Programmatic I/O 2025 Day 1 Recap: Why Media Strategy Matters More Than Ever
By Chris Marine | Founder & CEO, Campfire Consulting
Las Vegas, NV — May 2025
Day 1 of Programmatic I/O didn’t feel like a conference. It felt like a summit for people trying to make sense of a shifting media ecosystem—together.
With primarily ad tech leaders, publishers, a few agencies, and an even smaller number of brand leaders packed into working sessions like the Innovator’s Lab, the day was less about big reveals and more about reality checks, and collaborating on real solutions. From how AI is redefining roles in marketing, to how we attribute value to media spend, one theme cut across every conversation: the ground is moving, and clarity is king.
AI Fatigue Is Real but So Are the Questions
In a standout session titled “What’s a CMO To Do With AI?”, one point came through loud and clear: we’re no longer in the novelty phase.
Today’s conversations aren’t about AI’s potential - they’re about its purpose. Should we trust it to make creative decisions? What’s the ethical responsibility in how we deploy it across teams? How do we ensure it enhances—not replaces—human intelligence?
Smart takeaways included:
Outcomes > Outputs: Generating more content isn’t the point. Driving business value is.
Credibility > Credentials: It’s not about who your AI vendor has worked with it’s about what they’ve achieved.
Consistency > Capability: A shiny tool that’s unreliable is still a liability.
Purpose > Play: AI should reflect brand values, not just operational efficiency.
And perhaps most importantly: just because AI can do something, doesn’t mean it should. How you deploy AI has real implications for your people, your customers, and your credibility.
Attribution Isn’t Broken It’s Just Misunderstood
Madan Bharadwaj of M-Squared led one of the most compelling sessions of the day, unpacking the myths and math behind media measurement.
His team’s triangulated attribution model—blending UTM tags, platform data, marketing mix modeling (MMM), and incrementality testing—offered a more complete picture than what you’ll get from a last-click platform report.
In fact, their findings showed:
Platforms consistently overstate performance—by 2–3x in many cases.
Non-brand search often performs well, but even here, platform-reported ROAS can’t be taken at face value.
Media can drive patient or customer appointments, but over-attribution muddies the picture.
The biggest takeaway? Attribution isn’t just a measurement tool it’s a decision-making framework. And it’s one most brands still aren’t fully using. Even when the data is clear, there’s often a split on whether or not those insights are acted on.
MFA, Curation, and the Ongoing Battle for Brand Safety
One of the day’s more charged moments came during a group discussion about MFA (Made-for-Advertising) sites.
The ASICS team made it clear: being surrounded by low-quality, clickbait-style inventory devalues their brand. Meanwhile, a cannabis marketer offered a contrarian view: “Someone’s trash is my treasure—I’ll buy cheap impressions all day long.”
The debate underscored a wider truth: brand safety and media quality aren’t luxuries they’re strategic imperatives.
And while “curation” is having a moment as the industry buzzword, let’s be honest: it’s not new. Anyone who’s worked in media for more than a decade knows this has had many names. It was once called whitelist/blacklist management. Then came private marketplace (PMP) deals… and many others before and in-between. Good partners - on both the agency and publisher side - have always kept a close eye on inventory quality. The difference now? Curation sells.
But the problem remains: there are still far too many poorly executed campaigns—a systemic issue rooted in how programmatic campaigns are structured and resourced.
The Market’s in Flux. Agencies Are Needed More Than Ever.
There was a quiet throughline across the day’s panels: discomfort.
Some tech platforms are spinning AI-powered solutions faster than brands can vet them. Others are at least acknowledging the pain: shifting consumer behavior, economic uncertainty, and rising pressure to prove value.
But then there’s a third group. Those with their heads under a pillow. Not buying into the AI hype at all—not because they’ve found something better, but because they have nothing to sell. And it shows.
That disconnect hit me hard while standing at a networking event hosted by an adtech company. As the only agency leader in the crowd, it crystallized something I’ve long believed:
Media agencies matter now more than ever.
Because as long as spin exists, clients need someone to cut through it.
As long as platforms grade their own homework, brands need someone to question the results.
And as long as we value facts, transparency, and trust—agencies have a vital role to play.
The night wrapped with a walk back from an adtech networking event at TopGolf at MGM Grand. The energy offered the perfect contrast to a day grounded in thoughtful conversations, and a quiet moment to reflect on where this industry is heading.
What To Do (and What Not To Do)
DO:
Audit your attribution models. Trust triangulated data—not just platform reports. Yes, this requires investment often pulled from working media budgets (although it shouldn’t be) but it leads to better-managed dollars.
Forecast like a CFO. Segment by customer type, channel, and geography to unlock incremental ROAS and margin.
Talk to your SSPs. If you want to understand your media supply chain, you need to ask where your dollars go.
Use AI intentionally. Not everything that’s possible is worth doing.
DON’T:
Scale based on last-click ROAS alone.
Chase CTR if the inventory is garbage.
Treat MFA as a smart value play. It’s not it’s a long-term brand liability and terrible for the media ecosystem at large.
Assume MMM is the end-all solution. Like any model, it’s only as strong as what you feed it.
Final Thought
The brands that win in 2025 won’t be the ones with the flashiest tools. They’ll be the ones with the clearest principles and the right partners to navigate the noise.
