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AdTechGod Pod
Ep. 103 Legacy Brands, Digital Futures: Brittany Scott on Brand Safety & AI in Advertising
00:40:46
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- [00:01]
Ad Tech God
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- [00:45]
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- [01:29]
Ad Tech God
Your window into the world of advertising technology and the people behind it. I'm your host, Ad Tech God. Welcome to the ADTech Godpod, where we speak to the women leading on partnerships in our industry. Today's guest is Brittany Scott, the VP Brand Partnerships at Zephyr. Brittany has been with Zephyr for nearly two and a half years and has worked at some very recognizable names. She spent time at companies like Meta, SC Johnson, the Hershey Company, Kellogg, Goodyear, and more. One thing I've learned over the last hundred or so episodes is that the move from a brand to an ad tech company brings a totally unique and incredible perspective on how brands see the digital advertising industry. So I'm really looking forward to chatting with Brittany today and getting to know her a little bit more. Brittany, thanks for joining me.
- [02:21]
Brittany Scott
Thanks so much for having me. I'm really excited to be here.
- [02:23]
Ad Tech God
Of course. And you know what is you had mentioned before, the recording is your first podcast.
- [02:27]
Brittany Scott
It is. It is an occasion to celebrate.
- [02:31]
Ad Tech God
No pressure, no pressure here, Brittany. No pressure. I'm super excited to have you here. I'm familiar with Zephyr. I think before we get started, I wanted to really understand more about you. You've worked at a bunch of brands that brings in a totally unique perspective to an industry. I would love to hear about Your journey and how you moved from Hershey to see Johnson to Meta and now Zephyr. Can you kind of take us back and give us a little bit of a background?
- [03:00]
Brittany Scott
Yeah, I like to say I tripped and fell into advertising. So I actually went to school to be a teacher and I started a business which taught me a lot of doing, you know, digital marketing myself. And that's what made me pivot, you know, to decide, like, hey, I'm going to pursue this. And I really give a lot of my mentors credit early on at Kellogg, who gave me a chance to work in this industry. But really, my first big job working at a brand was at the Kellogg Company, which now isn't even called the Kellogg Company, but I worked in digital marketing and started back on when we were working on global websites, 800 global websites, which just sounds funny now, but, you know, that's where I got my start. Learned a whole ton about, you know, advertising agencies, digital, and really built my experiences from there. I think I learned early on, you know, to kind of work in the brand space. You're working with a lot of people who have gone to business school, have MBAs, and that wasn't something at the time that I wanted to do. So instead I shifted my strategy of like, hey, I probably can't work for a brand in a major market like L A New York, Chicago, but I could work in Battle Creek, Mission, Michigan. I could get a job in Hershey, Pennsylvania. I could live in Cleveland, Ohio. And so I started looking for the markets that aren't as competitive to gain and build experience. That kind of leveled me up and got me that, you know, MBA in, in the real world, learned, you know, kind of working on some of the most incredible brands and learned a ton along the way. And when I was at SC Johnson, the world of brand safety opened up to me. And that's when I first kind of learned about the space. And then I saw a job posted at Meta leading brand safety, and I thought, you know what? Nobody is going to want that job. I couldn't. I could maybe make the leap from brand side to tech side and, you know, just had an incredible experience learning on the tech side at Meta, and I loved working with the brands directly. I felt like I had a lot of experience, you know, coming from that side that I could really relate and kind of look at that intersect, and then was really excited to even go further and, you know, move over to Zephyr, where, you know, when my boss sold me on this opportunity, he was just like, Britney, you could have an even greater impact. Like right now, you're doing so much across meta, but think about how we could partner to really disrupt change and grow this industry across multiple platforms. And that was two and a half years ago. And, you know, it's been a wild ride. I've learned so much, but at the core, you know, I'm doing a lot of the same work that just I'm so passionate about and fuels me. And it's working with marketers, it's working with brands to tackle really complex problems about the changing digital ecosphere and, and how to react to that. And so it's work that really fuels me. And I think that my origin path here is what, what makes me, you know, just it's a different path that not a lot of people kind of go this route, but for me, it's just been really, really rewarding.
- [06:17]
Ad Tech God
You know, you wanted to be a teacher and you ended up getting into advertising. You know, you mentioned all these cities and where these offices were based. Did you move around a lot?
- [06:25]
Brittany Scott
I did, I did. I think. I mean, my poor husband. I think we did. I did 11 moves in like 10 years. So it was a lot of moving. It was a lot of. But it was incredible and I learned so much and I wouldn't change it. We now live in Chicago, so I made it to a major market and I'm not leaving, but it was a strategy of that. I think it's a little different than a lot of people who like, try to flock to a major city like New York or Chicago, where there's, you know, a big ad tech or advertising community. But I just knew that those markets were going to be harder to get my start. And so I just kind of took the pathless traveled, I guess they say.
- [07:08]
Ad Tech God
Yeah, I mean, it's kind of goes back to that whole, like, big fish in a little pond. Sometimes it's better to, to grow in smaller markets. And then when you move over after you've already grown, it's much easier to survive in a major market like Chicago or New York. But starting in those smaller markets obviously gave you your bearings and the knowledge that you needed to, to work and be hired in a much more competitive market like Chicago.
- [07:29]
Brittany Scott
Definitely.
- [07:29]
Ad Tech God
I have a question for you. So you mentioned brand safety. Is, is that Zephyr's, like, core focus today? Can you give me a little bit of a background of what Zephyr does overall?
- [07:39]
Brittany Scott
Yeah. So at the heart of it, Zephyr is a brand safety and suitability company for the walled gardens But I really like to think of Zephyr. As you know, this podcast is brought.
- [07:51]
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- [08:29]
Brittany Scott
Brands tackle suitability needs across, you know, really complex surfaces. And so unlike a lot of players, we focus on walled gardens specifically and we're tackling not only, you know, the core safety things, but really helping brands with kind of custom suitability needs that they have to make sure that their advertising is aligned to content and audiences that, you know, that are aligned to their business goals and, and preferences.
- [09:01]
Ad Tech God
Okay. And then moving into like the brand safety piece of things. And having worked at, at brands yourself over your career, over the span of your career, do you think that that helped you understand those wants and needs and challenges for brands in the industry and is that like really applicable to, to what you're doing today?
- [09:22]
Brittany Scott
For sure. I think that a lot of people who haven't worked in advertising truly don't understand the science of brand building and the art of brand building and that it is actually it's a strategy. Like there is a reason why you reach for certain consumer products and it's not just because you've been infiltrated with ads. There is an art of brand building and a science behind it. And I think brand safety and suitability fits into that brand protection element. I think, you know, people forget about that and I, since that's my core and where I came from, the way I think about this is much more in the space of like driving, quality driving, you know, just like brand sentiment and brand love and those kind of outcomes that, you know, there is a science behind that. I think a lot of people think, oh, you just take this money and you put them into the, these engines that are Meta, TikTok, YouTube and you're just guaranteed these outcomes. And I think that, I know it's just far more complex than that and I think that that really helps me in kind of supporting brands in this space is just thinking about it from that perspective.
- [10:36]
Ad Tech God
You know, it's Interesting, because you worked for some like very legacy brands. I mean SC Johnson has been around from God knows when, Goodyear, you, your entire career has been at these like very major household names. Like I don't think anyone listening to this podcast hasn't heard of Hershey or Kellogg or Goodyear. How does that help you today? Like when you're, when you're dealing with brand safety, brand suitability, when you're talking to your brand partners in market and you're trying to tell them, hey, this is why I want you to use our solution and this is why it's important that you use your solution. How does that help shape the way you communicate to these legacy brands, whether they're the former employers or other, in terms of having the right type of conversation to deliver the right type of message?
- [11:23]
Brittany Scott
Yeah, well, I think honestly like working at a company like SC Johnson, like the family is a privately held company, the family's name is in the company's name. And if you work at a company like an SC Johnson or any large privately held company, it's not only the brand, it's the legacy of the family. And that was really ingrained into me, you know, when I was working at Kellogg's, it was during like Olympic sponsorships. And these are like brands that are sponsoring like major things. Same thing with Goodyear, working on the Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic, like just incredible marquee branding opportunities. And I think it just made me learn so much about just like what it means to be a steward of the brand. I think if you work at a smaller company, you can be on a podcast like this or you can pop up at a event or forum. If you work at a major company, you have to be media trained. You have to like just know that like just the importance of speaking on behalf of these brands that are, have such legacy and a huge part of that is the brand building efforts behind it. So I think, you know, what that brings to my role currently is I realize like brands care about this stuff because it's, you know, when you're working on brands that have been in the industry for the last hundred years and are trying to cement the next hundred into happening, this stuff matters and know they, they care about things that others might be like, oh, I don't really know if that's a big deal. So the serious nature and the importance of things like, you know, I worked in CPG and you know, like over consumption of products or marketing to youth is very serious when you're working for a food company. And I Think that had I not worked in those environments, I wouldn't have realized, like, the regulatory components of some of what we do and how important that is to, you know, the overall protection of the company and safeguards. So that really brings a lot to, like, how I think about these things. It's not like, oh, you know, the CPG company doesn't want to market to children. It's like, no, this is a huge regulatory component of making, you know, commitments these brands have made to not reach children under the age of 13. And we have to take that same, you know, importance that they're bringing to, you know, the strictness that they take this, you know, we're an arm of that, um, and we're really set here to, like, help them push out that mission. So it definitely has shaped a lot of how I think about, you know, the ways we show up with our clients and customers.
- [14:08]
Ad Tech God
It's interesting because you. You said all that, and I understand the importance of the regulatory piece of it, but it's. It's a perspective, and also it can be, like, a pain point for these brands. And I'm sure when you're working with these brands directly and you're like, hey, I have no idea what you do. I have no idea what your limitations are. I have no idea what your brand legacy is, what your messaging should be or look like and where you should run. I'm sure it brings a ton of value that, you know, you have the right questions to ask these people and to ask your clients to say, look, I understand, what are these, you know, top 10 pain points you have and how can we work around it, and how can we help deliver the value that you're looking for?
- [14:49]
Brittany Scott
Yeah, and brand reputation is, like, such a fragile thing. Right. I remember a lot of times, you know, working in cpg, like, there could be one issue, whether it's like, you know, GMOs or consumers concerned around ingredients and products and, you know, just the overall how the company navigates major things like that can have a huge impact on, you know, overall brand reputation. So the reputation aspect of what we do, which I think is a little different for Zephyr, you know, a lot of what we're doing is really helping brands understand not only or helping them stay, you know, protected on social platforms, but it's also like understanding how they're perceived on social platforms. So we help brands understand when there are these kind of. Because social is the ground for which all conversations are happening. Right? Like, they're all happening on social platforms, and it's really hard for brands to have a thermometer on what that looks like and how to kind of navigate these things right. Like I think where most of us probably remember like a Thai Pod challenge or an ankle chicken challenge and you know, there's very few brands that have a playbook for how to handle these things right? Because you just think, oh, that probably won't happen to me. But when it does, you know, having a partner who knows how to navigate that, who knows how to control it, who knows how to capture and help you, you know, course correct. You know, kind of the digital ecosphere from just running, you know, is a really valuable thing. So it's, it's super rewarding. And I always put my brand hat of like, I want to service and support these brands in those crisis moments, just like I know I would have wanted. And, and we hope for none of them for our partners, obviously we hope that happens to none of our partners because that is, that's a headache for everyone.
- [16:50]
Ad Tech God
I mean, the Tide Pod thing must have been a total nightmare and executives are probably like, what, what do we even do? This has never happened before as a meme account, I guess. And as a brand I understand the importance of like perception, delivery, consistency, even at times as a, as a one man shop, I guess, if you want to call it that, like it is hard to stay in your lane and continue that message all the time when people are not being nice on social media or people are not being kind in what they're saying to you. And so I understand at a much larger scale, obviously as a global brand, as something that has presence everywhere and as a household name, those challenges I could imagine are multiplied a million times over. Where when somebody's attacking the brand or has done something dumb like Tide Pod challenge, how do you even react to that, that your name is associated with it? Like, I could see how hard that is.
- [17:47]
Brittany Scott
Definitely. Yeah.
- [17:48]
Ad Tech God
When you moved over from, from working at a brand and now working at an ed tech company like Zephyr, did you see a huge difference in the cultures? Did you see a huge difference in the way work is done? Some things I've heard are like more nimble, faster paced. But I'm curious, like, what big culture shift did you have to adapt to when joining Zephyr?
- [18:14]
Brittany Scott
Yeah, well, I mean, moving from a brand to meta was a huge shift. First and foremost, you're going from a big company to another big company, but completely different industry. And that was where my first shock of the ad tech world came. I do think especially like my background of how I kind of have. I've worked really hard to get where I am and I'm really proud of like my origin story. And I have a lot of people who will reach out and just be like, how did you just like make that leap? But when you work at a brand, and everyone should remember this, for people working brand side, working at a legacy 100-year-old brand, there is none of the bells and whistles of ad tech. Like you pay for your cup of coff. There are no like perks. And I really am really thankful for kind of that. More like the hard work ethic that was instilled in me from working on the brand side. The hardest adjustment when I worked at Meta is people who had only been in ad tech and really felt that they were entitled to all these perks and free food and all of that kind of stuff because I was just like, whoa, that like you are going to be shocked when you see how the real world operates. So then going from that to. But a lot of the bureaucracy, bureaucracy, the levels, the layers from like a big brand to a Meta were very similar. Like very like lots of layers, lots of approvals. You don't have, like you get to work in your little bubble, but you're a bunch of a part of a much bigger engine then coming to Zephyr has been so freeing. And you know, I talk a lot with my boss around. Like he hired me to be the CEO of this area to like service our clients and to do it based on what I know and what I bring to the table. And without a ton of layers, without a ton of approvals, it's much more a partnership. You know, the executives at Zephyr, like we're partnering to like build solutions, products, things for our partners. But our organization is incredibly flat and we really do believe that great ideas come through all areas of the company. I love. Like, we as a company hosts these hackathons where our engineer and tech teams multiple times of year just spin up prototypes of products that help meet our customers needs and demands. And we're constantly doing that. So the innovation and the speed at which we solve customer problems is incredible. Which, you know, when I was working at major brands, it was like three years. You would have an idea that would be aligned upon and it would take three years for it to actually happen versus like three months. You know, it's just incredibly different the speed at which, you know, these things actually happen.
- [21:21]
Ad Tech God
It's really funny. Just, just last night I was having a conversation with Someone form architecture. And we were talking about the creativity aspect of it and how fast we pivot and how we're very quick, like, launch, it doesn't work, kill it. You don't even have to talk about it. Like, not a big deal, like, let's just keep moving. As long as, like, if we launch five things and three fail, but two make it, that's two successes. Let's keep moving. And the error. I was literally about to post this. I might post this after this. But the hierarchy, in my view, often kills the creativity. And when you have so much time and so many layers of approval in a company where you conceptualize something, you go to your boss, they collect it, they collect all these ideas, they move it up, and it takes you, you know, 12 months to get approval. And then you start with the whole plan to roll it out. Well, the whole market has already shifted. And the legacy B2B media companies, maybe at a lesser degree than something like a major brand, but they are seeing how we are sprinting towards success and failure. And like, we trip and then we jump the hurdle and then we keep moving. And it is truly like the creativity and speed to market is so important, but that hierarchy and that decisioning process really does slow down innovation. So I love to hear that at Zephyr, they kind of embrace this creativity, do your thing, run with it, own it, and own the success and the failure. Like, something doesn't work, it's okay, let's just keep going.
- [22:43]
Brittany Scott
Yeah. And when our customers are like, hey, it would be really cool to do xyz. I feel like I've worked a million places where it's like, yep, we'll submit that for road mapping and prioritization. And instead at Zephyr, it's like, yeah, yeah, let me, let me pull some engineers together, let's see if we can get a prototype together. This is a great, you know, yeah. And so it's really, really freeing to just be able to listen, respond to our customers, innovate based on real world needs, and do it in a timely fashion. And like you said, not everyone's going to be a home run, but it's going to be an iteration closer towards just like filling the unmet needs in, in the market and in this space.
- [23:25]
Ad Tech God
Well, I think that sets companies apart too. I think the ones that are like, okay, you have 300 clients. In order for us to justify the allocation of this engineering resource, like, it's, this is how it is, we need to be able to forecast the total overall revenue growth to our company and then see whether it's worth it to us. But it's like you have a client that's telling you they want this bill. Chances are other clients want similar. It's, it's okay if the investment is the allocation of time. Let's say this employee is 1000-002000-00300,000 a year. But if this works and this client's happy, then the rollout becomes easier to everybody else. But if you delay it for 12 months, someone in market will do it instead, and then you all of a sudden lose this client. And the difference between, in my view, like a client and a partner is that one is really just buying your solution and the other one is like, you're building your solution with them. And I think there's a massive value prop for anyone that people work with. It's like, can we build something just for you or build on what we have in order for you to be happy? So I love to hear his efforts doing that.
- [24:30]
Brittany Scott
Yeah. And I think that's a huge. It comes from the very top of being like, instead of how much can we make from a customer, it's like, how can we make ourselves more irreplaceable to customers? How can we fulfill more of their needs and wishes? And how do we come off as strategic partners versus like a service provider? And I, I'm very fueled by that because it allows us to have relationships that are just different. It's, it's way less transactional and way more partnership minded.
- [25:02]
Ad Tech God
Yeah. That's why I hate the term. Like, they're a vendor. We have a vendor meeting. I hate that. It's like, it's like a vending machine. Throw your money in, get, you know, bag of potato chips out. If you're being referred to as a vendor, you have a partnership problem for sure. That's how I see it. That's just my personal perspective. So I want to ask you too, like, in terms of what Zephyr is doing in the future, like, what are you excited about at the company? What are you excited about overall in the industry? Where do you see things going?
- [25:30]
Brittany Scott
I mean, I would be remiss if I, I'm so excited about AI. I mean, I think there, there's two camps of people, people who are very either afraid or leery of AI and those people who are extremely excited. And I sit more in the excited camp. I think with any major innovation, like, there are going to be problems. Right. And there are guardrails and there are things for brands to figure out. But the impact that it's going to have for advertising, for people, for humanity, I think is incredibly exciting for me. And it's been a huge opportunity for us to help brands and help our partners navigate the massive changes in the market. And we're helping them, you know, create kind of this governance and framework to how to think about this content. I think the predictions are in the next five years, like 80% of content on social platforms will be made by AI in some way. And so I think this can't be something that brands just completely fear, just be like, oh, I, I'm gonna just avoid it all because it is, you know, it is the future. Right. And so it really gets me kind of back with my marketer hat on thinking about the complexities of AI and how it is both the same and different from overall safety. Because obviously, like, if you're a brand that's concerned about being around adult content, for example, you're going to be concerned around original content and AI adult content. But there's a lot more nuances to that where brands care about something because it's made by AI. And that's where we're hosting really awesome workshops with clients and helping them unpack that and then aligning our solutions to that, which has been really exciting and invigorating. And I think it's, you know, we joke that a large portion of people made their brand safety strategies, you know, around 20, 19, 2020, and kind of haven't dusted them off in a while. And it's time to dust it off. Right. Like the landscape of social platforms is dramatically changing and so pat yourself on their, the back. You know, your strategy you had in place has worked for the last five years, but now it's time to write the one for the next five. And I just really love being that strategic partner that's helping brands do that.
- [27:58]
Ad Tech God
Yeah. And it's funny because you mentioned, you know, they, yes, they want around brown safety. They want to make sure it's not running towards, you know, any type of adult content or something that makes their brand look bad. But even just the association with AI and being on AI generated content is a, like, not good. California just launched today. I was reading it this morning. They just launched, I think either they launch regulation or they're pushing for regulation, that AI and AI chatbots need to disclose that they are now AI chatbots because people are getting confused with the communication. So it's becoming a law where if A minor of 10 years old, 8 years old, 15 years old, is having a conversation with a chatbot, it needs to disclose like I'm not a real human because it's confusing people. And so I could understand how as the gen AI creative gets better and the video content gets better and even just the, the, the text that you're seeing being generated from various AI solutions, like it is very important to be able to differentiate between an actual authentic written content and that that is generated by AI. And that's important for brands, don't you think?
- [29:02]
Brittany Scott
I mean, I find when I'm scrolling, anytime I see anything surprising or shocking or interesting, my very first gut reaction is, is this real? And I did not feel that way eight months ago. So it's a huge shift. I think that, and I think that the overall trust of platforms is a really important thing. Like if, if consumers start losing trust in all information on platforms, it, it is problematic. So I just even think about my own personal experience with, you know, scrolling these feeds, like looking at how AI impacts platforms and your media and all of it. It's not something that can be ignored.
- [29:45]
Ad Tech God
The content piece is scary because now with, with Sora too, I'm starting to see content generated and people are removing the watermark and they're posting it on social channels. So the watermark is there to protect you. Right? To say this isn't real, this isn't really whatever the rock that's doing this. This is an AI generated image of the rock that's doing this.
- [30:04]
Brittany Scott
Yeah.
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Ad Tech God
And people are intentionally trying to deceive people in order to get clicks and likes and traffic to their sites. So yeah, we'll see where it goes. But for me, I, I feel like I could spot it, but I question everything at this point for sure.
- [30:16]
Brittany Scott
I mean, yeah, I, I find some of the tricky stuff too is the things that have to deal with like celebrity and pop culture and not necessarily real world harm. It just is like in the middle, there's a lot of like celebrity relationship drama that I'm seeing, you know, just trends around. And sure, I don't think it probably at this point creates a ton of, you know, threats for brands, but it is just interesting around how it impacts consumer trust. I also think it's interesting that like, if you've seen any of the interviews with Tim Altman, he's like, he's talking about how he thinks it's funny that people are using his image and likeness around stealing GPUs and things like that. So I do think it's really interesting when you're having some of these, like, I don't know when you're having like very big tech leaders call out, like, hey, there's some nefarious things here. And I think it's funny and not really acknowledging that, like there is, like it's a slippery slope at some point. Like there is real danger with that too. And what are going to be those guardrails. And in a time where most platforms are erring on the side of consumer expression and really making sure they're not prohibiting speech, that might be okay for platforms, but for brands it can be extremely problematic. And we're already seeing it with Sora 2 content, like people talking about brands, impersonating brands, bringing in branding into those that is problematic for brands. So it's not. It's something that might be a small portion of the content today, but it's literally growing overnight.
- [31:58]
Ad Tech God
Brittany, thank you so much for joining me today. I love this chat. I feel like we could talk about this stuff forever because I like to geek out on it. But thank you. Thank you so much to you. Thank you to Zephyr and thank you for taking the time out.
- [32:09]
Brittany Scott
Yeah, this is awesome. Thanks. I really appreciate it.
- [32:16]
Kate from Marketecture
Hello and welcome back to the Refresh, your weekly download on what went down in advertising. I'm Kate with Marketexture and today is Tuesday, October 21st. This week we're talking about the Trade Desk, Open Ads and Pub Desk products, the launch of Agentic AI protocol adcp and a new partnership between Netflix and Spotify. So let's get into it, starting things off with the Trade Desk, who is once again stirring up strong feelings across ad tech, taking the stage at last week's Pre bid Summit to try and quell some of the controversy surrounding their recently released Open Ads and Pub Desk tools. The new products are being presented as an effort to bring greater transparency, integrity and control to programmatic auctions. Let's talk a little bit about what these two products are designed to bring to the market. Open Ads is where most of the controversy is centered and it's a pre bid auction wrapper built using prebid's open source software and centers on three core features, Auction Code Attestation, Auction Audit and Sincera Integrity Signal, all of which are aimed at helping publishers better understand what is actually happening in the bidstream, including whether elements like transaction IDs, user IDs or ad refresh rates have been tampered with. Pub Desk serves as an accompanying dashboard supported by data primarily from the Trade Desk own sources, including Open Ads. It's designed to give publishers greater line of sight into auction dynamics, including how the demand side is valuing publishers inventory and what's driving bid pricing. The dash will also feature a snapshot of activity across the total market, with metrics like fill rates and spend over time, helping publishers better understand if dips are isolated to them or reflective of broader market shifts. Another valuable stream of data is presented through a supply chain visualizer, which shows detailed breakdowns of spend take rates and bid request duplication across different supply paths. The Trade Desk is positioning these tools as a way to clean up the programmatic supply chain and create an auction environment that's auditable, ultimately raising trust and bid values for publishers. But as with most big moves from the Trade Desk, not everyone is turning them on. As I mentioned earlier, the rollout of open ads in particular has amplified recent controversy between the buy side and the sell side over how to create an auction environment that benefits everyone. One main point of contention in the discourse and recent epicenter of industry drama comes from none other than the transaction ID. After Prebid movies from a universal ID to a unique ID per publisher. Back in August, the Trade Desk used open ads to revert back to a universal transaction ID and require that it be shared by publishers. Whereas Prebid had previously made this optional, some critics are also viewing the move as a power play. Publishers are wary of letting a buyer run platform dictate auction mechanics and have voiced concerns that open ads could actually limit yield management strategies and introduce new latency issues by adding yet another layer to the already complex programmatic stack. Others have even speculated that by controlling demand and parts of the auction infrastructure itself, the company is starting to blur the line between the buy side and the sell side, a dynamic that recently handed Google a guilty verdict in its ad tech entry test trial. On the other hand, some publishers see opportunity and greater transparency, saying open ads could finally expose the bad actors who duplicate, obfuscate, and sometimes lie about inventory quality. At the end of the day, open ads success relies on adoption, since implementing it isn't a mandate from the Trade Desk, although there may be some pressure to adopt it. With Trade Desk representation stating they're simply just asking people to try it and see if they like it better or if it adds value for them. This is one of those only time will tell situations. Moving over to a big announcement for the future of the industry, Agentic AI is making its way into ad tech in a more serious capacity. Ad Context Protocol, or ADCP, officially made its debut last Wednesday, October 15th. Built on Anthropic's Model Context Protocol, ADCP is a new open source framework designed to standardize how artificial intelligence systems, particularly agents, communicate and transact across the digital advertising ecosystem. The initiative is being spearheaded by Brian o', Kelly, who has been hailed as the godfather of ad tech and is backed by more than 20 organizations, including PubMatic, Yahoo, and Okelley's Scope 3. To ensure that no one entity has too much control, it will also be governed by a neutral working group with plans to form a non profit entity that will further support the initiative. ADCP provides a shared technical language that allows AI agents representing advertisers, publishers and intermediaries to exchange campaign data, identify audiences, and activate buys across platforms using standardized commands. The framework also begins to address one of adtech's biggest challenges, inefficiencies caused by fragmentation. Historically, buyers and sellers have relied on proprietary APIs and disjointed reporting systems that require costly, repetitive integration work. ADCP's open standard is intended to reduce that friction, unify signals, and enable automated cross platform transactions that are transparent, interoperable and verifiable by both parties. Supporters are calling it the blueprint for how AI agents transact in digital media, comparing its ambition to what OpenRTB achieved for programmatic advertising a decade ago. They believe the protocol could usher in a new era of agentic advertising, allowing AI systems to autonomously negotiate and execute media buys while giving publishers better control over how their inventory and first party data is represented to and packaged for advertisers. Skeptics, however, note that ADCP doesn't address critical functions like fraud detection or payment processing, and faces steep adoption challenges against dominant platform APIs and entrenched walled gardens. If it's widely adopted, it could redefine the infrastructure of programmatic advertising. If it's not, it risks becoming another promising standard that never escaped the confines of industry idealism. In my opinion, whether you think this is the best solution or quote unquote the right way to do it, someone had to make a move. So far the industry has made marginal progress when it comes to implementing advanced AI techniques into our platforms, products and systems in a transformative way, and if you've worked with generative AI in any capacity, you know your first go at things is nearly never going to be your final output. It's an iterative process, and I don't think it's reasonable to think that at CP would be any different. One of the best podcasts I listened to this year was a decoder interview with Microsoft CTO Kevin Scott. At the very end, he perfectly summarized how I think we all should be thinking about how we move forward building the next iteration of the web. Here's what he had to say. I think as we're all collectively thinking about the new, we should do what every good architect does when they're thinking about the new. It's like what has worked and what hasn't worked for all the constituents and stakeholders over recent years and let's try and go and make something better that works for everyone and we'll get to the best outcome when everybody's incentives are aligned, where the creators and the consumers have their interests balanced and there aren't a bunch of weird intermediaries constraining how utility and value gets exchanged. This is effectively the same vision that those who are leading the charge on a universal standardized protocol like ADCP Share and as the web is being re architected, we have the chance to do a better job this time, but it takes unified buy in. One last thing Kevin said in this interview indicates a mentality that I think is absolutely necessary if we truly want to create a better ad tech ecosystem. In reference to whether his colleagues felt that MCP as a universal protocol was the best option to move forward with, he said, I've had a bunch of conversations with folks about MCP inside Microsoft where it's like, ah, this isn't exactly what we would have chosen. And I'm like, yeah, but it kind of doesn't matter. Sometimes there is a real problem in an ecosystem where the simplest solution that everybody can choose to adopt is the winner, because ubiquity is the thing that really matters. And it feels like we've got a bunch of those opportunities right now. Even if you're an ad CP skeptic, it's worth tracking where this initiative goes, especially if you care about creating a better future for the industry. Finally closing things out with Netflix and Spotify, who have formed an alliance that brings Spotify video podcasts into Netflix. The partnership will bring podcast content from 16 shows that span sports, culture, entertainment and true crime to a Netflix account near you early next year. Bringing video podcasts to Netflix does a couple of things for both the content creators of the shows and the advertisers that invest in the opportunity to be present within them. Spotify gets to move its video podcast content out of a listening oriented platform and into an environment where consumers are more likely to watch. While Netflix is able to more directly compete with YouTube for video podcast viewing, this expanded distribution of video podcast content into other environments simultaneously creates the opportunity for more eyeballs on ads in that content and the potential for new ad products themselves. That's it for this week. Thanks for joining us for the refresh, and we'll catch you next week.
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Brittany Scott
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