Rohan Lala

I was honored to join Fox 5 Newsroom Live in New York recently to unpack the dynamics transforming the streaming industry. We’re moving past the era of simple expansion into a period defined by consolidation, fragmentation, and strategic M&A. This isn't just about who offers the most content—it's about who can build a sustainable, viewer-centric model in an increasingly complex ecosystem. The key question now is: How do platforms balance scale with relevance, and what does that mean for the viewer experience? These shifts will separate the resilient players from the rest. Grateful for the opportunity to share my perspective. You can watch the full segment below—I’d welcome your thoughts on where the industry is headed next. #StreamingWars #MediaStrategy #ThoughtLeadership #FutureOfTV #MergersAndAcquisitions #LinkedInNews

114

6 Comments

Local digital advertising needs its own ad tech stack in order to be truly profitable and effective, says Ribeye's @Edward McLoughlin in an op-ed on @TVNewsCheck today. Fascinating. #media #technology #advertising https://lnkd.in/etXW53vu

2

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Ivee and OOH Connect, LLC Announce Strategic Partnership to Expand Premium In-Vehicle Advertising New York, NY — August 4, 2025 Ivee, a leading provider of connected in-vehicle media and experiences, today announced a strategic partnership with OOH Connect to scale national advertising opportunities across Ivee’s rapidly growing rideshare media network. Under this partnership, OOH Connect will serve as the sales representative for Ivee’s in-vehicle media inventory, connecting national brands and agencies with riders through contextually relevant, data-driven campaigns. This collaboration enables scalable, high-impact advertising at moments of high consumer intent—while in transit. “We’re excited to partner with OOH Connect to accelerate the monetization of our platform,” said Alex Giannikoulis, CEO of Ivee. “Their deep expertise in DOOH, corporate strategy and media sales makes them the ideal partner to help us bring premium, in-ride experiences to advertisers at scale.” OOH Connect will integrate Ivee’s rideshare inventory into its broader portfolio, leveraging its market expertise to drive campaign performance and cross-channel visibility. “Ivee is redefining what in-car engagement looks like—blending content, utility, and brand messaging in a way that’s both impactful and brand-safe,” said Hector Gonzalez, Founder and CEO of OOH Connect. “We’re proud to help expand their reach while unlocking new revenue channels and targeting opportunities for advertisers.” The partnership is effective immediately. About Ivee Ivee delivers personalized content and advertising experiences in rideshare vehicles, transforming travel time into immersive engagement. Using real-time data and contextual intelligence, Ivee helps brands connect with passengers at meaningful, high-attention moments. About OOH Connect OOH Connect is a full-service media and technology company specializing in out-of-home and digital out-of-home innovation. With deep experience in corporate strategy, sales, and programmatic infrastructure, OOH Connect empowers media owners and advertisers to unlock value and scale across the OOH ecosystem. Jon Safier, Zack Danielson, Jeff Powers

54

3 Comments

🎯 Your clients want results. Programmatic DOOH delivers. This isn’t about billboards anymore — it’s about: ✅ Contextual delivery ✅ Centralized access to premium inventory ✅ Clear performance data 📘 Our new guide shows why leading agencies are going all-in on pDOOH — and how you can too. 👉 Get the insights here:  https://lnkd.in/et2quXvE #ProgrammaticDOOH #DigitalOutOfHome #MediaBuying #AdTech #MarketingInnovation

12

At the Brooklyn Tech Expo yesterday, Ramm.ai founder Alan Avidan emphasized the theme of 'AI Agents are everywhere.' A key point of discussion was the distinction between an agent and an Agentic system. The presence of agents is indeed notable, with WPP reporting 50,000 working on their behalf, raising questions about the cost and influence of such a workforce. A defining characteristic of an agent is its ability to act with agency and operate autonomously, unlike a bot that relies solely on prescribed LLMs or RAGs. However, a pressing question remains: how much autonomy does agentic AI truly possess without any human oversight? For instance, can it make purchases independently or comment on blog posts without human approval? What is its capacity to interact with other agents outside its ecosystem? Indeed in the case of fashion who decides what to put in your wardrobe for the new season? It appears there may be a spectrum of autonomy influenced by future governance and regulation. A critical question for businesses and society is how much independence should agentic structures be granted. While blockchain can serve as a verification mechanism to ensure data authenticity within an independent system, is this sufficient? Moreover, is it risky to embed such authority in a system that is challenging to modify? As AI agents become increasingly prevalent, the discussions surrounding their deployment are equally significant everywhere.

13

2 Comments

As audiences flock to streaming platforms, Connected TV (CTV) emerges as a game-changer for advertisers. Why CTV? 🎯 Precision Targeting: Deliver personalized ads to specific audience segments using data-driven insights. 🕹 Interactive Engagement: Create immersive ad experiences that encourage viewer participation. 📊 Measurable Impact: Access detailed analytics to evaluate campaign performance and refine strategies. Integrating CTV into your marketing mix can elevate brand presence and drive meaningful engagement in today’s digital landscape.

13

3 Comments

Excited to announce our partnership with Wunderkind Ads to bring ContextGPT to their media buyers! With AI-driven contextual intelligence, semantic understanding, and fully co-located integrations, WunderKIND Ads sellers can monetize within 15 minutes of content going live across premium inventory, while media buyers gain faster access to unique inventory that drives stronger relevance and performance. This is exactly how contextual should work. Learn more: https://lnkd.in/e46PGGqw #AI #DeepLearning #AdTechInnovation #TeamCognitiv

56

Had an exceptional time with Rachel Parkin earlier this week, talking about the future of the open web. Give it a listen and shout out your thoughts. 👉 https://lnkd.in/ew2g2Nqq

11

Excited to announce our direct integration and partnership with Stack Adapt DSP to make Infolinks Curated Propriety Placement inventory accessible to StackAdapt advertisers. “Partnering with Infolinks gives our advertisers a unique edge,” said Gregory Joseph, VP of Inventory Development at StackAdapt. “We’re able to offer not only their premium proprietary placements but most importantly true curation at its core without any added fees being absorbed by our advertisers.” Read our press release: https://lnkd.in/euKEWUSC

79

7 Comments

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

6

3 Comments

Today's tipsheet interview for Monday, February 2... IAB Tech Lab CEO Anthony Katsur spoke to tipsheet yesterday about AI and its impact on governance in digital advertising. Topics included: * AI in ads and "rushing" into experimentation. * Creating the agentic definition at Tech Lab. * "Agentifying" six standards. * The most important agentic standard right now. * V2 of the Agentic Real-Time Framework (ARTF). * Goals and deadlines for current agentic efforts. * Development of an "Agent to Agent" registry launching March 1. * Was "User Context Protocol" (UCP), now "Agentic Audiences". * Agentic mobile, formerly "MobileCP". * Concerns about other protocol initiatives such as AdCP. * Top milestones ahead for Mr. Katsur. Read: https://lnkd.in/eDh8MQt7

17

If you are a Performance/Growth Marketer testing or looking to test CTV, this article is a must read. CTV inventory is primarily non-clickable so the industry relies on Cross Device to connect the device visiting the website to the TV in which the ad was served (and vice versa). Here's the problem - most CTV vendors use IP Address (Wifi) as the sole source of truth for cross device tracking. This is both antiquated and heavily flawed, but they do it anyway and hey, it certainly doesn't hurt in-platform performance. Data validation provider Truthset conducted this study on behalf of CIMM (Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement) and Go Addressable to definitively understand the accuracy of IP Address for Cross Device tracking applications (CTV). "Truthset analyzed records from six major data vendors, including 1 billion email addresses, nearly 250 million IP addresses and 164 million postal addresses." Here are some key findings: > IP-to-Email matches: 16% accurate >IP-to-Postal matches: 13% accurate If you are a brand allocating ad dollars to a CTV campaign leveraging IP Address for cross device tracking/targeting, is this accuracy acceptable? “There’s this promise in the industry of completely accurate, deterministic data that matches sophisticated and vast advertising targets and attributes onto individuals and households,” Jon Watts, Managjng Director of Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement (CIMM) said. “This leads marketers to believe that when they buy against a particular target, they’re reaching that target – and, unsurprisingly, the truth is much more complicated than that.” IP Address Match Rates Are a Joke – And It’s No Laughing Matter https://lnkd.in/gwGa_iBt Keynes Digital #crossdevice #CTV #connectedtv

16

2 Comments

Mega raises $11.5M to replace marketing agencies with AI-powered growth engine for SMBs AI marketing platform Mega has secured $11.5 million in Series A funding to accelerate the rollout of its AI-powered growth engine designed specifically for small and medium-sized businesses. The Brooklyn-based company aims to replace traditional marketing agencies with a network of autonomous AI agents capable of managing digital growth channels from end to end. These agents execute and optimize search engine optimization (SEO), paid advertising, website management and emerging AI search channels, leading to what the company describes as predictable customer acquisition without the overhead and variability associated with agency services....

1

1 Comment

Ad Context Protocol launched this week. IAB Tech Lab just announced AAMP. PubMatic says 10% of their publishers are already generating revenue from AI agents. Your inventory is optimized for human buyers. AI agents don't read your sales deck. But here's the gap. Most publisher inventory is packaged for human interpretation, deal IDs with creative names, PDFs with positioning and sales calls to explain value. That doesn't work when the buyer is an algorithm making 10,000 decisions per second. The publishers winning this are implementing machine-readable signals NOW. We're talking about structured inventory metadata, IAB Content Taxonomy 3.0+ and contextual data layers. It's header bidding in 2015. Early adopters are building competitive moats before this becomes table stakes. PubMatic's target is 100% publisher adoption. The window is 12-18 months. Google's absence from these protocol initiatives is notable. The open ecosystem has a rare chance to set standards. But once agentic buying hits 20-30% of spend, the standards will be locked. Your competitor isn't optimizing their waterfall. They're making their inventory legible to robots.

6

Replace guesswork with data, and scale what actually works. Few mistakes to avoid as a performance marketer. Dentsu India | Sokrati

32

Excited to share that Aperiam has invested in Newton Research’s oversubscribed $9M Series A, alongside Greycroft, Bessemer Venture Partners, S4S Ventures, and LiveRamp Ventures. Newton is redefining what agentic AI can do for marketing analytics, enabling brands and agencies to: - Run customer 360 journey analysis across touchpoints - Segment audiences and build predictive models - Automate attribution, incrementality, and media mix modeling - Generate dynamic, natural language-driven reporting - Save up to 126 hours/month and achieve 10x analytics output Their pre-built “blueprints” let non-technical teams securely run advanced analytics on their own data with just a few clicks. John Hoctor, Matthew Emans, and Steven Bennett have successfully built and exited multiple companies. We love to back repeat founders on their most ambitious ideas, like Newton Research. Link to more in comments.

157

5 Comments