Rob Medved CEO at Cannella Media, has been focused on the direct response media industry for over two decades. He’s never seen a more complicated- and fraught marketplace.

There is this “incredible perfect storm of media fragmentation,” he told Beet.TV. And thanks to Apple cracking down on mobile tracking, and the inevitable elimination of cookies, reaching people directly and tracking the immediate impact of ads keeps getting harder.

“The change in accessibility of user data has definitely been a challenge,” he said. That isn’t slowing down. Marketers are going to be challenged, agencies are getting challenged.”

That said,  he’s bullish on the potential of the use of machine learning tools to help brands target consumers in a privacy first way.

Of course. the ideal way to get there is through first party data. “At the end of the day, it’s about creating your own relationship with customers…in a very very transparent way.”

You’re watching “From Opacity to Openness: The Technology Behind More Transparent Digital Advertising,” a Beet.TV Leadership Series presented by Blockboard. For more videos from this series, please visit this page.