WPP Media has launched a new content series called "Made Together," which features company leaders in conversation with executives at partner companies in the industry.  

According to the firm, the series is designed to highlight the work those companies and WPP Media do together to drive innovation and growth for client brands. 

The first episode, which debuted today, features WPP Media CEO Brian Lesser and The Trade Desk Founder and CEO Jeff Green.  

Their conversation followed a bitter dispute earlier this year between TTD and another partner, Publicis Groupe, over allegations by the latter that TTD had failed an audit, violated the master agreement between the two companies, charged hidden fees and opted clients into buys without consent.  

And while TTD denied all of the accusations, Publicis for a time was urging clients not to work with The Trade Desk any longer.  Last month the two companies announced they had patched up their differences, without getting into details, other than to say that Publicis Groupe was once again recommending the DSP to clients. 

The contretemps sparked an industrywide debate. "This moment feels less about drawing a line between right and wrong, and more about raising the bar for how clearly the system itself is understood," wrote Kamran Asghar, Founder and CEO of Crossmedia in a MediaPost guest column shortly after the dispute went public in March.  

Lesser asked Green if he felt The Trade Desk was misunderstood and Green responded in the affirmative. "We are a misunderstood company which is little mindboggling to me because our mission, our goals, even our talking points haven't changed much at all."  

TTD, said Green, "would not be where it is today if not for agencies...The only way we can serve the biggest brands around the world is for us to be partners" with the agency community. And he added, "We're as committed to that as we ever have been." 

That's not true of a lot of DSPs, he said, which have indicated that they want to replace agencies.  

He insisted that TDD only represents buyers. "We think it's a mistake to build an ad network repping both inventory and buyers," he said. "And we represent buyers." 

He said that both agencies and TTD need to promote an open internet. "The world has changed a little in the last 16 years but our North Star hasn't." 

Lesser said he was "grateful" for WPP Media's partnership with TTD and made a point of noting that the same principles the two executives talked about around the time Green was founding TTD "are consistent with what you are saying now." 

Asked what he values about the TTD-WPP Media relationship, Green replied, "what I love is we both recognize that everything is integrated and to some extent a reflection of what AI is doing to everything" -- which in turn has resulted in more holistic thinking on the part of agencies and advertisers, he added.

That combined with rich data, well-done measurement and trust is a formula for success, Green said.