Proprietary Signal Rules All; The Cannes Social Returns To, Eh, Cannes; The Ad Tech Investor Guide To The Open Web
Proprietary Signal Rules All
Now that the SSA (Super Signal Aggregator) is part of the ad tech TLA vernacular, it’s time to reiterate again why the PSV (Proprietary Signal Vendor) remains the most critical category in ad tech.
What’s a PSV you say? We previously labelled these companies as SSVs (Single Signal Vendors). But after many failed attempts to verbalise the TLA “single signal vendor” without a thick-tongued mumble and verbal stumble, we decided to retire the term.
As a refresher, our much-used and industry-approved graphic below explains the PSV (Proprietary Signal Vendor) in more detail.
PSV is a more apt TLA anyway - and much easier to say.
Ad tech is currently besotted with AI (cc agentics) and custom algorithms - rightly so. The convergence between demand and supply has opened up a massive opportunity to build a new technology layer on the supply side.
SSPs are not building activation algorithms (in the short term, anyway). Instead, they are outsourcing that functionality to third parties. And this is why the burgeoning algo category is the most interesting whitespace in ad tech.
However, these algorithms will eventually become commoditised and must differentiate by having unique data feeding their models.
That’s why solutions like Lumen and Wult become even more valuable. SSAs need proprietary data to maintain their competitive edge.
Ground-truth data will become a must. In attention, for instance, only two companies have a first-party signal - and only one at an ad tech scale (Lumen).
To paraphrase ID5’s CEO, Mathieu Roche (who appeared on The FPC Podcast this week), data (signal) remains ad tech's most important raw material.
More M&A in this area is coming over the next 12 months as the big SSA players consolidate signals.
Our thinking remains rock solid on this, and we will be proved right on this one.
Perhaps our PSV portfolio cos should sport PSV Eindhoven colours (cc the post pic) to alert corp dev teams at Cannes about who they should buy. It's not the worst idea FPC has had. For reference, PSV Eindhoven is a decent local-level soccer club (it plays football in the Netherlands) that has had some sparing success at the European level.
And this beautifully segués into our next item on the newsletter docket - the return of The Cannes Social.
The Cannes Social Returns To Cannes - Partner With Us
We will again host our award-winning, zeitgeist-smashing, epoch-defining network party at Cannes - in partnership with ExchangeWire.
The Cannes Social will be held at Ma Nolan’s on Tuesday, June 17, from 4 to 7 pm CET. We are taking over the whole pub for the afternoon. FPC looks forward to welcoming you.
You can book your spot for The Cannes Social here: https://events.exchangewire.com/CannesSocial25.
Despite having no clapped-out pop stars on show, it remains one of the most popular events at Cannes.
Book your spot today to avoid extreme ad tech FOMO and gut-wrenching disappointment.
If you are interested in co-sponsoring The Cannes Social, contact us (CONTACT [AT] FIRSTPARTYCAPITAL.COM). Partnership opps are limited.
The FPC Investor Guide To The Open Web
You might have read or heard about the death of “the open web”. Very sad.
Maybe it was an ad tech influencer or one of those fabled OGs who keep coming back to ad tech. Death is a bummer.
Wait. Before buying that all-black funeral ensemble, consider this popular narrative in more detail.
It’s probably best to try to define “the open web” first before pronouncing its untimely demise.
You see, readers, this is where FPC diverges from the herd.
AI-powered Q&A prompts are undoubtedly harming the browser-based internet. Referral traffic is on the decline. Who needs a website when all that information is one question away?
But FPC subscribes to Jeff Green's view of the world. The GOAT believes the open web is much bigger than Chrome and Safari. And who would disagree with the GOAT - certainly not FPC.
Like Jeff, we see apps, CTV, OOH, audio and the browser-based web as part of an expanded open internet.
It is important that our LPs and ad tech investors do not get too distracted by the reductive open-web-is-dead mantra. It is wonderfully dramatic and a great clickbait-y social hot take - hard to resist, granted.
The open web is a vast array of omnichannel inventory accessed via a DSP or a sell-side curation platform.
To help understand the scale of the open web, FPC has sketched a very high-level visualisation of how we should define it (see below).
You might disagree with our thesis. But then you'd be wrong. Long live the open web.
And on that revolutionary note, we will sign off there. Have a great ad tech day.