The ad industry has a junk food problem.

We all understand that simple, whole foods hold the most nutrition. A strawberry is a strawberry. The nutritional value is straightforward. But the more you process the fruit, grow it in pesticides, lather it in high-fructose corn syrup, and inject it with preservatives, the less nutritional value the item has. In fact, the fruit or food itself becomes unrecognizable and often even detrimental to your health, rather than being beneficial to it. 

The same dynamic is true in media.

The most effective media channels are often the most direct. But the industry has become obsessed with hyper-processing. We have fragmented the system into countless delivery methods. Agencies and vendors often convince themselves that more complexity equals more sophistication. In doing so, we have created a system that lacks transparency and usability.

Take Connected TV as a prime example. CTV is the fastest-growing and most fragmented part of the ecosystem. An advertiser can buy CTV inventory through a dozen different vendors and platforms. Each vendor has a unique delivery method, inventory, tech stack, bid strategy, and so on. The content you want, an NFL playoff game, for example, goes through many hands. From national buys, to local, cable, broadcast, streaming broadcast, YouTubeTV, multi-video player devices (MVPDs) like Sling, Xfinity, and Fubo. Don’t forget the ad supported video players (AVODs) like Tubi and Samsung TV.  

But at the end of the day, the actual nutrition, the reach and the eyeballs, comes from the same three or four major networks. The strawberry is the same. The NFL game is the same.

This complexity does not serve the advertiser. The confusion serves big tech and the ad tech supply chain.

Like big food, these companies make more money by adding more hands to the pot. Each middleman takes a cut for processing the data and packaging the delivery. These intermediaries break down the supply chain to get their percentage along the way.

Ad dollars are higher than they have ever been, yet the value of that dollar is constantly being degraded. We know that ad tech fees eat away at your media budget. By the time your dollar makes the journey through the hyper-processed supply chain, the money might be worth fifty cents to the actual publisher. 

In a biddable environment where premium inventory is limited and highly sought after, the more dollars you spend directly at the source of your buy means there is a higher likelihood you actually air when consumers are tuned in. 

It is time to demand a healthier media diet. 

Ask your partners to show you the supply chain. Demand transparency on rates. Focus on the nutritional value of your buy, not the complexity of the delivery.

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