Home The Big Story The Curation Debate

The Curation Debate

SHARE:

Programmatic curation has been gaining momentum for the past few years.

Now the backlash has begun.

Curation grew enough this year that we wrote an AdExplainer on the trend back in May. But in the past week, Marketing Brew, Adweek, Marketecture, ad tech Twitter and LinkedIn have weighed in, as criticisms of the trend grew.

“Whenever I hear curation, I think ad network,” said IAB Tech Lab CEO Tony Katsur on X, a pronouncement that prompted a massive debate we discuss on this week’s episode.

Curation products – often built by DSPs, SSPs and DMPs – package inventory together, often by cutting out one layer of ad tech in the process. Curation is also being pitched as a way to buy brand-safe news, top publishers or avoid low-quality inventory. And, as cookies go away, it enables buyers to use publisher first-party data instead of third-party data.

But some curation products, which focus on quality or safety, are providing buyers with the kind of ad experience they thought they were getting already. “Calling it curation is just another way to say, ‘For years you’ve been flinging your ads into the internet with no idea where they went,’” AdExchanger Senior Editor James Hercher says on this week’s podcast.

Some feel the open web should focus not on curation but raising the bar of inventory overall to ensure it flourishes and is defended against walled gardens.

Ultimately, the trend will only take off if it can improve buyer KPIs, a tough proposition given that lower-priced, lower-quality inventory often looks great on a spreadsheet – but bad for the person viewing the ad.

 

 

 

Must Read

Comic: Gamechanger (Google lost the DOJ's search antitrust case)

DOJ v. Google: How Judge Brinkema Seems To Be Thinking After Week One

Where the DOJ v. Google ad tech antitrust trial stands after one week’s worth of remedies arguments.

Swish, A Company That's Bringing Programmatic to Product Sampling, Announces Seed Funding

Swish, a startup that partners with retailers to provide product full-size CPG samples to people doing their grocery shopping online, announces $2.3 million in seed funding.

DOJ v. Google: During Opening Arguments, The DOJ And Google Battle Over An AdX Divestiture

Court is back in session. And the fate of  the open internet is in the balance.

Privacy! Commerce! Connected TV! Read all about it. Subscribe to AdExchanger Newsletters
Chris Mufarrige, director, Bureau of Consumer Protection, FTC

FTC Consumer Protection Chief: No Easy Answers On Privacy, ‘Only Trade-Offs’

Privacy isn’t black-and-white, says the FTC’s Chris Mufarrige, promising evidence-driven consumer protection cases under the Trump administration.

How Encryption Keys Could Resolve The TID Furor

Rather than sharing universal TIDs that any DSP or curator can access, Raptive says publishers should instead share encrypted TIDs with an encryption key provided only to trusted demand-side partners.

Clear Channel Brings Mid-Flight Measurement To Its OOH Network

Clear Channel will provide advertisers weekly, mid-flight reports on outcomes driven by its inventory in order to bring OOH measurement closer to the speed of digital.