Todd Heger

With principle-based buying returning to the forefront, Brian Chap's recipe for agency accountability takes me back to Jon Mandel's explosive rebate disclosures back in March 2015. Jon's kimono-opening moment was undoubtedly the catalyst that woke us all up to the billions leaking from media budgets by way of non-transparent kickbacks and fees. The can of worms has yet to be closed. That's why principle-based buying doesn't sit well with me. It feels like we're rewinding the tape after making so much progress over the last decade. BUT ... if you're a client-side media buyer that chooses to engage with a principle-based agency, there are three of Brian's "BENCH" framework activities that I think should be prioritized to the top. These three are relatively simple to do and can dramatically increase transparency and accountability. 1 - Secure platform access to your ad server, your DSP and the major SSPs through whom you are buying. Ensure you know how to compare media costs at each step in the supply-chain. 2 - Conduct audits. Whether as Brian recommends or simply by contacting a handful of publishers where you buy media, you should be able to reconcile your cost input to your media value output. And while you're at it, you'll be strengthening your direct publisher relationships, which has many longer-term benefits both in terms of media cost and priority. 3 - Most definitely hold your agency accountable. This applies also to every adtech vendor in your media supply-chain. I am not a fan of principle-based media buying. But if you're going to try it out, you need to remember that this is far from a set-it-and-forget-it approach to advertising. https://lnkd.in/eDw-Z3w8

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Jon Watts from AdExchanger “There’s this promise in the industry of completely accurate, deterministic data that matches sophisticated and vast advertising targets and attributes onto individuals and households,” Watts said. “This leads marketers to believe that when they buy against a particular target, they’re reaching that target – and, unsurprisingly, the truth is much more complicated than that.” This why Eaglecom talks more about economic media buying approach than precise targeting for nonprofits when it comes to to driving giving demand. https://lnkd.in/ewcJA37t

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Michel Lacaille of Mediaclip writes about why Q5 and Early Q1 (December 26 through early March) represent a prime opportunity to convert holiday buyers into repeat customers, with lower competition, warmer audiences, and emotionally-driven use cases. https://ow.ly/Ytmi50YnzlH

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Happy to help our partners at Amazon with this measurement initiative. Proof that real purchase data, not modeled proxies, is what closes the gap between streaming exposure and verified sales outcomes.

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"If you believe the shift of viewing and ad spend to streaming is alarming, the onslaught of AI buying and how you prepare for it should be far more concerning." As if linear TV monetization isn't hard enough these days. Read my column in TVNewscheck today to learn how broadcasters should be preparing for AI buying in the very near future. Thank you, Jon Accarrino, for the fact-checking and editing guidance you provided this week. https://lnkd.in/edJ2PFGH

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Last week I attended The Paley Center for Media’s Media Council discussion on the New Rules of Streaming, and honestly, the biggest takeaway was this: No one in this industry gets to stand still. What struck me wasn’t just how fast things are changing. It was how openly leaders acknowledged that success now depends on embracing change, not managing around it. One executive described it as running toward the mayhem, which feels like a pretty accurate description of media right now. A few things that stayed with me: • The companies winning aren’t the ones with the most content. They’re the ones delivering the most value. • Bundles aren’t dead. Bad bundles are. Smart, relevant ones will return in new forms. • Discovery is about to shift dramatically toward predictive, conversational experiences. • Time spent isn’t the end metric. It’s the starting point for understanding why audiences choose you. What resonated personally is how consistent this consumer-first shift is with what I learned years ago in cinema. Success depended on understanding the full audience journey, from deciding to attend, to selecting a theater and showtime, to what people did before and after the movie. That mindset is now becoming the standard across streaming and television. The platforms that win will be the ones that understand people best, not just content best. #FutureOfMedia #ConsumerBehavior #Streaming

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It's 2026 - do you know where your CTV spend is? You should. With DV, you can. Stop wasting. Start thriving, with Authentic StreamingTV.

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As CTV becomes a larger part of media buys, understanding accuracy of IP address linkage is critical. Gregg Galletta from Truthset shares the financial impact of leakage and bad targeting. At the Marketbridge and Association of National Advertisers one-day conference on quality.

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CMOs demand guaranteed delivery, lowest CPMs, strategic flexibility, and outcome-based pricing. Physics says you can't have all four simultaneously. Principal media delivers three of them. The question is which three matter most. Forrester's new principal media report from the inimitable Jay Pattisall is very much worth a read, and it's going to trigger the predictable debate. Critics will argue agencies are creating conflicts. Evangelists will tout cost savings. Both will miss the strategic reality: CMOs facing compression don't have the luxury of perfect markets. I've watched boards push CMOs for guaranteed outcomes while slashing budgets. In that environment, academic arguments about strategic flexibility mean nothing. The anti-principal media argument assumes unlimited client patience, perfect information, and rational markets. Reality looks different. Reality is: your board wants cost certainty so they can model P&L without media volatility. Reality is: your CFO wants guaranteed delivery so you're not scrambling for Super Bowl inventory in scatter markets. Reality is: your CEO wants outcome-based pricing that ties media spend to business results. Principal media trades strategic flexibility for the three things boards actually care about: cost certainty, delivery guarantee, and outcome alignment. The Forrester report shows 80% of marketers are interested in principal media advantages. That's not because CMOs are naive about conflicts of interest. It's because they're making rational trade-offs under real constraints. The criticism of principal media comes from people who've never faced the impossible triangle. They can afford to optimize for strategic flexibility because they're not accountable for the P&L impact when media costs spike or inventory disappears. Yes, principal media requires transparency. Yes, it needs contractual controls and performance accountability. Yes, clients should cap how much spend flows through principal arrangements. But the mechanism itself? It's agencies finally building inventory positions that enable the outcome-based pricing we've demanded for years. I'm a big supporter as, for two decades, I've watched CMOs demand that agencies move from billing hours to pricing on outcomes. "Put skin in the game," they said. "Share the risk." Now agencies are doing exactly that with principal media, and the industry is calling it a conflict of interest. We can't have it both ways. Forrester predicts principal media will grow to one-third of billings by 2026. Read their report, then decide which three variables matter most for your business. https://lnkd.in/eKHg5qmk #PrincipalMedia #MediaBuying #CMO #MarketingLeadership #MarketingStrategy

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Parks Associates research shows that the streaming stack has been flat for several years, with streaming video subscription plateauing at 89% of US households and each streaming household subscribing to ~5.7 paid streaming services. Consumers are facing rising cost of living across all categories. This has led to are cutting higher priced services, typically pay TV, and moving to cheaper ad-supported plans to afford multiple SVOD services. The use of FAST and AVOD services grew by 6 points YoY, reaching 47% of US households in Q1 2025, as the number of these services available to consumers expands." https://lnkd.in/gdTHB4aD

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