Marketers need to demand more of artificial intelligence than just seeing it as a tool to find the lowest-cost ad prices.
“AI shouldn’t be just finding cheap CPMs. No one wins at that. It’s about connecting the sellers and the buyers,” Rebecca Bonell, senior director, Business Development at OpenX, told Beet.TV contributor David Kaplan.
This philosophy extends OpenX’s longstanding transparency and efficiency mission into an era where automation risks prioritizing cost reduction over value creation for both advertisers and publishers.
Bonell will be addressing this and more during breakout sessions at Beet Retreat LA, Nov. 12-14. She’ll be joined at Beet Retreat by her OpenX colleague Erika Loberg, global head of CTV, who will appear on a panel, “Signals & Standards: Aligning Buyer Needs, Publisher Priorities, and Industry Realities” on the event’s first day.
Human element remains critical
The proliferation of programmatic capabilities across retail media and connected TV increases reliance on AI and automation, creating risks that the human aspects of buyer-seller relationships get overlooked.
“We have to make sure that as we become more reliant on AI, we’re not forgetting the human aspect of it,” Bonell said, noting her enthusiasm for Beet Retreat LA bringing together what she considers “the most innovative people in ad tech.”
OpenX addresses this by educating agencies and holding companies on supply-side platform fundamentals, emphasizing quality supply, brand safety, and transparent tracking of how dollars flow from advertisers to publishers.
SSP fundamentals for agencies
Agencies need a clear understanding of what differentiates top-tier SSP partners beyond basic functionality, particularly regarding dollar flow transparency and supply quality.
“You need to be able to understand where that dollar goes from the beginning,” Bonell said. “It comes out of your pocketbook into the seller’s hands. Having a partner that can show you that and prove that to you, whether it be by accolades or just basically being transparent, is the best way for agencies and holding companies to truly understand what it takes to be a top-tier partner.”
The power of listening
OpenX supports publishers by addressing gaps in their internal capabilities rather than simply processing transactions. That includes supporting independent agency relationships and providing identity solution partnerships.
“What’s really important for us is to make sure that we empower the publishers to understand and listen more than we speak. What do you need from us? Where are you lacking internally or with your team?” Bonell said.
The company’s reporting shows publishers exactly how much deal spend comes from OpenX’s business development efforts versus what flows through its pipes from publisher teams, demonstrating tangible value beyond technology access.
Breaking down buyer silos
Advertisers organize media spending in silos—retail media, mobile app, CTV—but users move fluidly across these environments, requiring partners that can connect fragmented buying approaches.
“When I put my agency or my holding company hat on, everything’s siloed,” Bonell said. “It’s retail media, mobile app, CTV. You need a partner that’s going to connect all of that for you.”
She illustrated this by detailing her own household’s viewing patterns. While she and her husband watch NFL on Fox one moment, the second he leaves the room, Bonell is switching to Real Housewives on Peacock. At the same time that channel change is going on, the couple’s child is grabbing her phone to watch Peppa Pig on Netflix. It all represents the same addressable users across different inventory sources.
“Anyone can do geo-based targeting or contextual targeting, but it’s about connecting the buyer to the user,” Bonell said. “It’s about following that dollar from the beginning all the way to the end, and that makes the agencies happy, the publishers happy and the users happy because it’s a better experience for them.”