The Indy Innovates With AI

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.

Marketing measurement is messed up – it’s hard to argue otherwise – and most people agree on the reasons why: vanity metrics, imperfect models, unrealistic expectations. But there’s another issue at play, argues Julian Runge, an assistant professor of marketing at Northwestern University – and that’s a simple lack of communication.

Emet Advisory’s Erez Levin explains why the digital ad industry should transact on media quality signals like attention instead of optimizing to outcomes, conversions and flawed attribution models. The former Googler also weighs in on the ruling that Google operates an ad tech monopoly and reacts to the company’s latest cookie pivot.