There is a new urgency to lower costs and increase transparency in ad tech, and what might have happened in three years, may happen instead in three to six months. The recession has accelerated a lot of what was already bound to happen and The Trade Desk restricting publishers from selling the same impression via the same ad tech vendor was the tipping point.

Publishers turning to their own first-party data (again)

It sounds counterintuitive that premium publishers could profit at a time when advertisers want to spend less, not more, but that hasn’t stopped some trying by selling lucrative data. As much as advertisers are focused on value for money, it’s with a greater eye for quality than in previous recessions. That’s an easier pivot to make now when the cost of buying ads from the likes of The New York Times and Conde Nast is cheaper now.

Christian Polman, group chief strategy officer at Ebiquity:

This could work well for premium publishers if they get their story right, especially in explaining the value part of the equation. They have the further advantage that ‘premium’ is now more affordable as a result of lower CPMs.”

To read the full article in Digiday, click here.

First featured 28/05/2020.