The Big Story

Each week, the AdExchanger editorial team drills into the week's most urgent headlines in digital marketing. Hosted by Executive Editor Sarah Sluis, this podcast gets listeners up to speed on the most pressing news in ad tech and beyond, with key background details and analysis.

The CTV DSP 05/08/2025

The CTV DSP Does a connected TV DSP need lower take rates? Inside the battle among DSP’s to take on The Trade Desk’s dominant market position. Plus: an on-the-ground report from the TV NewFronts. /episode/index/show/thebigstory/id/36481215

The Tariffs And The TV Upfronts - E340 05/01/2025

The Tariffs And The TV Upfronts - E340 Emarketer is predicting tariffs could lead to a $2.78 billion to $4 billion decline in linear TV upfront spending, but CTV spending will be flat to up. Emarketer analyst Ross Benes unpacks these findings. Plus: At the Possible conference, optimism reins. /episode/index/show/thebigstory/id/36392960

The Ad Tech Verdict On Google And Third-Party Cookies 04/23/2025

The Ad Tech Verdict On Google And Third-Party Cookies Google’s SSP and ad server businesses have been ruled monopolies. Plus, Google Chrome isn’t going to change its third-party cookie opt-ins, preserving their utility for marketers. Go inside this momentous news. /episode/index/show/thebigstory/id/36280360

Ta-Ta To US Temu Ads 04/18/2025

Ta-Ta To US Temu Ads Temu pulled back on its US ad spend this week, as tariffs loom. Plus, in France, the ATT prompt was deemed anticompetitive and, as a result, will likely need to be changed. /episode/index/show/thebigstory/id/36220910

Riffing On Tariff Tiffs And Risks As Uncertainty Reigns 04/10/2025

Riffing On Tariff Tiffs And Risks As Uncertainty Reigns The Trump tariff situation is in constant flux, creating uncertainty that spells doom for any potential growth in US ad spending this year. Plus, how retail media and other emerging channels could be threatened by tariff turmoil. /episode/index/show/thebigstory/id/36083360

Bots And Games Are Back (For Ad Tech) 04/03/2025

Bots And Games Are Back (For Ad Tech) What’s old is new. Time is a flat circle. Trends are cyclical. Choose your idiom, because this week’s episode grapples with two topics that are back in style (so to speak): bot traffic and the tantalizing dream of scaling programmatic in-game advertising. /episode/index/show/thebigstory/id/35992875

In The Room Where (The Ad Auction) Happens 03/27/2025

In The Room Where (The Ad Auction) Happens After the IAB Tech Lab proposed to move ad auctions from the browser to the server with its Trusted Server prototype, controversy ensued. Plus: Should data privacy be viewed as a badge of honor or a baseline? /episode/index/show/thebigstory/id/35893990

M&A Mania: The Latest On Oracle-TikTok, and the Alphonso-LG Ads Aftermath 03/20/2025

M&A Mania: The Latest On Oracle-TikTok, and the Alphonso-LG Ads Aftermath Alphonso shareholders won their lawsuit against LG Ads, clearing the way for an IPO. Then, as TikTok counts down the days until its stay of execution expires, Oracle might buy a minority stake. /episode/index/show/thebigstory/id/35791520

Tariff Chaos And Yet More Ad Tech M&A 03/13/2025

Tariff Chaos And Yet More Ad Tech M&A Tariffs are taking effect in the US, and advertisers are shook. Our special guest, Madison and Wall’s Brian Wieser, weighs in on the “blindingly obvious” consequences of implementing tariffs, including supply-chain disruptions that lead to a pullback in ad spend. You can’t promote what you can’t produce. Plus: the rationale behind Publicis’ acquisition of Lotame. /episode/index/show/thebigstory/id/35670235

Programmatic's Pursuit of "Premium" 03/06/2025

Programmatic's Pursuit of "Premium" Programmatic algorithms optimize for performance, which can leave digital media companies floundering. Inside programmatic’s pursuit of “premium.” Plus: an ad tech acquisition forged on matchmaking buy-side and sell-side IDs. /episode/index/show/thebigstory/id/35561805

Connected TV’s Growth Spurt; How Ozempic Is Upending Marketing 02/27/2025

Connected TV’s Growth Spurt; How Ozempic Is Upending Marketing In her last week at AdExchanger, Senior Editor Alyssa Boyle reflects on three years of change, and stasis, in the CTV space. Then, how Ozempic is changing the marketing world. /episode/index/show/thebigstory/id/35461940

The Trade Desk Miss That Shook Ad Tech 02/20/2025

The Trade Desk Miss That Shook Ad Tech When the ad tech darling of Wall Street, The Trade Desk, misses earnings, the industry pays attention. Plus: Reddit, fueled by Google search, sputters after an algorithmic adjustment. /episode/index/show/thebigstory/id/35360435

The Worst Place To Show An Ad 02/13/2025

The Worst Place To Show An Ad When an ad shows up next to illegal content, there is often not a single point of failure. Adalytics Krzysztof Franaszek walks us through why he found ad showing up next to the worst kind of criminal content -- and the simple and complex solutions to this problem. /episode/index/show/thebigstory/id/35272620

Chrome's Global Cookie Consent; Nielsen and Paramount Make Nice 02/06/2025

Chrome's Global Cookie Consent; Nielsen and Paramount Make Nice The Google Chrome team is getting closer to deciding on its cookie consent mechanism. And Paramount resolves its four-month standoff with Nielsen, as the mechanics behind currency change forever. /episode/index/show/thebigstory/id/35169550

Ever-Elusive Transparency 01/31/2025

Ever-Elusive Transparency CTV transparency remains a flashpoint between advertisers who want it and broadcasters who won’t provide it. Our special guest, Jounce Media’s Chris Kane, weighs in. Plus, we examine a persistent issue in ad tech: the chronic mislabeling of instream video. /episode/index/show/thebigstory/id/35098140

TikTok On The Clock 01/23/2025

TikTok On The Clock TikTok was granted a 75-day stay of execution this week. We discuss what's next for the social media platform, why it was classified as a threat to national security – and how advertisers are responding. /episode/index/show/thebigstory/id/34967495

Ad Tech Is Acquiring: On T-Mobile-Vistar and TTD-Sincera 01/16/2025

Ad Tech Is Acquiring: On T-Mobile-Vistar and TTD-Sincera 2025 M&A is off with a bang. T-Mobile bought Vistar Media. The Trade Desk bought Sincera. With a special guest from LUMA Partners, Conor McKenna, we explore the rationale for these ad tech acquisitions. /episode/index/show/thebigstory/id/34875030

AI and Smart Tech: AdExchanger Does CES 2025 01/10/2025

AI and Smart Tech: AdExchanger Does CES 2025 Recorded from the showroom floor at CES, the AdExchanger editorial team talks about the intersection of consumer electronics and advertising with our guest, Monks head of AI innovation Dave Meeker. From the responsible use of AI to new ad experiences that will be enabled by tech on the showroom floor, we dig into what caught our eye this year. /episode/index/show/thebigstory/id/34806420

A Holiday Present: The Ex-FBI agent's Take on Programmatic Transparency 12/26/2024

A Holiday Present: The Ex-FBI agent's Take on Programmatic Transparency To close out the year, The Big Story team is posting one of our favorite AdExchanger Talks episodes of 2024. Who better to give her take on programamtic transparency than an ex-FBI agent? Listen to this interview with Sherine Ebadi, Kroll managing director of investigations, who worked on the ANA's transparency report. /episode/index/show/thebigstory/id/34587950

Retail Media Standards: Miracle Or Meh? 12/19/2024

Retail Media Standards: Miracle Or Meh? The IAB gave us new retail media standards for Christmas. But will the industry actually adopt them? Also, we discuss where the use of AI in advertising could be headed in 2025. /episode/index/show/thebigstory/id/34530925

Running the Numbers on Omnicom-IPG 12/12/2024

Running the Numbers on Omnicom-IPG Omnicom is acquiring IPG. We unpack the nuances of the proposed deal with ad agency expert Brian Wieser, founder of the constancy Madison and Wall. /episode/index/show/thebigstory/id/34404995

Don’t Discount Black Friday 12/05/2024

Don’t Discount Black Friday This year, Black Friday stretched on for more than a week. And the retail holiday is evolving as online shopping takes over. /episode/index/show/thebigstory/id/34293810

The Closing Arguments of DOJ v. Google 11/27/2024

The Closing Arguments of DOJ v. Google It's Thanksgiving, so we are sharing our podcast feed by posting an episode of AdExchanger Talks. Recorded right after the closing arguments of US vs. Google, ad tech antitrust edition, Digital Content Next CEO Jason Kint shares insights from inside the courtroom. /episode/index/show/thebigstory/id/34186355

No More TV Drug Ads? Don’t Hold Your Breath 11/21/2024

No More TV Drug Ads? Don’t Hold Your Breath The odds of RFK Jr. implementing a ban on TV drug ads are slim, says our guest this week, BranchLab’s Josh Walsh. Still, pharma advertisers could face other regulatory changes over the next four years. Plus: We break down Forrester’s picks for the top 10 SSPs. /episode/index/show/thebigstory/id/34081266

Political Advertising Post-Mortem Analysis, Part Deux 11/14/2024

Political Advertising Post-Mortem Analysis, Part Deux Jessica Alter, co-founder of the nonprofit Tech for Campaigns, believes political campaigns should model their digital ad strategy on that of seed-stage startups. She joins the podcast this week to talk through this year’s unexpected election results. /episode/index/show/thebigstory/id/33934857

The Role Of Ad Dollars In The 2024 Presidential Election 11/06/2024

The Role Of Ad Dollars In The 2024 Presidential Election Trump won the 2024 election. To discuss how paid media played a role (and didn't) in his victory, we bring on guest Jordan Lieberman, CEO of Power Interactive. The programmatic buying company handled more than 1,000 digital campaigns across the political spectrum this election cycle. /episode/index/show/thebigstory/id/33821574

The Culture Clash Underneath Creative Ad Tech - E316 11/01/2024

The Culture Clash Underneath Creative Ad Tech - E316 To explain Forrester’s latest creative ad tech wave, we bring on author, Senior Analyst Nikhil Lai. Then, the untold story of how Prebid.org became an independent industry organization. /episode/index/show/thebigstory/id/33736082

The Curation Debate - E315 10/24/2024

The Curation Debate - E315 We discuss the rise of curation in programmatic buying and the current backlash. Is curation an ad network with new window dressing? And will it save or undermine the open web? /episode/index/show/thebigstory/id/33598447

Unboxing Amazon Ads’ Ad Tech - E314 10/17/2024

Unboxing Amazon Ads’ Ad Tech - E314 From the Amazon Ads Unboxed conference, AdExchanger reports on the ad tech products it’s building. Plus, why brand safety and news publishers remain at odds with each other, and what each side is doing about it. /episode/index/show/thebigstory/id/33507627

Is The Trade Desk A Hero Or Villain To Independent Ad Tech? 10/10/2024

Is The Trade Desk A Hero Or Villain To Independent Ad Tech? As The Trade Desk grows more powerful, it’s attracting more attention – and frustration – from independent ad tech. Plus: an update on Google Chrome’s user choice mechanism. /episode/index/show/thebigstory/id/33398347

The Big Story

TOPICS