This is a long article that speaks a lot of truth about online advertising and reinforces many of my positions.
Crush of VC-backed Ad Tech Firms May Have Inflicted One Big Mess on Digital Publishing | Adweek.
For it’s length, it doesn’t really talk about the benefits of the current display ecosystem though (namely scale and industry coordination), which is important because many of the new solutions can’t offer these things in the long run.
I don’t have a solution and frankly, I don’t think many of the smart and unbiased people in the industry do either. The ad tech ecosystem is what it is but the beauty of venture capital is that sunk costs really do not matter, as most decent VCs try to stay disciplined about throwing good money after bad. If a better solution arises and gains momentum tomorrow, it won’t be held back by funding.
Anyways, if online had cracked the brand advertising nut, I don’t think we’d be having this conversation. But again, there is no panacea– at least not yet.
