The library · 01
Structural reads on the systems shaping advertising, retail media, commerce and platforms. Read by operators at the largest publishers, retailers and brands in the region.
Latest · 02
"Agents do exactly what you tell them. Most brands aren't ready for what that means."
The missing contractual layer that becomes expensive the first time someone needs it. What the agentic shift means for the MSA, the data processing addendum, and the carve-outs nobody reads twice.
Archive · 03
"AdCP vs AAMP, containerised DSPs, Sponsored Intelligence, and why Amazon sits outside the logic entirely."
The technical specification that will reshape who controls where media budgets flow — and why most of the industry isn't paying attention to the right object.
"The protocols and standards being built right now will determine who controls where media budgets flow."
Most of the industry is watching the demos. The structural move is happening in the standards bodies and protocol specifications. This is a piece about what actually matters and who is not watching it.
"If you're waiting for a clean taxonomy of the agentic shift, you're going to miss the move."
The five structural problems sitting inside ANZ media stacks right now, and the move each one calls for. Written for operators with the authority to act, not the patience for taxonomy.
"Most retail media networks won't survive the next twelve months."
The lower-funnel narrative held for three years on the basis of post-purchase attribution and not much else. The next twelve months will reset what retail media is actually for, and which networks survive the reset.
"The current measurement stack is mostly theatre."
The current measurement stack is a function of what is easy to instrument, not what is causal. The result is a confident dashboard and a market that does not know which dollar moved the outcome.
"Retailers without checkout aren't really running media networks."
The most consequential shift in retail media has nothing to do with measurement. It is who owns the transaction. The retailers building genuine media networks are the ones that already control checkout.
"Both sides know the contract describes the wrong service. Neither will say so out loud."
The agency contract describes a different service to what is delivered. This is structural. It is not accidental. The fee model and the production model have drifted apart for fifteen years and neither side will say so out loud.
"Most programmatic strategy debates are arguing about the wrong object."
If you do not control the bid request, you do not control the auction. If you do not control the auction, you do not control yield. Programmatic strategy is a conversation about who owns this object.
"The technical questions are decoys. The real fight is in the MSAs nobody reads."
The technical questions get the headlines. The harder questions sit inside the master service agreement, the data processing addendum, and the carve-outs that nobody reads twice.
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Andrew Gilbert · andrew@systemsthatdecide.io · One business day to reply