Ad-Tech’s ‘Cookie Licking’ Problem is Starving Quality Content, Says Basis President
CANNES, France – Every dollar spent on digital advertising goes on a journey before it reaches the publisher. Along the way, it gets smaller – much smaller.
In fact, the advertising supply chain has become so bloated with intermediaries that roughly 60% of ad spend never makes it to content creators, according to Christian Hendricks, president of Basis. He describes the phenomenon with a vivid analogy: everyone in the chain wants to “take a lick of the cookie” before passing it along.
“That’s an enormous tax,” Hendricks said in a video interview with Beet.TV at Cannes Lions 2026. “And if you want quality content, the ecosystem itself has to own up and say, we are part of the problem and we need to fix this if we want to have quality content because ultimately those two equations need to balance.”
The economics of quality journalism
As newsrooms close and media outlets struggle to sustain operations, the connection between ad tech friction and the decline of journalism becomes awkward.
Hendricks said the issue is fundamentally about access to information. Publishers face limited options for monetization – advertising, paywalls, or some combination of both. For those who believe content should remain freely accessible to all readers regardless of their ability to pay, advertising remains essential, he said.
“You want to inform people not based on simply on those who can pay for it, you want to inform all the people,” Hendricks said. “So advertising is a very important piece of this ecosystem.”
Where the money disappears
Basis Technologies, formerly known as Centro, offers an all-in-one advertising automation and intelligence platform.
- The Basis DSP is the programmatic engine of the platform.
- Basis also includes a system to manage non-programmatic, direct-to-publisher ad buys.
- Launched as a core component of the platform, Compass is an agentic AI-powered media planning tool.
- The platform also offers operational “back-office” software and a cross-channel analytics dashboard.
The inefficiencies Hendricks described begin earlier than most realize, he said – planning processes consume excessive time, and every touchpoint in the ad-tech stack extracts value from the transaction.
But he pointed to the reluctance of industry players to acknowledge their role in the problem. “They don’t want to own up to the fact that 60% gets wasted on that friction before it gets to the publisher, right, to the content creator,” he said.
From initial campaign planning through ad networks and delivery systems, each step adds latency and cost. According to recent IAB forecasts, US ad spending will grow 9.5% in 2026, driven partly by AI integration in performance marketing – suggesting the market is actively seeking solutions to these efficiency problems.
A virtuous cycle awaits
The efficiency gains from streamlined operations create a choice for advertisers and agencies. They can pocket the savings or reinvest them in the content ecosystem that makes advertising valuable in the first place.
Hendricks advocates for the latter approach, suggesting it creates mutual benefit. Advertisers and agencies fundamentally want quality content – it’s the entire basis of their business model.
“If you can make it more efficient and the publisher gets instead of getting 40 cents on the dollar, the publisher gets 80 cents on the dollar, and they on the other side of the bargain with them is you’re going to invest that in more quality content, it’s a virtuous cycle,” he said.
You’re watching Beet Talks at Cannes Lions 2026, presented by Basis. For more videos from this series, please visit this page. You can find all of our coverage from Cannes Lions 2026 here.
CANNES, France – Every dollar spent on digital advertising goes on a journey before it reaches the publisher. Along the way, it gets smaller – much smaller.
In fact, the advertising supply chain has become so bloated with intermediaries that roughly 60% of ad spend never makes it to content creators, according to Christian Hendricks, president of Basis. He describes the phenomenon with a vivid analogy: everyone in the chain wants to “take a lick of the cookie” before passing it along.
“That’s an enormous tax,” Hendricks said in a video interview with Beet.TV at Cannes Lions 2026. “And if you want quality content, the ecosystem itself has to own up and say, we are part of the problem and we need to fix this if we want to have quality content because ultimately those two equations need to balance.”
The economics of quality journalism
As newsrooms close and media outlets struggle to sustain operations, the connection between ad tech friction and the decline of journalism becomes awkward.
Hendricks said the issue is fundamentally about access to information. Publishers face limited options for monetization – advertising, paywalls, or some combination of both. For those who believe content should remain freely accessible to all readers regardless of their ability to pay, advertising remains essential, he said.
“You want to inform people not based on simply on those who can pay for it, you want to inform all the people,” Hendricks said. “So advertising is a very important piece of this ecosystem.”
Where the money disappears
Basis Technologies, formerly known as Centro, offers an all-in-one advertising automation and intelligence platform.
- The Basis DSP is the programmatic engine of the platform.
- Basis also includes a system to manage non-programmatic, direct-to-publisher ad buys.
- Launched as a core component of the platform, Compass is an agentic AI-powered media planning tool.
- The platform also offers operational “back-office” software and a cross-channel analytics dashboard.
The inefficiencies Hendricks described begin earlier than most realize, he said – planning processes consume excessive time, and every touchpoint in the ad-tech stack extracts value from the transaction.
But he pointed to the reluctance of industry players to acknowledge their role in the problem. “They don’t want to own up to the fact that 60% gets wasted on that friction before it gets to the publisher, right, to the content creator,” he said.
From initial campaign planning through ad networks and delivery systems, each step adds latency and cost. According to recent IAB forecasts, US ad spending will grow 9.5% in 2026, driven partly by AI integration in performance marketing – suggesting the market is actively seeking solutions to these efficiency problems.
A virtuous cycle awaits
The efficiency gains from streamlined operations create a choice for advertisers and agencies. They can pocket the savings or reinvest them in the content ecosystem that makes advertising valuable in the first place.
Hendricks advocates for the latter approach, suggesting it creates mutual benefit. Advertisers and agencies fundamentally want quality content – it’s the entire basis of their business model.
“If you can make it more efficient and the publisher gets instead of getting 40 cents on the dollar, the publisher gets 80 cents on the dollar, and they on the other side of the bargain with them is you’re going to invest that in more quality content, it’s a virtuous cycle,” he said.
You’re watching Beet Talks at Cannes Lions 2026, presented by Basis. For more videos from this series, please visit this page. You can find all of our coverage from Cannes Lions 2026 here.
