As more surfaces become ad inventory, the economics get complicated

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 to break down how ad buyers are reacting the Amazon-FTC case, what the situation reveals about modern ad auctions and how AI-powered ad platforms stand to remove even more transparency and control from ad buyers.

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 industries and the questions they raise for the final stretch of 2026.

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 September.

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 buying into practice.

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.