10 Things I Learned from Dave Morgan (and a Few I’m Still Scratching My Head Over)

If there’s one person in ad tech who isn’t just here for the marketing fluff, it’s Dave Morgan. He’s been around longer than most of us have even known how to spell "programmatic." Founder of Simulmedia, Real Media, and a few other household names in the tech trenches, 

Dave is the guy who says what we’re all thinking, with none of the business-formality trappings. And after this latest talk, it’s clear why he’s one of my favorite people in the industry. 

Spoiler: He’s back as the CEO of Simulmedia—again—because apparently, ad tech wasn’t ready to move on without him.

Here’s what I picked up from my latest conversation with him—ten lessons straight from Dave Morgan’s unfiltered mind:

1. AdTech is a Swamp of Bull— But You Probably Already Knew That

Dave doesn’t mince words. “90% of what you read in the trades is fluff,” he says. And he’s right. So much noise, so little actual insight. Most of the industry runs on assumptions and hopeful thinking, not the hard facts we all pretend to care about. If you’re up at 2 a.m. worrying about your ad buys, congrats, you’re doing it right. The real players know you can’t just push a button and get results, despite the promises of every platform salesperson out there.

2. CTV Is a House of Cards—and It’s Not Even a Good Show

Everyone’s talking about how Connected TV (CTV) is this miracle ad medium—massive growth, billions of dollars, yada yada. Dave? He calls it like it is: “It’s build it now, fix it later.” The infrastructure isn’t ready for the ad spend pouring in, and the latency in live sports advertising? Total nightmare. But shh, no one’s talking about that because it might ruin the hype train.

3. Shoppable TV is Slapping a Cart on Your Netflix Binge

“Shop while you watch” sounds great until you realize it’s just a shopping cart slapped on the side of your "Stranger Things" marathon. Dave agrees: it’s still mostly gimmick, not innovation. He does have hope that Amazon will figure it out, but we’re not there yet. Don’t believe the sizzle reels—QVC did it better decades ago.

4. Programmatic is the Denial Olympics

One of the industry’s dirtiest secrets? Deniability. Programmatic gives people just enough distance from their decisions that they can claim ignorance when things go wrong. Your ad’s getting served to bots or fake websites? "Oh, well, it’s not our fault—it was three vendors ago." Dave calls out this kind of deniability for what it is: total BS. In the golden days of hand-sold media, you couldn’t hide. Now? It’s a circus.

5. Digital Darts: Why Targeting is Mostly Fiction

Every ad tech firm promises perfect targeting—the right ad to the right person at the right time. Yeah, Dave’s having none of that. “It’s digital darts,” he says. Most of what’s being sold as precision targeting is more like a Hail Mary of probabilistic data, with most of the darts missing the mark entirely. And brands pay extra for this privilege!

6. Easy Button Mentality is Ad Tech’s Original Sin

Everyone’s chasing the elusive easy button—"one-click solutions" to complex problems. Guess what? It doesn’t exist. Dave blames lazy marketing and the industry’s desperation to make everything seem easy for how bloated our supply chains have become. Instead of streamlining, we’re over-complicating, just to justify more fees.

7. Middlemen: The Parasites of Programmatic

If you’ve ever wondered whether we need every single middleman in the ad supply chain, Dave will set you straight: No, we don’t. But guess what? They’re not going anywhere because their obfuscation serves a purpose—mainly, to keep you from realizing how much junk you’re paying for. As long as they can hide behind layers of complexity, they’ll keep siphoning off margins.

8. Ad Fraud: The Industry’s Open Secret

Fraud? It’s everywhere, and everyone knows it. But does anyone care? Not really, because admitting how bad it is would collapse the house of cards. Dave’s one of the few brave enough to talk about it. He dropped a bombshell: some major DSPs are inking 50% rebate deals on CTV at prices so low they have to be serving fake inventory to make it work. Yeah, that’s comforting.

9. The Illusion of Control is Still Alive and Kicking

Let’s be real: most buyers don’t want to know how much waste is in the system. The illusion of control is easier to swallow than the reality that half their spend is probably lining the pockets of middlemen. Dave credits organizations like the ANA for trying to shine a light on the issue, but it’s an uphill battle. Most people would rather stay blissfully ignorant.

10. Work-Life Balance is a Myth (But a Good Family Isn’t)

Dave is a startup guy through and through. Work and life? They’re the same thing when you’re passionate about what you do. But his key to balance isn’t some guru hack—it’s having a great family and clear priorities. He’ll tell you straight up: it’s not for everyone, and that’s okay. But if you’re in it for the long haul, you need to know where your barriers are.

Dave Morgan isn’t just an ad tech veteran. He’s the rare kind of leader who’s willing to call out the BS while still being optimistic enough to try and fix it. Maybe that’s why he’s back at Simulmedia—there’s still work to be done, and Dave’s the guy to do it, even if the rest of us are still stuck playing digital darts.

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