Afleveringen
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Relying solely on programmatic CTV auctions locks brands out of premium live sports and high-value cultural moments while racking up heavy middleware fees.
Key Highlights
This deep dive reveals how direct-to-ad-server tech and large language models are restructuring streaming media execution to protect brand safety, automate delivery, and enforce flawless frequency capping.๐๏ธ The streaming landscape has finally solidified clear operational guardrails for PMPs, direct deals, and programmatic guaranteed executions.
๐ซ Brands relying exclusively on open programmatic bidding frameworks are entirely locked out of premium live sports and cultural finale inventory.
๐ Parallel ad-server execution platforms bypass traditional DSP/SSP tech stacks to unlock automated direct buying without extortionate transaction fees.
๐ Moving execution closer to the publisher's native ad server slashes ad operations complexity from thousands of line items down to a handful of weekly adjustments.
๐ง The future of smart ad matching lies in feeding first-party data clean rooms into large language models to algorithmically pair impressions with optimal brands.
โ๏ธ Advanced streaming networks require a hybrid architecture that seamlessly balances highly targeted identity-driven deals alongside broad reach-and-frequency buys.
Resources & Next Steps๐ Leo O'Connor on LinkedIn
Chapter Timestamps
๐ Philip Inghelbrecht on LinkedIn
๐ง Subscribe to Next in Media on Apple Podcasts and Spotify00:00 Intro
1:25 Market Stabilization and Transactional Norms โ
3:05 Premium Content Gap in Programmatic Buying โ
4:32 Upstream Technology Solution โ
5:42 Content Experience and Buying Model Optimization โ
6:52 Implementation Results and Operational Efficiency โ
7:29 First-Party Data Evolution and Identity Solutions โ
9:22 Hybrid Approach to Brand Data and Identity โ
10:09 Collective Audience Moments vs. Individual Targeting โ
12:18 Frequency Capping Challenges and Solutions -
YouTube has officially outgrown traditional media taxonomies to become a unique, multi-surface ecosystem spanning streaming, social, and commerce.
Key Highlights
This week, Tinuiti's Sean Odlum explains how brands can leverage first-party CRM data and the Ads Data Hub, to bypass mobile-heavy biases and measure true impact across every screen.๐จ๐ญ YouTube operates as a media "Swiss army knife" that spans streaming, social, and commerce, making it a standalone category that defies traditional television or digital video silos.
๐ Advertisers must overcome the "cold start" planning problem by fusing brand CRM data with platform signals rather than using wasteful, brute-force ad spending across millions of creators.
๐๏ธ The massive migration of viewers to connected TV screens introduces a "lean back" posture that dries up traditional click-through data and forces agencies to build view-through attribution models.
๐ Marketers frequently fall victim to the "looking for keys under the lamplight" bias by over-indexing on easily measured mobile formats while failing to capture deeply engaged CTV exposures.
๐ง Privacy-compliant clean rooms like YouTube's Ads Data Hub allow brands to unlock deterministic measurement by using hashed emails as a durable identity signal to link exposures to actual conversions.
๐ YouTube's content structure makes it uniquely optimized for highly considered, research-driven purchases rather than the impulse buying loops that dominate short-form entertainment apps.
Resources & Next Steps๐ Sean Odlum on LinkedIn
Chapter Timestamps
๐ง Subscribe to Next in Media on Apple Podcasts and Spotify00:00 Introduction
1:38 Sean's Role and Tinuiti's Product-Focused Approach
3:38 YouTube as Its Own Category and Platform Approach
4:55 YouTube Intelligence Suite: Planning and Cold Start Solutions
6:26 Measurement Challenges and Connected TV Migration
7:35 Ads Data Hub
10:57 Demand Generation Campaigns and Mobile Bias
13:45 YouTube vs TikTok Shop: Commerce Potential and Use Cases
16:26 Short-Form vs Long-Form Content Strategy
18:06 Measurement Wish List: Inter-Walled Garden Operability -
Zijn er afleveringen die ontbreken?
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The traditional retail media playbook is undergoing a massive transformation as platforms shift away from transactional clicks toward holistic, real-world shopping experiences.
Key Highlights
This week, Sam's Club VP and GM Harvey Ma, breaks down how their membership data and cross-enterprise synergy with Walmart are setting a new standard for full-funnel brand measurement.๐ณ Every single purchase is tracked. Because members have to scan their ID at the register, the app, or the gas pump, brands get direct, 1-to-1 attribution without having to guess or make assumptions.
๐ค It's a long-term relationship, not a one-time buy. Looking at how people use services like travel, pharmacy, and auto care gives a much clearer picture of future shopping intent than a single grocery receipt.
๐ Built once, scaled everywhere. Putting different ad platforms under one global roof makes things consistent, simplifies the buying process, and cuts down transactional friction for brands.
๐๏ธ Ads are leaving the store. Brands are moving beyond traditional retail spaces by using live eventsโlike racing sponsorshipsโto reach people out in the real world and prove the ads actually work.
๐ Hooking all five senses. Warehouse shopping is inherently physical, so the strategy centers on taste, touch, and smell to build actual emotional connections instead of just chasing digital clicks.
๐ Optimizing on the fly. Tools like Omni Impact track the entire shopping journey to see which channels are pulling their weight, allowing brands to adjust their media mix in real time.
Resources & Next Steps๐ Harvey Ma on LinkedIn
Chapter Timestamps
๐ง Subscribe to Next in Media on Apple Podcasts and Spotify00:00 Introduction
1:57 Launching the Samโs Club Connect rebrand and its core philosophies.
2:28 Integrating Sam's Club, Walmart, and International Connect into one global ad ecosystem.
3:05 How mandatory membership scans unlock 100% accurate, closed-loop attribution.
3:42 Moving from one-off transactions to multi-service, long-term relationships.
4:09 Creating sensory, real-world retail experiences that go beyond digital clicks.
4:50 The "Race to the Club" IndyCar partnership with Andretti Global.
6:20 Using digital scan-and-sample tablets to pipe instant store reviews to web pages.
7:40 Unifying data, tech, and marketplace under a singular enterprise growth platform.
8:54 Why the world's biggest brands have completely destroyed traditional buying silos. -
As streaming behavior dominates the living room, Vizio's operating system has claimed the top spot in U.S. television sales by turning the home screen into an active search and discovery storefront.
Key Highlights
In this exclusive Cannes interview, Chief Revenue Officer Mike O'Donnell explains how partnering with Walmart Connect allows advertisers to move beyond last-click attribution and track the complete customer path from initial TV exposure to final purchase.๐ Smart TV operating systems are evolving from invisible background infrastructure into powerful retail media endpoints embedded directly within commerce networks.
๐ฏ While traditional audience reach and frequency planning still matter, actual business outcomes have become the primary scorecard for modern connected TV advertising.
๐บ True scale in the smart TV landscape requires a balanced formula of distribution volume matched with deep, daily home screen user engagement.
๐ Relying strictly on last-click attribution undervalues the top-of-funnel brand discovery and awareness value that television inherently delivers.
๐ Designing utility-driven features like centralized sports discovery hubs solves viewer choice fatigue while unlocking high-intent sponsorship assets for advertisers.
Resources & Next Steps๐ Mike O'Donnell on LinkedIn
๐ง Subscribe to Next in Media on Apple Podcasts and Spotify
Chapter Timestamps00:00 Introduction
3:00 Evolution of Smart TV Operating Systems and User Behavior
4:32 Market Position and Competitive Landscape
6:23 Balancing Audience Metrics with Outcome-Focused Advertising
7:44 Content-to-Commerce Integration and Walmart Connect's Role
8:54 Moving Beyond Last-Click Attribution
10:05 Innovation User Experience and Discovery
11:33 Advertising Innovation and Branded Content
12:53 Future Outlook and Walmart's Vibe Acquisition -
SharkNinja has rewritten the modern commerce playbook by embedding a "threshold of virality" directly into pre-product development and abandoning rigid, weekly campaign reviews for hourly optimization.
Key Highlights
Global Head of Media Dave Kersey shares how this social-first, digital-only approach skyrocketed the brand to the top of TikTok Shop ecosystems globally while establishing a hyper-transparent, API-driven model for agency partnerships.๐ Modern product development must integrate a Threshold of Virality (TOV) pre-production to ensure the productโs DNA naturally inspires organic creator advocacy and consumer content generation.
๐ TikTok Shop has officially evolved from a novel social feature into a powerhouse retail and commerce engine comparable to traditional retail media.
โก High-growth brands must transition from standard weekly media reviews to an agile, real-time optimization infrastructure that monitors and scales winning content on an hourly and daily cadence.
๐ค Authentic creator engagement requires shifting from rigid, forced brand messaging to an early product-sampling model where influencers provide honest feedback and co-create real human usage stories.
๐ Measuring content performance requires a unified view that evaluates message resonance and audience viewing time across a single, integrated paid and organic ecosystem.
๐งฉ Signal fragmentation across emerging platforms like CTV and digital out-of-home remains the largest operational bottleneck preventing fast-moving digital optimization from scaling across the full media ecosystem.
Resources & Next Steps๐ Dave Kersey on LinkedIn
๐ง Subscribe to Next in Media on Apple Podcasts and Spotify
Chapter Timestamps00:00 TikTok Shop Success and Consumer Shopping Evolution
1:47 Shark Ninja's Unique Product Development and Media Integration
3:51 Creator-Centric Social Commerce Strategy
7:32 Measurement and Attribution Approach
11:22 Aggressive Media Investment and Real-Time Optimization
12:56 Television and CTV Strategy Limitations
16:29 Signal Fragmentation as Primary Challenge
18:05 Agency vs. Client Side Insights and Partnership Model
20:52 Product Spotlight: The Chill Pill -
The shift from traditional television to connected TV has accelerated rapidly, requiring publishers to offer both massive culture-shifting scale and ultra-precise targeting capabilities.
Key Highlights
In this deep dive, Netflix Advertising VP Nicolle Pangis pulls back the curtain on how the platform built an independent, proprietary ad server to give global brands the exact mix of automated programmatic buying and high-impact live events they need to drive measurable ROI.๐ Achieving a scale of 250 million global ad-supported subscribers establishes premium streaming networks as direct rivals to traditional broadcast television for top-of-funnel brand equity.
๐ ๏ธ Migrating away from third-party tech partners to own the entire proprietary ad server stack is critical for premium publishers wanting to control data assets and accelerate product roadmaps.
๐ Capitalizing on a consistent, weekly viewing habit among 80% of an ad-supported base allows brands to maximize creative repetition and long-term brand building rather than just transactional spikes.
๐๏ธ Reimagining live sports through a unique entertainment lens expands standard fan demographics, transforming traditional sports broadcasts into massive cultural pop-culture events.
โ๏ธ Unlocking the true potential of connected TV requires a deliberate balance between personalized digital targeting and broad-reach, unified storytelling that drives shared cultural experiences.
๐งฉ Relying entirely on single hit series integrations is a flawed media strategy since even a top-tier show only captures roughly 1.5% of total platform viewing at any given point.
๐ Standardizing clean room integrations and advanced data collaboration frameworks is the essential path forward for activating scaled first-party data securely.
๐ Proving television advertising value should focus on holistic return on ad spend and incremental revenue lift across agency dashboards rather than expecting immediate on-screen transactions.
Resources & Next Steps๐ Nicolle Pangis on LinkedIn
๐ง Subscribe to Next in Media on Apple Podcasts and Spotify
Chapter Timestamps00:00 Introduction
1:14 Netflix's Advertising Journey and Infrastructure Building
4:07 Subscriber Growth and Market Position
6:15 Competitive Positioning and Technology Advantages
7:48 Ad Tech Platform Development Strategy
9:12 Career Background and Strategic Approach
12:12 Current Market Conditions and Advertiser Needs
14:14 NFL Partnership and Content Innovation
16:36 Advertising Format Innovation and Personalization Balance
18:15 Content Integration and Audience Strategy
20:49 Data Collaboration and Clean Room Technology -
Achieving true cross-channel attribution remains an uphill battle as walled gardens restrict access to critical log-level data.
Key Highlights
Georgia Pacific's Vice President of Integrated Media and Brand Analytics, Javier Bustillos, reveals how his team combats these fragmentation challenges by accelerating in-house Marketing Mix Modeling and adopting a disciplined, test-and-learn approach to automation.๐ Walled gardens continue to choke cross-channel attribution by withholding log-level data, forcing brands to rely on a mosaic of complementary measurement frameworks rather than a single source of truth.
๐ฏ Strategic mass awareness is shifting toward a hybrid model that blends broad linear reach with hyper-targeted digital video tactics like CTV and YouTube to balance scale and precision.
๐บ Premium addressable and data-driven linear television formats frequently fail to generate the performance lift required to justify their steep upfront cost premiums.
๐ฅ Independent content creators should be treated as dynamic ad formats and flexible engagement assets deployed across diverse platform verticals rather than being siloed as a standalone media channel.
๐ Bringing Marketing Mix Modeling in-house can drastically condense operational reporting loops, shifting analytics cadences from lagging annual retrospectives to agile, granular quarterly deployments.
๐งช AI applications in programmatic media yield immediate dividends for algorithmic bidding and supply-path optimization, but agentic decision-making still requires strict human guardrails for multi-million-dollar budgets.
๐๏ธ Building a high-functioning in-house programmatic operation demands a multi-year road map focused on incremental scaling, specialized talent retention, and direct ad-tech relationship management.
Resources & Next Steps๐ Javier Bustillos on LinkedIn
๐ง Subscribe to Next in Media on Apple Podcasts and Spotify
Chapter Timestamps00:00 Introduction
1:28 Georgia Pacific's Role and Brand Portfolio
2:20 Evolution from Mass Reach to Integrated Targeting
4:05 Cross-Channel Integration Challenges
5:00 Upfront Evolution and New Players
7:10 Creator Economy Integration Across Platforms
8:31 Marketing Mix Modeling Evolution and In-House Capabilities
11:00 MMM Limitations and Supplementary Measurement
13:04 Business Outcome Accountability and Long-term Impact
14:36 AI Implementation and Agentic Capabilities
16:28 Future of Agencies and In-House Teams with AI
18:36 CFO Relations and Marketing Value Communication
19:55 In-Housing Reality Check and Implementation Timeline
21:16 In-Housing Challenges and Relationship Building -
As television viewership shifts, NBCUniversal is proving that premium IP like live sports and reality television can compete with digital channels by integrating advanced programmatic ad tech.
Key Highlights
Through initiatives like real-time AI context-scanning and the Performance Insights Hub, they are closing the data loop to deliver immediate, measurable outcomes across the entire marketing funnel.๐บ Premium, year-round unscripted programming creates sustained fan communities that offer brands continuous, high-engagement cultural relevance instead of the brief campaign windows typical of limited series.
๐ช Operating systems like Vizio OS are becoming the critical "front door" of television, capturing consumer attention during the search and discovery phase before they enter ad-free environments.
๐ค The traditional boundary between upper-funnel awareness and lower-funnel performance is dissolving as media networks deploy advanced data hubs to compress measurement cycles from months to days.
๐ฑ Embracing automation and programmatic infrastructure in linear and streaming environments allows major networks to onboard thousands of emerging, niche advertisers who were previously priced out of premium TV inventory.
๐ Real-time, AI-driven content scanning enables hyper-contextual dynamic creative insertion immediately following specific live broadcast triggers, drastically increasing brand resonance.
๐ฏ Maximizing sports viewership monetisation requires a dual broadcast and streaming infrastructure, recognizing that the vast majority of premium ad impressions still occur on linear television.
๐๏ธ Establishing consistent, predictable programming blocks across distinct sports leagues creates a unified destination for viewers and a year-round narrative platform for advertisers.
๐ช In-person experiential events act as powerful content factories, allowing brands to super-serve live audiences while generating digital assets that scale across streaming and social platforms.
Resources & Next Steps๐ Alison Levin on LinkedIn
๐ง Subscribe to Next in Media on Apple Podcasts and Spotify
Chapter Timestamps00:00 The Power of Year-Round Reality TV Communities and Advertising Integration
00:32 Vizio OS as the Solution to TV Fragmentation
1:44 The Cultural Phenomenon of Reality TV and Community Building
5:29 Advertising Scale and Integration Strategies
7:12 Performance TV Advertising and Data Feedback Loops
9:09 AI and Dynamic Creative Capabilities
11:09 NBA Return and Sunday Night Sports Strategy
13:15 Dynamic Ad Insertion and Programmatic Sports Advertising
15:12 Current Advertising Market Conditions and Upfront Dynamics
16:58 BravoCon as a Content Creation Phenomenon -
After briefly de-emphasizing targeted TV ads during the Discovery merger, Warner Bros. Discovery has rapidly rebuilt its infrastructure to offer clients unprecedented transparency and accountability.
Key Highlights
In this live recording from the GoAddressable upfront breakfast, learn how premium IP content is joining forces with sophisticated data waterfalls to challenge the dominance of walled gardens.๐ Warner Bros. Discovery is correcting a four-year-old strategic pivot by aggressively reinvesting in addressable TV advertising to bridge the performance gap between linear and digital video inventory.
๐ฏ Roughly 80% of audience-driven TV campaigns now leverage client-supplied first-party segments, signaling a massive shift toward data-ownership and customized targeting in premium environments.
๐ Traditional media companies must radically streamline their back-end infrastructure to eliminate the crippling operational friction that still makes buying TV inventory too slow and clunky for modern brands.
๐ค Legacy publishers are abandoning old rivalries and uniting within consortiums like OpenAP because collective ecosystem collaboration is the only way to successfully compete against tech titans like Amazon, Google, and Meta.
๐ Direct-to-consumer and small-to-medium digital-native advertisers expect the exact same level of performance, accountability, and transparency from television that they grew up using on Meta and Google.
๐ Relying on a single persistent identifier like an IP address is no longer sustainable, forcing publishers to adopt flexible, composable data waterfalls that combine multiple deterministic and modeled signals.
๐ By guaranteeing reach and incremental reach through their StreamX solution, networks are successfully using top-of-funnel control as a reliable proxy to prove downstream business lift.
๐ญ Pairing high-impact sponsorships like premium series premieres with deterministic retargeting allows brands to orchestrate a complete full-funnel strategy from culture-shaping moments down to precise suppression and competitive conquesting.
Resources & Next Steps๐ Bridget Jayaram on LinkedIn
๐ง Subscribe to Next in Media on Apple Podcasts and Spotify
Chapter Timestamps00:00 Introduction
1:46 Bridget's Background and Warner Brothers Discovery's Addressable Journey
3:33 The De-emphasis and Return to Addressable
4:26 Current Addressable Demand and Client Profiles
5:31 First-Party Data Usage and WBD's Own Data Assets
6:29 Operational Challenges and Infrastructure Needs
7:34 Industry Collaboration vs. Competition
8:38 Outcomes Measurement and Performance Guarantees
10:30 Identity Strategy and Deterministic vs. Probabilistic Approaches
12:12 Serving Different Advertiser Categories and Expectations
13:25 Education and Industry Knowledge Gaps
14:32 WBD's Approach to Performance and Brand Advertising -
Discover how the future of TV advertising is shifting toward outcome-based measurement and AI-driven optimization coming out of the 2026 upfronts .
Key Highlights
iSpot CEO Sean Muller joins the show to break down their fundamental "Creative + Audience = Outcome" equation, the integration of their new AI platform Sage, and why the industry must prioritize trusted, neutral data over ongoing currency debates.๐บ Following the 2026 upfronts, publishers and networks are shifting from traditional linear metrics to embrace outcome-based models because they recognize that advertisers make major budget allocations based on direct business performance.
๐ฏ The traditional debate over alternative audience measurement currencies is largely a publisher-driven concern, while modern brands remain strictly focused on concrete performance and cross-platform ad effectiveness.
๐งช True attribution requires a paradigm shift that treats creative and media as an inseparable equation, proving that creative quality is just as critical to the final business outcome as audience targeting.
โฑ๏ธ Holistic media measurement must capture a four-quadrant grid that balances short-term performance metrics like immediate website visits with long-term brand equity indicators like purchase intent and favorability.
โ๏ธ Advertisers are standardizing multi-touch attribution frameworks that pair conversion rate with lift/incrementality to ensure they are tracking true behavioral causality rather than just hitting consumers who would have purchased anyway.
๐ค The real competitive advantage for publishers lies in moving beyond basic outcome reporting toward actively optimizing campaigns in real time using trusted, neutral third-party measurement signals.
๐ค While building autonomous AI agents for campaign optimization is technically trivial, achieving industry adoption depends entirely on training platforms on verified, historical data that marketers can transparently verify via traditional dashboards.
๐ Although streaming and programmatic buying are gradually lowering the barriers to entry for smaller advertisers, total television ad spend remains highly concentrated within sports and a handful of legacy industries.
Resources & Next Steps๐ Sean Muller on LinkedIn
๐ง Subscribe to Next in Media on Apple Podcasts and Spotify
Chapter Timestamps00:00 Introduction to TV Outcomes and Industry Readiness
4:29 Defining iSpot's Role and Measurement Philosophy
5:42 TV Disrupt Event and Industry Focus Areas
8:45 Defining Short-term vs Long-term Outcomes
11:59 The Creative + Audience = Outcome Equation
15:06 Measurement Methodology and Industry Partnerships
17:53 Publisher Optimization and the Roku Partnership
19:24 AI Implementation and the Trust Factor
24:01 Legal Dispute with EDO
26:52 Industry Growth and SMB Adoption -
Jubilee Media founder and CEO Jason Y Lee joins Next in Media to break down how the digital-first studio builds scalable, format-driven IP that captures Gen Z's massive attention span without relying on a single face.
Discover the monetization strategies behind their unscripted content, why creators are turning down Hollywood, and how authentic human conversation is outperforming AI in the modern creator economy.Key Takeaways:
The Creator Economy Flip: Top digital creators no longer view Hollywood as the ultimate graduation point, reversing the media power dynamic as traditional studios now seek out digital-first strategies to survive.
The Attention Span Myth: Massive engagement metrics on 90-minute videos prove that younger audiences arenโt suffering from short attention spans; they are simply starving for unscripted, long-form authenticity.
Format Over Face: Designing repeatable, host-agnostic IP rather than relying on a single charismatic personality eliminates key-person risk and unlocks true operational scalability for digital studios.
Contextual Brand Storytelling: The next frontier of monetization rejects one-off, disruptive advertisements in favor of naturally embedding brands into existing, high-performing video franchises.
The Anti-Echo Chamber Demand: Algorithms have hyper-fragmented public discourse, creating a massive, untapped market of viewers who actively seek out raw, multi-perspective content to escape their own echo chambers.
The TV Screen Takeover: Digital-first production must now default to cinema-grade standards like 4K, as YouTubeโs massive growth on connected televisions blends the boundary between streaming networks and independent creators.
The Human Premium in an AI Era: As artificial intelligence commoditizes automated content creation, media companies that double down on raw, real-life human connection will hold the ultimate competitive advantage.
IP Upcycling and Windowing: Legacy distribution strategies like FAST channels and AVOD licensing represent the most lucrative secondary revenue streams for creators sitting on deep libraries of episodic content.
Resources & Next Steps:
Subscribe to Next in Media on Apple Podcasts and Spotify
Key Episode Timestamps:
00:00 Jubilee's Mission and Content Philosophy
1:09 Introduction and Background
2:07 Jubilee's Format Strategy and Studio Approach
3:44 Building a Scalable Business Model
4:57 Format Development and Longevity
6:16 YouTube's Evolution and Connected TV
7:54 Multi-Platform Strategy
8:54 Brand Partnerships and Controversial Content
10:01 Successful Brand Integration Examples
11:23 Brand Partnership Philosophy
12:19 YouTube's Creator Economy Evolution
13:44 Creator Content Boosting vs Investment
15:19 Hollywood and Streaming Industry Relations
16:32 Content Licensing and Distribution
17:41 Short-Form Fiction and Experimentation
18:25 Microdrama and Asian Market Trends
19:05 AI Integration and Human-Centered Content
20:09 Generational Media Habits and Public Discourse
21:34 Gen Z's Media Consciousness
22:21 Future Political Engagement and Partnerships -
Gen Alpha has completely fragmented away from traditional TV, leaving advertisers scrambling to connect with kids and parents across YouTube, FAST channels, and gaming platforms.
This week, Mike sits down with Emma Witkowski, VP of Media Solutions at WildBrain, to unpack the massive market disconnect in children's media, the power of nostalgia in family co-viewing, and how upcoming privacy regulations like COPPA 2.0 are rewriting the rules of digital targeting.
Key Highlights:
๐บ The Great Gen Alpha Fragmentation: Children's media consumption has shattered across Netflix, YouTube, FAST, social, and gaming platforms, completely ending the era where a single traditional network like Nickelodeon could capture the majority of the audience.
๐ The Linear Co-Viewing Ad Dollar Gap: While toy and entertainment brands have successfully followed kids to digital spaces, a major market disconnect remains with non-endemic advertisers whose linear TV budgets failed to migrate alongside the parents they were trying to reach.
๐ The Death of Traditional Tracking Metrics: Regulatory protections like COPPA make standard digital tactics like cookies, pixels, and multi-touch attribution entirely obsolete in children's media, forcing buyers to shift their mindset from tracking to context and from targeting to trust.
๐๏ธ The Rise of "Shared Screen Time": Shared viewing remains a vital family bonding ritualโwith nearly nearly all parents watching alongside their kids weekly and over half doing so dailyโyet it continues to challenge standard digital reporting because impression-level verification of who is watching is fundamentally impossible.
๐ Single-IP FAST Channels as Fandom Hubs: Single-franchise FAST networks are seeing massive year-over-year audience growth by leaning into consistent, curated curation that gives super-fans a dedicated, lean-back destination to immerse themselves in trusted IP.
๐งธ Nostalgia as a Direct Purchase Driver: Modern parents deliberately choose content featuring the beloved characters they grew up with, creating an emotional connection that drastically boosts brand recall, purchase intent, and consumer product sales.
๐ The High Operational Stakes of COPPA 2.0: Emerging regulations expanding legal protections up to age 17 and limiting algorithmic AI targeting will severely challenge automated ad resellers, leaving structurally compliant, human-vetted, publisher-direct environments as the safest bet for brands.
๐ฐ A Critical Content Sustainability Crisis: Premium educational and kids' programming faces an existential funding threat from the decline of public broadcasters and linear ad revenue, making direct publisher relationships essential to ensure ad dollars are reinvested back into the content ecosystem rather than lost to third-party reseller leakage
Resources & Next Steps:
Emma Witkowski
Subscribe to Next in Media on Apple Podcasts and SpotifyChapter Timestamps:
00:00 Audience Fragmentation and Platform Challenges
1:37 Wild Brain's Business Model and Emma's Background
4:24 The Advertising Dollar Disconnect
6:58 Rethinking Success Metrics in Kids' Media
8:00 The Prevalence and Importance of Co-Viewing
9:36 FAST Channels Strategy and Success
11:05 Strategic Advantages of FAST Over YouTube
14:07 The Power of Nostalgia in Content Selection
16:31 Measurement Challenges and Audience Insights
19:17 COPPA 2.0 Impact and Compliance
21:37 Industry Education and Compliance Standards
23:10 The Future of Kids' Content Funding -
In this episode of Next in Media, Mike Shields sits down with Alan Moss, VP of Global Advertising Sales at Amazon Ads, to talk about Amazon's rapid transformation into a full-funnel advertising powerhouse. Alan walks through how he joined Amazon mid-COVID in 2020 and within a few years helped land an 11-year NFL deal, launch Prime Video ads, and close an NBA partnership that made Prime Video a year-round sports network.
He and Mike dig into what's working in the upfront market, why Amazon sees retail media and streaming as one unified full-funnel business, and how Amazon DSP's partnerships with Netflix, Disney, Roku, and others now reach 90% of household audiences. They also get into the growing role of Twitch and creators as a mid-funnel marketing lever, and why Alan believes the future is AI agents โ not just for creative optimization, but for full campaign orchestration.
Key Highlights๐ From COVID Hire to Year-Round Sports Network: Alan joined Amazon in July 2020 and within months helped land an 11-year NFL deal, followed by Prime Video ads and the NBA โ turning Amazon into a full-year live sports destination.
๐บ Prime Video as the Biggest Ad-Supported Streamer: Flipping the switch in January 2024 made Amazon the largest premium ad-supported streaming platform overnight, though the team had to scramble for scatter dollars outside the upfront window.
๐ Amazon Is Democratizing Live Sports Advertising: Amazon brought 80 net-new advertisers to the NFL and 30 to the NBA in year one โ opening up inventory that was previously an exclusive club.
๐ Retail Media and Streaming Are the Same Business: Alan pushes back on treating Amazon's retail and streaming sides as separate, arguing the real value is a single full-funnel offering from brand awareness to measurable outcomes.
๐ก The Amazon DSP Reaches 90% of Households: Partnerships with Netflix, Disney, Roku, Spotify, and SiriusXM extend Amazon's authenticated graph well beyond its own properties.
๐ฎ Creators Are a New Mid-Funnel Marketing Lever: Twitch's 105 million monthly viewers are increasingly bundled with Prime Video and sports buys rather than treated as a standalone offering.
๐ค AI Agents Are the Big Upfront Story: Alan predicts that the integration of premium content with AI-driven ad tech โ from creative adaptation to chat-based campaign execution โ will define this upfront season.
๐ The Upfront Market Is Showing Positive Signals: Despite macro headwinds, Alan says agency conversations reflect focus rather than anxiety, with demand clustering around scarce inventory like live sports and custom sponsorships.
Resources & Next Steps๐ Alan Moss on LinkedIn
๐ Learn more about Amazon Ads
๐ง Subscribe to Next in Media on Apple Podcasts and Spotify
Chapter Timestamps00:00 Cold open
00:43 Introducing Alan Moss, Amazon's VP of Global Ad Sales
01:48 From Thursday Night Football to Prime Video ads โ the rapid expansion
04:48 The NBA deal and becoming a year-round sports network
06:58 Bridging retail media and streaming โ why Amazon sees it as one business
08:30 The upfront marketplace: positive signals despite macro uncertainty
10:05 Sponsor break: Why the household graph is a differentiator
11:28 Why premium content + AI-driven ad tech is this year's big story
13:30 Prime Video Signature sponsorships and brand partnerships
14:20 Amazon DSP and partnerships with Netflix, Disney, Roku, Spotify, SiriusXM
15:35 Twitch update: 105M viewers, creators as a mid-funnel marketing lever
17:58 How durable AI agents make marketing dollars work harder
20:19 Wrap up -
Episode description
In this episode of Next in Media, Mike Shields sits down with Kristina Canada, CMO at Net Conversion, a 19-year-old independent marketing and analytics agency based in Orlando that's in the middle of a serious growth push โ with a new Chicago office, a recent acquisition of CTV specialists Elevate the Outcome, and a philosophy rooted in measurable business outcomes over vanity metrics.
Kristina and Mike dig into why independent agencies are experiencing a renaissance right now as clients seek out agility and transparency. They unpack Net Conversion's approach to making CTV a true performance channel without losing the brand-building benefits, and get into the agency's pragmatic but skeptical stance on AI โ from arguing with Google reps about Performance Max to building their own internal chatbot and copilot tools for analysts.
Key Highlights๐ข The Independent Agency Renaissance: Clients are gravitating toward independents for agility, transparency, and freedom from holdco conflicts of interest.
๐บ CTV as a Performance Channel: Net Conversion splits CTV into demand capture and demand creation, applying measurement rigor without forcing direct-response KPIs on brand-building.
๐ค AI as Co-Pilot, Not Pilot: The agency's internal mantra is "everyone gets an intern" โ they've built their own chatbot but remain vocal skeptics of handing everything to PMAX.
๐ AI Search Is Merging Paid and Organic: Kristina advises shifting from keyword matching to intent matching, and shares early learnings from piloting ads inside ChatGPT.
๐ค Against Principal-Based Buying: When agencies pre-buy media, incentives shift away from the client โ Net Conversion keeps its model firmly aligned with client outcomes.
๐ Undervalued Platforms: Reddit and YouTube are two channels Kristina says deserve more attention from performance-minded advertisers.
Resources & Next Steps๐ Kristina Canada on LinkedIn
๐ Net Conversion
๐ง Subscribe to Next in Media on Apple Podcasts and Spotify
Chapter Timestamps00:00 Cold open
01:51 Introducing Kristina Canada and Net Conversion
04:23 The Elevate the Outcome acquisition and CTV/OTT push
06:03 Why independent agencies are having a "renaissance"
08:00 Making CTV a performance channel without losing brand value
10:23 Sponsor break: Reaching the right audiences on streaming TV
11:21 Being a healthy skeptic of PMAX and Advantage+
13:19 AI adoption in staff workflows and training
16:00 OpenAI's advertising push and AI-powered search
18:18 The problem with principal-based media buying
19:37 Why YouTube and Reddit are still undervalued
21:02 Wrap up -
In this episode of Next in Media, Mike Shields sits down with Andrew Yaffe, CEO of Dude Perfect, to talk about how the iconic trick-shot brand has evolved into one of the most diversified properties in digital media. Eighteen months into the role after a long run at the NBA, Andrew walks through Dude Perfect's three-part strategy of content, products, and experiences โ including a 22-city summer tour, middle-grade novel series, new outdoors channel, and experiential concepts.
Mike and Andrew dig into why Dude Perfect now looks more like a sports league than a creator business, what made their Xfinity co-created ad the best-performing spot on YouTube, and why reaching the family unit has become one of the most valuable propositions in fragmented media. They also cover YouTube's role in the upfront, the long-form content shift, the wishlist for better cross-platform measurement, and Andrew's reluctant NBA Finals pick.
Key Highlights๐๏ธ Tripling Headcount in 18 Months: Andrew has scaled Dude Perfect from a small content team into a much larger operation spanning production, commercial, and product.
๐ฏ Three Buckets โ Content, Products, Experiences: Dude Perfect's strategy spans far beyond YouTube, including a live tour, board games, sporting goods, and a novel series.
๐บ A Media Business, Not a Creator Business: Andrew argues Dude Perfect's partnership model with brands like BODYARMOR looks more like a sports sponsorship than a one-off creator deal.
๐ค The Xfinity Co-Creation Playbook: Andrew breaks down how Dude Perfect, YouTube, and Xfinity built one of the platform's standout ads of the past year, earning C-level accolades.
๐จโ๐ฉโ๐งโ๐ฆ The Family Audience Is the Moat: Reaching kids and parents simultaneously is a near-extinct value proposition in fragmented media โ and Dude Perfect owns it.
๐ฑ As Big as the NBA on TikTok: Dude Perfect's TikTok following rivals the NBA's, and their multi-platform strategy reaches different audiences with different content than YouTube.
โฑ๏ธ Longer Content Is Working: Watch time and retention now drive the strategy, leading to 40-minute videos and a new variety show being built like a network TV asset.
๐ฌ Format and Talent IP Is the Real Unlock: New talent and ownable formats like Squad Games and All Sports Golf are how Dude Perfect extends the franchise beyond the original five.
๐ข Trick Shot Town, Not a Theme Park (Yet): Andrew clarifies Dude Perfectโs experiential roadmap โ what's actually being built in Austin, and the bigger vision for their own family entertainment concept.
Resources & Next Steps๐ Dude Perfect on YouTube
๐ Follow Andrew Yaffe on LinkedIn
๐ง Subscribe to Next in Media on Apple Podcasts
Chapter Timestamps00:00 Cold open
00:49 Introducing Andrew Yaffe and Dude Perfect
02:05 Summer tour, Squad Games, and new channels
03:55 The three buckets: content, products, experiences
07:00 Why Dude Perfect looks like a media (not creator) business
08:30 Reaching the family audience in our fragmented era
09:30 BODYARMOR partnership and shifting share from Gatorade
10:42 Sponsor break: Elevate YouTube advertising with Cadent VuePlanner
11:22 Making YouTubeโs top performing ad, with Xfinity and Google
13:01 Multi-platform strategy โ TikTok, Instagram, CTV
15:38 Building out the talent roster and owning formats
17:21 Trick Shot Town and the family entertainment concept
18:38 The marketing wishlist: better cross-platform measurement
20:14 NBA Finals pick & wrap up -
In this episode of Next in Media, I sit down with Emily Ketchen, SVP & CMO of Intelligent Devices Group & International Markets at Lenovo, to talk about what it actually looks like to operationalize AI inside a global marketing organization. Emily shares how Lenovo is standing up the AI PC and AI phone category, why contextual and generative AI drove efficiency gains in the brand's Formula One partnership, and what it means to be "the first generation of leaders tasked with managing an agentic workforce."
Emily walks through Lenovo's AI governance council, the grassroots prompt library her team built, and tangible and intangible measurement frameworks behind big sponsorships. We also dig into Lenovo's Creator Odyssey campaign โ a Sundance-recognized global collaboration โ and close on the tension every marketer is navigating right now: how to use AI-driven media optimization without giving up control, transparency, or human judgment.
KEY HIGHLIGHTS:
๐งญ Three Fronts for AI in Marketing: Emily frames Lenovo's AI work across category creation, internal upskilling, and marketing applications โ with governance at the center.
๐๏ธ AI in the Most Precious Media: Rather than starting with low-stakes creative variants, Lenovo deployed contextual and generative AI in its Formula One sponsorship to sharpen targeting and creative impact.
๐ค The First Generation Managing an Agentic Workforce: Emily reflects on leading teams that now include agents alongside humans โ a workforce that doesn't sleep, doesn't eat, and isn't looking for a raise.
๐ Grassroots Prompt Library: After Lenovo's governance council rolled out AI training, two employees built an internal prompt library that's now a go-to resource for the whole marketing org.
๐จ The Creator Odyssey: For the Yoga line, Lenovo built a global creator chain where digital artists around the world built on each other's work โ a process-first campaign that picked up a Sundance brand storytelling award.
โ๏ธ Personal, Useful, Human: Emily's framework for talking about AI with wary consumers and creators: lead with what it feels like in everyday life, not what it is.
๐ก๏ธ Not All Agents, No People, No Agencies: On AI-driven media optimization, Emily argues the black-box version isn't the answer โ experimentation has to come with guardrails and human judgment.
RESOURCES & NEXT STEPS:
๐ Learn more about Lenovo: Lenovo.com
๐ Follow Emily Ketchen on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/emilyketchen
๐ง Subscribe to Next in Media on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube
CHAPTER TIME STAMPS:
00:00 Cold open โ Where Lenovo sits on the AI adoption curve
01:34 Introducing Emily Ketchen and Lenovo's AI mandate
03:56 Betting on Formula One with contextual + GenAI creative
05:52 Human judgement and Lenovo's AI governance council
07:33 Ecosystem marketing & AI category creation
10:11 The first generation managing an agentic workforce
13:50: Sponsor break: Reaching the right audiences on CTV
14:47 Measuring big sponsorships in a performance era
18:02 Creator strategy, Yoga product line, Sundance accolades
21:05 Talking to creators and consumers who are wary of AI
22:39 AI-driven media optimization without the black box
00:00 Wrap up and thanks
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In this episode of Next in Media, I sit down with Michael Wolf, CEO and Founder of Activate Consulting, to break down the findings from the firmโs 11th annual Technology and Media Outlook. Michael walks us through Activate's "Attention Clock" and how multitasking stretches the average American's day well past 24 hours, leaving brands to fight for partial attention while still paying like they're getting all of it.
We also get into the state of television. Michael explains why TV is more fragmented than Madison Avenue admits, why YouTube still doesn't get full credit despite dominating CTV, and what the Paramount-Warner deal actually changes. From there, we turn to predictions: Michael makes the case for virtual product placement as the next frontier in creator and in-game ads, and explains how sports gambling is changing live sports. He closes with his biggest sleeper story of 2026: spatial computing and the data layer that will power it.
Key Highlights:
โฐ The Attention Clock Hits 32 Hours a Day: Activate's research shows multitasking is pushing daily media consumption past the limits of a 24-hour day, leaving advertisers fighting for partial attention.
๐บ TV Is More Fragmented Than Anyone Admits: Even the biggest TV players hold surprisingly small slices of total viewership, and a merged Paramount-Warner barely moves the needle.
๐ฌ Why YouTube Still Isn't "TV" to Madison Avenue: YouTube dominates CTV but lacks the big simultaneous tentpole events that brand advertisers use to reach huge audiences at once.
๐ The Shopping Journey No Longer Starts at Google: For younger consumers, product discovery now begins directly at Amazon, Target, and Walmart โ reshaping how brands think about the funnel.
๐ฎ Virtual Product Placement Is the Next Ad Frontier: Michael argues the future of in-game and in-content ads is authentic integration powered by AI, not interruption.
๐ฐ Sports Gambling Is Quietly Saving Long-Form Sports: In-game betting and prop bets are driving Gen Z viewers to watch entire games front to back.
๐ Spatial Computing Is the Most Underrated Story of 2026: Nearly every major tech company is betting on AI glasses and spatial devices, but the real battleground will be the visual data layer in the cloud.
Resources & Next Steps:
๐ก Download the full Tech & Media Outlook at activate.com
๐ Follow Michael J. Wolf on LinkedIn
๐ง Subscribe to Next in Media on Apple Podcasts
Chapter Time Stamps:
00:00 Cold open โ Why YouTube is winning on every screen
1:29 Introducing Michael Wolf, CEO & Founder of Activate Consulting
2:31 Activate's Attention Clock: 11 years of measuring multitasking
4:35 How fragmented is TV viewership, really?
6:33 How YouTube quietly took over social and CTV
7:46 Why video is eating the internet
8:54 Why Madison Avenue still hesitates to treat YouTube like TV
12:05 Sponsor break: Why the household graph is a differentiator
13:24 What the Paramount-Warner deal actually changes
14:45 Why CTV still isn't built for small brands
15:54 AI, personalization, and the future of video creative
16:22 The bottleneck holding back creator marketing
18:01 How can video games finally get advertising right?
19:19 Live sports, Gen Z, and the gambling effect
20:54 Michael's biggest sleeper call for 2026
24:17 Wrap up and thanks
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Explore how the "cookie apocalypse" evolved into a hyper-fragmented identity landscape where iPhone users, cookieless browsers, and diverse CTV signals have created massive monetization gaps for the unprepared.
I sit down with Intent IQโs Fabrice Beer-Gabel to reveal why the future of programmatic advertising isn't a choice between deterministic or probabilistic data, but a high-stakes race to balance scale with the 99% accuracy required to prevent AI from amplifying inaccuracies at scale.
Episode Takeaways:
๐ The "Cookie Apocalypse" didn't disappear; it simply evolved into a hyper-fragmented landscape of "idealist" environments across 150 million iPhone users and 70 million cookieless desktop browsers.
โ๏ธ True identity accuracy isn't a binary choice between deterministic and probabilistic methods but a strategic effort to strike the perfect balance between massive scale and reliable user recognition.
๐ Global compliance requires a nuanced, jurisdiction-specific approach because adopting a single "strictest" standard unnecessarily limits reach and creates a massive competitive disadvantage.
๐ Bridging the gap between proprietary "data spines" and "biddable identifiers" is the only way to actually translate deep audience insights into real-world programmatic transactions.
๐ค AI acts as a powerful force multiplier for identity resolution, but it poses a systemic risk by amplifying bad data into "inaccuracy at scale" if the initial training sets are flawed.
๐ท๏ธ Publishers face a sustainability crisis as non-monetizable crawler traffic now outweighs human visitors by a staggering 200-to-1 ratio.
๐ Mastering identity resolution delivers a massive ROI punch, with the potential to double advertiser reach and lift publisher ad revenue by as much as 60%.
Time Stamps:00:00 Introduction to Identity Resolution Challenges and Intent IQ Overview
1:53 The Fragmented Identity Landscape and Signal Constraints
4:06 Deterministic vs Probabilistic Identity Debate
5:33 Mobile Identity Evolution and Cross-Platform Similarities
7:25 Regulatory Complexity and Compliance Strategies
9:36 Intent IQ's Business Model and Client Examples
12:45 Walled Gardens vs Open Ecosystem Competition
15:00 AI's Impact on Identity Resolution and Industry Transformation
17:54 Agentic AI and Content Protection Concerns
19:38 Identity Accuracy Crisis and AI Amplification Risks
21:45 ROI Impact and Business Outcomes
22:50 Strategic Advice for Brands in a Changing Landscape
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In this episode of Next in Media, I sit down with Mike Law, CEO of Carat North America, to talk about one of the biggest tensions in modern media: the push for more targeted TV advertising versus the risk of going too narrow and losing brand growth. Mike and I discuss how brands have at times gotten too addressable, siloing themselves into repeat customers while forgetting to grow the top of the funnel. We dig into the fragmentation challenge across streaming, CTV, and social video, and why defining your audience has never been harder with a million data sets and walled gardens competing for attention.
We also get into how YouTube is becoming more like TV every day, the evolving role of creators in upfront conversations, and whether creator media belongs in the same budget bucket as a big show on CBS. Mike shares how Carat is using AI agents to run multiple media plan scenarios in minutes instead of hours, and we explore what the next generation of media planners (AI native, digital native) will bring to the industry. We wrap up talking about measurement, why the industry needs to come together to solve identity and addressability, and what Go Addressable is doing to advance deterministic audience-based advertising at scale.
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Key Highlights๐บ CTV Targeting vs. Brand Growth: Mike argues that brands have sometimes gotten too addressable, squeezing existing customers dry before realizing they need to find new audiences to grow the business.
๐ Fragmentation Is the Core Challenge: With a million data sets, walled gardens, and consumers bouncing between streaming, search, and LLMs in seconds, the media planning landscape is what Mike calls a "bowl of spaghetti."
๐ฑ YouTube as TV Replacement: Mike sees YouTube becoming more like television every day, but its dual identity as both a TV replacement and a social video performance platform makes it tricky to plan against.
๐ฅ Creators in the Upfront: Long-form, episodic creators are increasingly part of upfront conversations, but the question remains whether they belong in the TV budget or require their own planning approach.
๐ค AI Agents for Media Planning: Carat is using AI agents to generate eight to ten versions of a media plan at once, letting planners compare trade-offs and craft strategy faster than ever.
๐ The Measurement Gap: Cross-platform measurement remains fragmented, and Mike believes the industry needs to come together to solve identity and comparability across CTV, linear, and digital.
๐ Go Addressable and Industry Collaboration: The episode is part of a special series with Go Addressable, the trade organization working to advance deterministic audience-based advertising across the full TV ecosystem.
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Resources & Next Steps๐ Learn more about Go Addressable at GoAddressable.com
๐ Follow Mike Law on LinkedIn
๐ง Subscribe to Next in Media on Apple Podcasts
__________________________________________________
Timestamps00:00 Cold open: the state of TV targeting and brand growth
01:07 Introducing Mike Law, CEO of Carat North America
01:43 Where we are with CTV targeting today
03:25 When brands get too addressable and forget reach
05:00 The cycle of squeezing audiences and finding new ones
06:50 Fragmentation, walled gardens, and identity challenges
08:50 How identity resolution tools are evolving
10:15 YouTube as a TV replacement and where it fits
12:53 YouTube in the upfront: TV bucket or something else?
14:47 Creators in upfront conversations and long-form episodic content
17:30 The premium creator economy and brand integrations
19:30 AI in media planning: what is changing day to day
22:00 AI agents running multiple plan scenarios at Carat
23:13 The next generation of media planners (AI and digital native)
25:30 Measurement challenges across platforms
27:30 Industry collaboration and lessons learned
28:42 Wrap up and Go Addressable sponsor message
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In this episode of Next in Media, I sit down with Ryan Detert, CEO of Influential, the creator marketing company that was acquired by Publicis in 2024. Since the acquisition, Influential has seen massive growth, also acquiring Captiv8 to build out a global offering combining technology, services, and measurement all in one place. Ryan and I dig into how brands are structuring their creator teams, why a center of excellence led by media is where the most success is happening, and how technology (especially brand safety tools) has become the non negotiable foundation for scaling influencer campaigns.
We also cover the measurement question that every marketer is asking: can you prove creator ROI? Ryan walks us through how MMMs are finally capturing creator value, why always on strategies beat tentpole campaigns, and how platforms like YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram are each fighting for attention in different ways. We get into the AI question too, from "slop" concerns to the future of creator likeness licensing and NIL rights. Ryan makes the case that AI will transform the back end of the business (speed, sourcing, brand safety) long before it replaces human creators in the feed. Plus, Ryan shares why the greatest ROI often comes from 100 micro creators rather than one mega deal.
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Key Highlights๐ Influential's Post Acquisition Growth: Since being acquired by Publicis in 2024, Influential has seen "massive multiples" of growth and also acquired Captiv8 to consolidate technology, measurement, and services into one global platform.
๐ก๏ธ Brand Safety as the Foundation: Ryan calls it the "Hippocratic Oath" of influencer marketing. With 15 million plus creators in their database, technology is essential for vetting creators across profanity, nudity, hate speech, and reputational risk before any campaign launches.
๐ Proving Creator ROI Through MMMs: Influencer marketing is a $35 billion TAM because it works. Ryan explains how media mix models are finally capturing creator value, and why brands need to break down creator spend by platform, paid vs. organic, and on vs. off social to get accurate measurement.
๐บ The Platform Attention Wars: YouTube dominates long form because it pays creators the most. TikTok owns the meteoric rise. Instagram is aspirational. Meta is a messaging platform. Every platform has both a live strategy and a TV strategy, and all are competing for the same attention.
๐ค AI and Creator Content Transparency: AI is "not a dirty word" as long as it augments a real human. Ryan believes brands will embrace AI generated creator content only when NIL licensing ensures creators are compensated and consumers don't feel duped.
๐ฏ Micro Creators vs. Mega Deals: For brands with a $2 million budget, 100 targeted micro creators often outperform a single mega creator deal. Ryan compares it to buying one Super Bowl ad vs. going deep across cable networks.
๐ Always On Beats Tentpole Campaigns: Brands that only activate around the Super Bowl, summer, and holidays are letting competitors eat their lunch in between. Long term creator partnerships drive both efficiency and authenticity.
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Resources & Next Steps๐ Learn more about Influential
๐ง Subscribe to Next in Media on Apple Podcasts
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Timestamps00:00 Cold open on creator marketing growth and AI
01:13 Meet Ryan Detert, CEO of Influential
02:07 Life after the Publicis acquisition
04:04 Where creator teams fit inside brand organizations
06:04 Technology's role in scaling influencer marketing
07:00 Brand safety as the non negotiable first step
08:52 Managing creator campaigns at scale
09:44 Proving creator ROI through measurement and MMMs
12:43 YouTube on TV and the platform attention wars
16:11 Micro vs. macro creators and where the real ROI lives
18:22 AI transparency and the slop problem
20:46 Creator likeness, NIL, and AI generated content
23:05 Episodic content and always on brand partnerships
25:04 The future of creator marketing in three to five years
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