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C Wire

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Insights

Writing on contextual buying, placement quality and the supply we sell.

Glossary

01

Event · 2026-07-14

Bootstrapped vs. VC-Backed in Ad Tech: Six Founders on the Real Trade-Offs

Between them, the six founders on stage at our Cannes Lions activation have run companies for a combined fifty-plus years. Four of them have never taken a cent of outside money. Two of us have. We sat down for half an hour with no slides and no press-release language, and what came out wasn't a debate about which path is better. It was something more useful: a very specific account of what each path costs you, on the days nobody is watching.

Rui de Freitas · 7 min

  • Event · 2026-07-01

    Sir Martin Sorrell and the Wrong Question About AI

    At our Cannes "Street Talk" fireside with Tom Triscari, Sir Martin Sorrell argued that the advertising industry is obsessing over AI and creative while the real disruption is happening one layer down: in how media is planned, bought and priced. We think he's right, and it's the reason C Wire exists.

    Rui de Freitas · 4 min

  • Event · 2026-03-23

    What I Took Away from Pitching at the Advertising Economic Forum in New York

    Pitching at the Advertising Economic Forum in New York was a powerful reminder that the biggest challenge in advertising is no longer buying media it is executing strategy at scale. The conversations with investors and operators confirmed a clear shift: the future of advertising will be defined by systems that turn strategy into autonomous execution. That is exactly the problem we are building C Wire to solve.

    Rui de Freitas · 3 min

  • Event · 2026-02-09

    From Attention to Agents: 7 signals that the Trusted Web is reinventing itself

    Last week at the first Open Garden Innovator Awards in Paris, something became very clear: The Trusted Web isn’t defending itself anymore. It’s reinventing itself. What stood out wasn’t just innovation theatre but operational, measurable, scalable execution across media, data, and creativity. From attention becoming a trading currency… to AI industrializing creative production… to GEO strategies designed for LLM discovery… We’re witnessing a structural shift. Programmatic is no longer just automating media buying. It’s evolving into something far more autonomous. Here are 7 signals that prove the Open Web is entering its next chapter.

    Rui de Freitas · 4 min

  • Event · 2024-10-13

    Future of Cookieless: Key Takeaways from the Minted event in Paris

    The Future of Cookieless event, held in Paris on October 8th, 2024, brought together over 350 professionals to discuss the impending end of third-party cookies. Key discussions included the shift from testing to implementation of cookieless solutions, the rise of shared ID and Privacy Sandbox, and the increasing reliance on first-party data. Industry leaders from Dentsu, Weborama, and GroupM highlighted the need for new targeting and measurement strategies. The event also showcased insights on marketing mix modeling pitfalls and privacy-first approaches to digital advertising. Key topics: third-party cookie alternatives, Privacy Sandbox, shared ID solutions, first-party data, cookieless advertising strategies, marketing mix modeling.

    Rui de Freitas · 4 min

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What we learn from reading content and auditing placements across the supply we sell. Occasional, written by the people doing the work.