MadTech Mailbag: ExchangeWire on Gen AI Ads, Retail Media, and Audio Advertising

About this episode

The episode features a discussion on generative AI content, retail media, and audio advertising, addressing key questions from the audience.

Is the industry sleepwalking into a creative quality crisis? Why are we still building retail media on first-wave infrastructure? Are marketers ready to adopt audio as a full funnel channel? This week, we're handing the mic over to our audience for another mailbag special. We’ve gathered burning questions from across the ad tech landscape and put them to our team, who’ll dive in and answer as best they can… In this episode of The MadTech Podcast, ExchangeWire's head of content, John Still, is joined by CEO Rachel Smith and COO Lindsay Rowntree to discuss generative AI content, retail media, and audio. The conversation explores if AI is doing more harm than good to public perceptions of advertising, the pace of retail media's evolution, and measurement challenges with audio channels. Thank you to DAIVID's Barney Worfolk-Smith , VML's Kiessé Lamour , and Audion's Kamel El Hadef for this month's questions! Got a burning question for the ExchangeWire team? Send your questions over to us and we'll answer in our next monthly mailbag special... 0:00 Introduction 0:47 Is the industry sleepwalking into a creative quality crisis? 20:46 Why are we still building retail media on first-wave…

People in this episode

Host: John Still

Guests: Rachel Smith, Lindsay Rowntree

Topics covered

• generative AI content
• retail media
• audio advertising
• creative quality crisis
• ad tech landscape
• measurement challenges

Keywords

• creative quality crisis
• retail media infrastructure
• audio as a full funnel channel
• generative AI ads
• ad tech questions

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: ExchangeWire, DAIVID, VML, Audion

More episodes of The MadTech Podcast

• MadTech Daily: ChatGPT Ads Lands its First Conversion API Partner in LiveRamp; Seven’s Parent Company Cuts Jobs as TV Earnings Fall · June 12, 2026 · 2 min
• ExchangeWire on MENA Digital Advertising, Google vs. CMA, and UK Ad Exports · June 12, 2026 · 31 min
• MadTech Daily: Netflix Brings Upfront Event to the UK; Meta Ordered to Open WhatsApp to AI Rivals · June 11, 2026 · 2 min
• MadTech Daily: MENA Becomes Fastest-Growing Ad Market; Accenture Acquires Whalar · June 10, 2026 · 3 min
• MadTech Daily: Portugal Fines Telcos Over Ad Collusion; Trade Desk CRO Out After 7 Months · June 9, 2026 · 2 min
• MadTech Daily: Google Adds Search Profiles to Discover; Roblox Opens Ads to Under-13s · June 8, 2026 · 2 min