RANCHO PALOS VERDES, CA – As the advertising marketplace grows more complex, “convergence” has become both a buzzword and a necessity, said Chance Johnson, chief commercial officer of Nexxen, during a conversation with Beet.TV contributor David Kaplan at the Beet Retreat LA.
Johnson described consolidation across the industry as an unavoidable outcome of fractured incentives and increasing operational complexity. Buyers and sellers often optimize toward their own narrow goals, he said, creating fragmented supply paths, hidden fees and accountability blind spots.
“When convergence is done responsibly,” Johnson said, it aligns incentives instead of pitting stakeholders against each other. Nexxen’s decision to unify its demand-side and sell-side platforms wasn’t about collapsing the supply chain for its own sake, he said, but about giving both sides more clarity and control over how money moves.
Rethinking first-party data
Asked about the rush by brands to reduce reliance on walled gardens by leaning into first-party data, Johnson struck a pragmatic tone. When marketers emphasize first-party data, what they’re really seeking is ownership and control, he said, which is an admirable goal, but not without hurdles.
He highlighted two major considerations:
- Interoperability: Even the most advanced data systems falter if they operate in isolation. Without the ability to connect and activate data across environments, brands won’t unlock its full value.
- Operational burden: Johnson pointed to the costs, governance demands and compliance challenges that come with managing data internally. “Most brands simply don’t have the bandwidth,” he said.
A hybrid approach, he argued, is often the sweet spot: one where platforms like Nexxen ingest, enrich and scale a brand’s first-party data without forcing them to rebuild an entire tech stack.
SSP’s new role: Not a middleman
Johnson pushed back firmly on the idea that supply-side platforms are “middlemen.” Their role, he said, is evolving and becoming more essential.
He said SSPs must move beyond merely providing “generic pipes,” because the ecosystem doesn’t need more of those. The winners, he said, will be SSPs that:
- Increase transparency
- Enrich publisher signals
- Bring incremental demand
- Ensure more media dollars reach working media
A strong SSP, he said, benefits both buyers and sellers by reducing waste and elevating quality.
Transparency gains and industry shortcomings
The conversation turned to transparency, where Johnson said real progress has been made. Third-party groups and new tools have helped identify and reduce low-quality inventory, including made-for-advertising sites.
Yet supply-path optimization remains an area where improvement is sorely needed, he said. Too many SPO efforts are still overly cost-centric instead of value-centric.
“We should be asking whether an impression drives positive results,” Johnson said, not simply where it ran or how cheaply it was delivered.
Outcomes, AI and shift to incrementality
The push toward outcomes isn’t new, Johnson said, but the industry is finally getting better at measuring what matters. With more signals available, marketers can look beyond correlation and focus on incrementality: understanding whether an ad truly influenced behavior.
Nexxen aims to support that through unified measurement, spanning activation, optimization and evaluation across channels.
Layering predictive AI into the equation, he said, allows platforms to optimize thousands of times faster than any human team. That speed, Johnsons said, frees marketers to focus on strategic thinking and creativity rather than spreadsheet wrangling.
“That’s a positive result for the people doing the work and for the businesses they’re trying to grow,” he said.
Cookiepocalypse Will Return Art To Advertising: Nexxen’s Johnson
