The Indy Innovates With AI

In this episode of AdExchanger's Inside the Stack podcast, AdExchanger's Head of Communities, Lynne d Johnson, sits down with Meredith Brace, CMO of TripleLift, to discuss strategic planning for the holiday season, informed by TripleLift's Retail Media Guide. Learn about tips for early holiday prep, the importance of creative execution, and effective measurement approaches. Discover how brands can use key periods like Amazon Prime Day to test strategies that will maximize holiday campaign success.

Ron Jacobson took the classic programmatic startup route. Which is to say, he pivoted randomly from a software job at a bank (well, the New York Fed), landed at an ad tech company and later founded his own ad tech startup before getting acquired by yet another ad tech company.

Today, David’s Bridal is as much an AI-powered tech company as it is a retailer of wedding apparel and accessories, according to Elina Vilk, president and chief business officer. The company recently unveiled a new digital transformation strategy centered on agentic AI and personalized experiences.

Despite ongoing uncertainty over TikTok’s fate in the US – the potential ban just got extended for the third time – advertisers aren’t concerned, according to TikTok’s David Kaufman. On this episode, recorded live from Cannes, Kaufman, who oversees product development, marketing and operations for TikTok’s ad platform, says it’s pretty much been business as usual for buyers.

The best thing publishers can do with generative AI is experiment with it. If journalists don’t decide the best use of AI in journalism, then others will decide for them, says Christian Broughton, CEO of The Independent.

Forget the well-worn narrative that digital media publishers are always on their back foot, says Liz Gough, the co-founder and newly minted CRO of Puck. In a world of social media soundbites, Puck is proving that there’s a place for long-form, in-depth, dishy journalism.

The alternative currency bucket could use a rebrand. That referential and somewhat deferential phraseology – a reference to Nielsen – drives Peter Liguori, VideoAmp’s executive chairman, a little nuts. It stems, he argues, from the “absurd notion” that the TV industry “has almost 100% of its eggs in one basket.”

Viant is on an M&A tear, with two acquisitions – IRIS.TV followed by lockr – in less than six months. Although the rationale behind these deals might be obvious to ad tech insiders, Wall Street investors speak a different language, one that Viant CEO Tim Vanderhook has become fluent in as the leader of a publicly traded company.

LinkedIn has been investing in video like nobody’s business. Lindsey Edwards, VP of product management, takes us inside the company’s video strategy, which now includes CTV ads and a creator rev share program. Plus: Why LinkedIn decided to host its first NewFronts presentation this year.

Why bring data to SaaS applications when you can bring the applications to your data? That’s what modern data platforms do, says Erin Foxworthy, global industry go-to-market lead for marketers and advertisers at Snowflake. Cloud-based platforms, meanwhile, are becoming the foundation for technologies that are increasingly integral to how digital advertising functions.