The 'everything is an ad network' thesis got a thorough workout this week. AdExchanger ran a pointed analysis arguing that while cars, doctor's offices, and connected TVs are all viable ad surfaces, the critical bottleneck for all of them is measurement — without it, they remain novelty channels rather than budget-worthy line items. Healthcare settings in particular drew attention, with a separate piece exploring how medical offices are being activated as ad channels, raising immediate questions about data privacy, patient consent, and the appropriateness of commercial messaging in clinical environments. CTV, meanwhile, was declared past its 'awareness-only era,' with brands now actively chasing performance outcomes on the big screen — a maturation that mirrors what happened to digital display a decade ago.
The measurement imperative cuts across all of these surfaces. As retail media networks proliferate and non-endemic channels like healthcare and automotive enter the mix, the industry's inability to apply consistent, cross-channel measurement frameworks is becoming a genuine constraint on advertiser confidence and budget allocation. Axonet's Patrick Raycroft made the case this week that RMN aggregation is the key to democratizing retail media access for mid-market advertisers who can't afford bespoke integrations with every network.