The Trade Desk: Pluto Monetization Journey

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It was very interesting to talk to you about Pluto's journey. Perhaps we can start there. You mentioned that Pluto was struggling with inventory monetization. What were the main issues you encountered when you arrived regarding monetizing that inventory?

Another issue was the relationship between the programmatic and direct sales teams. Direct sales clients questioned why they should buy directly when they could get the same on exchanges for $11, while direct sales charged $23 to $25 CPM. The direct sales team felt undermined by programmatic sales. Many on the direct sales team came from broadcast and were unfamiliar with ad tech and programmatic processes.

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It was very interesting to talk to you about Pluto's journey. Perhaps we can start there. You mentioned that Pluto was struggling with inventory monetization. What were the main issues you encountered when you arrived regarding monetizing that inventory?

I had to explain to them that when a client says that, the response should be, "You're buying my leftovers." This means no targeting, no first choice—just leftovers. I had to architect the ad stack to reflect this. The goal over the years was to have 70% to 80% of inventory sold directly, with 20 %to 30% as leftovers on exchanges. This was the objective when the 300-person professional Viacom sales team came in after the acquisition.

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There's a lot to unpack there. To start, what was the split between direct and programmatic when you first joined? In terms of revenue, how much was generated through programmatic?

It was about 80/20 or 70/30 in favor of programmatic. Programmatic was significant, and there was a reason for that. They started with a five-person sales team and were relatively unknown. They became a juggernaut. When I left, they were doing about $300 to $500 million in revenue. A few years later, they reached a billion to a billion and a half in revenue. Of course, you have to pay the publishers, but they really expanded rapidly.

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