AdMonsters Publisher Forum Montreal Highlights, Plus Top Tweets

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We know that the FOMO is too real right now if you didn’t attend Publisher Forum Montreal, but hopefully, it becomes a driving factor for your November attendance in Nashville.

The forum, which took place August 14-17, 2022, was informative and educational and included ounces of fun. At every PubForum, attendees take part in activities that are relative to the destination of that specific event’s locale. So in Montreal, both bike tourers and foodies got to taste the sweet delicious bagels that are made with honey water.

The four-day publisher forum presented attendees with the opportunity to link up with like-minded individuals and brainstorm and strategize on the best monetization practices for their media companies, while also talking about the most pressing topics, such as privacy regulations, Web 3, CTV, and many other issues impacting revenue professionals today.

Publisher Forum Montreal Mini Recap

The event kicked off on Sunday with publishers participating in roundtable workgroups according to self-selected topics that were related to the size of their companies or ad ops teams, or their interests, such as programmatic strategy or client services. In these groups, the publishers networked and answered the daunting question, “Where do you see ad tech five years from now?” They provided really intriguing responses, like virtual reality TV becoming the new norm and there being a mega streaming service called DISFOXLUFLIX+. Hey, stranger things have happened, huh?

After convening on this topic, publishers and sponsors were invited to an enjoyable dinner in a high-ceiling room with an amazing ambiance and a jazz trio providing a melodious soundscape. And after dinner, attendees mingled on the roof deck of Fairmont The Queen Elizabeth, a luxury hotel in Montreal where Publisher Forum was held for the length of the conference.

Monday morning opened up with a profound keynote by Justin Killion, President of Complex Networks, about the justification of revenue diversification. He presented an elaborate explanation of Complex Media’s journey over the past 20 years up until now, including the many pivots the media brand has made on its journey from print, to web, to streaming to live events and the metaverse. Following his keynote, attendees were delighted with awe-inspiring publisher breakout sessions about leveraging your first-party data, audio advertising, and data clean rooms.

Later in the day, Jenny Conelly, Executive Vice President of Product & Technology, Penske Media Corp (PMC), shared tips with publishers about securing executive buy-in for new product investment. She also encouraged pubs not to be discouraged by the idea of building a first-party data strategy. You have to start somewhere!

Afternoon publisher breakout sessions focused on holistic revenue approaches, defining programmatic direct, and the wild, wild west of CTV. The final keynote of the day was presented by Ron Duque, Head of Advertising Technology and Ad Ops, WhetherBug, who spoke about mobile addressability in a post-ATT and post-cookie universe.

Then Tuesday morning, Sharon Harris, CMO, Ascential Digital, graced the stage to talk about how brand marketing has evolved, as well as the publisher opportunity in retail media as that sector is starting to dominate the growth of digital media ad spend. Harris emphasized the importance of companies being digital-first; otherwise, their relevance, profitability, and market share are at risk. Following her session, there were publisher breakout sessions that focused on the buyer/seller relationship, audience segmentation, the future of revenue ops, and the ops-to-product relationship.

Tuesday afternoon featured fun-filled activities for pubs guided by Montreal city tour guides. Some activities included a food tour, a historic walking tour, a bike tour, a boat outing, and a hiking tour. Tuesday night ended with another fantastic dinner on the water followed by an after-party.

The entire conference wrapped up on Wednesday morning as publishers lead their own workshop discussions with sessions about collecting first-party data, brand safety and content category taxonomy, revenue efficiency, header bidding, and more, followed by roundtable discussions covering such topics as programmatic sales, reporting and analytics, and outsourcing. And this is what PubForum is all about; sharing and learning from one another.

Top Tweets ICYMI

Here’s what attendees had to say on twitter.

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