The Trade Desk's Samantha Jacobson is mapping the future of programmatic

Samantha Jacobson is helping the ad industry rethink identity at a pivotal moment, as cookies are going away and Apple and Google evolve the way data is shared on mobile devices. The Trade Desk’s big initiative to supplant the cookie is Unified ID 2.0, which is a next-generation identity product for programmatic advertisers. The identity is one that advertisers and publishers could use to keep targeting ads on the open web. But to do that, The Trade Desk needs to bring the whole industry along. “This is the future of the ad tech ecosystem and it’s not just about replacing cookies,” said Jacobson, The Trade Desk's chief strategy officer. See all 40 Under 40 honorees here Jacobson, 37, and The Trade Desk had some wins this year getting advertising and publishing partners to adopt the ID. Disney, Albertsons, Amazon Web Services and Vox Media have started to experiment with it. Last month, Procter & Gamble said it would test the protocol, too. “We’ve seen a great amount of traction,” Jacobson said, pointing to dozens of partnerships. Planning for post-cookie advertising is not easy, because the road map is constantly changing. This year, Google announced it would postpone cookie deprecation in Chrome for another year, holding off until 2024. The Trade Desk, meanwhile, is developing its demand-side platform to handle the future of ad tech, with retail media partnerships, connected TV deals and more. When Jacobson is not mapping out the future of programmatic advertising, she is raising a family of five children. Her youngest is 9 months old and her oldest is 13. Jacobson said she is ready at a moment’s notice to go from a company meeting in New York City to make it home to Denver for a school play. “It sets a good example, that it’s OK to have both parents work and to have mom travel,” Jacobson said. Jacobson is a scuba diver, too. She has dived in places as remote as Belize and the Seychelles. Jacobson said that she is comfortable “scuba diving, under the water, no distractions. I can just be with the fish.” If you could have dinner with one person, alive or dead, who would it be and why? I would choose to have dinner with Jacinda Ardern, the prime minister of New Zealand. Noticeably young for her position, she is currently 42 and she made history in 2018 when she had a baby in office, a year after being elected. And she was only the second elected head of government to ever give birth while in office. I’m sure her ability to balance family and work doesn’t come without trade-offs, and as a mother of five, I’d like to understand how she makes those decisions. Additionally, she seems willing to challenge the status quo, even on controversial topics such as sponsoring more strict gun laws after the Christchurch mosque shooting, while preserving her popularity. What are the top two social media sites you use on a regular basis? I regularly use LinkedIn. I enjoy keeping in touch with colleagues from my past; seeing what they’re doing now; the paths they’ve taken and the issues about which they are passionate; blending work, personal beliefs and family. [Also I use] TikTok, and the incredible time suck of baking videos and parenting fails. What’s currently on your bedside reading list? I’ve recently enjoyed reading “The Culture Map” by Erin Meyer. I particularly enjoyed the focus on how to more effectively engage with people living in different places or coming from different backgrounds in business, as well as personally. Also, “Educated” by Tara Westover, a memoir discussing her survivalist Mormon family and the role education played in enlarging her world. I found it really interesting to learn about her upbringing and how her perspective evolved with exposure to different people and ideas. What was the last show you binge-watched? I’m a fan of “Yellowstone” and recently binge-watched “1883,” the prequel to Yellowstone. I found it interesting to think about how different life was back then—how dependent people were on building coalitions—and what the transition must have been like, especially for European immigrants who didn’t speak the language and lacked many of the survival skills needed to cross the frontier. But still they persisted, in search of a better life for themselves and their children. At what age do you hope to retire? I don’t plan to retire, as long as I’m intellectually stimulated and able to add value. That’s part of the reason I’m so drawn to ad tech. We get to work on hard problems that constantly evolve, with smart people. I’m also grateful to work for The Trade Desk, where I can spend time with my family, on vacation or attending my kids' events, like school plays, while still excelling in my job. See all 40 Under 40 honorees here

The Trade Desk's Samantha Jacobson is mapping the future of programmatic

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