Base.Camp La Jolla recap: new revenue lines, AI-ready ad ops and the signals experiment
BY HAZEL BROADLEY, BEELER.TECH
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Based on our post-event survey, our Base.Camp in La Jolla may be one of the highest-rated events yet, so Rob decided to hand the mic to the people who led its sessions.
In this recap, they share what came up around the three core themes of the event, which were finding new revenue lines, preparing adops for AI and agentic workflows, and getting smarter about signals and pricing.
Look beyond media for new revenue
Grant Whitmore of Advance Local explained how the company rebuilt automotive, a category that nearly vanished when classifieds moved online, into an eight-figure business. It did this by turning unique data sets into a SaaS product for tier two and tier three dealers, which then opened the door to selling them media again.
The lesson for publishers of any size is to audit the data you already have and ask what you could build around it.
Kevin Antoine brought a local news angle, with a Houston reporter who covers a single neighborhood and starts every story on social under a branded account.
Events also came up as a strong way for local publishers to keep their brand front of mind.
Get your processes in order before AI
Shama Shirodkar of The Weather Company and Kevin Smith of Formedics shared how adops teams are using AI, from under-delivery and fill-rate analysis to wrap reports and billing reconciliation. Their advice is to start small, keep a human in the loop and expect to audit any new tool for months.
Meanwhile, Dan Calamai encouraged teams to treat their OMS as a “system of intelligence” that answers the questions they’re already sitting on data for.
Anne Thiel and Stephenetta (isis) Harmon, who led the agentic session, agreed that broken workflows only get bigger when an agent runs them. Isis also warned that every team “has their own Sarah,” the one person who holds all the know-how in their head, so document that knowledge before you automate.
Rob added his own cautionary tale, after an AI tool confidently misdiagnosed a sell-through gap that a colleague explained in seconds.
Test your signals and protect your pricing
Jana Meron is inviting publishers to join an experiment with a DSP to learn which signals buyers actually use, which will be useful groundwork for an agentic future.
Mark Obermoller reported that few in the rate card session saw real gains from automated flooring vendors, and he urged publishers to check who claims to represent their inventory agentically.
Cat Beattie of WeatherBug shared how the app community trades candid advice on SDKs, mediation and bad ad hunting.
And one really handy tip from the group is to search “[partner name] lawsuit” before testing a new SDK.
If you missed La Jolla this year, or simply want to recap on the conversations around new revenue lines, AI-ready adops and signal testing, watch the video above.
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