{"id":7070535,"date":"2026-09-30T23:36:18","date_gmt":"2026-09-30T23:36:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7070535"},"modified":"2026-09-30T23:36:18","modified_gmt":"2026-09-30T23:36:18","slug":"localitys-tom-wolfe-on-why-top-down-national-tv-strategies-fail-in-local-markets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7070535","title":{"rendered":"Locality\u2019s Tom Wolfe On Why Top-Down National TV Strategies Fail In Local Markets"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"3\">Supply path optimization (SPO) has become industry shorthand for aggressive fee-cutting and stripping out intermediaries. But according to <strong>Tom Wolfe, Senior Vice President of Programmatic Strategy and Partnerships at Locality,<\/strong> the ad tech industry is optimizing for the wrong thing.<\/p>\n<p id=\"p-rc_62f21a162852d782-45\" data-path-to-node=\"4\"><span data-path-to-node=\"4,0\">\u201cA shorter path isn\u2019t inherently a better path,\u201d Wolfe says on this episode of AdExchanger\u2019s <i data-path-to-node=\"4,0\" data-index-in-node=\"93\">Inside the Stack<\/i><\/span><span data-path-to-node=\"4,2\">. While reducing the tech tax matters, a hyper-focus on cutting hops often ignores the signal degradation and data loss that happens when inventory bounces across multiple fragmented systems<\/span><span data-path-to-node=\"4,4\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"border: none;\" title=\"Embed Player\" src=\"https:\/\/play.libsyn.com\/embed\/episode\/id\/43097798\/height\/192\/theme\/modern\/size\/large\/thumbnail\/yes\/custom-color\/2fa1bf\/time-start\/00:00:00\/hide-playlist\/yes\/font-color\/ffffff\" width=\"100%\" height=\"192\" scrolling=\"no\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"4\"><span data-path-to-node=\"4,4\">Instead of just trimming the fat, Wolfe argues buyers need to focus on \u201cdata path optimization\u201d\u2014ensuring the rich signals traveling alongside the inventory survive the trip to drive real business outcomes<\/span><span data-path-to-node=\"4,6\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p id=\"p-rc_62f21a162852d782-46\" data-path-to-node=\"5\"><span data-path-to-node=\"5,0\">Local TV adds an entirely different layer of complexity, and Wolfe points out the flaws in how buyers currently approach it<\/span><span data-path-to-node=\"5,2\">. Taking a top-down national strategy and trying to force-fit it into distinct local markets simply doesn\u2019t work<\/span><span data-path-to-node=\"5,4\">. <\/span><\/p>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"5\"><span data-path-to-node=\"5,4\">As Wolfe notes, an auto-intender navigating the dense, brick-lined streets of Philadelphia behaves vastly differently than one driving the dirt roads of Dothan, Alabama<\/span><span data-path-to-node=\"5,6\">. Hitting those distinct audiences requires bottom-up market intelligence that simple zip-code targeting can\u2019t replicate<\/span><span data-path-to-node=\"5,8\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p id=\"p-rc_62f21a162852d782-47\" data-path-to-node=\"6\"><span data-path-to-node=\"6,0\">In this episode, Wolfe also takes aim at the ubiquitous AI hype, arguing that the true competitive advantage isn\u2019t the AI itself<\/span><span data-path-to-node=\"6,2\">. Comparing today\u2019s AI platforms to everyone suddenly gaining access to Microsoft Excel in the 90s, Wolfe points out that the real differentiator is the data feeding the models<\/span><span data-path-to-node=\"6,4\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p id=\"p-rc_62f21a162852d782-48\" data-path-to-node=\"7\"><span data-path-to-node=\"7,0\">Tune in to hear more about solving local TV fragmentation, why AI is useless without good bidstream signals, and Wolfe\u2019s three words to describe the converging TV ecosystem<\/span><span data-path-to-node=\"7,2\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Solving Local TV Fragmentation, Rethinking SPO, &amp; The Truth About AI | Tom Wolfe, Locality\" width=\"840\" height=\"473\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/pkNtrUNYgdo?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Supply path optimization (SPO) has become industry shorthand for aggressive fee-cutting and stripping out intermediaries. But according to Tom Wolfe, Senior Vice President of Programmatic Strategy and Partnerships at Locality, the ad tech industry is optimizing for the wrong thing. \u201cA shorter path isn\u2019t inherently a better path,\u201d Wolfe says on this episode of AdExchanger\u2019s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7070537,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12023],"tags":[231487,15928,198167,13747,231488,231489,231490,11715,5306,26194,59499,11124,231486,2108,17476,15105],"dealstore":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-7070535","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-advertising","tag-data-fidelity","tag-fail","tag-inside-the-stack","tag-local","tag-local-tv","tag-locality","tag-localitys","tag-markets","tag-national","tag-programmatic-advertising","tag-spo","tag-strategies","tag-supply-path-optimization","tag-tom","tag-topdown","tag-wolfe"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Locality\u2019s Tom Wolfe On Why Top-Down National TV Strategies Fail In Local Markets - Som2ny Network<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7070535\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Locality\u2019s Tom Wolfe On Why Top-Down National TV Strategies Fail In Local Markets - Som2ny Network\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Supply path optimization (SPO) has become industry shorthand for aggressive fee-cutting and stripping out intermediaries. 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