Interviews, insight & analysis on digital media & marketing

Alex Newberry, Chief Revenue Officer, Content Ignite on AI, machine learning and the contextual saviour of publishers

As we look ahead to NDA’s flagship networking Trinity Lunch event in November, we’re talking to some of our partners and VIP guests to hear their thoughts on the industry the event will be celebrating. Next up is  Alex Newberry, Chief Revenue Officer, Content Ignite.

What is the biggest opportunity for advertisers or publishers in digital marketing in the next 6 months and why?

One of the biggest opportunity areas for publishers is surrounding their first-party data. With the looming 3P Cookie Apocalypse, advertisers are going to look to gain more insight from multiple areas to inform their ad buying. Being able to combine client data with strong publisher first-party data will be even more important for ad buyers and a huge indicator to which publishers the brands will partner with.

I would be remiss in leaving out contextual technology as a massive opportunity for publishers, especially as this is the area of the industry that TRM operates in. With ever-growing privacy and browser limitations on the gathering of traditional forms of data, contextual is a great route to go down to understand the buying environment and target users when consuming premium content.

What is the biggest challenge for advertisers or publishers and how will this be overcome?

Where do we start!

Looking from a publisher’s point of view, there are a serious amount of upcoming challenges; from the importance of Core Web Vitals, the continued dominance of GAFA, the death of third-party cookies and also the identified versus unidentified web.

In all of these cases the sharing of knowledge amongst quality content creators and a deep understanding of your audience will help publishers to navigate the latest wave of industry changes.

What technology are you most excited about at the moment and why?

The use of AI and machine learning within contextual targeting is really exciting. Watching the rise of companies like Mantis, a Reach PLC company in partnership with IBM Watson, which can gain a really deep understanding of a publisher’s content, and thus enable brands who are buying to feel safe enough to unlock more spend is amazing.

I cant wait to see what new developments come into this space.

What industry individual or company have you been most impressed by this year and why?

We are so lucky that we have so many amazing individuals and companies within our industry. TRM recently entered into a Joint Venture with Content Ignite so that our publisher partners can benefit from the contextual technology they have been developing for the best part of 10 years.

Ben and the team are amazing to work with and have enabled us to add serious value for our clients.Also Chloe Crutchfield and Rhys Denny from Redbud (now part of Sourcepoint, after their successful acquisition). Anyone who has especially heard Chloe speak at an event will know what I mean.

What has been yours or your company’s most impressive achievement this year and why

TRM Publishing Solutions was a business launched during lockdown, which is already an achievement in my mind. To be able to build out the company, win clients and then perform for them is something we are really proud of. We are now almost a year in with some of the UK’s biggest and best publishers as clients and are now hiring and growing our teams to keep up with our current trajectory. I’m really excited about the next 12 months.

Opinion, Trinity Lunch

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