Programmatic Pioneers Summit 2025 Blog

Sir Martin Sorrell and Tom Triscari sat back down (virtually) to respond to the burning questions asked during their session at PPS 2024. Watch the full thing here.

Take a look at the round up of Programmatic Pioneers Summit!

A special feature blog on the worrisome limitations of today’s most common brand safety approaches by Teresa Fusaro, Global Product Group Director - Marketing Activation Tech & Digital at Reckitt.

In Q1 of 2024, WBR Insights in collaboration with QuantCast surveyed 100 Heads of Programmatic and similar across Europe to take a deep dive into how the industry is set to tackle the removal of third-party cookies, the role AI will play in this effort, and the strive toward a net zero carbon footprint.

The social media landscape is a constant evolution and for every opportunity for brand engagement, there are unique and uncharted challenges that follow. In this fast-paced environment, brand safety becomes paramount – a proactive approach to mitigating risks and protecting your online reputation. Having the right safety strategy in place allows brands to confidently take on a social-first world.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) have been used in some capacity in programmatic advertising for many years now (see Coca-Cola’s advert below, which was created in part using AI). However, it is set to revolutionise the industry following the generative AI boom of last year.

Take a look at the round up of Programmatic Pioneers Summit 2023!

What’s occupying the minds of the marketing leaders setting the industry agenda? It’s the question we set out to answer by interviewing 100 digital marketing leads from across Europe. Read on for a quick snapshot of the issues and register your interest for the report to get even deeper insights.

We interviewed Ulrich Gilot, Head of Media at Betsson Group to get his thoughts on new media landscape for 2022. He will be joining us next year at PPS 2022 to discuss this topic further!

Inspiration and top tips from Sony: How can you enhance your in-housing programmatic capabilities to gain control of your data and deliver winning marketing campaigns. 

How is customer behavior changing and how can you adapt your omnichanel advertising strategy to better target, engage and retain your customers?

First Party Audience Targeting: How to really focus on using first-party data in your programmatic campaigns and allocate your spend effectively across different media channels to increase the likelihood of customers interacting with your brand.

Revealing the major advertising trends: How can you best adapt your advertising strategy to capitalise on these new marketing opportunities?

We interviewed Alvaro Meza, Programmatic Specialist, PHD to get her thoughts on his main programmatic challenges in the last year and where he sees an opportunity for Programmatic to grow in 2021.

We interviewed Amelia Carter, Programmatic Specialist, William Hill to get her thoughts on her main programmatic challenges in the last year and where she sees an opportunity for Programmatic to grow in 2021.

We interviewed Zsofia Toth, Global Programmatic & Ad Tech Lead at Euronews to get her thoughts on her main programmatic challenges in the last year and where she sees an opportunity for Programmatic to grow in 2021.

Since the mid-1990s, advertisers have been using the third-party cookie as a means of establishing and tracking consumer behaviour across a range of activities on the internet. In digital terms, the technique is therefore very mature - and arguably old enough to be phased out, in favour of something newer and better.

In line with recent decisions by browser manufacturers Apple and Mozilla to phase out support for third-party cookies in Safari and Firefox, their market leading competitor Google is doing the same with Chrome - and the advertising industry isn’t happy about it .

 As the programmatic sector gains in maturity, players on both the buy-side and sell-side are making strategic shifts of their own, to keep pace with changes in customer behaviour, legal frameworks, and technological capabilities. One of the changes that many organisations are contemplating is whether or not to bring the control and implementation of their programmatic marketing completely in-house. While such a move can bring benefits, as we shall see, this is a step that can’t be taken lightly.

The success or otherwise of digital and programmatic advertising relies on the effective gathering, governance, and analysis of huge amounts of information. Dedicated software is ideal for this, and in programmatic circles the main contenders are the data management platform (DMP) and the customer data platform (CDP).

Marketers have been talking about it for some time now, however, this year, the cookie will finally be taking its last breath. The news comes in the wake of Google’s recent decision to ban cookies on its browser, along with a slew of other new regulations such as GDPR and anti-privacy sentiments dominating the internet. The death of the cookie is bound to shake programmatic and to force marketers to find more viable alternatives to harvesting data.

Another major innovation came when Google announced it was going to be using its platform, DoubleClick Bid Manager, to begin offering programmatic ads which can be placed on various audio platforms, including Spotify, SoundCloud, TuneIn, Pandora, and Google Play Music.

There are strengths and weaknesses inherent with in-house and agency programmatic buying and want a way to leverage the advantages of each while avoiding the pitfalls

Media buyers are now moving the majority of their programmatic spend away from audience targeting in favour of contextual targeting strategies or direct deals with publishers.

One of the most promising uses for blockchain technology in the programmatic advertising space is as a way of combatting the rise of bots. The bots in question are designed to commit ad fraud.

Those agencies which can offer disclosed contracts and prove they have nothing to hide are likely to see more success in the coming years when compared to those who remain nontransparent.

We asked 100 Heads of Online and Digital Marketing from some of the top advertisers how they’re developing strategies to cope with challenges around viewability and transparency.

We asked 100 Heads of Online and Digital Marketing from some of the top advertisers what challenges they’re facing, and how they’re developing their strategies to cope.