3 Executive Communications Ideas for The Trade Desk
The Trade Desk CEO Jeff Green went on the Adtech AdTalk podcast with Adam Heimlich and Gareth Glaser last week to nerd out about transaction IDs and discuss fairness in the adtech ecosystem. It was a rare podcast appearance from one of adtech’s most prominent CEOs.
While the podcast was a positive step for TTD’s executive comms, it also highlighted a few things they and other companies could do differently. As always, the goal isn’t mainly to comment on TTD but to use them as an example for the broader ecosystem.
How do founders and CEOs — the default chief evangelists for their companies, whether they want to be or not — use their influence to grow their organizations, shift reputations, and attract talent?
Here are three things I’d do with TTD’s exec comms program.
1. Do more.
Jeff has one of the most powerful platforms in adtech. Most companies would pay dearly for the attention he can generate, yet he does very little media. He seems to have tried LinkedIn briefly, rarely appears on podcasts, and mostly publishes via TTD’s corporate media arm, The Current.
The problem is that in today’s media environment, anyone can shape your narrative using social, email, or audio. If you don’t define yourself, someone else will, and I’d argue that’s been happening to TTD this year.
So, Jeff should be doing more: more podcasts, more social posts, more interviews. His time is valuable, but he’s the face of the company — and a compelling face would drive massive value for a company the size of TTD.
2. Focus on the big picture.
Like many adtech companies, TTD often zooms in on programmatic minutiae. That makes sense; they’re a core infrastructure player. But as CEO, Jeff should mostly be in visionary mode, telling the big story: the war with the walled gardens and what it’ll take for the open internet to compete.
We need to hear more about the vision for a $200B Trade Desk. To be sure, making the open internet more efficient is a component of that equation. But I suspect there are bigger plays that TTD isn’t talking about enough.
That doesn’t mean avoiding technical topics. Adtech AdTalk is a great venue for those discussions. But Jeff should also appear on broader business and media podcasts that reach decision-makers far beyond programmatic. It’s about doing more, not pivoting from what they’re already doing.
3. Prioritize innovation.
“Efficiency” came up a lot on the podcast. Efficiency matters. But my ears perked up when Adam and Gareth asked about DSPs and LLMs.
Investors, customers, and talent want to hear how TTD, the largest open internet adtech company, is capitalizing on AI. Not just to make programmatic more efficient, but to transform advertising. Jeff should be painting a picture of that future in a way anyone with a stake in media can understand.
This extends beyond what TTD says to what it does. For instance, TTD recently launched OpenAds, a new auction wrapper that it says will boost fairness in programmatic. Ironically, there’s already a startup called OpenAds (to which I’m an advisor) — an AI-native platform that generates unique creative for every open internet impression.
Personally, I’d rather see TTD articulating a vision and building products in that latter category. But regardless of what they launch, it won’t drive maximum value unless Jeff is out in the market extolling its virtues.
