What 15 Years in Digital Media Taught Me About Platform Advertising

Digital media has changed dramatically over the past 15 years.

Websites, display, publisher networks, programmatic, data platforms, social, mobile, video, retail media, CTV and now AI have all changed the way advertisers think about audiences and growth.

But one pattern I have seen has stayed consistent across every shift: each new advertising model needs translation before the market is ready to invest in it at scale.

It is not enough to have a new platform, format or technology. Buyers, sellers and brands need to understand why it matters, how it works and what role it should play in a plan.

What this perspective is useful for now

The value of looking across different stages of digital media is pattern recognition. Many of today’s trends — retail media, CTV, platform advertising, AI and clean rooms — are new in execution, but familiar in commercial challenge.

Each requires the market to understand a new value exchange. What audience or behaviour is valuable? What problem does the platform solve? How does the technology change planning or buying? How should success be measured? What does the advertiser need to believe before investment grows?

That is where experience across media sales, programmatic, data and marketing technology can be useful. It helps connect emerging trends back to practical commercial questions.

Final thought

My view is that the next phase of advertising will reward people who can move between disciplines — media, data, technology and commercial strategy — and translate complexity into something a buyer or a board can act on.

The platforms, formats and acronyms will keep changing. The commercial questions behind them tend to rhyme.