← AdTechGod Pod
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- [00:00]
Ari Paparo
This is Ari Paparo from Architecture. Thanks for having me on your pod, ad tech God.
- [00:04]
AdTech God
Anytime, Ari. Thanks for being here.
- [00:06]
Ari Paparo
Look, everyone, listen up. We've got some exciting news. Picture this. New York City, March 2025, and it's our first conference. It's called Markitecture Live.
- [00:17]
AdTech God
Is this like Saturday Night Live? God, I really hope so.
- [00:20]
Ari Paparo
No, it will not be like Saturday Night Live. Maybe there'll be an after party. I don't know. It's actually happening on St. Patrick's Day, which is a strange coincidence and may require us to have green beer at the happy hour.
- [00:30]
AdTech God
Okay, okay, so this is Market Live. It's a conference. It's coming in hot, and it's all about identity. We're talking top minds in ad tech, exclusive breakout rooms and actual networking. None of that awkward small talk. Right?
- [00:44]
Ari Paparo
There might be awkward small talk. I can't help that. But I will say this is the ultimate ad tech gathering. We're going deep. A single day on a single topic. Everything about identity, what you can do about it, what the options are, what the privacy considerations are, latest technology, the sandbox, everything else. And there's one important thing we're doing. No panels. Every time I'm in a conference and there's a panel, I start checking my phone and stop listening. There are no panels at this conference.
- [01:11]
AdTech God
Okay, so everyone, mark your calendars because you really don't want to miss this and you don't want to show up to the office saying, I have no idea what identity is. So mark your calendars. It's St. Patrick's Day, 2025.
- [01:22]
Ari Paparo
That is March 17, 2025. And more than mark your calendars, you could actually just register for it right now. Markitecturelive.com has all the info you need. The agenda is still coming, but we have a bunch of speakers. We have the time, location, everything like that. If you are a Markitecture paid subscriber at Markitecture TV, you get a whopping 40% off of your ticket. And we have a 20% discount for the early bird, so check it out@markitecturelive.com awesome.
- [01:51]
AdTech God
Thanks for being here, Harry.
- [01:52]
Ari Paparo
Anytime.
- [01:53]
AdTech God
Welcome to the EdTech God Pod, your window into the world of advertising technology and the people behind it. I'm your host, AdTech God. Welcome to another exciting episode of the AdTech God pod, where we sit down with some of the industry's most influential ad tech leaders. Today, we're thrilled to have Tyler Fitch from Tubi joining us. Tyler is currently the SVP of Partnerships at Adrise, a part of Tubi Media Group, where he oversees strategic initiatives and partnerships. But before that, he spent over eight impactful years at Tubi, the free ad supported streaming service that has now become a household name. Tubi was acquired by Fox Corp. In 2020 for a whopping 440 million, marking a major milestone in the growth of fast platforms. Having been a part of Tubi since its early days, he witnessed and helped navigate the company from a scrappy startup to one of the largest streaming platforms in the world. Tyler, I'm super excited to have you here. Welcome to the Ad Tech God podcast.
- [02:56]
Tyler Fitch
Thanks for having me. God.
- [02:57]
AdTech God
Hey, you know what, thank you for coming on. I'm super excited to talk to you. I love and am a user of Tubi, so I'm really excited that you joined me today.
- [03:06]
Tyler Fitch
Thanks for having me.
- [03:07]
AdTech God
So Tyler, you have a awesome background. Like I looked at all the prior stuff that you had worked on and you know, prior to us recording, you had mentioned you had been in a couple of acquisitions. But maybe if you want to take it all the way from the beginning, how did you get into ad tech and what led you and attracted you to join Tubi?
- [03:26]
Tyler Fitch
Yeah, it's been an interesting ride. I think Craigslist got me into adtech back in 2006 where I joined a, I would say burgeoning social network called perfspot.com and my original job was somebody handed me a book of hospitals to call to get advertising on this social network called Per Spot. And I think really that that kind of hardens you and really allows you to sell into things and then you get more and more premium and. And here we are today with, with Tubi and Fox. So it's been a fun ride. I've worked my way up, which is kind of a different path to adtech. I started in sales, then got into Adopts and then got into yield management and then got into Programmatic and selling and then it's tv. And I've been really fortunate to get into industries that are burgeoning and growing very quickly. It started with social and then I went on to join High5, which was one of the largest social networks and I'm dating myself here. But in the MySpace days, where you had Friendster and MySpace and high five before Facebook really dominated, and then I actually moved into gaming with the founders of MySpace with Chris de Wolfe and I was their first business focused hire back in the late 2000s and then eventually moved into connected television with Tubi. So being able to join industries or verticals that are really growing and really changing. The industry has been a fun part to be a part of and we continue to see it connected. Television, the growth is just crazy. But when you look at the industries before that we've had, we were really inventing ad tech as we went and when we got into social, when we got into mobile, when we got into TV and how the industry reacts and how we can use existing ad tech and building ad tech to really scale these industries has been fun to watch from and really be in the middle of that is been a really, really fun thing for me. And it continues. And so just being able to push the envelope, being able to find new ways to be, move fast and be creative in how we monetize. And I think the TV industry, just like we were in mobile and we don't hear the year of mobile anymore, it's the year of ctv, we're going to see that same growth in the same, I guess, change and how the overall industry works. And it's been really exciting to see.
- [06:15]
AdTech God
Yeah, the fast growth has been absolutely insane. I think initially it was all about ad supported video on demand. We all got a little fatigued with subscriptions. Obviously churn is an issue, but with fast, just because of the pricing structure or the free structure of getting access to so much content, it doesn't seem to be slowing down. It actually seems to be growing pretty well.
- [06:43]
Tyler Fitch
Yeah, I mean, it's a great problem to have. I think the growth that we've seen and in Tubi is even an enigma where we've only focused on video on demand. We do have a linear offering, but the majority of our viewing is on video on demand, which makes it even more flexible, more engaged than what you'd see with just standing up a fast channel. And that's why we focus on personalization and not having that standard ad break that you have to fill. There's so much work that goes into user experience and the reason why Tubi has done so well is just the laser focus of the viewing experience and the content and the personalization that really put itself ahead. Like why is Tubi doing so well in the industry compared to others is just that focus on the audience and the user experience and how does that translate into viewing time. And we've continued to double down on this and really, I know you mentioned being in the industry Elise Avod for over eight years now, but when we started, people would laugh at us and we'd go to the studios where we thought free streaming would be the future. And it's been great to see. And I credit Farhad Masoodi, the CEO of Tubi, of just being laser focused and really buying into the idea that free ad supported TV would be the future and there'd be a place for it within content and the movie industry. And it's really changed the game in how studios and content distribute their content. And so it's been a lot of fun to see that and see the growth. When I first started, we'd have to explain what connected television was and we would be in the back room of an agency with these emerging market budgets that we are working with. And now to see TV move over, seeing the large media companies join in there, it's been a lot of fun to see.
- [08:40]
AdTech God
Are you finding that, you know, capturing those budgets are easier now that Tubi in itself has just become way more recognizable as a brand? Obviously post acquisition I think it helps and really just the adoption of streaming has scaled to a point where I think media buyers, media planners can't really ignore connected TV anymore. And so are you finding that the scale is there and those budgets are being pulled away from I guess traditional TV easier or are you finding they're doing like a lot of mixed buying of linear and connected tv?
- [09:14]
Tyler Fitch
I think it's a little bit of both. There, there is new digital budget shifting. CTV is always talked about, but there's also things, and this is really the benefit of having Fox here, but we can actually talk about sports and talk about different properties that we have entertainment that really translates into just making it very easy to buy television. And I think you see this across the industry that we've really leaned into that fact that television across the board, it's all television. And you're not having those conversations, oh, how is it like mobile or what are your click through rates? It's definitely always in the conversation. The growth of TUI has just been insane. I think the biggest worry or is just keeping up with the growth. And this goes to going back of mobile. And I remember the days where it was okay, mobile's growing so fast, how do we keep up with this growth? And so the growth of Tubi and the growth of streaming, is it growing? Absolutely. Is it growing fast enough? No. I think we're going to have to find other ways to keep up with that growth and to get dollars over from social or performance and things like that. And it's really fun to be at the forefront of that. And we have a lot of plans on how to get incremental dollars upfronts are only going to be so big. We're having a great upfront and we announced a great upfront, but how do we do more and how do we make it really accessible to buy across the industry? And I think that's the challenge that we're going to have moving forward.
- [10:56]
AdTech God
So, you know, the growth is good and obviously the challenge of keeping up is there and that's understandable considering it's, it's scaling so quickly. What do you feel is really the sticky part about Tubi in particular or fast in particular or AVOD in particular that's making people kind of stay with you? Obviously the content suggestion engine, you kind of mentioned that you, you're customizing content towards your users. Do you feel that that's what's keeping people there or is it just like a massive library of content? Like what is it that you guys do to really capture users and then keep them there? Because I know that that's a challenge.
- [11:31]
Tyler Fitch
I think it's all of those. You can't use personalization without a massive library. So when you, you have to have that massive library to drive that engine of personalization and then the return users and becoming a cultural moment for an audience is really what Tubi has tapped into. And then you look at just how we've become a national brand. The super bowl ad with the rabbit hole and the takeover really catapulted Tubi as being a well known brand. And now when you look at the Nielsen numbers, we are the biggest free ad supported TV platform outside of YouTube.
- [12:12]
AdTech God
It's crazy because you guys were on the chart, but you were on the bottom of the chart at one point.
- [12:17]
Tyler Fitch
We weren't on the chart to start and you have to grow and we continue to really ramp that up now. So getting to that point of just getting on the chart was a big deal. And now we're top four, top five in that chart. And so it's been really fun to see the growth and continue and just really lean into that philosophy of becoming a service that's made for each individual user and having the content that we can personalize for that has been really a game changer. And that's why Tubi has done so well. And the focus on those things has been able to enable us to really grow the way Tubi has grown.
- [13:01]
AdTech God
What do you find is your biggest challenge? So obviously keeping up is one thing that's kind of like a good problem to have. You can't keep up with the growth or you're trying to keep up with the Growth. But what do you think is probably your biggest challenge today?
- [13:16]
Tyler Fitch
Yeah, I mean, I think from a monetization standpoint, that's always going to be the biggest. There's more and more inventory out there. How do we separate ourselves from the fast channel inventory that we're seeing? And how do we create experiences that are great for brands and creating new experiences that brands can lean into, but also can keep that user experience really high? I think if we keep focused on the user, the sky's the limit and that's tough to do sometimes, is we're fully ad supported. So where do we meet in the middle to keep up with that growth, but really focus on monetization too? And I think we've done a great job of navigating that. But that's also the advantage of VOD is that we create the ad inventory so we can really personalize the workflow with the user where they are in their funnel and those are the things that we're working on in the background. And that's what adrise enables us to do, is really look at monetization versus user experience and really control that experience. Where the fast channels, they have a hard set ad break that they have to fill, we're able to really affect that user journey. And how do we make them a to be user that comes back and looks at Tubi as a great source of content and free content and we're seeing prices go up on the asphodel and Tubi is well positioned to take those users that may get pushed out from a monetary perspective. So keeping up with that growth has always been the biggest challenge because you're growing 80%, maybe more in years. And so how do we keep the momentum with not only the user growth but also the ad serving? And where do we find incremental value from an ad tech perspective? And how do we drive more dollars? And how do we differentiate Tubi or Fox in particular in an advertiser perspective? So it's, it's really fun to watch and it's a great problem to have, as you mentioned, and we're fully leaning into that.
- [15:31]
AdTech God
So when we talk about fast, we talk about growth, keeping up with the growth, keeping up with obviously consumer trends, keeping your users there and keeping them active. But what, what do you feel in particular has tailwinds behind it in the industry? Like what do you feel is kind of the future of streaming and how you're going to continue to kind of innovate and bring in new offerings to your advertisers or your Consumers.
- [15:57]
Tyler Fitch
Yeah. I think the biggest thing that we can do is to prove the value in ROI on tv. That's been a very hard thing to do. Historically, it's been Nielsen measured and on audiences. But now with the digital aspect of tv, it's really showing the advertisers the ROI and investment and looking at outcomes that are driven from an exposure on a tv. That is where we're going to see that tipping point, where we see ROI positivity and where those budgets really open up. And TV historically hasn't. It's been a brand forward medium. But we have this performance aspect of tv. We know it performs well. And how do we prove that to advertisers and how do we show them to invest more in tv? And I think we're very well positioned to do that now. It is changing the industry and it's a very, very big industry that's been going for a very long time. And there's going to be a lot of learnings and a lot of movement in how people buy and where the investment comes from. And we're really leaning into that here. In terms of proving our worth, we went through a bunch of iterations. Tubi's always had our measurement playbook that we work with advertisers with. And for a long time it was incremental reach to your linear buy. And that really got nailed down and people understood that. So now it's okay. We know it's incremental to linear and has a very big audience that's not watching TV on linear. How do we prove to the other buyers that are more performance driven, that don't have large TV budgets to move over budgets maybe from a walled garden spend into this ecosystem that connects to a whole household? And how do you measure that and how do you prove that? And that's really the next steps of what we're looking at is growth is just proving our worth. And that's always been what we've really focused on at Tubi. It's just how do you measure to a Nielsen audience versus incremental reach to an outcome to driving store visits that we all have the capability to do because this new medium is digital. And that's really exciting thing is, okay, each advertiser is going to want to do a different thing or look at performance in a different way. How do we make it work for Everybody on the KPIs that they're looking for and how do we prove that to them that it's working to get a bigger investment? And this goes down to how you transact. Is it direct? Is it programmatic? Like all these different things that we're enabling people to do, it's really our job to make it as accessible as possible to every advertiser.
- [18:47]
AdTech God
You know, you mentioned something like, you know, is it direct? Is it programmatic? I saw a post today that said, you know, connected TV will never be all programmatic, that direct will always be a large portion of, you know, ad spend. Do you feel that way also, or do you think that programmatic is kind of the future for CTV will be programmatic pipes but direct sold, or do you feel that direct traffic campaigns will kind of be the major revenue driver?
- [19:15]
Tyler Fitch
I think it all will be a mix of both. I mean, when you look at how each agency is comfortable with each medium, have we seen a push to programmatic? Yes, but do I think it's fully going to move over? You have to look at ad tech tax and. And measurement tax and all these other things that may not make sense for everybody. Our job here is to transact. And the best part about owning our own ad tech with adrise and enabling that for the TUBI team is that it gives the flexibility to transact however they want. And so will more move to Programmatic? Most likely. Will it be 100%? No, I don't see that anywhere. It's just, how do people feel comfortable transacting? But I also think there's a lot of work to do just on the measurement side, and that measurement comes from both programmatic and direct. Like, there is no reason why one should be limiting. It's more how they want to control their buys and how they want to view their buys. So I don't see a full move over to Programmatic anytime, but we'll have to see, too.
- [20:24]
AdTech God
Is there anything that kind of bugs you or, like, keeps you up at night or that frustrates you about, I guess, the industry about ad tech, about advertising that you feel is just, you know, a thorn in your side and you wish it wasn't there or just bothers you. I'm always curious to hear what people say to this question.
- [20:44]
Tyler Fitch
A lot of things keep me up at night, and if you could see me, my gray hair would prove that. But I think, I mean, there's a lot of frenemies in the. In the industry and how do we work together? It is always a lot of fun to navigate. And this comes down to distribution partners and content partners. So it's similar to, like I said, what we saw in mobile, where people were just handing dollars back to each other and in order to survive. But to be honest, I think with the scale that we're seeing, it's really just keeping up with that that keeps me up at night. And where do we source incremental demand for Fox and Tubi? So that's really what keeps me up at night. I don't want to go into too much detail on the exact specifics, but.
- [21:35]
AdTech God
Right, right. No, I don't understand. Is there anything that you think that people in the space, whether it's the streaming world or the TV world, that they would disagree on in terms of whether it be, you know, value, whether it be measurement solutions, et cetera?
- [21:53]
Tyler Fitch
I don't think like there is a huge difference. It, when we look at this and talking to God in the eye of the beholder, it is really what the brands feel like is their North Star and what they want to achieve. So I don't think there's like one big issue or one big fight that we have. There's a lot going on, there's a lot of different ways to monetize and how do you look at your inventory and how do you make that look to the public and how do you, how do you really grow? I don't think there's one thing that, that really keeps me up at night. We're going to have to put our heads down and grow as fast as possible and monetize it as much as possible because we, to be honest, if we don't monetize well, you can't invest. And so we talk about this virtuous cycle here at Tubi and how do you get users in and you make more money and then you can acquire more, better content and then it gets more users and it really feeds itself. And so I think just the focus on that is what really keeps us up at night. But it's working. That flywheel is really feeding itself. So from a industry standpoint, you're going to have to deal with the headwinds, but there's also a lot of tailwinds and this is going to change from week to week and we have to address them and I think we're in a good position to address those.
- [23:23]
AdTech God
So my audience is quite mixed is what I've figured out over the last maybe six months or so. So there's a lot of kind of like junior mid level people, but there are a lot of executives that listen in and not everyone has had the same success. Tyler, like, I think a lot of people in the space work and have been working in the industry for 5, 10, 15 years and haven't had the opportunity to see an exit like you've had with Tubi and others. What advice do you give to them to just keep themselves going and motivated and learning? I'd love to hear what you have to say and what could help these other ad tech people kind of grow in their, in their career. Yeah.
- [24:03]
Tyler Fitch
And I have this conversation a lot with, with my team on the 2B side that have come up and really what the goals are for yourself and where do you want to grow because they're not every company is going to have a great sell or are they having skyrocketing growth? And that's. I've been there. As I said, I came from calling hospitals on a book to buy social network inventory. So the real goal for me just in life is one, have fun with it. What we do is a lot of fun my day to day and how I explain my job to my kids. And I failed the grandma test a lot in what I do, but it's pretty much playing one big video game that transacts billions of dollars and we are a very tight community. And just leaning into that and making sure that you take care of your own within the industry, taking care of your team will eventually put you in a position where I'm at with the growth of 2B. Like, I don't know if another 2B will ever happen anytime soon, but there's going to be another business that's going to have that growth. And I couldn't have gotten here without the relationships that I've made from my old jobs and even at Tubi to really succeed in the, in the industry. And so when you look at the holistic view of your job, it may suck right now, but if you really lean in, build those relationships across the industry, it puts you in a better position to be there. And that's been a lot of fun for me. And we have very close friends that are competitors and we can joke with each other, but you know, if you're, if you need something that you can reach out and get it, you can't get that anywhere if you're not leaning into that. And I really credit to a lot of my relationships from my earlier days when I was at high five in Jam City and these other ones that would never have happened if I hadn't leaned in that way. And that's really gotten me to a position where I'm in right now.
- [26:21]
AdTech God
Awesome. I think that's great advice, Tyler. Thank you. That actually brings us to the end of the podcast. I wanted to thank you and to be also for having you on here. Thanks again for your time.
- [26:32]
Tyler Fitch
Thanks for having me.
- [26:34]
AdTech God
Thanks for tuning in to another episode of the Ad Tech God Pod, a podcast for the people about the people that make adtech great. Stay connected with me for more insights, trends and interviews in the realm of adtech. Don't miss out on our 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.