Matthew Wenger

🖥️✅ AdExchanger (6/16): “Because both platforms require users to be “100%” logged in, said Roku. In other words, those audiences are very easily identifiable thanks to a wealth of first-party data parameters, so it’s easy to target and measure them with a higher degree of accuracy compared to other available methods. The two companies expect that their combined data footprint will allow advertisers to reach roughly 80 million CTV households through Amazon’s DSP. According to data from Comscore, this represents over 80% of the total CTV households in the United States. Not surprisingly, much of that coverage comes from Roku. Roughly 50% of the total streaming consumption in US households already happens via the streaming provider’s own operating system across all their devices, Roku told AdExchanger. Although the public launch won’t actually occur until Q4 of this year, so far both teams are happy with the outcomes of the initial closed tests. Per Amazon DSP, the combination of Roku and Amazon’s data has achieved three times improvement in return on ad spend, as well as 42% more unique reach at the same media budget and a 27% frequency reduction, meaning how often users see the same ad. Ideally, the final launch will benefit all the different players within the digital advertising industry. Publishers will have an easier time serving ads to the right customers, marketers will reach those same customers with more precision, and the users themselves will have a better experience, said Amazon.” ⬇️ #programmatic #biddable #upfronts #ctv #ott #fast #tvos https://lnkd.in/eQtyxtyt

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CTV is a driving force for digital ad spend growth, but those of us who have been around since the days of "Ad Network 1.0" know that non-transparent "ad bundles" and fuzzy PMPs with fancy logos and no accountability will burn out the minute that the supply - demand imbalance come into play. With the rise of Amazon Prime Video and the growth of FAST channels reaching saturation overload, we are just about there. Program level transparency and full impression-level accountability across all CTV sources is only a matter of time.

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we've posted a couple of reports in the past - but I think that this one is the BEST and most interesting one we published (...so far...) this is a true comparison of "attribution" vs. incrementality - comparing the actual aggregated, weighted, and indexed results based for the clients who share attribution data with INCRMNTAL Super interesting - get it below!

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Happy to help our partners at Amazon with this measurement initiative. Proof that real purchase data, not modeled proxies, is what closes the gap between streaming exposure and verified sales outcomes.

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New data shows linear TV advertising had the lowest ROI of any media channel in 2024—just $0.62 return for every dollar spent. Meanwhile, streaming audio topped the charts at $3.22 per dollar, beating out retail media, paid social, and digital display. It’s a clear signal that performance and efficiency are driving where media dollars go—and where they stay. At iHeart, we’re seeing this shift firsthand as more brands lean into audio as a core part of their strategy. https://lnkd.in/du7TYqFk

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Game on. Sports video creation just got the AI Treatment. Minute Media, powerhouse behind sites like Sports Illustrated and The Players’ Tribune, just closed its biggest deal ever, acquiring VideoVerse, the AI engine behind Magnifi. Magnifi’s AI, built on computer vision, NLP, and machine learning, instantly turns games into short-form video gold: think multilingual subtitles, auto thumbnails, metadata, and digestible clips. It’s basically automatic highlights at scale. Minute Media is also integrating creation, distribution, and monetization, powering everything from league rights holders to publisher partners around the globe. And with Magnifi, Minute Media is enhancing its STN Video platform, making it faster to launch TikTok-style highlight reels, hyper-personalized by team, player, or fan behavior. Yes, Minute Media is positioning themselves as a platform operator and not just a storyteller. Distribution + monetization across 1,000+ sites and millions of fans. Platforms that own the tech, the content, and the flywheel will own the audience and their wallets. Huge move by Minute Media, a laser focus on owning video’s value stream without the fluff. #SportsMedia #AIinVideo #MinuteMedia #VideoTech #StreamingStrategy #ContentTech https://lnkd.in/gCxs284i

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Teads is elevating the role of Connected TV with the launch of CTV Performance, introducing a new way to optimize and measure real business outcomes. This innovation allows advertisers to connect premium streaming exposure to measurable results, bringing brand awareness and performance closer together than ever before. https://lnkd.in/eJqdjEZS

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We’re excited to be one of the very first SSP's to enable CAPI with LiveRamp - and for multiple reasons. First, it represents further expansion of our already deep partnership with LiveRamp. In addition to CAPI, we are integrated with LiveRamp Connect and the LiveRamp Data Store, RampID's help power our identity graph, we support ATS across our global footprint. Buyers can send audiences from LiveRamp directly to our curation platform, OpenXSelect for easy supply side activation. We see more 202 million active RampIDs across our exchange each month - including CTV. I could go on... Second, it demonstrates how OpenX is accelerating the move towards closed loop measurement and outcomes based buying for all of programmatic.  Our people based infrastructure allows for closed loop measurement with LiveRamp's CAPI and directly with marketers and retailers.  Closed loop measurement can be as simple to access as activating a deal id. Lastly, it's a great example of what we mean when we say we have the most advanced and flexible #curation platform on the market.  OpenXSelect is built on a fundamentally different and stronger foundation which allows us to develop more sophisticated solutions on top. It's not just access to the bidstream, it's advanced toolsets that provide Agencies, Publishers, Retailers, Data owners and Curation Houses with unique capabilities to drive better results. Let's connect at Cannes if you want to learn more. Thanks to Michele Kristie, Andrew Dryden, Travis Clinger, Stephen J. Fugedy and team for your partnership.

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Nice piece in AdExchanger about our acquisition of streamr.ai and how AI-powered technology will help empower small and medium-sized business (SMB) advertisers to invest more in streaming — unlocking the next major revenue opportunity for CTV publishers. https://magnite.smh.re/1Yw

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Fantastic two minute read. #CTV campaigns are not all managed the same way and being informed means you are making the best decision for your company/brand. This article is well-worth reading if you are a growth marketer or brand marketer responsible for paid media budgets that extend into streaming tv advertising. Daniella Romanaggi knows better than anyone why this article is relevant. Keynes Digital is all about direct deals and direct relationships. #ctvexperts

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As an industry, we need better metrics to help make sure we're buying quality media in premium environments that drive results for our clients. We don't need to sacrifice quality for cost efficiency. From the linked article, "advertisers who prioritize data integrity and make a point of buying impressions from high-value publishers with better data practices see a 33% lower cost per action, a 32% reduction in CPMs and a 5% higher return on ad spend." https://lnkd.in/grKnzm_H

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Most retail media networks don’t add incremental value. Michael Shields, with whom I had the pleasure to have dinner at Andy Plesser´s #BeetBerks event, said it well in his latest piece: Too many RMNs are too small to justify their place on a media plan, and even when they do, it's far from clear that retail media spend growth drives retail sales growth. We agree.    The big opportunity for retail media isn’t just to monetize existing shopper attention. It’s to anticipate shopper intent.    That requires more than ad slots on a single retailer's site. It requires:  ·       A relationship with the advertiser, so you understand brand goals.  ·       A relationship with the merchant, so you can unlock the right inventory.  ·       A relationship with consumers to understand their behavior across retailers, purchases, categories, and moments in time.    This is what makes PayPal Ads so unique.    We sit across tens of millions of merchants and 400M+ consumers, with visibility into over 1 billion shopping moments each month.     Not just clicks. Transactions.  Not just on one site. Across the internet. That allows us to help advertisers predict demand and help merchants participate in it. Take our latest innovation, Storefront Ads, for example. Instead of pushing only a single product, we can feature the merchants that sell the products. That means better performance for the advertiser and value for the merchant, not one at the expense of the other. Moreover, the PayPal Ads approach is crafted for this emerging Era of the Empowered Shopper in which the path to purchase is accelerating. In an agentic era, consumers won't navigate to a bunch of individual retailers' sites. So, both advertisers and merchants need a way to anticipate shopper demand and meet them everywhere. That’s how commerce media becomes more than a tactic for retailers to juice margins. And that’s how we break out of the “RMN” box and build something much bigger.    Give it a read and let’s discuss!

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Excited to share that Aperiam has invested in Bedrock Platform. Obvious statement of the century: programmatic advertising has a complexity problem. The infrastructure that was built to give media buyers control has, over time, done the opposite. Burying teams under layers of operational overhead, legacy tooling, and opaque supply chains. Bedrock is built on a simple but powerful thesis: what if you stripped away the bloat and rebuilt the stack around what actually matters... precision, transparency, and speed to execution. Their platform combines AI-driven campaign automation with curated, premium inventory across video, CTV, DOOH, and audio, and aims to be flexible and get smarter over time. Plus, the team (Shane, Austin, Ryan, James) has deep roots in the infrastructure layer of ad tech and understands the plumbing better than almost anyone. We believe the next generation of programmatic will be leaner, faster and AI-first. Bedrock is building that.

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With principle-based buying returning to the forefront, Brian Chap's recipe for agency accountability takes me back to Jon Mandel's explosive rebate disclosures back in March 2015. Jon's kimono-opening moment was undoubtedly the catalyst that woke us all up to the billions leaking from media budgets by way of non-transparent kickbacks and fees. The can of worms has yet to be closed. That's why principle-based buying doesn't sit well with me. It feels like we're rewinding the tape after making so much progress over the last decade. BUT ... if you're a client-side media buyer that chooses to engage with a principle-based agency, there are three of Brian's "BENCH" framework activities that I think should be prioritized to the top. These three are relatively simple to do and can dramatically increase transparency and accountability. 1 - Secure platform access to your ad server, your DSP and the major SSPs through whom you are buying. Ensure you know how to compare media costs at each step in the supply-chain. 2 - Conduct audits. Whether as Brian recommends or simply by contacting a handful of publishers where you buy media, you should be able to reconcile your cost input to your media value output. And while you're at it, you'll be strengthening your direct publisher relationships, which has many longer-term benefits both in terms of media cost and priority. 3 - Most definitely hold your agency accountable. This applies also to every adtech vendor in your media supply-chain. I am not a fan of principle-based media buying. But if you're going to try it out, you need to remember that this is far from a set-it-and-forget-it approach to advertising. https://lnkd.in/eDw-Z3w8

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Super excited to announce this expanded partnership between Instacart and The Trade Desk!  Instacart is the first U.S. retail media network to integrate its grocery selection with The Trade Desk platform for streamlined self-service use cases, enabling approved advertisers and agencies to build first-party custom audiences based on specific product criteria for programmatic campaigns. CPG brands can also access real-time sales measurement signals from Instacart directly in The Trade Desk platform. Here we go! https://lnkd.in/eygGcAJr

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I got quoted in Skai 2026 State of Retail Media report this week - this one is all about measurement. According to Skai, only 15% of brands say they're highly effective at measuring retail media performance. From all my conversations... that sounds about right. But the tools are out there, and the agencies to support you are out there (hint... we do this extremely well). It's not because the tools or the knowledge don't exist. It's not because the methodology is too complex. It's not even a data access problem. The real barrier? People and ownership. 56% said they lack internal analytics or data science resources. Nearly 1 in 5 said there's no clear cross-functional ownership between sales, media, and analytics. In my opinion lack of analytics access is the excuse. Lack of ownership is the problem. I stand by that. Here's what I see constantly with brands: the retail media budget grows, the channel count grows, the retailer portals multiply and the analytics infrastructure stays exactly the same. We keep pouring spending into the machine and then wonder why we can't explain what it's doing. And the incrementality gap is brutal. 75% of brands say incrementality measurement is their #1 challenge. But only 20% are actually good at both measuring AND applying those insights to decisions. Everyone knows it's the north star. Almost no one has operationalized it. The aspirations vs. reality data were the most telling part of the whole report. Brands hope incrementality will unlock profit margin improvements (68% said so). Only 24% have actually achieved that. That gap isn't a measurement problem. It's an organizational design problem. If you're a Head of #eCommerce staring down a budget conversation right now, here's the honest takeaway: You don't need another dashboard. You need to invest in this and give authority to someone who owns #incrementality end to end, standardize definitions your media, finance, and analytics teams all agree on, and a decision cadence that actually changes what you do next. As always, I'm here to help. DM me with any questions.

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Roku’s Snr Dir, global ad platform partnerships & biz dev, Miles Fisher, joins us for a deep dive into how Roku’s new Amazon Ads partnership will drive CTV’s full funnel future. https://lnkd.in/gc_cSZYh

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New findings from Partnerize reveal that publishers drive more than double the conversions compared to conventional attribution models, often without any clicks involved. As AI continues to transform consumer habits, brands need to rethink last-click models to effectively assess the real impact of partners as we approach 2025 and beyond.

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Some key takeaways from Walmart Connect’s kickoff to the ANAs Masters of Marketing last week. Our massive out of home footprint (in-store screens, fuel stations and self check out) coupled with Vizio’s dominance in CTV reach and integrated marketing capabilities allow for a full funnel solution powered by accountable measurement and first party data. Three points jump out for me…  1. Retail media can now power holistic media strategies. 2.Uneven Adoption/application means early movers can seize a stronger share of voice more efficiently and 3. Maturing measurement solutions- including with CTV- are helping brands harness retail media’s full- funnel potential. #ana #walmartconnect #letssparksales

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