It’s been a busy week for The Trade Desk as Jeff Green’s DSP looks to rebound from a rocky few months. Heading into Advertising Week New York, TTD has made several interesting announcements:
- Audience Unlimited – This is a new offering that TTD says uses AI to score third-party data segments “by relevance” for campaigns. The goal is to help advertisers better identify high-quality, high-performing segments.
- Ventura + DirecTV – TTD also announced DirecTV as a user interface software partner for Ventura, its smart TV OS. However, a hardware OEM partner willing to adopt Ventura is still in progress.
- OpenAds via The Current – CEO Jeff Green published two op-eds on their site, The Current (here and here), the latter of which raised some eyebrows for referring to SSPs as “wounded animals.” The broader purpose was ultimately to introduce OpenAds, a forked Prebid wrapper (pre-TID changes) by TTD designed to bring transparency to auctions by cutting down on intermediary and reseller (SSPs, too?) opacity.
Why This Matters:
Taken together, these moves work to reinforce TTD’s ongoing efforts to position itself as the white knight of the open internet. The company is leaning into a broader narrative around transparency and supply chain quality, especially as advertisers grow louder in their complaints about the complexity and inefficiency of the digital ad ecosystem. While the messaging leans altruistic, TTD also, of course, stands to benefit from gaining more control over how ad dollars flow, especially if more spend routes through TTD’s own OpenPath or the SP500.
Experts React:
Industry reactions were… kind of all over the place?
For Audience Unlimited, it seemed to be generally well received, with marketers like InterMedia’s David Nyurenberg praising the launch. “This is why The Trade Desk’s new Audience Unlimited is such a positive development,” he wrote on LinkedIn. “By layering AI-driven decisioning on top of these marketplaces, buyers are finally getting help adjudicating quality in a space where quality has been nearly impossible to measure.”
Ventura’s DirecTV partnership caused some confusion, however, as its value is unclear without a hardware partner onboard. For example, on X, The Last Party Cookie, one of our favorite anon adtech accounts, said, “How is TTD unveiling a custom version of its OS that isn’t actually released anywhere?“
Meanwhile, OpenAds sparked debate after AdTechGod teased the news ahead of the second Current op-ed that unveiled it. Some applauded the push for transparency, while others were skeptical/critical. As James Strang put it: “It’s likely a direct result of Prebid changing the TID logic. They can’t control Prebid, so they’re forking it. Real Google-level tactic to be honest.”
Our Take:
Look, ultimately, The Trade Desk is making some savvy moves here, both strategically and in terms of its overall positioning.
The company is doubling down on its supply chain quality narrative—something it’s been pushing for over a year—but that hasn’t always resonated with investors. Now, by folding AI into the story (as seen with Audience Unlimited, in particular), TTD is better aligning with market’s interests and shareholder expectations. It’s a good blend of product innovation and of-the-moment storytelling that may move the needle.
