This Ad Tech Briefing covers the latest in ad tech and platforms for Digiday+ members and is distributed over email every Tuesday at 10 a.m. ET. More from the series →When Publicis Groupe agreed to acquire LiveRamp for roughly $2.2 billion, the immediate reaction across ad tech was predictable: concern over whether one of the industry’s most important identity providers could continue to function as a neutral utility once it became part of a rival agency holding company.
But beneath the initial handwringing, more consequential questions are being asked. From here, agencies, marketers and ad tech vendors alike have to reassess who should control the infrastructure underpinning audience targeting, measurement and data collaboration.
According to some, the acquisition has just accelerated conversations that were already underway, with many expecting them to be key items of crunch conversations at this month’s Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity.
A new reality for agencies
Intuitively, for most agency holding companies, the most immediate concern is conflict of interest.
