The Big Story

To close out the year, The Big Story team is posting one of our favorite AdExchanger Talks episodes of 2024. Who better to give her take on programamtic transparency than an ex-FBI agent? Listen to this interview with Sherine Ebadi, Kroll managing director of investigations, who worked on the ANA's transparency report.

The IAB gave us new retail media standards for Christmas. But will the industry actually adopt them? Also, we discuss where the use of AI in advertising could be headed in 2025.

Omnicom is acquiring IPG. We unpack the nuances of the proposed deal with ad agency expert Brian Wieser, founder of the constancy Madison and Wall.

This year, Black Friday stretched on for more than a week. And the retail holiday is evolving as online shopping takes over.  

It's Thanksgiving, so we are sharing our podcast feed by posting an episode of AdExchanger Talks. Recorded right after the closing arguments of US vs. Google, ad tech antitrust edition, Digital Content Next CEO Jason Kint shares insights from inside the courtroom.

The odds of RFK Jr. implementing a ban on TV drug ads are slim, says our guest this week, BranchLab's Josh Walsh. Still, pharma advertisers could face other regulatory changes over the next four years. Plus: We break down Forrester's picks for the top 10 SSPs.

Jessica Alter, co-founder of the nonprofit Tech for Campaigns, believes political campaigns should model their digital ad strategy on that of seed-stage startups. She joins the podcast this week to talk through this year's unexpected election results.

Trump won the 2024 election. To discuss how paid media played a role (and didn't) in his victory, we bring on guest Jordan Lieberman, CEO of Power Interactive. The programmatic buying company handled more than 1,000 digital campaigns across the political spectrum this election cycle.

To explain Forrester's latest creative ad tech wave, we bring on author, Senior Analyst Nikhil Lai. Then, the untold story of how Prebid.org became an independent industry organization.

We discuss the rise of curation in programmatic buying and the current backlash. Is curation an ad network with new window dressing? And will it save or undermine the open web?

From the Amazon Ads Unboxed conference, AdExchanger reports on the ad tech products it's building. Plus, why brand safety and news publishers remain at odds with each other, and what each side is doing about it.

As The Trade Desk grows more powerful, it's attracting more attention – and frustration – from independent ad tech. Plus: an update on Google Chrome's user choice mechanism.

 It's a wrap on the US v. Google antitrust case, at least for now. Then, behind the IP infringement claim on the OpenRTB spec that ruffled feathers at the IAB Tech Lab.

Hear what the ad tech industry is saying about Google's antitrust trial. Then, a rundown on how the election is playing out for political advertisers and news publishers.

After eight days of the antitrust trial, who's in the lead: the DOJ or Google? Details on the most gripping testimony so far with guest Arielle Garcia, director of intelligence for Check My Ads.

Index Exchange CEO Andrew Casale, fresh off the witness stand for US v. Google, and AdExchanger's courtroom reporter, Allison Schiff, join us to analyze the ad tech trial of the century.

 Inside a cloaking scam that funneled ad spend to piracy websites. Then: your AI agency assistant is here, and it's ready to build your media plan.

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 300 th 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.