Ciaran O'Kane
CEO
Articles by Ciaran
Time To Reframe The Industry: Digital Media & Commerce Ecosystem
Facebook, Amazon and Google are unbeatable; just go and work for them. This is what the evolved part of your brain tells you on a daily basis. And, to a certain extent, it’s not wrong given how many senior ad tech people are finding refuge with the monopolies. It’s an easy life with free food – a place where you can coast until you are ready for your retirement. Yawn. Now here is the counterpoint. Yes, in display advertising these three [...]
TagsAppleCTVDOOHE-CommerceFacebookGoogleIDIdentityPost-Cookie
Reframing The Industry: The MadTech Middleware
The ad ecosystem map has been a staple of this industry for a good decade. From Scott Brinker’s Sistine Chapel martech work to the omnipresent ‘tidy box’ vendor map, we have used these resources to better understand the multitude of madtech offerings. There is nothing wrong with using these vendor maps as an overview, but I think in the post-cookie, privacy-first era, most will be redundant. I also think that there continues to be a huge overlap between vendors in [...]
TagsAd TechattributionDataDisplayDOOHGamingMeasurementPrivacy
Time To Reframe The Industry: The Service Layer
What do you do when the entire structure that acted as the foundation of a multi-billion dollar industry collapses in on itself? It’s not an easy question to answer. And an even more difficult problem to solve. But that’s where we are as an industry right now. The third-party cookie was the measurement and targeting currency for the better part of twenty-odd years. And now that currency is about to be taken out of circulation. I still think people in the industry [...]
ATS London 2021: Reframing The Future Of Our Industry
Google said its long goodbye to third-party ad tech last week. In a typically ambiguous post, the company explained to the world that it would no longer use cross-site identifiers in its browser or across its ad tech stack. All in the name of privacy, allegedly. To be frank, Google’s post left more questions than answers. The news sent the industry into a frenzy. Most of us are in a state of general confusion, but there is one thing we can all [...]
SPAC, PE or IPO: 2021 Outlook for Europe's Big Ad Tech
At the tail end of last year I profiled 17 European ad tech companies that I expect to do big things in 2021. With the exception of one or two, these companies are very much at the start of their journey. In this post I am going to focus on four mature, scaled European ad tech companies that, in the year ahead, will be looking at various financial options. Criteo Criteo is the undisputed king of European ad tech. It has successfully [...]
17 European Ad Tech Companies that Will Have A Big 2021
There are lots of startups emerging from Europe that are addressing measurement and targeting in a privacy-first world. Below I profile 17 European ad tech companies that will have a big 2021, and why you, dear readers, need to keep an eye on them. The 17 cut across the sweet spots of ad tech right now: privacy, ID, context, measurement, emerging channels (gaming mostly), and shopping commerce. 1. Zeotap It’s been a stellar year for Zeotap. The company to date has done [...]
TagsAd TechContextCookiesDataE-CommerceEMEAEuropeFranceGamingIdentityIn-GameInvestmentM&ANordics
From The Outside Looking In: 5 Ideas For Publishers in A Corona Revenue Vortex
Publishers are having a hard time monetising their inventory right now. Despite the fact that many are drowning in traffic, the corona revenue bump has yet to materialise. Aggressive coronavirus keyword blocking by brands is contributing to a dip in revenue for publishers. The irony of this situation is so thick you could almost eat it. What can a publisher do? Plead to the better nature of brand spenders? Not going to happen. No brand wants to appear against negative stories [...]
The 'Great Fragmentation' is Here: A Glorious Opportunity for the Industry & Investors
These are strange times, readers. COVID continues to tear away at the socio-economic fabric of the world. The once noble institutions of the ad tech ‘POWA’ breakfast, and the extended media lunch, have been reduced to sad Zoom/Google Meet/Microsoft Teams calls. And to top it all off, our industry is slowly being chewed alive in the cookie crunch. I’ve always been a contrarian by nature. When things are going well, I am deeply sceptical and fearful of unseen disasters. When things [...]
TagsAd NetworkAd TechAmazonContextFacebookGoogleIdentityMeasurement
9 Wild Predictions for MadTech & More
It is this time of year when we traditionally head to the BFI Southbank for ATS London; a day-long feast of madtech content. Most then hop on a plane the next day to Cologne for a 48-hour bonanza of networking and socialising. Unfortunately due to Covid-19, both the Glastonbury of ad tech, namely ATS London, and the physical DMEXCO have been canceled. Sure, virtual events fill a tiny slice of this empty void – but ultimately it’s a bit like eating dry [...]
TagsAgencyATS LondondmexcoEMEAGoogleIdentityIndustry InfrastructureM&ASSP
ExchangeWire Connect: Enabling New Business in the Lockdown Era
Never waste a crisis to affect meaningful change, they say. It’s easier said than done when an entire industry is still trying to figure out how to conduct normal business in this new reality. Zoom, Google Meet et al are a help. But let’s be honest here, there is nothing more binding from a network-building perspective, than the face-to-face meeting, or the after-work pint in the pub, or – my personal favorite – the ‘power’ breakfast. Is the virtual meeting to be [...]
