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AdTechGod Pod
Ep. 112 Programmatic Partnerships with Purpose: Andrew Cassin on Growth & Empathy Ad Tech Future
00:27:16
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- [00:00]
A
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- [00:42]
B
This is Ad Tech God and this is a commercial message. Finding the right audience shouldn't feel like doom scrolling with Experian. It doesn't. Experian syndicated audiences help you reach holiday shoppers, car buyers and more across over 200 top platforms with over 3200 pre built audiences. There's no more doom scrolling. It's just audience targeting. You can trust Made simple. Learn more@experian.com marketecture Again, that's E X P E R I A N.com market. Welcome to the AdTech Godpod, your window into the world of advertising technology and the people behind it. I'm your host, Ad Tech God. Welcome to the Ad Tech God pod where we speak to those driving programmatic partnerships. Today's guest is Andrew Cassen, the Senior Director of Programmatic partnerships at Kadant. Andrew's worked at some great companies in the space, including Equitiv, Kinetics, Rubicon Project and more. As a friend of the podcast and someone who I think truly brings so much positivity and authenticity to the space, I'm happy to have him with me today as a guest. Andrew, thanks for joining me.
- [02:05]
C
Thanks so much for having me.
- [02:07]
B
No, I'm, I'm excited. I feel like this is way past due. I feel like we've messaged for years and we're finally here and I'm happy that you joined.
- [02:15]
C
Yeah, yeah. All those days at Sunday mass finally got me to the front of the line. So happy we're now.
- [02:22]
B
What is it today? Wednesday. This is Wednesday Mass. So today we got Wednesday Mass. We're doing a little chapel time. Andrew, you've worked at amazing companies. You've worked in ad tech a majority of your career, if not all of your career, starting at Rubicon and Kinetics, Equitiv and now Cadent. But I wanted you to run through your career how you got to where you're at today and what that means for programmatic partnerships. So if you want to run it back? I'd love to hear it.
- [02:46]
C
Yeah. No. So, you know, I was fortunate enough to get an internship way back in the day@forbes, forbes.com so I had a mutual relationship with the head of HR over at Forbes. And so I was lucky to get an internship there this summer going into my senior year. And then after college, they, they had a temp dire position working for the president of Forbes.com at the time, who was Mike Smith. And you know, and I, and I jumped at that opportunity as anyone would when you're trying to get a job in 2010. So I was, you know, I got the opportunity to work@forbes.com at a time that was kind of innovative for them because they were going from an old school, you know, business media publisher, you know, the, the lists of, you know, richest people and things like that to trying to become, you know, this digital, you know, digitally evolved publisher. You know, they were, they were changing the COVID of the logo, they were putting Justin Bieber on the front, you know, so I was lucky to be there at that time. And for them, that was at a time where digital was evolving and things like Programmatic were becoming at the forefront of their strategy and RTB was becoming an important part of the overall tech stack. And so I got the opportunity from early on as a, you know, new graduate to, to learn about Programmatic. When nobody really knew what Programmatic was, everyone was kind of learning at the, you know, flying by the seat of their pants. It was really the wild west for publishers. And so a lot of people who are doing Programmatic at publishers were getting together and kind of trying to understand, you know, what are you guys doing? What's working for you? And so, you know, through that I got to network obviously with a lot of ad tech companies. And that brought me over to Rubicon Project when they were building out their offering on the demand side, talking to brands and agencies, which had been what I was doing primarily at Forbes. So I got to be at Rubicon early days there and right before they went public a year, I was there a year before they went public. And so first time being part of an ad tech company that went public, super exciting. And being part of that at the demand side was huge because we were a startup within a large publisher facing organization. And so we were very nimble in how we had to build out our solutions and strategies there and how we worked with brands and agencies around your Programmatic and what we were doing for them from a solution standpoint. And it was also Exciting, because I got to wear a lot of hats, you know, startup like Rubicon, even though they were fairly large company, I got to try a lot of things, collaborate with a lot of different departments, and, you know, everything became a learning curve for me. And which was great because I kind of was able to soak it all in from there. You know, I was at Rubicon product for almost five years. And then I got the opportunity to go over to Kinetics, which was more singularly focused on video, which was assigning me to have a more, you know, as opposed to Rubicon, that was covering video display and mobile. I got to go to Kinetics and focus on video and help, you know, build the demand side over there, work with a lot of great people at a really great culture over there. And then my last two stints, you know, I was at Creative formerly, you know, before they were creative, they were smart ad servers. So working at a French company trying to build their offering in the US was, was really exciting. And so being able to help them build that, that, that culture, as well as just their overall, you know, strategy about how to go out to market in the US Taught me a lot. I got to work with, you know, amazing people from, from the French office who came over to the US and, you know, got to be part of that rebranding to equate it, which was really exciting because they had been known as smart Ad server for so long and, you know, they were so much more than just an ad server. And then, yeah, taking me over to, to take it where it's been an amazing ride these last couple years.
- [06:30]
B
So it's funny because you mentioned the changes that happened at Forbes when you were there, which was right after you started 2010. You ended there a couple years later, three years later, and then you entered into an industry that's been constantly changing because if you look at the last 15 or 16 years that you've been in it, you know, 2010, it was publishing and the way the publishing was changing, 2000, I think 13 is when the iPhone in app advertising started taking off video started to scale. And then we moved into like 16, 17, where CTV started to change. And now you're at Kadent, which does a little bit of all that.
- [07:07]
C
Right.
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B
It's like the linear business to connect television business and of course more. I wanted to ask you what has been the constant for you in the last 15 years that keeps you moving forward and just like learning and adapting to all these changes?
- [07:21]
C
Yeah, I think the constant has been kind of, I think the excitement, like the passion for the industry. I mean, I, I feel like we've had so many people on here talk about, you know, passion and you know, in different phases. But I think for me, as nerdy as it may sound, I really am passionate about the industry, about ad tech and then the companies that I work for, you know, and promoting them and promoting, you know, promoting them out in market, promoting them, you know, on social media and you know, just the, the opportunity to build things, you know, to build, you know, each company that I've been at, I've been able to be kind of on the, on the ground floor or you know, on the early stages of, of the teams and building that up. And so I think that's what's always excited me is, and maybe it's because my dad was a contractor for like 10 million years, but building, you know, building solutions, building teams, it really has motivated me, you know, in, in what I do on the ad tech side. And then, you know, it, you know, being able to, you know, joking around is, I'm a big Lego guy, so building things outside of work too is, is part of my passion.
- [08:24]
B
I guess it's crazy to think that in 2010, which was not that long ago, but it is a long time not calling age here, how much it's changed. How have you seen brands, agencies also adapt? Has the sale or the partnership aspect gotten any easier or is it because it's constantly changing? It feels like a constant evolution of education and knowledge sharing to get them to understand what they're.
- [08:49]
D
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B
Benefits are.
- [10:01]
C
Yeah, I think it's changed a little bit more in the sense that brands and agencies are leaning in to their ad tech partners. I think, you know, the changes that we've seen, you know, when it comes to privacy regulations, when it comes to, you know, when it comes to brand safety, when it comes to AI, you know, there's so much, so much change happening. And so brands and agencies are leaning on their ad tech partners, whether it's SSPs, DSPs to, to educate them, to, to help them understand, you know, what they don't know. And you know, and, and same for us, you know, we know that things are changing on the agency side and we, you know, as partners we look to understand how that change affects their business, you know, from the top down and from the bottom up with you know, the, the people, the, the teams that we work with.
- [10:47]
B
When looking at, I guess Kaydent and their business. I know you recently announced the acquisition of View Planner. What does that mean? What was the purpose of it? I know that they're primarily focused on YouTube. Kaydent has done a lot of cross linear and connected television. How do you find that filling the gap and bridging all those touch points?
- [11:06]
C
Yeah, I think it was just a necessary step, you know, in the evolution of KDANT from, from a linear focused company to digital and being able to connect fragment, you know, there's fragmentation in audiences and being able to connect those audiences from linear to CTV, OLV and now YouTube was, you know, was an exciting opportunity for us and I think we're really excited to bring that to our clients partners.
- [11:29]
B
Congrats by the way on that. I read about it, I think in Ad Exchanger and I'm like incredible. Cool. I love that Kayden's been proactive in their acquisition strategy over the last few years that I've seen. I think it's the right path and definitely YouTube is a massive channel so I don't see any, any issue there. I think I would probably do the same.
- [11:48]
C
Yeah, no, absolutely.
- [11:50]
B
So in, in a partnerships role, a lot of it, I talk a lot about relationship building, I talk a lot about the industry being small yet big at the same time. How do you feel Partnerships have changed over the years. What do you feel is, is really your superpower when you're talking to these agencies and brands about your solution? Like where do you really lean in?
- [12:10]
C
Yeah, I think I, I really just lean in on. You know, we talk so much about solution selling and I think programmatic, you know, has changed so much where it used to become, you know, we talk like the set it and forget it mentality, you know, when, when working on deals like you know, private marketplace deals and programmatic guaranteed and things like that. And it evolved from the set it and forget it and onto the next and volume based and now it's really become why are we setting up this deal? What are the details behind it? It's not just a handshake agreement and let's go. We really want to understand why are we setting up this deal and why are we working together and what solutions do we have that fit those needs. It really is making sure that what we have today can fit their needs and what we have down the line. You know, we want to build solutions that are aligned with where they're going as well. Not just where they are today, but where they're going because you know, for us we want to be partners long term, not, not just for the few, you know, few deals that we just set up.
- [13:16]
B
So like a big topic and, and this went out on my newsletter will be a week ago. I talk a lot about the increase in transparency requirements of supply side platforms, buyers agencies wanting to know more, at least gaining access to it. This was a big, big, big topic last year with the whole SPO path or the supply path optimization, cleaning up your supply chain, creating additional visibility capabilities for your buyers. Are you sensing that's happening also at cadent? Are you finding that buyers are just becoming way more knowledgeable, way more intrigued by the data and the insights that they get?
- [13:56]
C
Yeah, no, I think, you know, it's changing and I think what was unique about KDENT is you know, we, we've done things in such a great fashion over the last two years where we've, you know, we've been able to because we're, you know, we've been so new to the SSP side of the business and SSP space and coming in there that we wanted to do things the right way and, and build, build our, you know, build our supply in a clean and, and direct path and you know, to the integrations we've done with our publishers, the partnerships we have with them, working, you know, working closely with them and then obviously working with Our, you know, on the branded agency side, working with those centers of excellence to understand are we complying with their standards? Not just the industry standards, but, you know, the standards that they might have when it comes to, to clean, well lit, you know, path to inventory.
- [14:42]
B
Do you feel like the standards usually start with the agencies and brands and then move into like, organizations, or do you think it's the other way? Because I would guess it's people holding the money are the ones who decide what's excellent and what's of quality and then kind of the bodies that exist that monitor and set standards are next.
- [15:00]
C
Yeah, and I think adhering to the standards of those organizations comes first because, I mean, they've been around the longest, they've understood the foundations of those things, and then obviously the ones holding the money decide which ones are doing it the best and doing the right way or doing it, you know, in the way that they want to work with them. So, you know, I, you know, that's, that's just how I see it. So.
- [15:23]
B
Question, a little personal touch. You're, you're a very relatable person. You have great friendships, a great relationship builder overall, and you were recently diagnosed with cancer. And I know this is a very delicate and sensitive topic, so thank you for talking about it. How have you a been and how has that changed how you look at life, how you look at your partnerships, your friendships and of course, your priorities when working with various people in the industry and outside?
- [15:54]
C
Yeah, no, I, it's, you know, it's obviously changed me drastically in so many ways and I'm doing well right now and, you know, and, and going through treatment and, you know, fighting it as best as I can. And I think, you know, from a professional standpoint, you know, it's made me, you know, it's made me truly more empathetic to people in general. I think it's, you know, I, you know, because you don't know who, what people are going through. And I think it's, it's made me, you know, more cautious in how I message, how I approach, you know, outreach, how I, you know, approach meetings in general and make it, you know, I think like you said, it's relationships. And so I don't want every meeting that I have to be a PowerPoint, you know, presentation for 30 minutes, you know, and I want it to be, I want there to be, you know, a little bit of chit chat. I want there to be, you know, I want to make it personal, I want to make it familiar, you know, so that I am seen as a partner and not just another salesperson who comes through their door and through their, you know, their Rolodex. But, you know, and on the personal side, you know, it's made me intricately more like, cognizant of who I allow into my life, you know, from a personal standpoint. Like, I'm, you know, I'm trying to enhance the connections I make with each connection I make and not, you know, how many connections I make. It's, you know, it really makes me, you know, the people that I want in my life that I'm living right now for as long as I can live it, you know, I want to enhance the people that around me supporting me, the new people I meet, you know, and all of that. So, yeah, you know, and it. But it is also making me understand so much about our industry is, you know, there are so many people. Our industry is so connected and so. So small and familiar, but so is the amount of people who, in our industry who are probably fighting the same fight and not as vocal as I am about it. So, you know, and. And that's why I've kind of been so vocal about it, and because I think anybody who, you know, is going through this and, you know, who are in ad tech, you know, and don't have people to connect with, you know, maybe. Maybe they reach out to me or maybe I, you know, reach out to them.
- [18:05]
B
So, yeah, I feel like the industry overall is. Is pretty supportive. Not having health issues myself, but, you know, very close family member did. And I remember the outreach I received, and it was like the little things, too. It was just. Even if it was just like a text or an email that came out from co workers saying, hey, we heard about this. Hope you're good. Hope the family's okay. If you need anything, let me know. That was nice enough. But then some people go, you know, way beyond that, and I thought that was also great. But what do you think are the. The support forms, like, whether they're big or small, that really meant the most to you, especially during this. This kind of difficult, challenging time?
- [18:45]
C
Yeah, I mean, you know, it made me, you know, it definitely me. You know, I got. When I announced it in, you know, in a. In a classic Andrew Katzen fashion, in a giant blog post, you know, I had reach out from people that I'd work with for, you know, five years at Rubicon Project. I, you know, people that I went to high school with, you know, a million years ago, reaching out people that I. That I didn't know at all reaching out because they had someone go through it, they're going through it, whatever it might be. So, you know, I think it's been great. We have this, this world where, you know, I think thoughts and prayers can, can get a little oversaturated when it comes to things. And I think, you know, but, but to be. Like you said, it's, it's to be to true. The sincerity around it was what I was very surprised about, you know, for. From people that maybe I didn't even have that good of a relationship with. So that, you know, that obviously felt really, really good. And it made me feel that I, you know, I, you know, I. Even though it feels isolating sometimes and that I might be going through it alone, you know, at least there are, there are people who, you know, I can talk to when things do get tough, you know, I would, I would.
- [19:56]
B
Think your, your support network is strong and a big part of pushing forward. I've seen, I follow you on Instagram, I've seen your posts. You've picked up this very understandable addiction to Legos because I went through a phase like that where I was like buying way too much of them and now they just sit in boxes. But it is like unbelievably therapeutic and fun to just build stuff. And I know that you have a pretty ridiculous collection at this point.
- [20:22]
C
Yeah, no, I took disability leave for a little bit and it was a huge mental health, you know, support to getting into Legos and therapeutic, as you said. And my backlog is about 25 boxes sitting in my living room right now that I don't know what I'm going.
- [20:41]
B
To do with Andrew, with, with having over, you know, 15 years of experience in the space. We talked a lot about adapting technology, adapting product rollouts, acquisitions. What advice would you give to people who are new in the industry or early on in the industry to just keep up to date with what's happening so that they can be better prepared for any changes that come.
- [21:04]
C
Yeah, I think, you know what I'm jealous about for people coming into the industry, there's so, you know, there's obviously so many resources available to them that none of us had going up in the, in the early wild days of Programmatic. So, you know, there's, there's, you know, there's the industry press, you know, their ad exchange are all the different websites that companies that provide certification courses, webinars, things like that. So, you know, I would say take advantage of, of all that, you know, is available to you now that. That I wish I had had flying by the seat of my pants. And then, you know, I think building, you know, building, you know, we talk about. I think you've talked about so many times on your pod is, you know, and I've heard from so many other amazing guests is, you know, building that kind of board of mentors, you know, is important in this industry especially. And I wish that I had more, you know, available to me back in the day and. And even now today. And, you know, there's obviously so many amazing mentorship programs out there, like two, one, two, and oh, hello. Which I, you know, I've been fortunate to be a part of and meet some amazing, you know, young professionals up and coming in the industry. So, yeah, I recommend that and just get on LinkedIn. LinkedIn is the most underutilized resource in our industry. You know, whether and, like, whether you think it's, you know, people think it's being used for too much personal stuff or too much negativity on it, it's still one of the most useful tools that we have to use in our industry.
- [22:30]
B
It's funny because you touch up on the LinkedIn portion and the network and the board of advisors, that's something that's actually relatively new for me. Yeah, I created a meme account. Yeah, I kind of weirdly went way more popular than I thought it ever would be. But the advisor part, to me is probably the most valuable thing that I got out of creating this. Being able to have dozens, if not hundreds of conversations with people per week, per month has created such a strong network where me as the real person or me as the ATG Persona has allowed me to learn so much. And just getting that guidance. Hey, what do you think of this? Oh, I think it's great. I don't think it's great. Even. Just the insights I gained have made me so much stronger in my confidence and knowledge that I definitely recommend that to everyone. It's talk, ask questions. Nobody thinks you're dumb. The more you can ask, the more you learn. And it just creates such an incredible wealth of knowledge just by asking the right questions to the right people.
- [23:39]
C
Yeah, agreed.
- [23:40]
B
Andrew, another question for you. Yeah. Cadence obviously evolved over the years. Both the View Planner acquisition moving from kind of a traditional linear space into streaming into online video. But what are you in particular, really excited about moving into 2026? What do you think is hot? What do you think is not? And what kind of excites you about the industry?
- [24:02]
C
Yeah, I think I'm just excited about how open the industry still is. I think especially for Cadent, we are newer to the space from an ad tech perspective, I'd say traditionally being known as a linear company. And so our opportunity to come in and provide innovative solutions to our, for our clients who might have never heard of us is, you know, is, is wide open. And that's what's really exciting about that. And I think, you know, what we bring to the table for both from a, from a video perspective, from a CTV perspective, you know, the unique things coming over from Adherent and their amazing, you know, their amazing technology and people, you know, it's a really exciting year next year that to work with clients and be able to talk to them about what we have and then the industry. I think what's really exciting is that there's so much opportunity to innovate. I think innovation is one of the amazing things about ad tech, whether it's privacy, whether it's AI, whatever it might be, you know, whatever might be the next thing of ctv, it's forcing so many companies to pivot, new companies to come out of nowhere that are building unique things. And so the unique innovation that we're doing and then, you know, and seeing other companies do, I think is really exciting, you know, going into, you know, going into next year. And I'm really excited to see what else people are building and, you know, what else Kaden has in store.
- [25:30]
B
I probably mentioned this before. I think media itself has changed a lot. But if there's one thing that hasn't changed is how much traction negativity gets in the media. So whether this was like antenna on top of your TV or whether this is streaming or whether this is scrolling through Instagram or TikTok, it almost feels like the negative news gets highlighted. And it's the same way in advertising or ad tech news. The top headlines are the most controversial headlines. What falls to the bottom are the good news, the big announcements, right? Like you hear about the bankrupt company. What you don't hear about is the company that is successfully kind of moving through a very changing industry today because they tend to not get as much press. And so for me, although I think there's a lot of changes around AI, operationally generative AI consumption habits, LLMs, like, there's so many topics that are going to change over the next 12 months. I also innately feel inside that that's okay. Majority of the companies see it, they're watching it, they're adapting to it, and they're building for it. And so although it might be a little bumpy. I still think that 2026 will be a good year for advertising and for digital overall, but if you read the headlines, it's the end of the world. And I definitely don't agree with that.
- [26:57]
C
No, not at all.
- [26:58]
B
Awesome. Andrew, I want to thank you and thank Kayden for having you here since this is coming out a week before Christmas and you said you were Catholic. Merry Christmas. I wish you and your family a great holiday and I hope you get some time off with family.
- [27:14]
C
Thank you. Thank you so much.
- [27:16]
B
Thank you. Andrew, thanks for tuning in to another episode of the AdTech Godpod, a podcast for the people about the people. Stay connected with me for more insights, trends and interviews in the realm of of adtech. Don't miss out on the latest updates, so follow me on X Instagram and connect with me on LinkedIn. Don't forget ATG Slack community has insights, networking opportunities and jobs. Keep the conversation going and stay at the forefront of adtech innovation.