As a publishing veteran, Jim Spanfeller takes a skeptical view of ad tech. It’s not that the former Forbes.com CEO doesn’t think technology is important to modern media companies — he does — it’s just that he sees too much attention, energy and venture capital devoted to systems that commoditize ad inventory.
Speaking at the Digiday Publishing Summit in West Palm Beach, Fla., the publisher of The Daily Meal laid out his case that the ad tech era is coming to a close, as venture capitalists realize the “myopia with demand fulfillment” in ad tech isn’t that great for returns. And it’s unclear how all this activity has improved the fortunes of marketers and publishers.
“We’re seeing lots and lots of money being sucked out by the middlemen,” he said.
There are other issues. Spanfeller points out the problems with online data accuracy. After all, he wonders, why do data providers sell 25 million auto intenders segments that are presumed to buy a car within three months when well less than half that number buy cars each year? What’s more, the “ugly tonnage” of online media today means that prices continue to decline. And systems that are notionally an improvement over the black box world of the ad network are themselves rather opaque.
“All of this money has flowed into ad tech but not a lot of profits have been generated out of it,” Spanfeller noted.
Ad position: web_incontent_pos1
See the full video of Spanfeller’s presentation below.
More in Media
NewFronts Briefing: Samsung, Condé Nast, Roku focus presentations on new ad formats and category-specific inventory
Day two of IAB’s NewFronts featured presentations from Samsung, Condé Nast and Roku, highlighting new partnerships, ad formats and inventory, as well as new AI capabilities.
The Athletic to raise ad prices as it paces to hit 3 million newsletter subscribers
The New York Times’ sports site The Athletic is about to hit 3 million total newsletter subscribers. It plans to raise ad prices as as a result of this nearly 20% year over year increase.
NewFronts Briefing: Google, Vizio and news publishers pitch marketers with new ad offerings and range of content categories
Day one of the 2024 IAB NewFronts featured presentations from Google and Vizio, as well as a spotlight on news publishers.
Ad position: web_bfu