Tanja Mimica almost missed her ad tech calling before building a demand-side ad platform

Tanja Mimica, VP of Activate at PubMatic, the supply-side ad platform, was almost going to get into pet-care technology before her ad tech calling led her to build a demand-side ad platform called Martin. In 2022, PubMatic bought the DSP, which Mimica co-founded, and it is now a key tool for the ad tech provider in its transition to a post-cookie advertising world and its entry into connected TV ad deals. PubMatic is one of those SSPs that has been evolving with the changes to online data, such as Apple’s anti-tracking restrictions on Safari browsers and iPhones; soon, similar changes will come to Google’s ad ecosystem. “What’s been really exciting and challenging is taking a company like PubMatic, which has traditionally been an SSP, and introducing buy-side tech into it,” Mimica said. Last year, PubMatic turned Martin into Activate, a service for advertisers and agencies to measure campaigns across publishers and connected TV. “Our vision and mission at Activate is to bring buyers and publishers closer together and to then break down some of those walls in the traditional programmatic supply chain,” Mimica said. Activate is an example of how ad tech vendors are developing tools for advertisers to create efficiency in programmatic advertising. Activate works with approximately 50 brands and agencies on campaigns through PubMatic, and the technology is geared toward supply path optimization, which is a hot topic in an ad industry that wants more control over digital campaigns. “That’s driven by this desire to get closer to the publisher to regain control of their supply chain and their buying paths,” Mimica said. See Ad Age’s Tech Power List honoring marketing leaders What is the biggest technological challenge facing your sector of advertising and technology, and why? Attribution in a post-cookie world is the biggest challenge at the moment. We talk about cookieless targeting but can’t overlook the fact that conversion attribution will look quite different too. How are you preparing to overcome this challenge? First-party data, including commerce media, will become even more important, and we’ll see budgets shift there. Additionally, the shift toward connected TV will continue as an environment that doesn’t rely on cookies. And finally, lift measurement, which has long been regarded as the gold standard in measuring media effectiveness, and doesn’t require each conversion to be tracked, is relevant more than ever when cookies and other identifiers go away. What piece of technology could you absolutely not live without, besides your phone? The Nanit baby monitor. It allows me to view the crib on my phone even when I’m on the other side of the world, and I can even talk to the baby! What’s your favorite blog, TikTok account, podcast or any must-follows in your media diet? I have a lot of respect for [ad tech expert] Ratko Vidakovic from AdProfs. I wish he’d write more often. I also always appreciate the candid opinions of [ad tech expert] Ari Paparo. See Ad Age’s Tech Power List honoring marketing leaders

Tanja Mimica almost missed her ad tech calling before building a demand-side ad platform

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