Ryan Harwood

Over and over again - we see great data on how OOH drives foot traffic. In NYC, LinkNYC’s massive 4000 screen network gets deep in the city, finding target audiences where they live work and play. In beauty, a brand can own the biggest city, and spark NYC’s trendsetting audience to go to retail and buy the product, as shown in this recent case example.

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Comcast is launching a streaming app store ten years too late. Meanwhile, Jeff Bezos is considering buying CNBC, NBCU is launching a sports channel, and linear ads still dominate. https://lnkd.in/grdBv2kb

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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

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🚘📉 SiriusXM Loses Subscribers—but Gains Ground in Podcasts and Ad Monetization. SiriusXM’s Q1 2025 results are a study in contrast: 🔻 Revenue down 4% 🔻 Free cash flow down 36% 🔻 303K self-pay subscribers lost But that’s not the whole story. 🎧 Podcast ad revenue jumped 33% 📱 Social and video ad bookings in Q1 beat all of 2024 💡 Cost reductions—especially in marketing and tech—are on track to save $200M this year With stronger in-car retention, new partnerships (hello, Mitsubishi and Tesla), and a low-cost, ad-supported tier launching later this year, SiriusXM is actively repositioning for a more fragmented and price-sensitive future. 📊 We break it all down—including what it signals for other subscription businesses:👉 https://lnkd.in/eg2SUmCB #subscriptions #streaming #podcasting #SiriusXM #subscriberstrategy

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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

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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

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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....

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This week's column brings up a somewhat controversial concept. The TV broadcasting industry is rapidly evolving into a streaming/addressable/targeted marketplace. Yet 75%-80% of broadcast TV viewing.....content on broadcast TV channels is still being viewed either via OTA or on pay TV. How can broadcasters make the transition to enable the scale of their viewing audiences to participate in the new TV marketplace? It won't be easy in an industry that eschews change. Broadcasters and agencies have been talking about this for years. It's time now to make the transition or get left behind! https://lnkd.in/gqZd4A9i

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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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FOX Q3 2025 Earnings: Tubi achieved profitability in the quarter, with revenue increasing by 27% and viewing time up by 18%. However, no base numbers were provided. FOX's CEO said the company will likely moderate its investment in digital operations this fiscal year and reiterated guidance of spending $350 million in fiscal 2026, a figure previously shared on the company's fiscal fourth-quarter earnings call. Fox's advertising revenue was $1.41 billion, up 6% YoY. The TV segment saw 6% ad lift growth to $1.07 billion, behind the growth of Tubi, higher sports pricing, and NFL viewership. Lower political ad revenues partially offset those gains, as 2024 had the presidential election cycle. Cable ad revenues, boosted by the higher pricing at Fox News Channel, rose 7% to $345M. Earnings release: https://lnkd.in/eUbtv7Zv - #tubi #AVOD #streamingmedia #FOX

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It was good to hear the unslanted and enchanted perspective of indie OS providers Ventura TV OS and Whale TV last week. Google and Amazon shouldn't control everything, right?

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If you’re curious about the long-term vision for Wunderfan, this Fox Business feature includes several quotes that unpack the thesis we’re building around.

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🚨 Brand Advertising is About to Get a Major Tailwind As the Fed enters a rate-cutting cycle in the back half of 2025, in the midst of major tentpole holidays; we're embarking on a new chapter — one where brand advertising dollars finally get off the sidelines. Here’s why that matters: 💸 Dry powder is real — there's a massive amount of capital looking for alternative returns. Traditional large-cap investments are hitting tariff-era headwinds, while small-cap volatility is giving institutional investors pause. The demand for alternative investments has seen dramatic growth as investors look for diversification, higher returns, and protection against market volatility…ultimately driven by low returns on cash due to inflation. Total alternative assets under management are projected to reach $29.2 trillion USD by 2029, a significant increase from previous years. So where does that capital go in the world of media? ➡️ Specialist, independent agencies — agile, audience-centric, and culture-native — are becoming incredibly attractive investment vehicles. 👀 We’re watching Publicis gobble up top-notch specialist agencies that have proven to be a force-multiplier for their social/streaming/ecommerce strategy. Why? Because the battleground for brand growth is increasingly the democratized platform ecosystems of social, streaming and ecommerce. Demand-side platforms that enable advertisers to buy impressions and select audiences across many publisher sites aren’t socially native concepts in direct-sell environments, and increasingly lack the full-funnel needs of evolving brands. Social & social-commerce platforms are data-rich, ROI-visible cultural ecosystems where the right creative & performance strategy meets the right community — and builds brand at scale. In this next cycle, putting your brand “in culture” won’t be optional. It’ll be measurable. And profitable. Attention is the new alpha. Culture is the new capital. Let’s build accordingly. Vertiqal Studios #Advertising #BrandGrowth #DigitalMedia #FedRateCut #CulturalCapital #MarketingStrategy #IndependentAgencies #AlternativeAssets #TikTokMarketing #MediaInvestment #VertiqalStudios

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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

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Everyone assumes content distribution is automated. It’s not. If you work across #TVOD, #FAST, #AVOD, or #SVOD and haven’t seen how avails are actually distributed, you’d be shocked at how manual the process still is. Excel files flying back and forth. Partner templates. Constant updates. Human error everywhere. Matthew Carter and Vincent Muscarella break down why this legacy workflow slows licensing and delays revenue for the entertainment industry. The industry deserves better. #Helix #WhipMedia

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Excellent chart. This is one of those numbers that belies a more tectonic shift. And 26% year over year is nothing to sneeze at. But ad revenue alone is a signifier - most creators won't see that money unless they are in top .1% of pods. The shift of money following the attention economy is real. From Netflix touting podcasts, to Spotify emphasizing video, to the utter dominance of YouTube. For smaller creators and our clients, we are trying everything we can do well these days (emphasis on the DO WELL). We also advise subscriptions or newsletters (Substack, Intuit, Mailchimp, Simplecast by AdsWizz, Apple podcasts) are a worthwhile investment to keep more of that attention premium in your pocket. #podcast #revenue

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Interesting analysis from Puck's 2025 Media State of the Union: https://lnkd.in/gWhtjfid : 34% of media executives are betting on subscriptions as their top revenue driver. Why? Because advertisers will pay a premium for high-intent, engaged audiences. But subscriptions aren't the only signal of a high-intent audience—they're just the easiest to measure. The real challenge is proving that engagement, regardless of the model.

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We are thrilled to embark on this strategic partnership with Katz Digital. By combining our platform’s capabilities with Katz’s premium inventory, we are working together to provide advertisers with the tools they need to prove the tangible impact of their campaigns. It’s about moving beyond delivery metrics to show what's actually working for advertisers in audio and CTV.

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