Joseph Bossone

Performance agencies sometimes think they need to differentiate by building proprietary tech. I’ve seen that story many times — and I disagree. I recently had a check-in with two C-level execs at a performance agency. We’d been delivering exceptional results for their clients, including a $33 CPA using our machine learning optimization engine, compared to $120 manually. But performance wasn’t their focus. They'd decided to build new tech in-house. “If other agencies can use tvScientific,” they said, “we’re not unique.” It brought to mind the New York Times’ decision to build its own ad server — a costly, years-long detour that ended with a move back to DFP. The problem was a lack of clarity about what business they were really in and what they were positioned to excel at. The same applies to performance agencies. They’re not in the business of building ad tech (which is a constantly evolving, capital intensive business and is an entire business in its own right). They’re in the business of delivering outcomes. That means using the best tools available on the market and winning on superior client service. Not rebuilding tools from scratch. The edge comes from execution — knowing how to evaluate, adopt, and apply best-in-class technology to drive better results. Trying to be both a tech company and a service business is a recipe for subpar results on both fronts. Instead, invest in identifying cutting-edge technology, use it better than your competitors, and deliver both superior results and superior client service. That’s the path to agency differentiation. Just my .02. More detailed thoughts on this topic in my weekly newsletter (see comments).

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Coming off of the Beet.TV retreat last week and finally had some time for some thoughts. First, Andy Plesser put on a great conference. The conversations were private and open, and there was a general sense that everyone was there to get things done. There's power in a smaller, focused group with deep experience, with the freedom to talk openly about solving problems and discussing opportunities. Second, the CTV market is still very VERY early. There is an interesting narrative that continues to emerge. One that we at PEER39 are seeing cross our business whereas there are the upfront/PG method and the scatter/PMP programmatic method. Each has its benefits, but the theme across the board of needing more signal and transparency remains front and center. Especially for the emerging market of new advertisers that are not your typical upfront customers who have digitally native trading teams. The importance for #CTV publishers to have their inventory more discoverable to more buyers beyond their app/channel level data will be an import. The earlier aggressive content owners who build for this will win early. There's a lot of work to be done here. Third, Data interoperability and breaking down silos of media. Every channel (web, social, CTV) is operating almost individually. To consumers, these are not treated differently, but to the industry, it is almost different worlds with teams, data, creative, and media operations. Lastly, the importance (and part of the third point) - creative and message is such an important piece that is often overlooked in our hype cycles.... Especially with CTV, where there is so much new opportunity connecting creative messages to relevant content signals and various creative formats. Exciting areas to watch. PEER39 @beet.tv #CTV

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