Open Market

What happens when a platform built around paid subscriptions brings brands into the mix? Dan Robbins returns to Open Market to explain how he’s helping build Substack’s brand business. Dan joins Joe and Eric to unpack sponsored post unlocks, brand-funded subscription upgrades, and curated mastheads, along with the challenge of measuring partnerships built for depth. They discuss creator control, the risk of commoditizing premium media, and why the best sponsorships should help ambitious work happen. Plus: Joe takes the conversation in a direction involving geese that nobody could have prepared for.

Everyone in ad tech is suddenly “agentic.” What actually changes when AI starts buying the media? Joe Zappa and Eric Franchi welcome Adgentek Co-Founder & CEO Frank Sinton and Co-Founder & President Paul Harrison to debate what comes after programmatic. Having built Beachfront and Simpli.fi, respectively, Frank and Paul know the infrastructure they’re now trying to rethink. They explain why they see CTV as an early opportunity for agentic buying, how agents could reduce layers of intermediaries, and why a chatbot interface alone doesn’t transform an advertising business. Paul makes a bold prediction: real-time bidding will eventually be replaced. The group explores what that could mean for DSPs, publishers, agencies, and small businesses. Plus: Eric defends the Unified Media Platform acronym, Joe becomes “in-person curious,” and everyone considers whether Advertising Week needs an agentic rebrand.

The slop has developed taste. We’re all processing this. Steven Liss and Michael Bishop join Joe Zappa and Eric Franchi to discuss AI creative that people might actually want to watch.

Mediaocean’s Bill Wise and Guy Kuperman join Joe and Eric to discuss the launch of AI Ventures. Building an AI product is getting easier. Finding customers, earning trust and making it work across adtech? Still hard. They explain how Mediaocean plans to help founders and why Bill thinks plumbing is sexy.

An MS diagnosis changed Jared Siegal’s perspective on risk, work and the future. Instead of slowing down, he decided to take control of it. The founder and CEO of Aditude joins Joe Zappa and Eric Franchi to explain how a side business built during a five-hour daily commute became a monetization platform processing more than a trillion impressions annually. Jared shares why he turned down an acquisition offer, how he evolved from operator to orchestrator, and why former athletes often thrive inside high-performance companies. The conversation also explores overlooked opportunities across the open web, mobile apps and gaming, plus Jared’s surprisingly skeptical take on AI. And yes, he calls AI a “fad” before revealing that Aditude is building an agentic product of its own.