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| The AI RFP: IAB's Data Report Unpacks AI's Emerging Role in Ad Tech |
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| Greetings Monsters, If the ad tech industry loves one thing, it’s a shiny new object to obsess over. Sometimes the industry navel gazes (curation). Sometimes it rants against a perceived injustice (signal loss). And sometimes it ballyhoos tech that’s supposed to save us all (data clean rooms and alternative IDs). But the emergence of generative AI trumps it all, because AI has become a part of it all. The agenda at our first Sell Side Summit in Fort Lauderdale earlier this month is evidence of this. Thanks to everyone who joined us! And thanks to you for reading this newsletter. Starting with this edition of The Wrapper, we’ll be trying something new: A deep weekly dive into one hot topic that’s got the ad ops community talking. This week, we’re dissecting the IAB's 2025 State of Data Report, which highlights the transformative impact of generative AI on digital media and the online advertising industry. AI's Role in Ad Tech: Hype or Real Adoption? Artificial intelligence is not new, even within the ad tech industry. As IAB CEO David Cohen points out, "AI has long been used for yield management, optimization and automation.” But the pace of recent change has been giving Moore’s Law a run for its money. “AI will soon power every aspect of media campaigns, not to mention its impact on the creative process," Cohen said. Publishers can use generative AI to build media plans, generate audience segments, select media partners, and create customized sales packages. Imagine a digital assistant that can scenario plan, forecast performance, and even use synthetic or "fake" data to enhance audience building, marketing mix modeling, and sales attribution. Pretty cool. But is anyone actually doing these things? Publishers Get Practical According to the IAB, 70% of agencies, brands, and publishers have yet to fully scale AI across media planning, activation, and analysis. Still, publishers lead as early adopters of AI, including several we heard from at our recent Sell Side Summit. Hearst Magazines has a programmatic platform called Aura that uses AI to analyze first-party data and uncover previously unaddressable market segments. The New York Times developed Brand Match, a generative AI targeting tool that reveals unexpected insights about audience engagement, like a fashion brand's potential performance against political content. And Dotdash Meredith has D/Cipher, an AI-powered targeting tool that understands consumer mindsets by analyzing their content consumption. The Publisher’s Dilemma For publishers, AI is about operational efficiency. The IAB highlights that their top use cases for AI are inventory forecasting, cross-device attribution, and analyzing audience behavior. Still, generative AI isn’t magic. Most publishers told the IAB that although AI is good for audience segmentation and data aggregation, it struggles with tasks requiring human judgment and strategy. They also don’t believe AI is a reliable tool for fraud prevention, brand safety, or contract management. On top of that, publishers face AI adoption challenges, including the complexity of setting up and managing these tools, as well as ethical and bias concerns. Many publishers also struggle with creating clear AI strategies, highlighting the need to define a more straightforward path toward their AI goals. As one anonymous publisher put it to the IAB: "We still think AI is immature in integrating it with existing systems. We need protocols such as APIs to work with." No doubt. But there are also clear success stories like the ones we heard at our Sell Side Summit. It's just about finding the proper use cases for your business. Did you like this newsletter? Is there a topic you want me to tackle next time? Feel free to hit me up with your feedback at [abyrd@admonsters.com.] |
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| Monster Mashup: This Week’s Must Reads |
| 📢 44 Women Leaders in Ad Tech Share Their Secrets for Success For Women’s History Month, AdMonsters is excited to share the viewpoints of 44 women leaders in ad tech about what it’s like to be a part of the industry, advice for the next generation, and how best to use your voice to find success on your terms. Read more. ⚠️ With Federal Cybersecurity in Retreat Ad Ops Teams Face New Risks We’ve seen a whirlwind of activity from the new Trump administration. But, one trend that may be very problematic for ad ops teams is the federal government’s decision to pull back on cyber security. Read more. 🔍 When the Floor Isn’t the Floor: Ad Tech’s Transparency Problem Floor pricing in ad tech isn’t as simple as it seems. Dive into why transparency around dynamic floors matters, what’s driving SSP practices, and how publishers and buyers can reclaim clarity in the auction. Read more. đź“Š The Data Trap: Numbers Alone Can’t Inform Meaningful Marketing Traditional data analyzes content performance after testing, making it unsuitable for predicting trends. Quantitative data shows past behaviors, while qualitative insights reveal the motivations behind them. Read more. 🎧 Why 2025 Will Unlock Audiobooks, In-Car Ads, and AI as the Next Big Audio Opportunities In this Q&A, Kelly dives into some of the biggest trends shaping the industry, including the rapid expansion of in-car personalized ads, the opportunity for audiobook ads and more. Read more. |
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