by Sara Vincent, managing director UK, Utiq
For my last NDA column of the year, I thought I’d buck the trend and instead of making predictions for the year ahead, I thought I would take a look back at some of the things that have happened but which were nowhere to be seen on anyone’s predictions for 2024.
After all, it’s been a year in which Oasis not only reformed, but also introduced millions of unsuspecting fans to the concept of dynamic pricing. Who saw that one coming?
A determination to take back control
So what else happened in 2024 that we might not have foreseen 12 months ago? One thing I’ve been impressed by, and didn’t expect to this degree, is the groundswell of momentum across the industry for taking back control; a feeling that the platforms have been dictating things – and eating the open web’s lunch – for too long, and that it’s time to do something about it.
There’s been ongoing friction between the open web and the platforms for some time, of course, but coming into 2024, I didn’t expect the open web players to have this sense of empowerment. It’s been fuelled partly by the actions of some of the platform players – Google delaying, delaying and finally backtracking on cookie deprecation, anyone? – but also by a growing recognition that people are fed up of having their data traded on the open market like penny shares. People want to be treated as intelligent human beings who understand the value exchange between advertising and content, and want to make their own choices about who – if anyone – they will share their data with, and what they expect in return.
This has led to a greater degree of teamwork between adtech companies who recognise that collaboration trumps competition. I think we are in a great place to see this collaboration bear real fruit in 2025.
Curation emerges to address media quality issues
Another big topic in 2024 was curation. Yes, I suspect a certain amount of scepticism from some quarters, but at its heart, curation is a force for good. Think of it as putting guard rails around open web inventory in order to deliver more comfort and reassurance to a buyer about the quality of the inventory they are buying, without the need to create an exclusion list.
In an age when it’s all too easy for reputable brands’ ads to appear in places they wouldn’t want to be seen, or adjacent to content they wouldn’t want to be associated with, curation offers a way to cut through the noise and the signal loss by surfacing good quality media. It enables brands to target audiences in a transparent, consented, privacy-first way, and because of this, buyers are more keen to lean into curated supply. Curation should also be seen for what it is, a baby step to revitalising the open web – we should be always thinking about how we can widen those guard rails over time and ensure that more independent, niche but quality media is also contained within this curated stack.
If we can make it work at scale and have it be a collaborative effort, it can be a real game-changer for our industry.
AI impacts (almost) everything
Finally, I can’t end without mentioning AI. Yes, I know it would be wrong to say that its impact in 2024 was unexpected, but I don’t think many people predicted just how big an impact it would have on so many aspects of advertising: data, targeting, creative generation and optimisation, personalisation and so much more.
I think the key point to remember about AI as we go into 2025 is that it’s at its best when guided by humans. Of course it frees us up from some of the more repetitive, time-consuming tasks, but if just some of that time gained is spent experimenting with the potential of AI, then we really will see some amazing developments in the year ahead.
Personally, 2024 has been a year of connecting, educating, collaborating and LinkedIn content – and I am genuinely energised by the scale of change that we as an industry can bring next year.
Wishing you all a fun-filled festive holiday!
