In this installment of our Marketer Interview video series, we learn through a simple word association game how marketers are preparing for a new year of expanded media fragmentation.

Meet John McCarus founder and president of Content Ink, a six-year-old recruiting and advisory firm focused on the digital media and e-commerce space. John is best known as a creator, co-founder and still-active contributor of the NewFronts, considered to be the premier digital video marketplace managed by the IAB.

Let’s get started…

Cookies

Yet another journey of unknowns, and every time you visit a website, you are faced with a cookie acceptance decision. And so it's in your face all day long and still we have no answers.

Nielsen

You know, you would like to be able to say that we've moved past Nielsen that maybe, Nielsen is not gonna be able to serve our needs moving forward, but yet Nielsen remains the measurement platform that so many TV advertisers cling to. And so it's just fascinating to see how long it takes for measurement to evolve and for everybody to coalesce.

NewFronts

I'm so pleasantly surprised by the evolution of the NewFronts. Last year becoming the marketplace for streaming, as well as other channels of original content. And hats off to the IAB and to all of the publishers, platforms, streaming partners, and buyers for keeping that marketplace alive. I think the NewFronts saw over 10,000 people participate in the platform last year, which is exciting.

Email

Still relying on email. We're all focused on text as well, but I'd have to say my email reliance has dropped and I’m using other channels more and more.

Connected TV

There is no non-connected TV. What's fascinating is that the shelf life of TVs is so short now and the cost is so low that you're buying new TVs all the time. So I think we can honestly probably start to relax on the connected piece and just assume that all TVs are now connected. I think in the marketplace is showing us that TV and digital are washing away. It's all one thing.

TikTok

TikTok is just so fascinating. It's the algorithm for the ages. It's amazing to see so many people in so many different ages building a relationship with that platform and I think it will continue. Everyone looks at TikTok, sees how big it is, sees its growth and assumes that TikTok is as big as the other platforms… YouTube and Facebook and so on. Yet its infrastructure and its team is a fraction of the size. So they're scrambling to try to catch up to where they need to be as they build infrastructure. It's gonna be an interesting next year for TikTok.

Watch the full video to hear more from John and check here for more conversations with marketers.