Underpaid Women, Patent Battles & Paramount's Nielsen Split

Welcome to The Refresh, a weekly newsletter from AdTechGod and Marketecture. Every Thursday we’ll bring you the latest advertising news, commentary, and memes.

• How Google tried to unravel the DOJ’s ad tech case (theverve)

• Ryan Renolds’s adtech firm MNTN looks for 2025 IPO (fastcompany)

• Criteo stock navigates adtech evolution amid retail media boom (investing)

• Luma Partners - calls a Google breakup a "win for all," including Google. (mi-3)

• Forrester: Online ad tolerance rises while trust remains low (marketigndive)

• Billups launches attention measurement For OOH (AdExchanger)

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Our dear leader gives his hot takes on the news of the week

Women in Tech Feel Underpaid, Underrepresented

The latest Web Summit global Women in Tech report highlights persistent gender inequality, with over 1,000 women citing recurring challenges such as being underpaid, underrepresented, and underfunded.

Key findings reveal that 51% feel unfairly compensated compared to men, over half note a lack of women in leadership, and 29.6% face funding barriers for startups.

Additionally, 50.8% report workplace sexism, and nearly 76% express a desire for leadership roles despite hurdles like unconscious bias, imposter syndrome, and work-life balance pressures.

If you are interested in joining likeminded, driven women in the advertising space please consider joining the Women of AdTech Channel (#women-of-adtech) on the AdtechGod Slack Community.

Ari’s View: If women want to make the big bucks they should start podcasting.

AdWeek

Curation curation curation!!

My latest LinkedIn poll asks the industry: "What's the primary reason for supply curation?"

With 136 votes in and still counting, a whopping 60% of you are all in on enhancing inventory quality as the top reason. Coming in next, 29% of voters are focused on optimizing ad performance. Meanwhile, controlling ad costs only received 7%, and brand safety—surprisingly—took just 4%.

Looks like keeping those high-quality ads rolling is top of mind for most, while brand safety isn't quite stealing the spotlight as i had expected.

Voting is still live, so these numbers could totally change!

Ari’s View: I’ve wrote about this in my first ever newsletter. Curation is both a big advancement in bringing flexible data models to buyers, and simultaneously a hack for SSPs and buyers to route around DSP SPO. I don’t see SPO avoidance as one of the options in the poll…

Linkedin Poll

Intent IQ claims patents For ad tech’s most basic functions – and isn’t afraid to use them

Intent IQ, a cross-device ID graph operator, has raised concerns in ad tech over potential patent infringement lawsuits after sending a notice about their IP to the IAB Tech Lab, which was then forced to notify its members.

The company, known for its patent litigation, has previously sued major firms like Amazon, Microsoft, and Roku, and some vendors fear adopting the new OpenRTB specs could expose them to lawsuits. While Intent IQ emphasizes it prefers partnerships over litigation, its history and the inclusion of a legal "exclusion notice" in the standards have caused industry hesitation and legal uncertainty.

Ari’s View: These patents are ridiculous. I know first hand that they have sued everyone in ad tech and that several companies are fighting tooth-and-nail. Good luck.

Read AdExchanger

Paramount ditches Nielsen amid cost clash

Paramount is on the verge of dropping Nielsen for VideoAmp as its advertising ratings provider, following a contract dispute over Nielsen's price hikes, which Paramount claims have significantly increased their costs relative to ad revenue. Despite this, the TV industry remains heavily reliant on Nielsen's ratings.

Ari’s View: This isn’t the first, second, or third time a standoff like this has happened and to date no one has pulled the trigger and cancelled Nielsen. We’ll see.

AdExchanger

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