By Roman Vrublivskyi
Last week, Attekmi’s team attended DMEXCO 2025, and these two days were full of meetings with partners and not only, actionable insights, knowledge sharing, and fun! Roman Vrublivskyi, our Chief Executive Officer, and Olena Chudinovych, our Chief Product Officer, also gave a speech on the importance of supply path optimization for AdTech companies – that was a blast, and we are grateful to everyone for coming!
Tired but happy, our team is finally home and ready to share the key DMEXCO 2025 takeaways. Keep reading to discover the thoughts of Roman and Olena, and gain some insights for your own business growth.
Roman Vrublivskyi: You must be bold to move forward
“Be bold. Move forward” – that was the motto of DMEXCO 2025, and it perfectly reflects the approach essential for any tech business to remain competitive and evolve.
In digital advertising, it plays an even more significant role. Following the time-tested methods may be effective, but only up to a certain point. If you want to move forward (and you obviously want to), you must try new techniques, tools, and technologies. You need to learn how they work and how you can integrate them into your existing processes. Otherwise, you will be left behind.
Imagine the following scenario: you launch your programmatic campaigns via real-time and header bidding auctions, and everything works great for you. You reach your goals and drive sales. However, why not try direct deals and build long-lasting partnerships with the most effective publishers? This doesn’t mean that you should fully switch to programmatic direct, but combining the new approach with the old one can help you reach even greater results.
That is the practice we follow at Attekmi. Our ad exchange solutions help our partners drive media trading income effectively. However, relying on their feedback, we continuously upgrade our platforms with new features – we move forward, and so do our partners. Together, we grow and reach new heights.
Olena Chudinovych: AI keeps conquering the world
It is no news that AI has a great impact on the industry and the entire world in general. DMEXCO 2025 proved that – loads of sessions were devoted to AI and the effect it has.
I think, despite certain challenges for advertisers and marketers, AI is not something that you should be afraid of. Instead, make it your ally. Learn how to benefit from the technology, and keep an eye on its evolution. At the same time, remember that AI still requires human oversight. It can be a very effective tool, but you must combine it with your own creativity and critical thinking to make the most of it.
In turn, companies offering AdTech solutions are increasingly adopting AI as well. That is good for advertisers, but it may represent another challenge. For instance, Spotify has recently enabled marketers to generate scripts and voiceovers. That reduces costs, but what if your ad sounds the same as hundreds of other advertisements? That is definitely not something that you would like to happen, so always review everything generated by AI and, when possible, prioritize human work – it always feels more authentic.
Roman: DOOH advertising is gaining momentum
DOOH (digital out-of-home) advertising is becoming more and more popular. Immunity to ad blockers, ultimate brand safety, and an opportunity to deliver your ad to multiple people at once – these are only a few of the benefits. Additionally, more and more programmatic solutions start supporting DOOH campaigns, which allows advertisers to launch their ads in a highly effective manner.
So, what does this mean for marketers? Again, be bold and move forward. Experiment with DOOH advertising to reach your audience in a new environment and get a chance to outperform those of your competitors who stick to classic desktop and mobile ads. You may not see instant results. But effective advertising implies continuous analysis and strategy optimization. Therefore, collect insights, adjust your campaigns accordingly, and it will start working.
As for AdTech brands, if you want to remain competitive, you need to consider the growing demand for DOOH. Does your solution have such capabilities? If yes, look for ways to improve them. If not, equipping the platform with DOOH functionalities may become your top priority in the near future.
Olena: Audio advertising becomes an integral part of an omnichannel strategy
Effective advertising requires an omnichannel approach – it is essential for marketers to reach their audiences across various environments and with different formats. Audio ads are often neglected; however, the demand for them is now increasing. The reason for this is that such campaigns can be launched programmatically, and more and more platforms are starting to offer audio advertising capabilities and related features like Spotify and its generative AI that I mentioned previously. Besides, audio ads are harder to block and are less intrusive, which is a great benefit since many users simply hate digital ads.
If you are not launching audio campaigns yet, consider doing so. Use simple language, tell a story, and add some music and sound effects – this will help users remember your ad. And, obviously, test your advertisements to maximize the performance of your campaigns.
Roman: Curation as the next level of programmatic
Modern advertisers start prioritizing greater control over their processes, and that is why private marketplaces and programmatic direct deals are gaining popularity. So does curation. By streamlining the supply path and enhancing transparency, it enables advertisers to access higher-quality inventory and ensure better campaign performance. Besides, curation allows for adapting to the privacy-first ecosystem in an effective manner.
For advertisers and publishers, I would recommend trying curation to optimize the supply path and ensure greater brand safety. In the world where ad fraud is still an issue (and, probably, it will always remain on the list of challenges), this is simply a must.
As for AdTech companies, offering SPO-friendly capabilities, like curation, PMPs, and direct deals, is an essential approach. Otherwise, you will fall behind.
Olena: Privacy and first-party data remain a priority
Google has been promising to eliminate third-party cookies for a pretty long time, and that was one of the main reasons for advertisers (and not only) to start switching to first-party data. Well, cookies are still here, but this does not mean that we can relax. Let’s be honest – no one likes to feel watched. Instead, users want brands to respect their privacy. They want to feel safe online.
This tendency is not going anywhere, so I recommend that advertisers prioritize first-party data and learn how to unlock its full potential to remain credible and ensure compliance with privacy regulations. You may think that first-party data will affect targeting. Well, yes, but in a positive way. You collect it directly from your customers, so that is the most trusted data that you can ever get.
The whole advertising ecosystem is switching to the privacy-first approach, and following this trend is not just a recommendation – it is a must to ensure competitiveness and build long-lasting relationships with your audience.
Final words
Keeping an eye on industry trends is essential for all the parties involved, and attending conferences like DMEXCO is one of the best ways to stay on top of the news.
Monitoring our blog is also an effective tactic – we regularly share relevant insights and recommendations, so stay tuned!
And in case you are in search of an effective and profitable ad exchange solution, just get in touch with us. Our team is here to help you drive media trading income with maximum efficiency.
