A year ago, Google announced the deprecation of third-party cookies by 2022. At Piano, we think preparing for this new world starts with building your direct user relationship, and that publishers are uniquely positioned to benefit and capture valuable zero- and first-party data. In this open forum session, join sponsor host Piano’s SVP of Strategy Michael Silberman for an open discussion on what we’re seeing in the market, how publishers are planning to solve for a cookieless future, and the building blocks for a successful transition.

High-level perspectives from leading media brand executives about the boom in audience, changes to distribution and growing competition. This will cover digital development, content differentiation, marketing, user experience, success measurement, etc.  Join us for the discussion and bring your questions to our always-lively Q&A.

Programmatic ads monetization has given publishers more data than ever before. Converting this data into actionable insights that can help publishers evaluate partner and stack effectiveness, however, requires sophisticated data science tools and talent that many publishers don't yet have. In this session, Wenda Zhou, head of media operations for IPONWEB's The Mediagrid, will lead a discussion on how automating data decisioning is helping publishers:

• Prioritize and preference demand partners based on buying patterns
• Select the right identity providers based on revenue uplift
• Understand which users are most attractive to buyers
• Make informed pricing decisions by demand channel
• Improve site experience without sacrificing revenue

The past year has been unprecedented in how it’s shaped & shifted audience behavior. MediaRadar’s CEO, Todd Krizelman, will discuss how those shifts hugely accelerated adoption (and in turn ad sales) of certain media formats. Podcasts and OTT are the unexpected beneficiaries of the pandemic. During this conversation we will talk about the rise of podcasting and OTT. Specifically, you will learn which categories are early adopters and what formats are creating enticing packages for sellers. The group will also discuss who is having success with these mediums and how others can benefit as well.

Clubhouse is a new type of social network based on voice—where people around the world come together to talk, listen and learn from each other in real time, about topics like music, comedy, politics, social justice and more. The goal of Clubhouse is to create a social experience that feels more human—where instead of posting, people can gather with other people and talk. Founded in 2020 by Paul Davison and Rohan Seth, and based in San Francisco, Clubhouse is backed by Andreessen Horowitz. Anyone can join Clubhouse with an invite from an existing user, or sign up for the waitlist. 

Imprecise and overly aggressive brand safety methods can block over 30% of suitable, relevant inventory. This results in unfairly disqualifying valuable impressions, impacting your topline revenue. In this session, sponsor host Chris Stark, Oracle Data Cloud and Joy Robins, CRO at The Washington Post will discuss how the evolution of Brand Safety is adapting to nuanced ad environments to preserve opportunities, and how a holistic approach to Brand Suitability can help you:

• Gain opportunities by evolving beyond a blocklist-only strategy

• Build advertiser trust and illustrate a value-driven story through context

• Balance risk against opportunity with accuracy

In the final 90 days of 2020, Congress issued a bipartisan antitrust report, and nearly every state and federal regulator filed major antitrust lawsuits against the “duopoly.” Dr. Scott Morton, former chief economist for the US DOJ's Antitrust Division, is one of the leading economists studying market power today with a particular focus on how network effects, concentrated platforms, consumer data rights, and potential changes to all of them may impact our world.

With better data protection practices, user's data is no longer shared at scale. Those organizations with direct relationships with users now have the ability to truly understand their audience in a differentiated way. For publishers, this creates a new opportunity to build better relationships with advertisers by building out a thoughtful 1p data strategy to drive increased partnership revenues. However, if publishers enable short term workaround solutions that will ultimately be blocked by platforms, the value in publisher data could once again be cannibalized. In this session, sponsor host Permutive will lead the discussion with the attendees and special guest Pete Spande, Publisher and CRO at Insider Inc.

Join us for this forward-looking discussion about how media organizations are planning for and investing in the future. We'll cover talent, business models, diversity and what the rise of the creator economy means for us all.