Anthony Vargas, Author at Chief Marketer

Freestar’s CEO On Why Ad Tech Transparency Is A Boon For Struggling Publishers

How do digital publishers navigate programmatic ad tech’s “flight to quality” while also dealing with their search traffic flying out the window? That’s the challenge and opportunity facing publisher monetization networks like Freestar, says CEO Kurt Donnell on this week’s episode of AdExchanger Talks. While Donnell acknowledges that “it’s freaking tough for publishers right now,” […]

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Influencer Marketing

How John Hancock Uses Video and Influencers to Promote Health And Longevity

Investment, retirement and life insurance brand John Hancock has seen great returns from prioritizing consumer health and wellness in the form of increased customer loyalty and engagement, CMO Lindsay Hanson told Chief Marketer.

AI

CES 2026: What’s Real – And What’s BS – When It Comes To AI

At CES 2026 in Las Vegas, AdExchanger and the Chief Marketer Network asked digital advertising insiders for their perspective on where the industry stands as we kick off the new year. We got their takes on trends to watch in 2026, as well as what the industry got wrong last year and how it can […]

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AI

EssilorLuxottica Leans Into AI To Avoid Ad Waste

Inefficiency is baked into the programmatic supply chain. Between invalid traffic (IVT), bots, flawed targeting approaches that need to be adjusted midflight and ad tech taxes collected by middlemen along the way, brands spend a lot of money without seeing a return. But AI can help cut out some of this programmatic waste, said Caroline […]

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The Big Story

When The Trade Desk Dips, Ad Tech Drops

Investors use The Trade Desk as a proxy for the health of the entire open web advertising ecosystem, which means TTD’s recent run of concerning earnings is devaluing the entire ad tech sector. Doubts about how TTD is competing with walled gardens like Amazon, along with slower overall revenue growth, have led some investors to […]

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AdExchanger Talks

HouseFresh Clears The Air On Google’s Changing Search Experience

Publishers can no longer rely on steady search traffic thanks to zero-click AI chatbots and near-constant discovery algorithm changes made by Big Tech gatekeepers. So what comes next? That’s the billion-dollar question facing premium and longtail publishers alike. But pubs are operating under a cloud of confusion caused by outdated SEO strategies and a lack […]

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Online Advertising

Alliant Acquires AnalyticsIQ To Scale Up Its Audience Graph

Alliant is making good on its plans to build a modern, data-driven marketing platform through M&A. The audience platform announced Monday that it’s acquiring data insights and analytics company AnalyticsIQ. Alliant declined to disclose the deal price. The acquisition was funded by Alliant’s parent company, Inverness Graham, a private equity firm that specializes in buyouts. […]

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Marketers

User-Generated Content, Tariffs And AI Will Reshape The Ad Market, Says WPP Media

For proof of the uncertainty facing marketers in 2025, look no further than the industry’s ping-ponging projections for ad spending. WPP Media (the former GroupM), which released its global midyear ad spend forecast on Tuesday, is just the most recent example. Like every prognosticator that’s taken a crack at predicting spending trends for 2025, WPP […]

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Marketers

Scope3-Backed Contextual AI Platform Classify Aims To Disrupt Curation

There’s a new contextual curation platform in town, and it has the backing of some industry heavy hitters. The startup, called Classify, aims to evolve contextual and semantic targeting beyond keyword-based taxonomies. It offers buy-side deal curation tools, as well as a sell-side product for publishers to package their inventory into curated deals. Classify is […]

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Marketers

OMD Shares Its Alternative ID Strategy At AdExchanger’s Programmatic IO

The number of alternative IDs in the market is daunting. But OMD has a philosophy for determining which IDs will work best for brands’ needs. Emily Proctor, the ad agency’s executive director of data and technology solutions, shared that philosophy at AdExchanger’s Programmatic IO in Las Vegas on Tuesday. It boils down to this: “Test, […]

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