Neutrality Collapses, Streaming Wins, and CTV Gets Messier

The funniest part of the Publicis x LiveRamp panic is watching the industry suddenly discover that “neutrality” in ad tech was mostly a marketing slogan with better PR.

Everyone built their businesses on shared infrastructure owned by somebody else, then acted surprised when ownership started to matter. Now agencies are scrambling because the pipes they depended on suddenly belong to a competitor. Not because anyone thinks Publicis is stealing data tomorrow, but because the illusion of an independent middle layer just collapsed in real time.

The reality is there probably was never a truly neutral middle. There were just companies everyone agreed not to question too loudly because the system worked well enough. AI only makes this mess bigger since whoever owns the infrastructure also gets smarter from the data flowing through it.

Neutrality was the fairy tale. Control was always the business model.

Read Digiday

Streaming capped 2025 with clear momentum. In Q4, total TV usage rose to 22.1 hours per household per week, up 1.5 hours from the year before, according to Inscape’s latest TV Market Trends Report. Nearly all of that growth came from streaming, which added 1.4 hours and reached almost 60% of total viewing time, its highest share yet. Traditional cable and satellite kept losing ground, falling below 28%, while vMVPDs climbed just above 5%.

The device data tells the same story: More than half of smart TVs either streamed exclusively or combined streaming with vMVPD usage. TVs relying only on cable, satellite, or OTA hit a record low of 6.6%. Streaming is now the center of TV consumption.

Read The Measure

Unilever CMO Leandro Barreto says creativity is becoming even more valuable as marketing enters what he calls the “age of sameness,” where automation is making brands look increasingly alike. Ahead of Cannes Lions, he described the festival as less about trophies and more about celebrating bold ideas, inspiring teams, and attracting top creative talent to brands like Dove and Vaseline.

AdTechGod’s advice for Cannes rookies: Stay curious, plan your schedule wisely, and wear comfortable shoes because Cannes is basically fueled by rosé, networking, and people trying to reinvent advertising before sunset. If I show up, creativity levels could spike dramatically.

Read Ad Age

Email-based IDs were supposed to bring more precision to CTV. Instead, they’re bringing more questions.

A new AdExchanger report reveals growing concerns that some FAST channels are creating alternative IDs using third-party email data, despite the industry pitching these IDs as privacy-safe and first-party driven. The skepticism grew after a UID2 encryption issue reportedly went unnoticed for months, raising bigger concerns about oversight and data quality.

The core problem: CTV is a household viewing environment, not a one-to-one channel like display advertising. Yet the industry keeps forcing email-based targeting into streaming because everyone already built businesses around it.

Read AdExchanger

The 212NYC Agency Dodgeball Tournament is Back on June 11! Join teams from across the NYC agency world for a night of high-energy action. Come for the game, stay for the Afterparty! Your brand can be part of the action, click the link below to find out more.

This fall, Marketecture Live is headed to the beating heart of ad land: Chicago. The windy city serves as the industry epicenter for some of the biggest shifts happening across brands, agencies, media, and tech. If you’ve been wanting to attend Marketecture Live but couldn’t make the trip to NYC, meet us in Chicago on September 23. Lock in your seat and the lowest price of the season today.

Think you’ve got a spicy take on where Agentic, CTV, and Commerce are headed next? This is your mic.

IAB Tech Lab + Marketecture Media are teaming up to bring the industry’s boldest marketing predictions to the Croisette in 2 minutes or less on Wednesday, June 24, from 10 a.m. - 1 p.m.

We’re looking for brand, agency, and marketing leaders ready to share sharp, unfiltered opinions and predictions with the industry.

Fill out the form linked below to get started.

Register now

Marketecture Media is back at Cannes, and this year, we’re doing even more!

From our signature hosted dinners to our Hot Yachts series, 1:1 interviews, and our always-on content studio, we create the content and gatherings where the advertising industry comes together.

Want to work with us? Click the button below.