IAB Tech Lab governs how programmatic advertising actually works, setting crucial technical standards such as OpenRTB and VAST. Despite its importance, many AdTech vendors ignore active participation, missing out on significant narrative leverage and industry authority that standards leadership provides.
Retail media projects to $140B globally by 2027. Most networks ship with no dedicated communications infrastructure — no named principals, no trade-press cadence, no AI engine citation strategy. The PR vacuum is the early-mover lane to shape the category narrative.
AdTech's middle collapsed, not the cookie: $40 billion in spend moved to walled gardens, retail media, and identity vendors. Here's where it went this cycle.
Amazon is the most-cited e-commerce brand inside AI engines, the largest cloud operator, and the third pillar of the digital ad triopoly. Five layers — Bezos, retail, AWS, ads, the agentic shopping layer.
