Mike, let’s start with your journey—can you share a bit about your background and what led you to join Equativ?
I’ve worked in digital media and advertising for my entire career. That has included senior revenue roles at both start-ups and global media organizations, including News Corp and Bloomberg. I have also served as an advisor for several businesses to help them drive growth.
I joined Equativ in 2019, formerly Smart AdServer, as Vice President Head of Demand. I had worked my entire career on the publisher side, calling on agencies and advertisers – selling direct IOs across premium owned-and-operated supply, sponsorships, and native ad campaigns across digital, audio, TV, events, and more. While I was curious about Ad Tech, I was also cautious, skeptical, and uncomfortable. There were too many people speaking with too much certainty about what they didn’t fully understand, couldn’t control, and in most cases were too ashamed to question.
So I pushed for a consulting role at first, which I highly recommend as a great way to vet a company, if you have the ability to get such a gig. After the three- month contract, I was completely hooked. Not only was learning a new “programmatic” language far more interesting than I anticipated, but also, with the help of some industry friends I could see a real core foundation of truth and solid product to build on and bring to the buy-side; a new area of growth for a company focused on serving publishers. Two years later, I had the privilege of becoming Managing Director, North America, guiding our expansion in the region across all demand side topics, including: buyer- focused PMPs, managed service solutions, and partner curation.
You’ve seen the digital media and advertising landscape evolve significantly. What have been some of the most impactful changes you’ve witnessed?
The most impactful has been the birth of automation via the ad exchange. Using technology to bring buyers and sellers together on a platform and trade remnant inventory was a game changer and transformed advertising forever.
However, automation brought complexities. As publishers sought to better manage access to their inventory and maximize revenues, we saw SSPs emerge to assist them. At the same time, DSPs arrived to support and manage media buying for advertisers and agencies. With the advent of real-time bidding, advertisers could suddenly bid for inventory on an impression-by-impression basis while using data to inform decisions. These seismic changes have spawned a constant stream of innovation and development to support the ever-evolving needs of digital advertising, which continue today.
Since becoming Managing Director, North America, what are some key milestones or achievements you’ve overseen at Equativ?
Rebranding from Smart AdServer to Equativ marked a pivotal moment for the company. Jettisoning a well-recognized, established industry name was a brave move. However, with our acquisitions of DynAdmic and LiquidM, the nature of the business changed. Now we could offer clients vertically-integrated platforms on both the demand and supply sides. Adopting a new name was an outward reflection of our company’s evolution.
Our ongoing commitment to innovation is a real achievement. We recently enhanced our Equativ Buyer Connect platform to bolster its curation capabilities for partners, a key growth area for digital advertising. In doing so, we’ve given clients greater control and transparency in building custom audiences from premium brand-safe inventory. This not only means more efficient audience targeting at scale, but also less complexity in bloated and/or non-transparent supply chains.
One development I’m very excited about is the opportunities our recent merger with Sharethrough will bring. This move has created one of the largest global independent ad platforms and marketplaces. Our total offering has expanded, including greater access to advanced TV supply, unique creative optimization technology, exclusive demand, high-impact native formats, green-media products, and the ability to build quality, scaled omnichannel media products that deliver performance and business growth. Advertisers and media owners can truly access a vertically integrated alternative to the tech monoliths.
Managed services in programmatic advertising have become essential despite advancements in technology. Could you elaborate on why the service layer remains irreplaceable?
It all comes down to the complexity of delivering digital advertising and our ability to train an educated workforce of experts directly aligned to partner incentives.
Rampant market expansion and ever-emerging technological developments to support it have resulted in an increasingly complex and expanding ecosystem of platforms and processes. And this all means complexity with implications for transparency, connectivity, governance, operational efficiencies, and talent development.
While supply path and value path optimization, coupled with market consolidation, have helped address this, gaining real visibility end-to-end with absolute control remains challenging for many.
Just take a look at the ANA supply chain transparency study from the end of last year. Transaction costs, primarily from SSPs and DSPs, are eating up 29% of ad dollars, and for each dollar entering a DSP, just 36 cents reaches the consumer.
With recruitment challenges, staff retention issues leading to expertise loss, system complexities, and the need for innovation, taking complete ownership and management of programmatic is often impossible for brands and agencies of all sizes. That’s why the service layer between strategic planning / buying and programmatic platform use is critical today. Helping simplify processes, navigate complexities, and work alongside a client’s team so they can benefit from the partner’s expertise is essential to take full advantage of the opportunities. And with new platforms continuing to enter the market, this ongoing need for support will remain vital. Relationships and trust still matter, and that’s not going away anytime soon.
How does Equativ support marketers and premium publishers in navigating the complexities of advanced ad tech?
How we have evolved – and continue to do so – reflects our commitment to supporting client needs. As I mentioned, continuous enhancements and the Sharethrough merger allow clients to take advantage of opportunities in emerging areas such as curation, CTV, creative optimization and measurement.
We also look at industry partnership opportunities to further bolster what clients can do. Our partnership in CTV with Samba TV is a great example. These types of integrations allow advertisers to easily activate CTV campaigns using crucial first-party data to manage reach, frequency, and retargeting. At the same time, publishers can offer brand-suitable, privacy-compliant contextual ad targeting for CTV and video.
With Utiq, we have made its consented audiences available on the Equativ Buyer Connect platform to support data activation capabilities for publishers and advertisers built on consented user information. And we continue to explore future partnerships to see if they can bring additional value to our clients.
With the rapid development of programmatic advertising, what skills or knowledge do you think are crucial for new entrants in the industry?
If we’re talking about individuals, it comes down to a willingness to learn and ask questions, a curious nature that can challenge conventional thinking, and the realization that you will never know everything in programmatic.
In a world of complexity, getting to the heart of an issue quickly and explaining things in an easy-to-understand manner is a real benefit. And working in a business dedicated to supporting our clients, I think taking pride in your job and showing you care about what you do sets you apart from those simply focused on getting the job done.
From a business perspective, in our dynamic industry, remaining nimble and recognizing when to change is critical. It’s important to seek opportunities where others aren’t looking, as this can give you a real advantage. And invest in your teams; give them the training, support, and guidance they need to do their jobs. Then, let them do their jobs. If you empower your teams to achieve, that’s precisely what they’ll do.
How does Equativ differentiate itself from other players in the ad tech industry, particularly in terms of managed services?
It’s not one thing but the totality of what we offer.
We have great tech and a global end-to-end solution backed by local in-market knowledge that supports our clients’ national and international aspirations. Our commitment to ongoing innovation means our technologies remain relevant, and by delivering a user-friendly platform, people use it.
Being an established player means we have a track record of driving success for clients in a world of complexity, and they trust we’re here for the long-term. And at a time when the walled gardens are facing ever more regulatory battles, our commitment to openness and transparency is in stark contrast to them, offering an independent alternative.
Above all, our major differentiators are our dedication to customer service excellence, living up to our brand values (equality in how we treat clients and our staff and promoting openness and fairness), and a desire to do what is right for clients.
What future trends or innovations in digital media and advertising are you most excited about?
Not surprisingly, with curation increasingly important, I’m excited about how this can help agencies, publishers, data providers, and others build new business solutions and improve trust in advertising by making trading quicker, easier, and less complex.
Many businesses are focusing on retail media and first-party data, and we’re already supporting this. Our partnership with Valiuz, which holds the data assets for 20 retailers, allows them to use our technology and deliver offsite audience extension beyond their websites to drive more impactful campaigns.
Of course, AI is also at the core of what we do to support our clients, and we continue to investigate how it can improve their businesses. Developments from our product and R&D teams around AI are leading us toward new solutions for partners across media forecasting and buying, creative personalization, campaign performance optimizations, brand safety, business intelligence, and so much more. We’re also consistently vetting new AI partners to potentially join our growing ecosystem. For example, we just announced an integration with contextual AI firm Illuma that allows media buyers to benefit from privacy-friendly, AI-powered data activation strategies that extend audiences and more accurately define content for targeting.
Lastly, what advice would you give to marketers and advertisers looking to optimize their programmatic strategies in today’s landscape?
Critically, don’t go it alone. Recognize you can do more if you find a partner to help you get the most from programmatic. But do your homework on potential partners.
Based on your operating style, find partners that are flexible in what they offer, whether your preference is for self-service — but with full training — or managed service. And make sure they have options that can evolve as your needs change rather than just a static, one-size-fits-all approach.
Also, look for partners that believe in transparency, both in how they interact with you and what they provide. For example, they must have owned-and-operated technology rather than opaque platforms or marketplaces reliant on other technologies that offer little beyond what you could do yourself.
In other words, any partner must ultimately add value to your business.
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Michael Sadicario, Managing Director of Equativ North America
Michael Sadicario is an industry expert that has worked at the forefront of digital media and advertising disruption throughout his career. Michael joined Equativ in 2019 as the Vice President Head of Demand before being appointed as Managing Director, North America in 2021. His leadership skills and passion for helping marketers support premium publishers have guided Equativ's expansion into the North American market where he oversees all business functions on the demand / buy-side of the business. Michael has held leadership positions across various media companies and startups such as News Corp and Bloomberg. He also regularly speaks at conferences about sales, leadership, adtech, media, and marketing. He holds a degree in Entrepreneurship and Emerging Enterprises from Syracuse University. LinkedIn.