LUMA Partners

Catch up on LUMA’s Q3 2024 Market Report outlining the latest Media, Marketing, and Digital Content data.

We’re Ready for 2025: LUMA’s Events Preview! Mark your calendars and keep an eye out . . . brand-new events to be announced! Connect today to learn more about how to engage with LUMA: marketing@lumapartners.com. Flagship and Signature Events: 📅 May 13 – DMS BY LUMA | New York City 📅 June 16 – LUMA Blanc | Cannes, France 📅 October (TBA) – LUMA’s Future of TV Dinner | New York City

- AppLovin surpasses $100 billion market cap - TheTradeDesk launches its Ventura TV OS - DOJ calls for Google to sell Chrome in search antitrust case remedy - Comcast announces spinoff of cable networks - Mediaocean acquires Innovid for $500 million - Closing arguments in Google Ad Tech antitrust case Don't sleep on Ad Tech!

Press play and get into it!

Very good conversation between Stephen Yap and Conor McKenna on Google’s AMER Partner Center. Thank you for having us!

There is a lot to discuss. The livestream kicks off at 12 PM ET today. https://lnkd.in/eZ4PVv8D

I'm looking forward to the Beet Retreat in Santa Monica where I have no less than 5 sessions: a keynote, 2 firesides, a roundtable discussion moderation and a parody performance. If you add up the hours, it pays less than working at McDonalds!

Conor McKenna will share his insights on key highlights across commerce media, the open web, creative tech, and what the digital ecosystem should expect as we move into 2025 at Grit Capital Partners’ Privtech Invest.

The Ad Tech sector loves a three-letter acronym (TLA) and their application is rampant, used to describe categories like DSP, SSP, DMP, CDP, CMP, etc. But perhaps one of the most consequential TLAs that may be less well known is SPO, which stands for Supply Path Optimization. We’ve been suggesting SPO as a fix that would improve the ecosystem for years and the trend is now picking up steam. Essentially, we have a complex, murky and inefficient supply chain in programmatic digital advertising. SPO is a term that encompasses a variety of efforts to simplify the supply chain and make it more efficient. Want to: - Bundle select media with audience data for better results? CURATION. - Eliminate hops between demand and supply for better data husbandry? HORIZONTALITY. - Reduce bid duplication to cut out waste and lower the carbon footprint? SUSTAINABILITY. - Shine a light on supply sources to minimize bad actors? SHENANIGANS. - Reduce the number of intermediaries who each have a take rate? AD TECH TAX. - Resolve over-fragmentation that creates dark corners? PERPETUAL IMMATURITY. SPO, if done right will produce an ecosystem that features: - Fewer players, doing - Higher volumes, at - Lower take rates, with - Better quality This would result in advertisers getting better ROI on their ad spend, publishers receiving higher yield on their inventory, intermediaries with better margins, less data leakage and a cleaner and brighter supply chain that would benefit quality publishers, minimize MFA sites and reduce fraud. This would be a very good thing!

There is no doubt that AppLovin is on quite a run. The stock up 45% today off strong earnings and guidance and up a whopping +500% on the year. While there is a lot to say about the Company itself, what's key to note is the model it shows for independent ad tech. Namely, the importance of tying very strong AI / ML optimization to the increasingly scarce resource of Data. In many ways, the Mobile App ecosystem is the canary in the coal mine for the ad tech writ large, as they went through a major loss of data starting in '21. This wreaked havoc on the mobile advertising ecosystem sending revenues flat to down, including for the large walled gardens. Over the last year, that has begun to change, but not because of new data access, instead it's how that data is being used. Applovin launched their AXON 2.0 product in Q2 of '23 and since then have shown incredibly strong software revenue growth every quarter. This mirrors what the walled gardens did with Advantage+ and PerformanceMax, putting more power into the hands of the models to drive better performance, with less data. While access to data is still incredibly important (and foundational to all of these), arguably the power of optimization models is the bigger driver going forward. This is a concept we're watching closely as the broader ad tech ecosystem sets up for more 3rd party data deprecation, CTV leans into the longer tail of advertisers, and new commerce / 1P Data platforms consider what role they can play in the ad tech ecosystem.