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Three Key Takeaways From Adexchanger’s Programmatic I/O

This week Unrulies from around the world gathered in New York City for Adexchanger’s Programmatic I/O, the conference dedicated to the programmatic media and marketing industry.

With more than 800 marketing executives from top brands, media agencies, publishers and tech providers, New York’s programmatic scene was buzzing with the latest on digital marketing and programmatic ad tech.

In case you missed it, we’ve picked out the key takeaways from three of the best talks we saw all week.

 

Wall Street Is Eyeing Programmatic

During “Reading The Investor Tea Leaves,” Youssef Squali, Cantor Fitzgerald’s Head of Internet & Media Equity Research, addressed how several companies are still stuck in a “penalty box” with investors becoming more demanding as newer IPOs have missed expectations.   

Despite this, Wall Street seems to be eyeing more ad tech IPOs, which could include AppNexus, Moat and Videology. Squali went on to say that he expected more mergers in ad tech and suggested a few potential mergers including Alphabet going after Twitter and Adobe purchasing comScore next year. Further, he suggested that if The Trade Desk IPO is proven successful, it could open the door for companies including Snapchat, Slack, AppNexus and others.

 

PMPs Causing Unnecessary Pain

Execs from Accuen, Meredith and Prohaska Consulting conducted a panel titled “Why PMP Has Meant Private Marketplace Pain For Too Many Today.” As the title suggest, brands and trading desks have struggled for the ease that Private Marketplaces have promised to bring.

However, it’s not the end for PMPs. In fact, PMPs help to manage for client preferences and can be a great tool for that when used properly. Both Accuen and Meredith highlighted the characteristics of healthy partners to look for: 1. an integrated team where the trader and operations or strategy team lead are present from the forefront and 2. when a partner is willing to listen to the publisher.

 

Are Ad Tech Companies ‘Full of Shit’?

This controversial topic is one that Reddit’s Revenue & Ad Ops Lead Jayne Pimentel addressed head on in her session “How To Manage Tech Debt: When To Cut Your Losses And Where To Cut Corners.” According to Pimentel, the top trending post about ad tech on Reddit is around the question “Is It Safe To Assume 95%+ of Adtech Companies Are Full Of Shit?”

She addressed how native and mobile were not the top concern for the industry in the early days and how it’s led to companies deciding “to implement easy, quick, short-term code instead of really bringing together the optimal solution and taking the time to integrate something that will stand the test of time.”

From Pimentel’s point of view, the best way to avoid this trap is to know when to build something internally, know when to partner with a vendor, and know when to sunset a product. She claims the new approach not only saves time, but also keeps headcounts up.