Editor’s Picks – what makes our thinking worth reading.
A curated shortlist from across our archive and guides – picked for being specific, technically grounded, and genuinely willing to take a position. If a topic or viewpoint here resonates, it’s one we can go deeper on directly.
The plumbing, explained honestly
Disputing the “Dumb Pipes” Theory: The Evolution of SSPs
A genuine counter-argument, not just a trend recap – worth reading if you’ve ever assumed SSPs are interchangeable commodity plumbing.
Key themes & takeaways
- Challenges the assumption that SSPs are interchangeable commodity plumbing with no real differentiation.
- Argues SSPs play an active role in yield, transparency and supply path quality, not just pass-through routing.
- Useful pushback if your team treats SSP selection as a low-stakes, purely technical decision.
Unpacking The Trade Desk’s Sub-Floor Bidding Tactics
Names a real platform and a real mechanic rather than talking in vague industry generalities – the kind of specificity most trade coverage avoids.
Key themes & takeaways
- Names a specific platform mechanic – sub-floor bidding – rather than speaking in general programmatic terms.
- Explains how the tactic affects effective pricing and publisher yield in practice.
- Relevant if you’re negotiating floor prices or auditing DSP behaviour on your inventory.
Bid Duplication Risks And Challenges For Marketers
A technical problem most marketers have never heard of, explained plainly enough to actually act on.
Key themes & takeaways
- Explains bid duplication – the same impression bid on multiple times through different supply paths.
- Covers how duplication inflates perceived demand and distorts real campaign performance data.
- Practical for anyone auditing programmatic spend efficiency or supply path complexity.
Why Made-For-Advertising Sites Can Damage Your Brand
Practical brand-safety guidance, not just a definition – still relevant however your programmatic stack has changed since.
Key themes & takeaways
- Defines Made-for-Advertising (MFA) sites and why they’re a genuine brand safety and wastage risk.
- Covers the commercial impact of unknowingly buying MFA inventory in programmatic buys.
- Actionable brand-safety guidance, not just a definition of the problem.
Unraveling the SaaS Proposals of Magnite and PubMatic
Real companies, real commercial analysis – a rarer thing in trade coverage than it should be.
Key themes & takeaways
- Analyses real, named platforms (Magnite and PubMatic) rather than hypothetical vendor comparisons.
- Covers the shift toward SaaS-style commercial models in the SSP space.
- Useful if you’re evaluating sell-side platform commercial terms or pricing structures.
Where the industry actually got tested
The Role of Adtech in the Privacy Sandbox Era
Written while the Sandbox was still live and uncertain – a useful record of how the industry was actually thinking at the time, not a retrospective gloss.
Key themes & takeaways
- Written while Google’s Privacy Sandbox was still active and uncertain, capturing real-time industry thinking.
- Covers how adtech infrastructure needed to adapt as third-party cookie deprecation approached.
- A useful record of how the industry was actually reasoning through the transition, not a retrospective gloss.
Thriving in a Cookieless Era: Innovations in Deterministic Identifiers
Explains the actual technical shift underneath the “death of the cookie” headlines, not just the headline itself.
Key themes & takeaways
- Explains deterministic identifiers – IDs based on confirmed data like logins or email matches.
- Covers why the industry leaned harder on deterministic approaches as third-party cookies declined.
- Useful grounding if you’re evaluating identity solutions for a post-cookie targeting strategy.
The Shift to IP Address Band-Aids In A Cookie-Less World
Skeptical rather than promotional about a workaround the rest of the industry was quietly adopting – worth reading for the pushback alone.
Key themes & takeaways
- Takes a skeptical rather than promotional stance on IP-based targeting as a cookie replacement.
- Covers the limitations of treating IP address signals as a like-for-like cookie substitute.
- Worth reading for the pushback alone, in an industry that mostly promoted this workaround uncritically.
How to Balance Data Privacy and Marketing Attribution
Treats privacy and attribution as a genuine trade-off to be managed, not a solved problem – a more honest framing than most.
Key themes & takeaways
- Frames privacy and attribution accuracy as a genuine trade-off to manage, not a solved problem.
- Covers practical approaches to maintaining measurement quality within privacy constraints.
- Useful for teams balancing compliance requirements against campaign performance reporting needs.
Why Marketers Need To Embrace Zero-Party Data
A clear case for the most trustworthy data category there is, made before “zero-party data” became a buzzword everyone repeated without defining.
Key themes & takeaways
- Defines zero-party data – information customers deliberately and proactively share, like preferences or stated intent.
- Makes the case for zero-party data as the most trustworthy data category, since there’s no inference involved.
- Written before “zero-party data” became a buzzword repeated without a clear definition.
Business, not just media
Why Brands Are Turning to CDPs to Power Their Martech Strategies
The commercial case for a CDP, not just the technical one – useful if you’ve been asked to justify the spend.
Key themes & takeaways
- Makes the commercial case for a CDP investment, not just the technical capability argument.
- Covers how a CDP fits into a broader MarTech strategy rather than existing as a standalone tool.
- Useful if you’ve been asked to justify CDP spend to stakeholders or finance.
Martech Turf Wars: Maximizing Your Technology Investment
Names the internal politics that actually derail MarTech investment, not just the technology decisions themselves.
Key themes & takeaways
- Names the internal politics and competing ownership claims that actually derail MarTech investment.
- Covers how to navigate cross-functional stakeholder tension around platform decisions.
- Goes beyond the technology choice itself to the organisational dynamics that determine ROI.
Articulating Marketing’s Value to Finance
The unglamorous skill of translating marketing outcomes into language a CFO actually cares about.
Key themes & takeaways
- Covers how to translate marketing outcomes into language a CFO or finance stakeholder actually values.
- Addresses the common gap between marketing metrics and commercial/financial reporting expectations.
- A practical skill piece for marketers who need to defend budget or prove commercial impact.
When Consultancies Overwhelm Business Leadership
A genuinely contrarian take on an industry most coverage treats uncritically – worth reading even if you don’t fully agree with it.
Key themes & takeaways
- Takes a genuinely contrarian position on an industry (consultancies) most coverage treats uncritically.
- Covers the risk of over-reliance on external consultants diluting internal leadership decision-making.
- Worth reading even if you don’t fully agree with the argument – a rare critical take on the model.
Why The Middle Manager Is Pivotal To Your Success
An unfashionable argument for a role most leadership content ignores in favour of talking about founders and execs.
Key themes & takeaways
- Makes an unfashionable case for middle management, a role most leadership content overlooks.
- Covers the operational and cultural function middle managers serve that founder/exec-focused content ignores.
- A useful counterweight to leadership content that only addresses the top of an organisation.
Beyond the archive – our deeper how-to content
Enhancing Programmatic Efficiency: The Path to Success with SPO
A full framework for supply path optimisation, not just the definition – useful if you’re actually running this project, not just reading about it.
Key themes & takeaways
- Provides a full framework for Supply Path Optimisation (SPO), not just a definition of the concept.
- Covers how reducing intermediaries in a programmatic transaction improves fee transparency and efficiency.
- Structured as a practical guide for actually running an SPO project, not just understanding the theory.
Header Bidding: Revolutionizing Digital Advertising
Explains the mechanics and the commercial upside together, rather than treating header bidding as a purely technical topic.
Key themes & takeaways
- Explains header bidding mechanics alongside the commercial upside for publishers.
- Covers why header bidding generally drives higher yield than the older waterfall setup.
- Treats header bidding as a commercial decision, not a purely technical implementation detail.
Unpacking Retail Media: The eCommerce Revolution
A grounded look at retail media’s actual commercial mechanics, ahead of most coverage that just called it a trend.
Key themes & takeaways
- Covers the actual commercial mechanics behind retail media, not just the trend narrative.
- Explains how retail media networks monetise owned audience and inventory.
- Grounded ahead of most coverage that treated retail media as just a buzzword.
CDP Considerations: Do You Actually Need One?
Genuinely useful for arguing against a purchase, not just for it – most CDP content assumes you already want one.
Key themes & takeaways
- Genuinely useful for arguing against a CDP purchase, not just building the case for one.
- Covers the specific conditions under which a CDP investment is (and isn’t) justified.
- A rare piece of MarTech content that isn’t implicitly trying to sell you the technology.
Our best work sits behind these six playbooks
Everything in the guides above is the thinking. The six free Executive Playbooks are where it’s worked through in full – CDP Business Case, Operating Model, Retention Economics, FSI Marketing, M&A Integration, and Cold-Start Growth. No consultation required, no sales call, just the frameworks.
Explore the Executive Playbooks →Early takes that mostly held up
Is Generative AI Good or Bad for Your Businesses?
A genuinely balanced take from before “AI good or bad” became a tired framing everyone had already picked a side on.
Key themes & takeaways
- Takes a genuinely balanced position, written before “AI good or bad” became a tired, pre-decided framing.
- Covers both the commercial upside and the real risks of generative AI adoption for business.
- Useful as a level-headed reference point amid more polarised AI commentary.
Balancing The Strengths And Limitations Of LLMs For Marketers
Honest about where LLMs actually fall short for marketing use cases, not just a list of capabilities.
Key themes & takeaways
- Honest about where LLMs actually fall short for marketing use cases, not just a capability list.
- Covers practical guardrails for using LLMs in marketing workflows responsibly.
- Useful for setting realistic expectations before adopting LLM tools into a marketing team’s workflow.
Deeper governance content, contributed alongside our partner practice
FMA Consulting is a certified privacy and AI governance advisory led by Managing Director Shannon Fitzpatrick, and the practice The Media Guides partners with for regulated data and AI governance work. The Media Guides has contributed to and co-authored a number of the pieces below – the deeper regulatory and compliance analysis that sits alongside our own commercial and MarTech focus.
Google Is the New Yellow Pages
Directly relevant if you’ve ever wondered why your SEO numbers look fine but AI search referrals don’t – a genuinely useful framing of the shift.
Key themes & takeaways
- AI search agents like ChatGPT and Claude are becoming a genuine discovery channel, not just a novelty.
- The shift moves focus from traditional SEO tactics toward AI-driven content orchestration.
- Publishers and marketplaces need to actively adapt how content is structured for AI-based discovery, not just rank in search.
OAIC Enforcement Priorities: AdTech, AI & Privacy Compliance for Brands, Agencies & Publishers
The regulator’s actual enforcement focus, translated into what brands, agencies and publishers specifically need to act on.
Key themes & takeaways
- The OAIC’s 2025-26 enforcement priorities specifically target AdTech, AI, and consent design.
- Brands, agencies and publishers each face distinct compliance obligations under this focus.
- Practical guidance on what to review now, ahead of active enforcement rather than after the fact.
Agentic AI for Publishers: Breaking Down IAB’s Commercialisation Blueprint
Practical rather than speculative – how publishers can actually commercialise agentic AI, not just what it is.
Key themes & takeaways
- Agentic AI is reshaping the digital publishing landscape, guided by IAB’s agentic AI guide and State of Data findings for 2025.
- Breaks down IAB’s commercialisation blueprint into practical next steps for publishers.
- Frames agentic AI as a monetisation opportunity, not just an operational or content risk.
Closing the Governance Gap: Collaborating on Privacy and AI Standards in Digital Advertising
Draws on IAB Australia’s 2025 data directly – useful if you want the regulatory context behind the adtech standards conversation.
Key themes & takeaways
- Explores IAB Australia’s 2025 insights on privacy reform and AI adoption across the advertising ecosystem.
- Makes the case for industry collaboration on shared data governance and AI standards, rather than each business solving this alone.
- Positions governance as foundational to where digital advertising is heading, not a compliance afterthought.
Balancing Publisher Profit & Privacy: Lessons from Carly Kind & the EU AI Act
Names the actual tension publishers live with – monetising data while meeting rising transparency expectations – rather than pretending it’s easily solved.
Key themes & takeaways
- Draws on Carly Kind’s perspective and the EU AI Act as reference points for the profit-versus-privacy tension.
- Frames the core challenge as monetising content and data while meeting rising expectations for transparency and accountability.
- Relevant for any publisher weighing data monetisation against harm-prevention and trust obligations.
Self-Governance Spotlight: REA & Simplified Privacy Policies that Build Trust
A real company doing this well, examined in enough detail to actually learn from – not just a hypothetical best-practice list.
Key themes & takeaways
- Examines REA Group as a real-world example of simplified, trust-building privacy policy communication.
- Frames plain-language privacy policies as a genuine trust differentiator, not just a legal requirement.
- Useful as a practical model for businesses under pressure to rethink how they communicate data practices.
Our newest series – naming the pattern before offering the fix
Why Retention Stops At Loyalty
A five-stage retention operating system, and a hard look at why the discretionary discount is a sugar hit dressed up as a save.
Key themes & takeaways
- Argues a loyalty program rewards behaviour that’s already happened, not a genuine retention discipline built across the relationship.
- Draws on Bain’s own research to explain why an opportunistic retention discount can be a net loss once you account for who’d have stayed anyway.
- Uses Australia’s property marketplaces as a real example of staying relevant across a multi-year purchase cycle, not just at renewal.
Why Integration Programs Fail After the Deal Closes
Written from two rounds of running it directly, not observed from the outside – and it fails the same way almost every time.
Key themes & takeaways
- Separates cost, direct and adjacent revenue synergies rather than blending them into one number that hides where the real risk sits.
- Makes the case for marketing and commercial integration as its own governed workstream from day one, not a line item inside someone else’s.
- Sets out three legitimate brand architecture options – one market, federated portfolio, or phased hybrid – and the criteria for choosing between them.
Why Good Teams Still Fail When The Operating Model Is Wrong
A four-layer accountability structure, with a governance parallel borrowed from how DAMA itself defines the line between governance and management.
Key themes & takeaways
- Diagnoses fragmented customer experience and duplicated audience builds as an accountability gap, not a coordination gap.
- Separates prioritisation, orchestration, execution and governance so no single team approves its own work.
- Argues for piloting the model on one or two journeys first, rather than rolling the full structure out everywhere at once.
Want the concepts behind these pieces explained plainly, rather than in article form? Try the Media & Marketing Glossary. Want help applying any of it to your business specifically? Get in touch.
What people ask us
How were these pieces selected?
Not by traffic or recency – by whether the piece is specific, technically grounded, or takes a genuine position rather than just summarising a trend. Some are from our News archive, others from the deeper how-to guides.
Will this list grow over time?
Yes – as our library of guides and analysis expands, so will this shortlist.
Is this the same as the Media & Marketing Glossary?
No. The Glossary defines individual terms and concepts; this page recommends full pieces worth reading in depth. Some topics appear in both, for different reasons.
I want to go deeper on a topic covered here – what now?
That’s usually the point of this page. Get in touch and we’ll talk through it directly, rather than you having to piece it together from articles alone.
Can I suggest a piece that should be added?
Yes – let us know what you’d add and why.
What’s the relationship between The Media Guides and FMA Consulting?
FMA Consulting is a certified privacy and AI governance advisory led by Managing Director Shannon Fitzpatrick, and the partner practice The Media Guides works with for regulated data and AI governance engagements. Some of the FMA content linked here was contributed to or co-authored by The Media Guides.
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