Disclaimer: Viant is a Sharp Pen client.

Most CEOs approach earnings calls like they're throwing spaghetti at the wall. "Here are our 20 initiatives! Here’s a bunch of disparate developments and results that may or may not be related to what’s going on in the industry overall. Plus, also, Google did something.”

For a better way, look at Viant.

If you read Viant's earnings call transcript from earlier this month, you’ll see that CEO Tim Vanderhook and COO Chris Vanderhook are not presenting a loose collection of initiatives. The Vanderhooks are telling a cohesive story about the industry. In other words, instead of leaving it to investors and others to understand the industry and figure out how to situate Viant within it, Viant’s leaders are shaping the investors’ conception of the overall story — and positioning Viant at the center of it.

The story is that open web programmatic advertising is competing with the walled gardens. AI will dramatically increase the total addressable market of the open web by making open web advertising easier. Google and Meta have built huge businesses by telling advertisers, "Just tell us what outcomes you want, and we'll handle it." AI will increasingly bring that capability to the open web and the DSPs that support it, shifting dollars from search and social while driving incremental spend.

As Tim said, "AI is transforming the programmatic ad industry as a whole." And Viant is playing a key role in that transformation through ViantAI, "the first fully autonomous advertising software platform." Viant is thus positioning itself at the center of digital advertising's transformation. It will be one of the drivers of the open web's renaissance.

But there's another layer. The core of the open web's resurgence will be CTV. The Trade Desk said for the first time on its most recent earnings call that CTV is the DSP’s largest and fastest-growing channel. At Viant, CTV spend was up about 50% YoY in Q3. eMarketer recently reported that 34% of advertisers are reallocating spend from social platforms to CTV.

So, Viant just acquired Iris.TV, which will allow advertisers to target CTV on the show level, not just the app level, while also factoring in sentiment and brand suitability data. Brands are already seeing a huge jump in incremental sales with the Iris ID through Viant.

Combined, ViantAI and Viant's CTV innovations position it to become the "DSP of choice for advertisers looking to spend more in CTV" — not just for big brands but for "the millions of smaller advertisers that are currently confined to search and social media channels."

In short:

1. The true central dynamic in programmatic is the ability of the open web to compete with walled gardens.

2. AI will transform that dynamic by making open web programmatic more accessible, and Viant is driving that transformation with ViantAI.

3. CTV will be the crux of the open web's AI-driven transformation, and Viant is leading the way on CTV innovation, mostly recently with the purchase of Iris.

4. Combined, the AI + CTV opportunity isn't just about driving more ad spend today. It's about drastically expanding the open web's TAM — and, by extension, the TAM of a DSP like Viant.

This is how you approach messaging and positioning, especially on earnings calls, which are an opportunity to directly shape the way investors, analysts, and other industry influencers see both your company and the industry. Don't just state a bunch of good things you're doing and expect investors, analysts, and customers to understand for themselves how you fit into the big picture.

Tell the story of the industry, and situate yourself at the center of it.

By the way, as of the time of writing, Viant's stock is up 196% YoY.