Join us Dec. 1-3 in New Orleans for the Digiday Programmatic Marketing Summit
The ad tech world can baffle even the most hardened media veteran. But there’s no doubt it’s spreading like weeds.
And it would appear that not even President Obama can escape. Last week, at the 1776 startup event in Washington, D.C., he spent time viewing video ad platform BrightRoll’s dashboard. We have no doubt that Obama has the Lumascape down cold, but we couldn’t help but wonder exactly what he was asking when he was shown how ad impressions are bought and sold in modern digital media.
Here are some early entries from, where else, Twitter. Add yours below on on Twitter using the hashtag #obamalooksatadtech.
Rob Leathern, CEO, Optimal
@bmorrissey caption this photo. “So, that counts as an “impression” then?”
— Rob Leathern (@robleathern) July 7, 2014
Bryan Wiener, chairman, 360i
harder than immigration reform RT @bmorrissey: obama tries to understand wtf is going on in ad tech. pic.twitter.com/2d1uMQtPQa
— Bryan Wiener (@bwiener) July 7, 2014
Rurik Bradbury, co-founder, Unison
@aripap @bmorrissey “Let my data be clear”
— Rurik Bradbury (@RurikBradbury) July 7, 2014
David Armano, global strategy director, Edelman Digital
@bmorrissey he would have more luck with Congress.
— David Armano (@armano) July 7, 2014
Ari Paparo, svp of product management, Bazaarvoice
@bmorrissey “There are some who give us a false choice between complexity and efficiency. We will choose instead the path of results.”
— Ari Paparo (@aripap) July 7, 2014
Nic Hodges, founder, Swarmdeck and Blonde3
@bmorrissey Brightroll: “But before we stream the TVC from the CDN, the MREC calls the DSP, which queries the DMP for any BT” Obama: “FML”
— Nic Hodges (@nichodges) July 7, 2014
More in Media
How Forbes is using ChatGPT referral data to create audience cohorts
Semrush and Similarweb provide information, including the prompts that led an AI platform user to click through to a publisher’s site, that Forbes is able to use to learn more about its AI-referred audience’s interests.
AI slop myths, debunked: What’s harmful, what’s hype, what’s just meh
AI slop has become a catch-all for low-quality AI content, because it’s fast, sticky shorthand. But that convenience hides the nuances that are emerging.
Media Briefing: Overheard at the Digiday Publishing Summit Europe, October 2025 edition
Publishers said they have lost hope that traffic will ever bounce back, in a closed-door town hall session at the Digiday Publishing Summit Europe