Triad Retail Media on Programmatic, Ad Automation -- Impacts for 2016

The two executives spoke at the UBS 43rd Annual Global Media and Communications Conference in New York in December.

(Pictured left to right: Jay .Sears of Rubicon Project, Brian Quinn of Triad Retail Media and Charlie Weiss of News Corp. at the UBS event.)

(Editor's note: You can also listen to the audio replay of the UBS fireside chat between Sears, Quinn and Charlie Weiss of News Corp.)

YOUR NAME:Brian Quinn

YOUR COMPANY: Triad Retail Media

YOUR TITLE:Chief Revenue and Innovation Officer

JAY SEARS: What do you read to keep up with politics, art and culture?

BRIAN QUINN: After wake-up a quick perusal of Twitter … then The Wall Street Journal and The New York TimesiPad editions. I also read Vanity Fairand GQon my iPad.

SEARS: What do you read to keep up with friends?

QUINN: Just like everyone else, Facebook. Also, occasionally I will call a friend on the phone!

SEARS: What do you read to keep up with the advertising and technology industries?

QUINN: Business Insider, Ad Age, Digiday, AdExchanger, MediaPost

SEARS: What's your favorite commercial of all time?

QUINN: Volkswagen Beetle "Funeral"

SEARS: Describe your company's business and where it leverages ad automation.

QUINN: Triad Retail Media works with the world's leading retailers to transform their e-commerce platforms into highly relevant and profitable media businesses. In addition to staffing dedicated ad sales teams for the retailers, we consult on and manage their automation platforms, which help leverage their unique first-party shopping data both on-site and off-site.

SEARS: With regards to advertising automation, what are the three biggest trends you expect to impact the industry in 2016?

QUINN:

1. Acceleration of audiences to mobile platforms.
2. Ad blockers will force publishers to communicate openly with their audience to build a case for them to cease using that software, in addition to presenting more respectful, relevant and native ad formats.
3. Expansion of true cross-platform publisher solutions, with the winners being those that deliver deterministic, logged in audiences across screens, e.g. Facebook, eBay.

SEARS: With regards to advertising automation, what are the most overblown topics that you wish would just go away?

QUINN:

1. Viewability. While I think viewabilityis an important issue, I think that we should approach it more gradually and in tandem with advertisers … especially when so many digital campaigns are still performance based.
2. Programmatic Native. Really? Isn't true native the opposite of something that is automated?

SEARS: In relation to ad automation, what are Triad Retail Media's three biggest initiatives for 2016?

QUINN:

1. Delivering true cross-screen, programmatic campaigns to advertisers, where we track shoppers across the purchase funnel.
2. Better leveraging our retailers' first-party shopping data in new areas like pre-roll video, on-demand television, etc.
3. Make private marketplace programs (PMPs) the dominant form of media programs, over RTB.

SEARS: In 2016, what percentage of total advertising sales across your company will be from automated or programmatic channels?

QUINN: I cannot say, but it will grow significantly over 2015.

SEARS: Tell us about your first party data strategy. Do you currently have a DMP (data management platform) for your first party data?

QUINN: Our two largest partners -- Walmart and eBay -- have built their own DMPs. Because of the unique value of retailers' data and the great scale they deliver, trading partners can access their most important customers at a magnitude that matters to them.

SEARS: Do you compensate your salespeople for every dollar sold, regardless if the media is sold via insertion order (IO) manually or via an automated channel? Pick one.

1. Our salespeople are compensated on every dollar sold: Manual, Orders and Auction.
2. Our salespeople are compensated on Manual and Orders only. They are not compensated for advertisers sold via auction.
3. Our salespeople are not compensated on sales made via our automated channel.

QUINN: Our salespeople are compensated on every dollar sold. But, they are encouraged and evaluated on their ability to drive PMP business.

SEARS: What are signs that a media owner is savvy about ad automation?

QUINN: If someone is savvy about ad automation, they never use the word remnant!

SEARS: If you could go to the airport right now with friends or family and fly anywhere in the world for vacation, who would you take and where would you go?

QUINN: Probably where we are going in April -- to visit my daughter who will be studying abroad in Barcelona! Would be very happy to go right now!

SEARS: If you could create an endowment to fund any existing non-profit you designated, what lucky non-profit organization would that be?

QUINN: We are big supporters of the Connecticut Challenge, which exclusively addresses the needs of cancer survivors.

SEARS: What is your favorite restaurant in the world?

QUINN: That little BBQ place in Washington, DC, that Frank Underwood visits in "House of Cards."

SEARS: Thanks, Brian!

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