What is ad tech focusing on this year?

In this AdExchanger column, Scott Messer, Media SVP at Leaf Group, argues that publishers must actively participate in the fundamental rebuilding of identity that’s underway. Only by collaborating on new identity standards, demanding more from their SSPs, and valuing their own identity gardens and identified traffic at a premium, can publishers regain control.

Ari Paparo, CEO of Beeswax, spoke with Ronan Shields of Adweek on what mattered in 2020. “I think the industry is somewhat paralyzed by the confusing and half-baked proposals that Google keeps putting out,” Ari said. “Effectively, we have the largest web browser giving us vague deadlines and vague technical solutions to really big important problems, and that just has everyone frozen because they’re not sure how to act.”

Recent industry developments have made it crucial for publishers to understand and showcase the value of their first-party audience. Digiday reported on how Complex, a niche media network that targets the millennial and Gen-Z audience, built its own audience insights panel, called Complex Collective, to bypass the guessing games and boost its offerings to advertisers by giving them more information on key demographics.

France’s data protection agency, the CNIL, has slapped Google and Amazon with fines for dropping tracking cookies without consent. Google has been hit with a total penalty of €100 million ($120 million) for dropping cookies on Google.fr and Amazon €35 million (~$42 million) for doing so on the Amazon.fr domain under the notices issued.