Jeff Green, CEO of The Trade Desk
Scott Mlyn | CNBC
Trade Desk CEO and co-founder Jeff Green said last year was a wake-up call to the advertising industry as consumers are moving away from traditional TV viewing and instead to streaming and online video.
“2020 was a wake-up call for the advertising industry when it came to TV,” Green said on Thursday’s fourth-quarter earnings call. He said the company’s affiliate TV business, where it sells ads on streaming platforms, doubled in the fourth quarter from a year ago.
The Trade Desk, which runs a fast-growing connected TV business, has a lot to gain as ad revenue shifts away from traditional linear television. With more people in their living room streaming shows and movies during the pandemic, The Trade Desk has seen more opportunities to show them ads on streaming platforms. Green has said the pandemic has accelerated a shift in this direction and in other areas.
“We have talked a lot over the past 12 months about how the pandemic accelerated the trends already underway, but we could not have quite predicted how sharp that acceleration would be.”
The company’s stock fell about 1% in non-business hours trading, even after it reported $ 319.9 million in revenues and non-GAAP earnings of $ 3.71 per share, handily exceeding expectations. The company’s technology helps brands and agencies reach targeted audiences through media formats and devices.
Green also cited a recent presentation with Marc Pritchard, Procter & Gamble’s chief brand officer. “He and I believe we are headed for an inevitable future where all advertising is, and I quote with his words ‘digital, programmatic, data-driven and automatic’.”
Green echoed Pritchard’s sentiments about the traditional TV buying process, where advertisers typically commit a large portion of their annual TV spend in deals during the spring season. That’s when the networks give presentations and parties to show media buyers their programming, audience data and advertising tools. Pritchard criticized the process last September, asking for a later up-front marketplace, along with more flexibility in buying ads closer to the broadcast.