Martech strategy that survives contact with the stack

From ad servers to AI: a reality check with Infolinks Media CEO Bob Regular

Three decades of adtech evolution and why the next big leap won’t come from a single prompt.

Before “programmatic” was a word, Bob Regular was already in the trenches of digital advertising. Today, as CEO of Infolinks Media, he’s seen enough hype cycles to know that progress takes patience and a sense of humor.

We talked about the rise and fall of the dot-com bubble, the long road from cookies to context, and the strange reality that AI may make media buying both smarter and more commoditized. Bob also shared a sharp view on regulation, calling out how well-intentioned privacy laws ended up suffocating smaller publishers while barely protecting users.

If you’ve ever

When a Martech guy walks into AdTech... and lives to tell the tale.

I was entirely out of my depth in this one. Sitting down with AdLib co-founder Mike Hauptman turned into more than just an AdTech crash course.

I’m a complete novice when it comes to AdTech and raising my two teenage kids. And Mike brought me up to speed on one of those topics.

Programmatic, DSPs, audience segments… it’s always sounded like a parallel universe to the Martech world I live in.

So when I sat down with Mike Hauptman, co-founder and CEO of AdLib DSP, I treated it as a chance to get schooled and he didn’t disappoint.

We talked about how programmatic advertising actually works, why it got so complicated, and how AdLib is trying to make it as easy as

Ten reasons to bring in outside expertise for your CDP RFP

...and why your team will thank you.

I’ll be honest, I usually dislike “top ten” style articles. They tend to oversimplify complex decisions and make it sound like ticking boxes will magically solve everything. But after publishing my last three pieces, on dating vendors, reference calls, and surviving the RFP process, I kept hearing the same question: why bring in outside help at all?

So, against my better instincts, here’s a list. Not because every company will face all ten of these issues, but because most will recognize at least a few of them. And if even one sounds true to you, it might be

Can an AI marketing OS really think like a CMO?

Inside my demo with Dojo AI, from Lucky Saint campaigns to zebra striping trends

I sat down with Duarte Garrido and Luke Costly-White to see what DOJO AI calls an “all-in-one AI Marketing Operating System”. Big claims, but then again, these are undoubtedly “big claim” days we are living in, so I wanted to see what that actually looks like in practice.

Luke’s story already makes this demo interesting. Luke began as a DOJO power user, then became an angel investor, and now works at the very company he backed (for those who read my piece on reference calls with angel investors: this one isn’t on the sidelines anymore)

Why skipping the RFP isn’t always an option and how to avoid the biggest traps

Four practical steps that help teams protect themselves when the process can’t be avoided

If you have been following my latest articles, The CDP RFP Dating Game and The Reference Call That Changed Everything, you will understand this article even more. This article, a follow-up in a sense, eventhough my goal was not to make a series, was partly inspired by Tealium’s Jay Calavas comment on my LinkedIn post, stating:

“Skip the RFP and focus on use cases and measurable outcomes!”

And I’ll be frank, Jay is right: use cases should lead. I’ve even worked on projects where we skipped the RFP entirely and validated

The CDP RFP Dating Game

How agencies, vendors, analysts, and executives hide behind the smiles

On paper, a Request for Proposal (RFP) looks like the fairest way to choose a Customer Data Platform, or anything else for that matter. I am sure if my wife had known about RFPs when we met, I would have been on the receiving side of one. Good thing she didn’t. An RFP is an attempt to make sense of vastly complex and different products through structure, neutrality, and vendor A vs vendor B data in neat columns. But if, like myself, you’ve been in this business for a while, you know the truth 👇🏻

Most RFPs are wired

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