Data-Driven Thinking Archives

Google Is Keeping Cookies, So Advertisers Will Keep Buying Junk Data In Bulk

The rise of digital media offered the promise of paying for advertising based on definable, measurable impressions. Finally, decades of basing TV and radio advertising on limited survey models were coming to an end. While surveys left advertisers with no insight into who was actually seeing their ads, the new digital advertising environment allowed advertisers […]

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Data-Driven Thinking

After Xandr: Why The Open Internet’s Future Hinges On Integration, Not Fragmentation

Microsoft’s decision to shutter its Xandr DSP, formerly AppNexus, a pioneer in programmatic advertising, is reverberating throughout the ad tech industry. As Microsoft itself puts it: “Our commitment to more private and personalized advertising experiences for a conversational and agentic world is not achievable with the industry’s current DSP model and, therefore, it no longer […]

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Data-Driven Thinking

What Political Campaigns Can Teach Brands After Google’s Latest Cookie Reversal

The last thing most marketers want to think about right now is politics. However, in today’s media environment, where attention is fragmented and trust is fragile, they can learn a great deal from how political advertisers operate. Political campaigns have mastered persuasion, precision and performance under pressure. They have to move people who are skeptical, […]

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Data-Driven Thinking

Rethinking Brand Safety In The Age Of Compulsive Media Experiences

The reason why TikTok will likely never face a full ban is also the strongest argument for why it should: It’s simply too effective at capturing attention. Beyond issues of geopolitical surveillance and data privacy lies a deeper, less-discussed concern: the quality of the attention platforms like TikTok capture and the methods used to capture […]

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Data-Driven Thinking

Seeing Through The Smoke And Mirrors: Transparency In The AI Age

Transparency has become the currency of credibility in advertising. Larger holding companies and black box AI platforms must recognize that their opaque practices are no longer sustainable.

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Data-Driven Thinking

AI Is Everywhere, But Where Is It Really Adding Value?

Angelina Eng will be speaking at Programmatic IO in Las Vegas from May 19-21. Click here to register. AI has taken over the ad and media industry conversation. It’s in the room, the road map, the pitch, the QBR. If your company hasn’t mentioned AI in the last 48 hours, check for a pulse. But […]

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Data-Driven Thinking

Unpacking Google Breakup Proposals: New Rules, New Risks For Marketers

A long-simmering antitrust battle concerning Google’s ad tech business has reached a decisive turning point. On April 17, 2025, US District Judge Leonie Brinkema ruled that Google violated sections one and two of the Sherman Act. She found that Google monopolized the open-web display publisher ad server market (via DFP) and the ad exchange market […]

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Data-Driven Thinking

The Brand Safety Myth: Why Most Marketers Don’t Need Brand Safety Verification

When I started working with marketers in the early 2000s, they were advertising on fewer digital channels than today, and there were fewer nefarious challenges, like fraud and malicious advertising attacks. But brand marketing has gotten more challenging over the years. Today, marketers expect their partners to monitor and measure viewability, engagement and conversions, because […]

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Data-Driven Thinking

Undermining Ourselves: How Advertising Keeps Getting Standards Wrong

Many well-intentioned advertising standards efforts gather digital dust. Others have even shut down in the face of lawsuits claiming insufficiently broad industry engagement. Why? Because we mistake the release of a proposal for the achievement of standardization and create more noise than clarity. My standards journey began with IAB’s Future of the Cookie (FotC) working […]

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Data-Driven Thinking

Is Your Data Gen AI-Ready? Here Are 3 Steps For Shaking Up Your Data Strategy

It’s tempting to think AI models can hack their way to the best solution possible, no matter how basic the input we give. But feeding clean first-party data to AI models is an absolute prerequisite to ensuring that the output is on-brand and accurate. And there is little value in generating five times more content […]

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