The Hardest Part of Adtech Messaging Is Picking One Concept
The biggest challenge I see in adtech messaging is narrowing the story down to one concept.
You don’t want to be the 10th “omnichannel DSP/SSP delivering outcomes.” Yet almost everyone walks into this trap, and I get it. You may genuinely have those capabilities, and it’s hard to cut things out.
Internally, different teams own various channels and fiefdoms. No one wants to be left out, so the message expands to accommodate everyone. But in doing so, it becomes forgettable. That’s why the companies that break through pick one defining concept and stick to it.
The omnichannel trap
The problem with positioning yourself as an “omnichannel DSP/SSP driving outcomes” is that it places you squarely inside a crowded category where the leaders are already entrenched.
If that’s how you describe yourself, all the market hears is another version of something they already buy. Then the natural question becomes, “Why would I switch?”
There is little to no appetite for another omnichannel DSP or SSP. Buyers already have relationships with the top 1–2 players, and they’re not actively looking for the 7th or 12th best option in a category they already understand.
So if you define yourself within that frame, you will be evaluated against those leaders, and unless you are one of them, you will lose.
One idea is enough
The most successful companies pick a wedge and build everything around it. That wedge often takes the form of a simple, memorable idea:
Performance TV
Autonomous advertising
Creative SSP
Performance audio
Each of these is a narrative that reframes how the industry thinks about a category, if not all of advertising, and positions the company behind it as the natural leader of that shift. That’s fundamentally different from saying “We drive outcomes across channels.” Of course you do. Everyone says that. The only question that matters is how you do it differently, and why that difference matters in the context of where the industry is going.
Sometimes I get paid a hefty sum to help companies work through this. I could write a 20-page document (and I have), but that’s not what actually moves the needle. The fee is for focus.
After generating ideas, the hard part is choosing one — and accepting the trade-offs that come with that decision. Because focusing the narrative inevitably means not leading with everything the company does. Some internal stakeholders won’t see their piece of the business reflected in the headline, but without that focus, you risk listing everything your company does, when in reality, the market only needs one reason to remember you and cannot possibly accommodate more than that one reason.
Make the trade-off
This is where brand narrative work comes in. Developing a narrative is about answering a handful of questions:
Who are we championing?
What’s wrong with the status quo?
Who benefits from that broken system?
How are we changing it?
Why does this matter right now?
If you answer these honestly, a pattern emerges: the concept that ties your product, philosophy, and timing together. In one case, it might be mobile as the signal layer for AI-driven advertising. In another, it might be creative, or performance, or a specific channel being redefined through AI. The specifics vary, but the principle is consistent.
When every company claims “AI” and “outcomes” on their sales decks, giving the market a reason to remember you matters more than ever. The companies that win will be the ones that explain clearly and repeatedly how they uniquely deliver those things, and why their approach represents the future of advertising.
If you don’t do that, you will be grouped into the omnichannel bucket, and from there, it becomes a race you are unlikely to win. So pick your concept, then build everything around it.
