The Great Data Smackdown: Buy Side vs. Sell Side Strategies Collide

A lively debate between the buy and sell sides at AdMonsters PubForum Scottsdale highlighted the ongoing battle for data strategy dominance. Both sides presented compelling arguments on privacy, first-party data, and creative optimization.

Jordin Sparks once sang, “Why does love always feel like a battlefield?” But in this case, why does the song remind me of the data dance smackdown between the buy and sell sides?  

With the buy and sell sides constantly vying for the upper hand on data strategies, it can be hard to find common ground. In a heated debate at AdMonsters PubForum Scottsdale, representatives from each camp took the gloves off, trading blows over transparency, identity, and creative optimization. 

Both sides fought valiantly, throwing punches and jabs about pricing, privacy, PMPs, and much more, but who came out on top? 

Round 1: Misconceptions and Evolving Relationships 

In the red corner, Britt Begley, a VP of Revenue Operations, represented the sell side as a premium publisher from TeamSnap. Britt came out swinging, touting the publisher’s data-driven approach and highly personalized ad experiences powered by first-party data. 

“We focus on utilizing our first-party data to prioritize connecting our buyers and advertisers to our users at the right moment,” Britt proclaimed.  Across the aisle, Therran Oliphant, SVP Ad Tech, Agency Partners at Flashtalking by MediaOcean, and the buy side champion, acknowledged his team’s challenges due to fragmentation. 

“There is a sprawl of data sets, and we must collect them from multiple places. This has made the job of the buy side really difficult,” Therran lamented. He argued that the lack of transparency from publishers has forced buyers to piece together a Frankenstein-esque tech stack just to make sense of the data. 

The two sides traded barbs, each accusing the other of protectionism and a lack of collaboration. Britt argued that the buy side’s “relentless focus on short-term cost efficiency” has left publishers scrambling to implement identity solutions in the hopes that buyers will actually use them. 

Conversely, Therran placed the onus firmly on publishers, asserting that “the power has gone back to you” in the post-cookie era. 

The relationship between buyers and sellers has undoubtedly evolved over the years. Britt reflected on her 20 years in the industry, noting the pendulum swing from direct focus to programmatic optimization and now back to more direct partnerships. Therran, a former data specialist, has witnessed firsthand the shift in required skill sets as buyers have had to rebuild their entire data management infrastructure in the wake of regulatory changes. 

Round 2: Privacy and Compliance Concerns 

Privacy and compliance concerns loom large, with both sides treading carefully. Britt acknowledged the need to be extra cautious given Team Snap’s youth-focused, parent-heavy audience. 

On the other hand, Therran delved deeper into the complexities of audience identification and data distribution, especially as third-party cookies lose relevance.

“Data distribution has become a major challenge—it’s expensive, time-consuming, and fraught with legal complexities,” he explained. We need an “open API ecosystem” that enables data orchestration across the various platforms and channels where buyers seek to activate it. 

Despite the back and forth, both sides agreed on the importance of collaborative data spaces to facilitate scalable audience targeting while respecting consumer privacy. 

Therran emphasized, “We need to coalesce behind certain IDs and also certain architectures for orchestrating those IDs.” 

Echoing this sentiment, Britt noted that the lack of coordination among publishers has left buyers scrambling to implement a patchwork of identity solutions, often with limited success. 

Round 3: Leveraging First-Party Data

Another point of contention between Britt and Therran was the battle over first-party data.

Britt touted the wealth of data available to publishers, stemming from their deep relationships and registration information with their audiences. However, there are challenges with targeting these granular audience segments without sacrificing scale. “As soon as you start to target it again, scale becomes the issue,” she explained. 

To address this, Britt shared that TeamSnap has taken a proactive approach, creating pre-packaged audience segments to sell to buyers, ensuring the scale necessary for effective campaigns. 

Still, Therran pushed back, urging publishers to take a more assertive stance in leveraging their first-party data assets. 

“Own this moment because first-party data is the key, and we need it,” he asserted. There is power in utilizing identity-bridging solutions that facilitate data orchestration between publishers and buyers, creating a common language and enabling scalable audience targeting. 

Final Round: Creative Optimization 

Britt and Therran found some common ground with creative optimization, acknowledging the importance of aligning messaging and assets with audience data. 

Therran led the charge, emphasizing the need for greater standardization in creative elements. Establishing standards around the message, colors, imagery, and other components would enable easier optimization, whether in real-time or through mid-campaign adjustments. 

“We need to determine how to refine these processes,” he said, “because as we use data to inform creative, we’ll need the ability to optimize it effectively.” 

Britt echoed Therran’s sentiments, noting the success they’ve seen in direct relationships and PMP deals regarding creative impact. “The places we’ve seen the most success are direct, and we’re starting to see it on the PMP side,” she said. 

However, Britt acknowledged the challenges of creating multiple creative variations to match the specific needs of different publishers, stating, “If you’re working with multiple publishers and the message needs to be different, it’s a huge challenge.”

Britt and Therran saw the potential in leveraging AI and automation to enhance creative optimization. Britt suggested, “It’s challenging to manually create enough creatives for true contextual relevance. We need AI to understand the audience and generate imagery that aligns with their experience.” 

To end it off, Therran saw the value of curation and collaboration between buyers and sellers. “Being able to share data and creative specs within the curation space is a key opportunity for collaboration and audience alignment,” he said.

Amongst the blood, sweat, and tears of data-driven battle strategies, this was a nice kumbaya moment 

Final Results

As the smackdown winded down, we asked the audience to weigh in on the winner. The verdict? It was a tie. 

While a definitive victor would have been a compelling climax, the results reflected the complexity of the issues and the valid arguments presented by both sides. The great data smackdown may have ended in a draw, but the battle for dominance over data strategies rages on.