Marketecture: Get Smart. Fast.

Scott Spencer, co-founder of Rewarded Interest and former DoubleClick and Google product leader, explains why cookie banners failed, how consumer privacy still feels broken, and what it takes to give users real control without hurting publishers or advertisers. Takeaways RTB wasn’t invented in a single moment. It emerged organically as multiple teams solved latency, bidding, and scale problems in parallel. Cookie banners fail both consumers and regulators by creating friction without real control or understanding. Rewarded Interest aims to replace site-by-site consent with centralized, programmatic privacy preferences across devices. Privacy control likely belongs above the browser level, especially as agentic browsing and AI assistants become mainstream. Changes proposed to GDPR may reduce protections around pseudonymous identifiers, increasing the need for user-centric control tools. The industry risks pushing users toward ad blocking if it can’t offer meaningful, trusted privacy solutions. Scott’s biggest regret from the RTB era isn’t technical. It’s not taking time to appreciate the magnitude of the transformation and the people behind it. Chapters 00:00 Intro: Scott Spencer’s DoubleClick and Google legacy 01:29 Year-end notes: Marketecture Wrapped and MadDB.ai 03:35 Why Scott founded Rewarded Interest 05:00 Coalition for Better Ads and reducing ad blocking 06:20 Why cookie banners are broken 07:55 Centralized privacy control across the web 08:52 Browsers, OS-level identity, and agentic browsing 10:54 Minor mode and protecting children from tracking 12:10 Do consumers want granular control? Rewards and defaults 13:43 GDPR, Digital Omnibus, and Europe’s direction 18:21 Aligning incentives for users, publishers, and ad tech 21:56 22 years at DoubleClick and Google 22:12 Did Scott invent RTB? Network proxy bidding explained. 31:00 The Refresh: Google, Meta scams, and agentic ads 54:15 Wrap-up: YouTube vs Netflix and the Oscars move Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Andrew Casale, CEO, Index Exchange, and Megan Pagliuca, Chief Product Officer, Omnicom Media Group, unpack how live sports and streaming are becoming more addressable through programmatic, why new standards are fixing real-time “spike” problems, and how sell-side decisioning and AI-driven curation could reshape efficiency and fees across the open internet. Takeaways Live sports are becoming truly addressable through programmatic. Targeting is shifting to moment-level signals, not broad demos. Standards like podding and advanced ad requests reduce live break spikes. Pre-fetching and smarter pacing keep delivery stable. Sell-side decisioning now happens earlier and faster. That speed opens new optimization before bids reach DSPs. The supply chain may be split into modular parts to cut fees. AI is already boosting inclusion lists, safety, and creative workflows. Chapter 00:10 Intro to live sports and programmatic. 00:45 Megan on addressable “magic moments” in live sports. 03:12 Andrew on podding standards for live streams. 04:23 How advanced ad requests prevent break spikes. 06:36 What sell-side decisioning is and why it’s faster now. 09:50 Two futures: bundled platforms or unbundled chain. 15:07 Megan on SPO and tighter partner sets. 17:45 Practical AI wins in lists, safety, and creativity. 23:20 Rapid-fire predictions for 2026. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ari Paparo and Eric Franchi sit down with MoPub and MAX founder Jim Payne to unpack his new company CloudX, how “monetization as code” lets mobile publishers manage their entire ad stack in files that AI can edit, why he teamed up with Meta on a secure auction using trusted execution environments, and what all of this means for SDK complexity, mobile vs desktop, AppLovin, performance TV, retail media, and the next wave of ad tech. Takeaways CloudX lets mobile publishers manage their ad stack as code. Jim built CloudX with Meta to power a more secure mobile auction. Line items and targeting live in files instead of spreadsheets. Trusted execution environments keep bidder data locked down. AI agents can now traffic ads and tweak setups automatically. Jim looks back on Mopub, Max and big outcomes for early teams. The crew also breaks down Pinterest TV Scientific and other ad tech news. Chapters 00:00 Intro and why Jim finally joins. 02:10 Jim’s path through Mopub, Max and Meta. 06:00 What monetization as code actually means. 11:30 How AI agents can traffic ads. 15:00 Secure auctions and why Meta cares. 20:30 Why messy mobile stacks need flexibility. 27:00 Jim on AppLovin and mobile versus desktop. 33:30 Jim Payne legends and big career bets. 44:00 Pinterest buys tvScientific news reaction. 52:00 DSP fees, CTV buying and meta layers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Olivia Kory, Chief Strategy Officer from Haus, walks through an 18-month review of 640 incrementality tests run by Haus to compare Meta’s Advantage+ campaigns with manual setups. She explains the shift from hands-on targeting to AI-led buying, why incrementality matters more than platform-reported conversions, and how Geolift holdouts estimate true lift without user-level data. The results show a strong overall impact from Meta, but mixed performance from Advantage+ versus manual, along with signs that mid-funnel optimization can change outcomes. She ends with practical cautions on interpreting automation results and the need to test by brand. Takeaways Incrementality testing helps separate real lift from conversions that would have happened anyway. Meta tends to deliver measurable lift quickly, though attribution settings change what you see. Advantage+ performs inconsistently against manual campaigns and can skew toward low funnel intent. Mid-funnel signal engineering may broaden reach and improve omnichannel effects, but needs validation. Chapters 00:00 Overview of the research question on AI buying and outcomes. 03:10 How Meta buying moved from manual controls to automated setups. 06:05 Why incrementality matters more than reported conversions. 09:00 Geolift holdout method and cross-channel measurement. 12:10 What the wider Meta test set shows about lift and timing. 16:05 Advantage+ versus manual results and efficiency gaps. 19:20 Possible reasons for the Advantage+ pattern and open questions. 21:10 Signal engineering and mid-funnel optimization approach. 24:20 Final cautions and how to apply testing to your own brand. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Matthew Goldstein joins Ari Paparo and Eric Franchi to break down how AI is reshaping publishing, why traffic declines are less scary than content theft, and what it will take for publishers to get paid in an agentic future. They dig into licensing deals, bot blocking, Microsoft’s content marketplace, and the idea of a real-time exchange for fresh, metadata-rich articles. The conversation also hits Google’s growing advantage, OpenAI’s code-red moment, and what all of this means for ads, agencies, and where digital media revenue goes next. Takeaways Publishers are more focused on getting compensated for AI training and retrieval than on raw traffic drops. Bot blocking is rising, but without a shared, reliable block list, it stays messy and uneven. Content marketplaces only work if buyers show up, and right now sellers massively outnumber demand. A split web is coming: humans browse homepages, while agents pull content at scale from trusted sources. Google’s integrated ecosystem gives it a structural edge over everyone in search plus AI. Chapters 00:09 Welcome and setup for AI and content licensing discussion with MSG 02:10 What happened to MSG’s newsletter and why LinkedIn feels better for feedback 05:11 Birthdays, Spotify Wrapped, and shout outs to the pod’s biggest fans 08:18 State of publishers right now: traffic concerns vs AI taking content 10:26 Upfront licensing deals: why the headlines cooled off and what renewals mean 13:12 Blocking AI bots: Cloudflare rollout, inconsistency, and need for a shared list 15:20 Human web vs agentic web and why the publisher business model must change 18:20 Content marketplaces: how many exist, the demand problem, and Microsoft’s approach 20:36 Marketplace mechanics explained through a finance app example 24:00 Real time per article payments and RAG style usage as the likely model 28:21 What marketplaces imply for publisher ads and MSG’s timeline prediction 31:30 News: BroadSign acquires Place Exchange, and why out of home is heating up 35:17 News: Omnicom IPG deal closes and what it means for agencies 38:41 News: OpenAI code red and the rapid rise of Google Gemini 44:52 Rumors of ads in AI search and in ChatGPT 47:19 LLM referral traffic to retail rises over Black Friday weekend 48:40 Trade Desk talent moves and pricing pressure Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices