The ID5 team reunited in London in November. We had the pleasure of bringing together adtech experts and professionals – together with advertising giant Sir Martin Sorrell – to dive deep into the industry and to discuss digital identity, addressability in CTV, advertising in the age of AI, and more.

If you were not able to join us, you can rewatch the panels on YouTube. Read on for highlights of the sessions below.

State of Digital Identity Report 2024

Valbona Ginji, VP of Marketing and Communications, unveiled the key insights and figures from the State of Digital Identity report of 2024. This year, ID5 collected 202 responses from publishers, brands, tech and data platforms among others to analyse the shift towards a cookieless world, and how the adtech industry is bracing for impact.

The key results discussed:

• Most respondents believed that cookie opt-out rates might reach up to 80%, with a weighted average of 55%.
• Despite Google’s turnaround, the industry roadmap is unchanged, with 73% of respondents stating that it won’t derail their transition away from cookies, and 76% having already tested one or more alternative solutions.
• Universal identifiers are the most adopted alternatives.

The report looks at emerging channels like CTV and mobile, where addressability is still an issue despite the growth of the two. To read more on this, download the report here!

Addressability in CTV

Joanna Burton sat down with Thomas Bremond (FreeWheel), Chris Kleinschmidt (Xperi), Morwenna Beales (ID5) and Alexandra Ong (Magnite) to discuss the problem of addressability in CTV.

• The need for a unified market: Chris Kleinschmidt emphasised how important having fair standards in a less fragmented market is for every player in the industry, and how transparency is key.
• New and better ways to identify users: Morwenna and Thomas explained how creating an identity infrastructure is necessary to gap the divide between publishers and buyers to see CTV soar to the same highs of advertising in Linear TV. One of the core benefits of having an identity infrastructure is that it spans across channels, so that you can do audience onboarding, you can do holistic measurement across those different channels.
• Openness and transparency: Alexandra and Chris talked about how the industry is still not communicating properly and emphasised the importance of putting all the cards on the table between publishers and buyers to address the lack of trust in the market.

Publisher Monetisation Strategies

ID5’s VP of Product, Davide Rosamilia, welcomed George Odysseos (Planet Sport), Nino Stylianou (Mumsnet) and Morika Georgieva (Permutive) to discuss monetisation strategies for publishers and ask for their opinions on some hot topics in adtech.

• Why wait for Google?: Five years after Google’s announcement on cookie deprecation, the end is nowhere near, and the tech giant has chosen the “slow death” of cookies, as George Odysseos said; despite this, many publishers, including our speakers, are now ready to face the long winding road ahead, and all highlighted the need to strengthen relationships in the ecosystem.
• Bid Enrichment: Nino emphasised the critical role of bid enrichment in both cookie-based and cookieless environments, while Morika highlighted the growing adoption on the buy-side as the gradual deprecation of cookies creates an urgent need to effectively identify and reach their users.
• Curation: This remains quite the controversial topic in adtech, and our panellists were also divided on the topic: George was not a big fan, as curation inserts another layer between publishers and buyers, while Nino believed that publishers should take more control in the process, as did Morika, who also highlighted the need for more transparency.

Advertising in the era of AI with Sir Martin Sorrell

Mathieu sat down with advertising legend, Sir Martin Sorrell, to discuss how advertising is changing as AI rises. The event happened the day after the U.S. Presidential Elections, so Sir Martin discussed not only the effect of new technologies on advertising, but he was also keen to expand on how the future administration will impact businesses all over the world and how the geopolitical situation at hand will affect the tech industry.

The Future of Tech After DOJ vs Google

Ana Milicevic brilliantly moderated some of the most opinionated characters in the industry, Ciarán O’Kane (First Party Capital), Rob Webster (TAU Marketing Solutions), and Ari Paparo (Marketecture Media), and led the discussion on the current DOJ vs Google trial, and how this will affect adtech in the future.

• The view from Virginia: Ari flew to Virginia to watch the DOJ trial – electronics forbidden and shorthand notes included – and watched a multitude of friends, ex-colleagues and acquaintances take the stand.
• Monopolies: Ciarán reflected on how, despite the trial and industry scrutiny, Google is still in the driving seat, comparing it to a “Saw” movie: “you get out of one situation – you saw your hand off – and they still have you in another trap further down. It’s a never-ending nightmare.”
• The open web vs Google: trying to regulate Google like the CMA is doing, according to Rob, is like “bringing a spoon to a gunfight”. No matter how much tech companies want to open up the web and dismantle the monopoly, Google simply cannot be ignored, and will likely be part of the open web solution.
• The glacial pace of the law: Rob and Ciarán believed that the trial will go on for many years to come, with Rob suggesting 2030 as the end date; on the contrary, Ari suggested that, with Trump in the White House, the AMERICA Act – a bipartisan bill aimed at combating monopolistic behaviour in the adtech market – will pass beforehand, and Google will be dismantled not through jurisdiction, but through legislation.

If you want to dive deeper, you can watch all the panels here.

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