Why the ad targeting model might collapse

What happens when a media veteran trades ad land for the world of data privacy? In this episode of Trillion Dollar Ads Podcast, I sat down with Gman, former APAC head at Mindshare and now founder of Saptharushi, a privacy-tech startup tackling the messy world of data consent. After 30 years of shaping advertising strategies for big brands, he saw the writing on the wall—privacy was the next big frontier. Gman takes us through his journey from media planning in Chennai to building solutions for one of advertising’s biggest headaches: third-party cookies. He shares what privacy-enhancing tech really means, why Google’s Privacy Sandbox stumbled, and why it’s time for the open web to step up. It’s a crash course in data, trust, and why the ad world may never look the same again.

Discussion Topics: Why the ad targeting model might collapse

• A veteran ad man jumps into privacy—why?
• The one rule every brand is breaking
• What Google, Apple, and regulators are really fighting over
• Are your clicks being tracked without consent?
• Why Google’s power is everyone’s problem
• The hidden reason Privacy Sandbox was doomed
• Could a browser-neutral world save online ads?
• The ad targeting model might collapse—here’s why
• Say goodbye to bad data. Say hello to… what?
• Gen Z and Boomers want totally different things
• Why publishers are stuck—and what they can’t decide
• What Australia did that no one else dares
• The future of clean rooms, consent, and collaboration

Our Guest: Gowthaman Ragothaman

Gowthaman Ragothaman, known in the advertising fraternity as G’man, is the Founding CEO of Saptharushi. Saptharushi aims to encourage the responsible use of consumer data through distributed ledger-based technologies to help enterprises engage with their consumers, effectively and efficiently. Previously G’man held senior roles in the advertising industry as Global Client Lead at WPP and as the CEO of Mindshare, growing it into a leading media agency in India.