TripleLift’s New CEO on Creative Innovation, Retail Media, and the Future of CTV

Summary

Marketecture Podcast Summary: TripleLift’s New CEO on Creative Innovation, Retail Media, and the Future of CTV

Podcast Information:

• Title: Marketecture: Get Smart. Fast.
• Host: Ari Paparo, Marketecture Media, Inc.
• Episode: TripleLift’s New CEO on Creative Innovation, Retail Media, and the Future of CTV
• Release Date: April 21, 2025
• Link: Marketecture.tv

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Introduction

In the April 21, 2025, episode of the Marketecture Podcast, hosts Ari Paparo and Eric Franchi delve into the evolving landscape of advertising and marketing with David Helmrich, the newly appointed CEO of TripleLift. Having previously appeared on the show in other capacities, Helmrich brings a seasoned perspective to TripleLift’s strategic direction and innovative initiatives.

Welcoming the New CEO

Ari Paparo opens the discussion by welcoming David Helmrich as the new CEO of TripleLift, noting his prior appearances on the podcast and emphasizing the significance of his return in this leadership role.

[00:00] Ari Paparo: "David, thank you so much for being here."

David Helmrich responds warmly, expressing enthusiasm about returning to the show and embarking on his new role.

[01:03] David Helmrich: "Great to be here. Thanks, Ari. And good to chat again as always."

TripleLift’s Strategic Vision

Helmrich outlines TripleLift’s evolution, highlighting the company's long-standing presence in the native advertising space and its shift towards becoming the industry's only creative Supply-Side Platform (SSP). This strategic pivot focuses on leveraging creative as a "last mile" performance enhancer, aiming to improve monetization for publishers and enhance the advertising experience for brands.

[01:39] David Helmrich: "We are focusing on being the industry's only creative SSP... trying to reinvent some of the legacy formats to improve not only monetization for publishers, but better experience for advertisers."

Bridging Supply and Creative

The conversation explores how TripleLift uniquely bridges the supply side of advertising with creative innovation. Traditionally, supply-side platforms (SSPs) are not associated with the creative aspects of advertising. However, TripleLift is redefining this paradigm by offering creative tools that enable publishers and advertisers to craft non-intrusive, seamlessly integrated ads.

[03:04] Ari Paparo: "It's interesting because you usually don't think of folks who are mostly on the supply side as being on the creative side as well. So how are those two things being bridged?"

[03:19] David Helmrich: "Publishers want to create unique opportunities programmatically... and brands are trying to bring interesting things to their customers."

Innovative Ad Formats: Squeeze Back

Helmrich introduces the concept of "squeeze back" ad formats, a creative approach where the screen is split or modified to display both content and advertising simultaneously without disrupting the user experience.

[04:32] David Helmrich: "Effectively like splitting the screen or using some modified way to push down or expose both the content and the creative application at the same time."

This format ensures that ads are integrated organically into the viewing experience, enhancing engagement without feeling intrusive.

Tools and Capabilities for Clients

TripleLift provides a suite of tools designed to assist clients in creating and deploying effective ad campaigns. Helmrich explains how the company leverages existing client assets—such as product images, logos, and copy—to generate contextually relevant and seamlessly integrated ads.

[05:00] David Helmrich: "We use some of the capabilities in the company to look at the image, understand the product, color scheme, use a contextual engine to assess the publisher page in real time... resulting in an ad that looks like it's part of the site."

For scenarios where existing formats or creative assets fall short, TripleLift offers managed services or tools to develop bespoke ad experiences, ensuring flexibility and customization for diverse client needs.

Expanding into Retail Media

A significant portion of the discussion focuses on TripleLift’s initiatives in retail media. Helmrich details the company's collaboration with Amazon to enhance retail advertising through an "adaptive commerce solution." This innovation allows advertisers to integrate Amazon's ASINs (Amazon Standard Identification Numbers) into their campaigns, optimizing product placement based on real-time data and target audience insights.

[07:13] David Helmrich: "We built an adaptive commerce solution... It optimizes to select that ASIN based on the target audience, applying live elements like pricing, deals, and ratings."

This integration streamlines the advertising process for retailers, enabling them to leverage existing product data without the need for additional data feeds or uploads. The result is a more efficient and effective advertising strategy that aligns closely with consumer behavior and preferences.

Driving Performance with Data

While specific performance data from the Amazon collaboration remains undisclosed, TripleLift has observed impressive engagement metrics across its responsive commerce formats. Helmrich shares that their approaches have yielded nearly threefold increases in engagement, significantly lower costs per click, and about a 50% higher return on ad spend (ROAS).

[09:51] David Helmrich: "Engagement is almost 3x more... three times higher click-through rate... 50% higher return on ad spend."

These metrics highlight TripleLift's ability to not only engage existing audiences more effectively but also attract new customers to the advertised products.

Focus on Connected TV (CTV)

The episode further delves into TripleLift’s initiatives in the Connected TV (CTV) space. Helmrich explains how the company is enhancing CTV advertising through "enhanced spots" and "shoppable video" formats. These innovations enable more interactive and engaging ad experiences within CTV environments, seamlessly blending storytelling with commerce.

[11:08] David Helmrich: "We have product spotlight capability using QR codes to drive engagement in new ways... enhanced shoppable video pairing retail media demand with better storytelling."

TripleLift's deep integrations with nearly 80% of the top 25 publishers ensure access to premium inventory, allowing for the creation of unique and impactful ad experiences that stand out in the crowded CTV landscape.

Competitive Advantage and Market Position

When questioned about TripleLift’s competitive edge against tech giants like Google, Amazon, and Facebook, Helmrich attributes TripleLift's advantage to its specialized focus and agility.

[16:08] David Helmrich: "It's not their focus. Amazon is focused intensely on third-party inventory and integrations, which benefits us... Very hard to do and not something current public SSPs can easily replicate."

TripleLift’s concentrated expertise in creative advertising solutions and its ability to swiftly adapt to market changes position it favorably against larger competitors who may not prioritize these aspects.

Quick Lightning Round

In a brief segment, Helmrich shares personal insights:

• Biggest Challenge: Managing time and focus to maximize value across the company.

  [15:39] David Helmrich: "Time and focus. Trying to spend time with as many people in the company as possible and only focus on things that yield the most value."

• Number One Competitive Advantage: Creative capabilities.

  [15:57] David Helmrich: "Creative."

• Why TripleLift Won’t Be Crushed by Giants: Specialized focus and the ability to deliver unique, high-quality solutions that larger companies may overlook.

  [16:08] David Helmrich: "It's not their focus... very hard to do and not something current public SSPs can probably handle."

• Animal Metaphor: TripleLift as a hummingbird—fast-paced, agile, creative, and impactful despite its size.

  [16:51] David Helmrich: "Hummingbird... fast-paced and agile... super creative... impactful despite size."

Conclusion

David Helmrich’s leadership marks a pivotal moment for TripleLift as the company continues to innovate at the intersection of creative advertising and programmatic technology. By expanding into retail media and CTV, and maintaining a strong focus on creative excellence, TripleLift is well-positioned to drive significant value for publishers and advertisers alike. This episode of Marketecture Podcast offers valuable insights into the future of advertising technology and TripleLift’s role in shaping it.

Ari Paparo: "Thank you for listening to the Market podcast. New episodes come out every Friday..."

For more in-depth discussions and executive interviews, visit Marketecture.tv and subscribe to their newsletter or join their community.

Transcript

[Ari Paparo]

This podcast is brought to you by Adelaide Media verification and measurement are undergoing major disruption. Legacy players are pivoting to performance. Advertising AI is reshaping brand safety and attention is replacing viewability. Adelaide is leading the shift with au, a new way to assess media quality that scores placements based on their potential to drive attention and outcomes. Before your ads run, think of it like a credit score for media. Finally, a clear view of quality. Before you buy, take the guesswork out of your investment strategy and try Adelaide AU on your next campaign. Welcome to Market where you can get smart fast with in depth interviews of leading technology executives. I'm Ari Paparo and I'm joined today by the new CEO of Tripolift, David Helmrich, who has been on the show before in other jobs and we've had Triple Lift on the show with other people. So we're going full circle here. Dave, thank you so much for being here.

[David Helmrich]

Great to be here. Thanks, Ari. And good to chat again as always.

[Ari Paparo]

Yeah, and congrats on the new jobs. How long have you been in the job?

[David Helmrich]

Thank you. I think as of today. Today's April 11th. I started February 11th, so you could say 60 days, but it's really like 58. Okay, 59 tomorrow.

[Ari Paparo]

Yep. So now, now the hard work starts, right?

[David Helmrich]

I think the hard work is always there. It just depends on how much you lean into it.

[Ari Paparo]

Okay, so probably everyone listening to this has heard of triple if they have a vision in their mind of the company as sort of this exchange. Native exchange. So what is triple if nowadays Triple.

[David Helmrich]

Lift has, you know, been in the business for a long time. The, you know, the company originally started focusing on purely native and native as a solution and was heavily instrumental in the native spec. The big area of our focus today is, you know, focusing on being the industry's only creative ssp. So we're working on a couple of things, you know, reinforcing the opportunity to use creative as a last mile performance. Right. I, I believe along with the research that creative has been underserved. It has not been as much of a focus. So trying to reinvent some of the legacy formats to improve not only monetization for publishers, but better experience for advertisers. And for those of us that spend time sort of, you know, in media, obviously a better, you know, better experience for us. We're also using that sort of creative capability and component level tech to, to drive impact in retail media. You know, we're going to focus on CTV and we continue to focus on CTV and you know, trying to leverage our Our core to obviously drive, you know, creative and ultimately better performance. You know, so not just a delivery system, but, you know, trying to help people use that delivery system in a unique way to drive better creative application.

[Ari Paparo]

It's interesting because you usually don't think of folks who are mostly on the supply side as being on the creative side as well. So how are, how are those two things being bridged? Are agencies or advertisers coming to you looking for ideas on the creative side?

[David Helmrich]

It's actually, I would say it's not only publishers that are coming to us, because what publishers want to do, you know, whether it's in the upfronts or it's in web or video, publishers want to create unique opportunities for them to expose programmatically.

[Ari Paparo]

Okay.

[David Helmrich]

It helps, you know, whether you are creating a programmatic pause ad like DirecTV or you have some sort of unique squeeze back or format as a publisher. So publishers are always trying to find ways to improve, you know, either monetization or unique capability. Right. That's not new. And then a lot of it is coming from brands. You know, I was at, I was in Detroit last night at an event and the amount of conversations we had, you know, with some of the largest automotive manufacturers and OEMs in the world, talking about what can we do differently for, you know, this new launch or this new experience or this new campaign. So it's actually coming from the publishers, it's coming from the brands. And obviously the advertisers are trying to bring interesting things to their customers.

[Ari Paparo]

You said squeeze back. What is a squeezeback? Is that a push down?

[David Helmrich]

Yeah, I mean it's, you know, there's a number of different ways to apply it, but effectively like split, splitting the screen or using some modified way on web or in screen or in TV to sort of push down or expose both the content and the creative application at the same time.

[Ari Paparo]

I see. And so what sort of tools do you offer to these clients? You mentioned the automotive clients. Like what are they doing? How are they using triple lift?

[David Helmrich]

Yeah. So, you know, one example is, you know, we have customers that come to us with the idea. So we will expose, you know, the ability in like, you know, so we, you know, for example, if a brand wants to run a campaign, you know, we need four assets, right. So, and most of those should be in their toolkit. Right. We need the product image, we need the logo, the copy, you know, some call to action. And you know, they don't need to spend, you know, anything, you know, new to actually create that so we use some of the capabilities in the company to look at the image, right. Understand the product in the image, understand the focal points, color scheme, all sorts of tech we can look at, use a contextual engine to look at the publisher page in real time. So what's the topic? The layout, placement, size. And then the result of that, and this is again, programmatic, based on all the tools, is an ad that looks like it's part of the site. Right. Not an, not an intrusion. You know, it renders sort of perfectly with regard, without regard to the shape or the environment or the placement. So, you know, that's one way that's actually happening today. Now, if there are things that don't, you know, fit, you know, either in existing format or capability or they don't have the creative, you know, we'll work with those teams either on a managed service basis or help them with some of our tools to actually create those experiences. So, you know, the big part of our business is obviously doing all of this in programmatic, you know, but we realize that many of these things don't come out of the box.

[Ari Paparo]

Yeah.

[David Helmrich]

So, you know, so, you know, much like we did obviously at Innovid, you know, there's some things that we actually have to build for people because this is a new motion, new muscle, sort of new experience.

[Ari Paparo]

Yeah, of course. And so let's talk retail media, because you brought it up and I know there's been some announcements. So what is Lif doing there?

[David Helmrich]

So we had an announcement, I think, you know, last year, sort of mid last year, before I started, where we have been working with Amazon for quite some time to roll out effectively a better experience for retail buyers. And the whole point of that was pretty simple. Like there's already an immense amount of information that exists in Amazon in both product detail page. Right. Which. And it's also powered by an Amazon identifier, right. It's called an asin. And that ASIN is the key to unlock, you know, to unlock all of the details for a product on a product detail page. So what we built was, was effectively this adaptive commerce. We called it an adaptive commerce solution. And if you go to Amazon's, you know, if you go to Amazon's, sort of, they call it responsive E commerce creative. And what they can do with endemic advertisers is with us basically add the product ASINs that they actually want to target and then the responsive capability that we've built with them will optimize to select that ASIN based on the target audience and then it takes all of the live elements that already exist in the product detail page. Things like pricing, deals, ratings and all of that will be applied in all of the third party source, you know, supply that we expose to them. So go ahead.

[Ari Paparo]

Yeah, so you expose to them. So this is a product that's tied to the Amazon dsp.

[David Helmrich]

It's tied. Correct? Correct, yep.

[Ari Paparo]

When it bids on your inventory.

[David Helmrich]

Correct.

[Ari Paparo]

I see. Okay.

[David Helmrich]

Yeah.

[Ari Paparo]

Nice way to put a bow on that.

[David Helmrich]

Well, yeah, yeah, great way to describe it for sure. The point that. The point was very simply not to recreate a new data feed or a new upload or a new product category or and try to remove the friction so that they can ultimately activate what they're already doing with brands today on third party inventory that we're bringing to them.

[Ari Paparo]

Sure. That's pretty innovative. Instead of making their DSP do all that work, you. You kind of give them a solution to get the inventory purchased. The and the. Do you have any data about whether that performs better than normal creatives?

[David Helmrich]

Well, we do have a lot of data on sort of how overall, you know, the responsive commerce formats work. And you know we do. Do we have that specifically from Amazon yet? You know, yes, but you know, we're not disclosing sort of the results of those things yet. But you know, overall they're like. And this is overall including what we're doing with everyone, the engagement is almost 3x more engagement and that's across every format. Right. So it's across native rec. I think the REC formats that we have exposed are. And I'll get the numbers mostly right but partially wrong. Like three, like a three times higher click through rate. We've seen it with e commerce agencies that are using the same capability. A much lower cost per click and about a 50% higher return on ad spend. We're also delivering incremental new customers.

[Ari Paparo]

Got it.

[David Helmrich]

So it's not just going after existing audience and more performance from the same audience. It's actually bringing net new people into those products.

[Ari Paparo]

Cool. So what's going on in CTV with TripoLivia?

[David Helmrich]

Yeah, CTV is something that we spend a lot of time on and it's. I think if you think about the last discussion we just had, it's not CTV or Retail media. Right. Or CTV or Retail or Creative. The capability that we've built is directly applicable to what's happening in onsite and off site inventory for retail media. It's also the same in ctv.

[Ari Paparo]

Okay.

[David Helmrich]

So we have spent time on a couple of things we've focused on you know, our, what we call enhanced spots. So you know, trying to leverage like two pieces of capability from a company. One, you know, understanding when we can actually create a unique experience. Right. We talked about sort of like those overlays or split screen formats like that appear during shows, not just commercial breaks. Right. We call those enhanced spots and we have product spotlight capability there. You know, we use QR codes to integrate that to drive engagement in new ways. Some of the things we're doing there is trying to again leverage unique opportunities with publishers to create better units. Right. Rather than just cramming an IAB into a pause or into some extra space, you know, using things to do like in show so placement within content. We have enhanced shoppable video. So like pairing retail media demand with like better storytelling for commerce driven brands in specific content. And you know, we're also directly integrated with you know, almost 80% of the top 25 publishers which is, you know, which have most of the inventory. So we're spending a lot of time going after premium supply where we can create a unique experience.

[Ari Paparo]

And just so I understand. So some of this is pipe work. Like if I, if I have a creative and I have a dsp, I can just buy the CTV through you and then others is like this value add creative format capability.

[David Helmrich]

Yep.

[Ari Paparo]

Yeah.

[David Helmrich]

And it's. Yes, yes. Some of it is pipe. Right. We actually, you know, until we actually have the integrations and do the work, we can't actually create anything new. So there is some basic blocking and tackling that has to get done to create new capability. You know, obviously with that integration we're trying to, you know, bring a better experience to some of these publishers and obviously performance will, will drive that adoption. But the other part of it is just trying to give them something unique that sets them apart in the sales process. Especially when consumers. I don't know how many streaming services you lice, you know, you license or subscribe to, but a lot. Yeah, same way, too many. So can I, you know, if Taylor Sheridan builds a beautiful show and there's a pause on Paramount plus, is it, is it a great experience or is it just something jammed in there that is disruptive in the format?

[Ari Paparo]

And how, how consultative is this? Like if I'd imagine when you start talking creative, you have to start talking about consulting and help, right?

[David Helmrich]

Yeah, I think it is. It's absolutely a consultative both on the, both on the, both on the go to market teams, but also in the product Org. But to be clear, we're not going to Univision or DirecTV and telling them something that they don't know already. It's more about helping them understand what's possible because people have known about triple lift for a long time and they say, oh well, you guys are this company. Well, that is true. And we also do, you know, X, Y and Z. And we do, we have a data fuel business based on the acquisition. We also have CTV expertise. We also have deep retail media expertise in the company. I think part of this is it's an education journey in many ways too.

[Ari Paparo]

Got it, got it. All right, let's, let's move to quick lightning round, quick questions, quick answers. I think you're a pro at this. What, what is your biggest challenge?

[David Helmrich]

The biggest challenge is, is my personal biggest challenge is time and focus. Trying to spend time with as many people in the company as possible and also only focus on the things that are going to yield the, you know, the most value.

[Ari Paparo]

Got it. And what is your number one competitive advantage? The company, the creative.

[David Helmrich]

Creative.

[Ari Paparo]

The. I ask this of everyone, so like, why won't like Google, Amazon, Facebook, etc. Just crush you?

[David Helmrich]

I think it's not their, it's not their focus. Amazon is focused intensely on third party inventory and integrations, which is, which is benefit for us. Google, I think you, you delivered a master class at architecture on where, what will happen if Google has any antitrust action. If that ever, if that ever happens.

[Ari Paparo]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[David Helmrich]

But this is something that's very, very hard to do and it is not something that, you know, Even current public SSPs will probably have the ability or the time, you know, to spend a lot of area, you know, a lot of time to focus on.

[Ari Paparo]

All right, last question. If triplift was an animal, what animal would it be?

[David Helmrich]

I'm actually going to go with I prepared this time. By the way, compared to the last time when you asked me this question, I would actually say hummingbird.

[Ari Paparo]

Oh yeah, that's a good one.

[David Helmrich]

And for a couple of reasons. One, fast paced and agile. Like we have the ability to move with speed and that's what I love about the business. Super creative, right? We sort of were able to navigate a fairly complex environment and the last is just impactful despite size.

[Ari Paparo]

Yep, that's a good answer. All right, Dave from Tripolif, thank you so much for being here. Thank you for listening to the Market podcast. New episodes come out every Friday and an insightful vendor interview is published each Monday. You can subscribe to our library of hundreds of executive interviews at Markitecture tv. You can also sign up for free for our weekly newsletter with my original strategic insights on the week's news at News Market tv. And if you're feeling social, we operate a vibrant Slack community that you can apply to join at adtechgod. Com.