Marketecture Episode 157: “Marketing Ad Tech in 2026” with Paul Knegten

Date: January 23, 2026
Host: Ari Paparo, with Eric Franchi
Guest: Paul Knegten (sometimes written Connectin, Knechten) – veteran CMO in ad tech

Episode Overview

This episode dives into the rapidly evolving landscape of advertising technology (ad tech) marketing in 2026. Ari Paparo and Eric Franchi speak with renowned marketing executive Paul Knegten about how ad tech companies can stand out in an AI-saturated ecosystem, the changing nature of buyer relationships, and practical strategies for connecting with agencies and brands. The latter half features spirited analysis of industry news, including OpenAI’s foray into ads, CTV trends, and the future of live sports rights.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Paul Knegten’s Background and the Ad Tech State of Play

• Paul is described as the “fractional CMO to the stars” (06:13) and notably served as CMO at Beeswax.
• Paul’s expertise: Systems thinker in marketing, focused on strategic insight rather than just tactical execution.

“He’s a real systems thinker around marketing. He just doesn't think about, let's make this post, let's do these tactical things. He really thinks deeply.” — Eric Franchi [02:05]

Current Trends Shaping Ad Tech Marketing

• AI Dominance: If a startup isn’t doing AI, they’re “not getting any oxygen” (07:10).
  • There’s a “rush of AI startups”, and it's difficult to tell “who’s real, who’s full of shit.”
  • “It seems like there’s an apocalyptic event — and that's a good thing for innovation… but the way ads are going to be transacted, the way publishers exist, the way that advertising will work online is fundamentally changing.” — Paul [07:10]
• Old-School Programmatic: “Quietly, there's a very prosperous old school programmatic RTB ecosystem chugging along… the key word there is consolidation.” [08:26]
  • Example: ID5’s acquisition of TrueData.
• The ‘Shadow’ Programmatic Ecosystem: Traditional ad networks are still “quietly killing it,” enjoying high margins, often at odds with the transparency buzzwords of modern ad tech (08:28).

“Buyers want to deploy money, they want a report… Something that makes them look good. And a lot of the old school… ad networking things are getting a lot of that spend and really high margins.” — Paul Knegten [08:28]

2. Transparency: Signal or Noise?

• Transparency is often overvalued in theory, undervalued in practice
  • “I remember… getting burned trying to say that transparency is the most important thing buyers care about… They don't seem to really care about transparency that much.” — Ari [09:44]
  • It only matters in certain models—often less to performance advertisers if ROAS is strong (09:59).

3. Founder-Led Marketing: The Power of Personality

• Founder/CEO presence is huge—a distinct competitive advantage in ad tech
  • “If you have something to say and you’re compelling, be out there. It’s okay for you to be kind of the face of the brand. It’s a huge asset because people like to buy from people they like.” — Paul [11:58]
• Caveats:
  • Not everyone needs to do it, but it’s increasingly expected, especially in the attention economy [13:49].
  • The ‘founder evangelist’ advantage: “Brian O’Kelley… can make it true just by saying something. The value of that is immeasurable.” — Paul [13:49]
  • Danger: “Circle jerk” of ad tech—startups get excited about each other's LinkedIn activity but forget to solve real buyer pain [15:32].
• Different buyer types need different messaging: “Some ad tech companies are selling to other ad tech companies… Agencies, brands, DTC brands all talk different languages.” — Ari [15:32]

4. Go-to-Market: How to Reach Today’s Ad Tech Buyers

• The Two Essential Channels in 2026:
  1. LinkedIn—The “Annoying Conference We All Have to Be At”: [17:23–19:33]
     • “Being authentic and having a contrarian point of view is critical. AI can’t replicate the kind of unique, compelling nonsense that gets people talking.” — Paul, referencing Ari’s March Madness bracket for ad tech [18:25]
  2. Tentpole Events: CES, Cannes, Marketecture Live
     • “B2B marketing is a contact sport…. Have drinks with them, hang out with them, and they’ll want to buy from you.” [19:34]
     • “You walk around [CES], you’ll see every major ad agency, CEOs, brands — it’s a big deal.”
  • Importance of a cohesive story arc: It’s not just one touchpoint at one event. You build ongoing conversations over multiple conferences.

5. AI: Differentiation and the Current Swirl

• Everyone claims ‘AI’ — it’s a mess.
  • “Every company is positioned… You don’t need to add an AI bot to your product just because.” — Paul [23:54]
  • What buyers want: “Solve a real problem. The fact you’re using AI gets you extra points for the OKR… but the problem you’re solving is the central thing.”
  • “There's a lot of companies that we don't know what the hell they do. They're vaguely some sort of AI wrapper… there's gonna be a shakeout… and that's exciting!” [25:43]
• Fundraising:
  • “Any decks without AI in them anymore?”
  • “No. Zero.” — Eric [25:46]

6. Diagnosing Problems: Marketing vs. Product Problem

• Paul’s famous question:
  • “Is this a marketing problem or is this a problem problem?” [26:39]
  • You can’t market your way out of product/fit/market issues: “If you need marketing to help get your first customers in a segment, that’s super duper risky.” [28:56]
  • Example: Beeswax tried to expand to brands. “Turned out, the dog didn’t like the dog food… it was not a marketing problem.” — Ari [28:27]

7. Industry News Analysis

OpenAI Launches Ads

• Overview: Ads in ChatGPT free tier; paid tiers remain ad-free. Early focus: answer-independence, user control, and a jab at Meta—OpenAI says they’ll optimize for utility, not time spent (30:19).
• Pricing/Approach: CPM/view-based, million-dollar spends from brands — rolling out limited, high-profile placements initially, mirroring early Google AdWords, Snap, Apple Iads, Netflix (35:05-36:41).
• Challenges:
  • Scale (“need millions of advertisers for real efficiency”) [34:01].
  • “A new ad unit that no one’s ever seen will outperform wildly because consumers aren’t bored of it yet. So this is easy money…” — Ari [36:41]
  • “People are expecting perfection… there’s going to be a lot of people looking at this thing and wanting it to fail.” — Eric [37:49]
• Context: Big question: “Is OpenAI desperate for revenue?… There have been conversations about going public, or going bankrupt.” — Ari [37:49]

CTV & Sports Rights

• Edo TV vs. iSpot Lawsuit: Edo fined $18.3 million for scraping iSpot data (41:16–41:32).
• Netflix Ads: Now a $1.5B business, aiming to double, but still small vs. potential (42:33–43:05).
  • “One bill in media is kind of the cutoff where you start becoming a real player.” — Ari [43:05]
  • “Sports is the needle mover.” Live sports programming’s ad experience is strong and growing [43:42].
  • NFL rights renegotiation will be the biggest media story in a few years—may reshape the industry [44:11].
• Programmatic Guaranteed in Live Sports: Paramount rolling out PG for UFC, making biddable live-sports inventory possible for the major DSPs — testing the model for potentially much larger deals (45:13–46:36).
  • “Programmatic Guaranteed is a really good fit for live streaming, whereas normal RTB is not…” — Ari [46:36]
  • Live rights fees are massive: UFC $7B, NFL up to $110B (47:23–47:57).
  • For ad tech, every event that moves into a walled garden (e.g., Amazon’s Thursday Night Football) “kills off” independent ad tech providers — cue a humorous, dark mental image involving mass graves of ad tech execs in blue blazers (48:04–48:46).

Other Ad Tech News

• Gamera Funding: Gareth Glazer (blogger “Gareth Hates Ad Tech”) secures funding from Aperium and TTD7, aiming to bring performance parity to the open web vs walled gardens [50:14–52:53].

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

“Quietly, there's this prosperous, old school programmatic RTB ecosystem… I'd say the key word there is consolidation.” — Paul Knegten [08:26]

“If you have something to say and you’re compelling, be out there. It’s okay for you to be kind of the face of the brand. It’s a huge asset because people like to buy from people they like.” — Paul Knegten [11:58]

“The product is not just the product. The product is every single touchpoint… which includes a well-liked, famous founder. It becomes part of the experience.” — Eric Franchi [13:09]

“B2B marketing is a contact sport. Again, Roger Sterling. Picture him in your head, like, have drinks with them, hang out with them…” — Paul Knegten [19:34]

“Every company is positioned… you don’t need to add an AI bot to your product just because.” — Paul Knegten [23:54]

“Is this a marketing problem or is this a problem problem?” — Paul Knegten [26:39]

“A new ad unit that no one’s ever seen will outperform wildly because consumers aren’t bored of it yet.” — Ari Paparo [36:41]

“Every time a single NFL broadcast moves… to a walled garden, a whole bunch of ad tech people die. Yeah, Thursday Night Football murdered a whole bunch of folks in blue blazers. They all just drop dead.” — Ari Paparo [48:04]

Timestamps for Key Segments

| Segment | Timestamps | |--------------------------------------------------|------------------| | Introduction and Paul’s Career | 01:25–06:44 | | State of Ad Tech Marketing (AI, Programmatic) | 07:10–08:26 | | On Transparency Myths | 09:33–10:24 | | Selling the “ID” (e.g., ID5) | 10:26–11:50 | | Founder-led, Personality-Driven Marketing | 11:58–13:49 | | The Ad Tech “Circle Jerk” | 14:35–15:32 | | Segmenting Buyer Personas | 15:32–16:56 | | Go-to-Market Channels (LinkedIn, Tentpoles) | 17:23–19:34 | | “Is this a marketing problem, or a ‘problem’?” | 26:39–28:27 | | OpenAI Launches Ads: Breakdown and Analysis | 30:19–38:37 | | CTV News: Edo/iSpot, Netflix, Sports Rights | 40:43–48:32 | | Gamera Funding/Glazer News | 50:14–52:53 |

Tone and Style

The conversation is rapid-fire, loaded with self-deprecating humor, inside references, and frank cynicism—especially about hype cycles (“we don't know what the hell they do… vaguely some sort of AI wrapper”) and the realpolitik of ad tech (“buyers want to look good… sometimes the old-school ways work best”). At its heart, though, the episode is practical, thoughtful, and energizing for both industry veterans and newcomers.

For Further Listening

Full interviews, industry news, and more are available at Marketecture.tv.

Note: This summary skips ad reads, event promos, and minor digressions as instructed.