This fall, Cologne once again proved its renommée as the worldwide capital of digital business. The DMEXCO - Digital Marketing Expo & Conference - 2023 conference took place on September 20-21 at the Messeplatz Exhibition Center. Axis could not have failed to miss the world's central digital business event as our CEO, Ann Tarasewicz, and VP of Growth, Sana Vanko, have made sure to dig deep into the event's most captivating panel discussions, plunging into every topic raised at DMEXCO 2023.
Would it be an understatement to say that the event was full of insights and valuable information we will use to improve our client's experience? It surely would! Catch up with a succinct yet comprehensive round-up of what this year's DMEXCO brings to the table of the digital business in our recap article. Here's a spoiler: user’s privacy, innovation, AI, creativity, and automation will shape tomorrow's digital world. Let us tell you why!
Privacy and Data Regulation
This year's DMEXCO motto was "Empowering Digital Creativity," as the speakers, attendees, and participants were trying to define the industry's future. More than 40,000 international trade visitors and 650+ exhibiting companies from around the world led heated discussions regarding a plethora of topics and trends.
One of those semantic domains was dedicated to the total domination of the user's privacy over the needs of those who sell and advertise. At Axis, we are all in for ethical and fair advertising, which means that the cancellation of cookies (that's right) and the advent of comprehensive contextual advertising was a joyful moment for us. It is good to know that the user's privacy will now set the rules for online advertising and not vice versa — no more tracking down the user's personal data; only programmatic advertising based on the algorithms' efficiency and automation.
Here's some context for understanding what's going on. In accordance with the Coockiebot, the third-party cookies are on their way out, as multiple browsers, such as Google Chrome, Safari, and others, will be ousting them entirely by the end of 2024. Therefore, contextual advertising – the practice of publishing ads on web platforms based on their original content – comes in as a substitute. This is some incredible news, as it will definitely boost the intensity and quality of programmatic advertising deals in the coming years.
Automation Through AI
AI is your friend – not an enemy; this can be the tagline summary of one of the conference's main topics. At the beginning of 2023, many feared the ubiquitous statements that AI is coming for people's jobs. As you can see, the only things AI is coming for are inefficient processes and the lack of automation. Here's what Gaurav Bhaya, Vice President at Google, had to say about AI in the digital domain, addressing the primary concern that AI threatens people's jobs: "You are not competing against AI – you are competing against another marketer." And this could not have been closer to the truth. Now, it is all about learning how to use AI to your competitive advantage.
Artificial intelligence will play a pivotal role in improving programmatic advertising by:
- Improving real-time decisions regarding ad placement;
- Optimizing and improving content quality;
- Assisting and automating precision-led audience targeting.
AI is definitely not your foe – you need to embrace it. At Axis, we have already instilled AI into every avenue of our platform, making sure it makes our clients' lives easier and business better. While having placed the AI-powered partner's recommendation algorithms into the heart of our product, our vision for tomorrow's programmatic products coincides with those of some of the world's greatest marketing minds. Aude Gandong, Global CMO at Nestlé had a convincing say about how AI automates processes and reinvents creativity: "The secret is to hold on to our expertise with fundamental marketing skills which have not changed and amplify them with the tools of the time." At Axis, we say that the digital advertising world is progressing, and keeping up with its pace is not necessarily impossible.
Data-Based Predictability in Advertising
Knowing your customers’ moods and preferences in real-time sounds like a marketing superpower, right? Well, let’s just have the data do its thing. During the DVDW masterclass – one of the central events of the conference – the newest FOMA trade monitor was presented, showcasing a reliable picture of the current mood captured by the German media agencies. This trend can be globalized and mapped worldwide with the data gathered by media agencies working together for in-depth analysis and prediction of the client’s needs and desires. It can be ground-breaking in the greater scheme of programmatic advertising things.
Hyper-Personalization and Data-Driven Content
As you can see, data lies at the heart of copious things shaping the industry these days. Even though cookies are gradually coming to an end, contextual advertising should remain personalized, and this is where data, AI, Machine Learning, and predictive analytics once again go into the frame. These technologies' presence and involvement in the digital niche will only grow as they will help gain more insight into individualistic audience preferences, which would serve as the basis for a better and custom-tailored action plan. The "one fits all" approach – the holy grail of regular ad exchange markets – is no longer working. Contextual personalization is king.
Creator Economy
Influencer marketing will be gaining more momentum, gradually creating and propelling the concept of creator economy. Quite possibly, digital influencers and their platforms might become a part of automated programmatic advertising endeavors, but it still requires a lot of time for that to happen due to various legal and technical issues.
We Will Definitely Be Back
The never-ending drive to deliver greater value for our clients propels us to grow and develop our vision of how Axis can be one step ahead of the other programmatic advertising services providers. Next September, we’ll be back at DMEXCO 2024, once again learning something new and sharing our immense experience!
Thanks, DMEXCO; finding ourselves amongst the industry’s leading minds and most ground-breaking topics was a pleasure!