In the shadow of Google’s antitrust trial, marketers debate the future of the open web

The shadow of the Google ad tech antitrust trial loomed large over the marketers gathered at ExchangeWire’s ATS conference in London last week.

As programmatic marketers debated the future shape of the open internet, one thematic question emerged: How might the industry wean itself off excessive dependence on Google? Whether the tech giant wins or loses its battle in a Virginia courtroom, it seems many marketers have their sights set on a different ad tech playing field that prioritizes the open web, where U.S. consumers already spend the majority of their time.

“The open web is critical for us,” said James Trott, senior director of global addressable media at The Coca-Cola Company, at ATS. “People are increasingly spending more time there. […] It is a significant, key environment to activate at scale.”

How to scale sustainably

Some others were more cautious, nodding to the fact that long-time dependence on Google to achieve scale will require a rethink. Dhanush Raja Lakshmanmurthy, chief marketing officer at QRED Bank, suggested that advertisers have relied on Google to drive campaigns in the same way that cars rely on gasoline. “We are a scale-up […] and heavily performance-driven,” he said. “If tomorrow there’s no gas, I don’t know what the car would do.”

That said, Lakshmanmurthy acknowledged that omnichannel marketing may be the best way to scale media investment sustainably. “We need to be full-funnel, we need to diversify, we can’t be a one-channel advertiser. It wouldn’t work in the long run,” he said.

Buying quality inventory on the open internet

Where exactly that diversified media investment should go was also a hot topic of debate at ATS. Marketers, such as Coca-Cola’s Trott, noted the importance of buying quality inventory across the open web while avoiding wasted spend on nonviewable inventory and made-for-advertising sites.

In short, not all parts of the open web are created equal. Marketers addressed the growing trend of buy- and sell-side curation, aimed at surfacing some of the best inventory for advertisers. Curation has been both welcomed and scrutinized in recent months as one way to rethink the post-cookie supply chain.

When The Trade Desk introduced the Sellers and Publishers Report earlier this year, along with its accompanying list of the open web’s top 100 publishers, it ruffled some feathers. The ensuing hubbub was “healthy, but underscored our very point, which is that the best of the internet is in the open internet,” Jeff Green, the CEO and founder of The Trade Desk, said during a panel.

“A lot of people have suggested The Trade Desk has pivoted, because now we’re talking about the premium internet instead of the open internet, as if those are different things. […] But the way you shape the open internet is determined by the premium part of the internet,” said Green.

“We don’t care if you buy Yahoo or Hulu, we just want to objectively figure out, on behalf of Nike, which one to buy.”

Branching out beyond Google

Publishers, for their part, express clear awareness of their dependence on Google, both for its publisher ad tech stack and the revenue that comes via its AdX ad exchange, even as they looked to the future with a cautiously optimistic view.

“There are all sorts of complications when you think about the dependency that publishers have on Google, as well as the opportunity if they didn’t have to be so dependent,” said Dora Michail-Clendinnen, chief strategy officer at Ozone, a British publisher alliance.

Just as advertisers have started to recognize the benefits of branching out beyond Google’s media channels, Green said publishers should move to implement identity and authentication plans to reduce their reliance on Google and Apple’s single sign-ons.

“Every publisher needs to have an identity and an authentication plan […] getting people to log in, so they can provide personalization,” said Green.

“Both [Apple and Google] have the most significant single sign-ons in the world,” Green added. “The relationship between a media company […] and their consumer is sacred. […] They should have one directly between them.”

An opportunity to innovate

But the very fact that regulators feel it is necessary to be involved underscores the far-reaching influence Google has on the open internet. To truly move forward and craft a fairer internet for all participants, some welcomed government intervention to help level the playing field.

“We’re now moving to a tipping point where the regulators understand the problem, and we now need to be working on remedies. And remedies are not just breaking up Google, but it’s, how do we guarantee interoperability?” said James Rosewell, co-founder of Movement for an Open Web, at ATS.

“How do we properly address privacy, and where there’s market failure as perceived by some participants, how do we actually fix the market failure without […] degrading interoperability?” added Rosewell.

He noted this may create “huge opportunity to innovate,” which should drive down costs and increase efficiencies. “Independent ad tech has to be able to do that,” he said.

The Current is owned and operated by The Trade Desk Inc. An individual from The Trade Desk is among the 68 people included on the trial witness list.