The Evolution of Media Buying and Technology: A Contracting Dilemma

Pamela Watts, Director, Associate General Counsel, Adobe Inc., USA

Advertisers were once able to target sixty percent of all U.S. households by running an advertisement (’advert’) during the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. With the increase of media channels available to consumers, driven primarily by the growth of cable television beginning in the 1970s and the mass adoption of the internet that occurred in the 1990s through today, audiences have become increasingly fragmented, making it significantly more challenging for advertisers to find their target audiences. As consumers have moved to a digital world, the rest of the advertising industry has had to do the same. No longer are adverts limited to newspapers, television and magazines. No longer is it a matter of advertisers blindly turning over advertising budgets to agencies to increase brand awareness. And no longer are advertisers unable to determine which half of their marketing budget is wasted. Advertising has moved into a complex digital world driven by technology and data, often operated by advertising agencies and technology providers on behalf of their clients. Online media channels are now an integral part of advertisers’ media plans and marketing campaigns that are necessary to capture target audiences.

Pamela Watts is a Director and Associate General Counsel at Adobe Inc. She leads a team responsible for providing global legal support for Adobe’s channel and partner businesses as well as Adobe’s North American public sector business. Before joining Adobe, she was a Director at Oracle and a Group Director at Siebel Systems managing and providing legal support for a variety of commercial and public sector sales, strategic partner and operations teams. Ms. Watts earned a juris doctorate from George Mason University, Antonin Scalia Law School, and a bachelor’s degree from the College of William & Mary.

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