This week on AdExchanger Talks, 614 Group CEO and Founder Rob Rasko graces the studio for a discussion of the changing nature of programmatic and entrepreneurship.
2018 was a year of change in programmatic, exemplified by Xandr’s acquisition of AppNexus. The deal has created uncertainty: Where will networks that used to transact on the AppNexus platform go if Xandr/AT&T becomes inhospitable?
“There is no new AppNexus, but maybe there will be one coming,” Rasko says. “It doesn’t have to be independent to be successful, but the question is going to be how a large company like AT&T accepts these small companies into its fold from a terms-and-conditions perspective.”
But even if consolidation spawns a new wave of startups, those new companies are unlikely to do much that is truly new. The big opportunity now lies elsewhere – specifically, in helping marketers deal with the complicated matrix of data out there. Solutions include DMPs, CDPs, marketing clouds and customized stacks put together by consulting firms.
“The innovation is going to come in how you manage all that data – whether it’s artificial intelligence, and some amount of AI exists already,” Rasko says. “That’s where the innovation’s going to come. It’s not necessarily going to come from another measurement company or another ad network or another exchange. You might get more of those, but it’s not necessarily innovation. The innovation is more intricate ways of managing data so that we can accomplish some of these actual practical goals that marketers have to help drive sales.”
This episode is sponsored by Verizon Media
