Let's do another meta review of Adexchanger. This article review a report by Forester.com, since the article costs $2495 USD, I think I prefer to read Adexchanger's article.

DSP (Demand Side Platforms) are brokers that auction advertising slots on peoples computers and phones. Apparently, this has become a commodity with six platforms taking the "leader" spot, and another 3 trailing behind. Notably the main differentiator here is machine learning and the ability to re-target people. The tag line was "Differentiation is Subtle", which really just means that DSP's are now a commodity.

The market leaders were: MediaMath, DataXu, Trade Desk, Turn, Adobe and Rocket Fuel.

“In the past it was about tools for forecasting impressions and spend,” Joyce said. “Now, it’s about the incrementality that might happen when you move $100,000 from one strategy to another strategy.”

This comment reminds me of marginal ROI, which is the idea that you try to compare investments based on the benefit of investing the next dollar, not the total sum.

Eric Franchi interview

However, in an adexchanger interview Eric Franchi is much more optimistic.

He says he is leaving ad-tech but will invest in the future of ad tech. He is excited about the way that different markets grow:

I look at the $70 billion television market that has to become digital. Consumers are migrating to digital. Thinking about it from the brand lens, I start there.

How can we make great brand experiences in mobile? How can we leverage real identity to have messaging that’s relevant to the consumer?

But some of the categories I’m most excited about are areas that will be transformational – artificial intelligence, computer vision. They’ll change digital advertising and marketing.

I think this is a great quote!

Just to keep riffing on ad-exchanger, here is a useful list of Ad Agencies. I'll be exploring these guys as we try and get Upright Media off the ground.