A conversation with Oz Etzioni, CEO of Clinch, to talk about something a lot of brands and agencies are wrestling with right now: the widening gap between media and creative — and how AI is rapidly changing what’s possible in that space.

Clinch has been focused for years on the connective layer between creative and media. The idea is simple to say, but hard to execute: unify the creative strategy with the media plan so that the right message can be delivered to the right audience in real time, across every channel. And now, with the acceleration of AI, that “missing middle” is becoming the most important part of the stack.

Major market shifts are happening such as creative is no longer a static asset — it’s dynamic, personalized, and constantly adapting and media buying is automating faster than most organizations are structurally prepared for.

A great discussion of where the industry is heading. Not someday. Now.

Joe and Corey are joined by Erica Chriss and we dug into a question that’s coming up everywhere: what happens to the open web as more consumer activity moves into AI-driven interfaces?

There’s no doubt the landscape is shifting — from checkout happening inside chat to new tools that shape how brands appear in LLM environments. But that doesn’t mean the open web is disappearing. It means publishers, advertisers, agencies, and platforms have to rethink how they show up. The advantage will go to those who adapt their business models, not just their tech stacks. Flexibility and experimentation matter more right now than certainty or scale.

The open web isn’t dead — it’s evolving, and there’s a lot of opportunity for those willing to move with it. Full episode coming soon.

In this episode of the Aperiam Podcast, Joe Zawadzki and Corey Ferengul talked about the hardest step — turning a great idea into a repeatable business. You can’t outsource that early work. The founder (and early team) have to be with customers, hearing what works, what doesn’t, and adjusting without losing sight of the bigger vision.

The mistake we see most often? Hiring a senior “head of sales” too early. The better move is to find a player-coach — someone who can sell alongside the founder and start building process without losing momentum.

Whether you’re a startup or a big company launching a new line of business, the same lesson applies: stay close to your customers, keep learning, and scale only when the pattern is real.

On this episode, we spoke with Max Snow and Frank Portman, the founders of Yobi.

Yobi started in 2019 as a research lab with roots in Princeton’s behavioral science program. From day one, they focused on predicting consumer behavior ethically and with privacy at the forefront—being “born post-GDPR” gave them an early framework to build responsibly.

What stood out in our conversation is how they’ve turned that foundation into one of the most powerful data estates in the market—investing over $100M to partner with enterprises like retailers and banks to assemble unique first- and second-party data. That dataset powers their AI models to rival the walled gardens, particularly in programmatic and CTV, and they’ve built deep partnerships with Microsoft Azure to scale securely and profitably.

Yobi shows what the next generation of ad tech looks like: transparent, data-rich, and aligned with business outcomes, not just media metrics.

In our latest Aperiam Podcast, Joe and Corey dug into the ongoing tug-of-war every CMO faces: what to keep in-house and what to outsource.

This isn’t a new debate. Marketing has always lived on a continuum—search once started outsourced, then became core. Social was brought in-house, then pushed out again. Creative has cycled between internal teams and outside agencies. And now AI is adding a new twist, with vendors pitching both sides of the argument: “AI makes it simple enough to run internally” vs. “AI lets us scale your marketing more cost-effectively.”

See where we think the pendulum will go next.

On this week’s Aperiam Podcast, Joe and I were joined by Ari Paparo to talk about his new book.

For years, Ari’s been both a builder and a commentator in our industry. From helping shape the foundations of programmatic to calling it like it is on his blog, he’s influenced how many of us understand ad tech. His book takes that further—capturing the history of programmatic, the personalities behind it, and the lessons learned along the way.

What I appreciate is that Ari doesn’t write like an outsider looking in. He’s lived the ups and downs, and that perspective makes the book more than just a history—it’s a candid reflection on what worked, what didn’t, and why.

In our conversation, we talked about why he felt the timing was right to publish, the themes he wanted to highlight, and what he hopes readers—operators, investors, or just curious observers—take away.

If you care about how digital advertising evolved, how programmatic became the backbone of the industry, or just want an insider’s view told with humor and honesty, this is an episode worth listening to—and a book worth reading.

Audience fragmentation isn’t just about where people spend time—it’s about who they trust.

In this episode of the Aperiam Podcast, Joe Zawadzki and Corey dive into how the splintering of media channels has reshaped trust itself. We discuss:

• Why traditional anchors of credibility—publishers, institutions, even brands—no longer carry the same weight.
• How trust is migrating to influencers, niche communities, and peer networks.
• What this means for advertisers trying to build durable connections with their audiences.

The conversation highlights a critical point: in today’s environment, earning attention isn’t enough. You also have to earn trust—and fragmentation makes that both harder and more important than ever.

In this episode of The Aperiam Podcast, Joe, Erica, and Corey dig nto a topic that has come back in force: ad networks.

For years, “ad network” was a dirty word in our industry. They were seen as opaque, arbitrage-driven, and destined to disappear as programmatic brought transparency. But here we are—everywhere we look, the network model is back.

A few themes from our discussion:
- Everything looks like an ad network again. Retail media, CTV, mobile gaming, even agencies—if you’re aggregating supply, demand, and data, you’re operating with network characteristics.
- Managed service is resurging. Now supported by AI and agentic workflows, it’s more transparent and cost-effective than ever.
- The middleman never left. The difference today is value—better data, better automation, and more ways to simplify complexity for buyers and sellers.

They walk through how the Ad Network concept is alive and well!