders Site Lists + Geo Insights (DMA) — from Pivot Tables to Prompts In this episode of Programmatic Digest, Hélène Parker sits down with Assetou Kone, programmatic expert and consultant, for a real conversation about resilience in programmatic advertising and agency life. Assetou shares her journey into ad tech,...

In this episode of Programmatic Digest, Hélène sits down with Tiffany Wade, Media Director at Hunter Blue, for a grounded conversation on community building, mentorship, and leadership as a woman in programmatic and ad tech. Tiffany shares her path into media, from a psychology background and early career pivots to finding her footing through curiosity, asking better questions, and building relati...

Our Let's Talk Curation series was created in partnership with GDB, our curated data partner, to help demystify curated audiences, what they are, how they work, and when and why you should consider using them. Check out this lesson on CTR vs Conversions real performance examples.  #ProgrammaticAdvertising #Curation #AdTechEducation #MediaBuying #ProgrammaticTips About our Partner: https://f.mtr.co...

In this episode of Programmatic Digest, Hélène sits down with Dominique Robinson, an integrated media planner at Luquire, for an insightful conversation on how media planning is evolving in today's programmatic-first world. Dominique shares his personal journey into advertising, from early inspiration through marketing and design to building integrated media strategies that blend traditional chann...