If an adtech platform like Magnite wants to grow by an order of magnitude, it needs to crack the SMB/performance market. The major hurdle there is solving distribution, and so far, no one in adtech has made a serious attempt. Here’s what that would entail.

Magnite’s acquisition of Streamr is a smart move, but it should be the opening act of a much bigger strategy. If Magnite wants to become the AppLovin of the open internet, it needs to go all-in on performance TV, serving SMBs with the ease, outcomes, and inventory that define the dominant ad platforms.

Magnite’s acquisition of Streamr reflects the central opportunity of the Outcomes Era: making the open internet as easy and performant as search and social. The combination of AI-driven creative automation and measurable outcomes points to a broader strategy for unlocking SMB budgets and raising adtech’s ceiling.

Most founders just describe what they do. They don’t tell a story. But if you want to build a generational company, you need a clear villain, a cause worth fighting for, and a narrative that makes your success feel inevitable.

ESPN’s new app aims to counter cable’s decline and rising competition from TikTok, YouTube, and other streamers by consolidating sports content, adding short-form “Verts,” and integrating AI-driven personalization, betting, and e-commerce. But to evolve without sacrificing its DNA, ESPN must build its brand around charismatic personalities, make them easy to access on demand, and ensure they collectively project a clear, unified identity.

MSNBC’s rebrand to “My Source News Opinion World” reflects a failure to meet the moment for media companies navigating the AI era. In a landscape where LLMs commoditize news, media brands need to stand out with clear, differentiated, provocative identities, not corporate platitudes.

The Trade Desk’s recent earnings call positions objectivity as the wedge between open internet adtech companies and the walled gardens. There may be a bigger story for TTD and other adtech companies to tell about AI as a revitalizing force for the open internet — and, by extension, independent adtech.

Sharp Pen is all about the idea that the CEO is the chief evangelist: i.e., we help our clients practice founder-led marketing. Unsurprisingly, then, some of the best marketing thinkers are founders. Steve Jobs is a prime example. Here’s his marketing wisdom.

Marketing grows companies by telling a clear, differentiated, and urgent story and getting that story in front of the right people, regularly, to build attention, clarity, differentiation, urgency, and trust. When that happens, you get more leads, faster sales cycles, and higher-quality deals.

Differentiation is one of marketing’s key objectives. But even better is driving trust. The CEO evangelism playbook can help you win even if your product is perceived as a commodity by building customer affinity.

Nearly everything about communication has changed since 2005, but most B2B companies run marketing as if the smartphone had never been invented. Throw out the 2005 marketing playbook. The CEO is the chief evangelist. Here’s how to empower them to build a company around their vision.

Earning media coverage as an adtech company may feel like a great mystery. It really boils down to three tactics: making the customer the hero of the story, sharing data that shifts the industry conversation, or challenging the status quo with a hot take.

Modern marketing means creating an owned and shared content engine that tells your story directly to customers instead of relying on the media to do it for you. But if you're sold on the modern playbook, how do you implement it? Here's a roadmap for ambitious CEOs.

Most startups, especially in adtech, are invisible because they’re afraid to be provocative, but in an attention-driven landscape, invisibility is the biggest risk. Cluely’s 21-year-old CEO is proof that modern distribution, not polished positioning, is what drives growth, and it’s time for more companies to build like that.

AI offers a once-in-a-generation opportunity to redraw customers’ mental maps of the industry. That means companies whose reputations have been frozen in declining sectors can reinvent themselves. But you need bold marketing to alter your customers’ perception.

WPP’s recent series of moves, including launching a “large marketing model” and rebranding GroupM, shows they are on the right track for a company on the precipice of generational disruption.

Meta just put a deadline on the Outcomes Era, aiming to fully automate ad creation and targeting with AI by the end of 2025. That means every adtech and media company now faces a simple mandate: prove you deliver incremental, transparent, full-funnel outcomes.

Adtech must stop romanticizing the open web as inherently superior and instead focus on proving it delivers outcomes — because that’s what advertisers actually care about. In the Outcomes Era, the case for the open internet must be grounded in performance, not nostalgia.

Outcomes, AI, creators, and the war between the open internet and the walled gardens were the key themes at DMS by LUMA. Let’s synthesize those trends into a holistic case for the open internet and the adtech companies that represent it.

Taboola is all in on the Outcomes Era, but they’re not alone. A look at their messaging shift highlights why the focus on outcomes is so popular, what its wrinkles are, and how open internet adtech companies can leverage a focus on outcomes to win the war with the walled gardens.