In advertising circles, a quiet theory has been gaining traction: The Trade Desk, it’s said, isn’t exactly enamored with curation — a targeting strategy that could redirect valuable ad spend elsewhere. This week’s acquisition of Sincera added fuel to the narrative. But The Trade Desk has dismissed the rumors outright.

As vp of inventory development Will Doherty put it plainly: “We don’t think a lot about curation.”

Instead, the deal, according to Doherty, is aimed at something far more ambitious. 

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The Trade Desk intends to acquire ad data firm Sincera, marking only its second acquisition since it launched in 2009 — a rare move for a company that usually builds, not buys. 

Financial terms weren’t disclosed, but when the deal closes, expected in the first quarter, Sincera’s co-founder and CEO, Mike O’Sullivan, will report directly to The Trade Desk’s CEO, Jeff Green.

Why The Trade Desk acquisition breaks its ‘build over buy’ habit 

The move arms the ad tech vendor with more data to convince publishers that ads running through its platform outperform the rest of the programmatic market. In fact, Sincera’s data powered The Trade Desk’s recent “Sellers and Publishers,” spotlighting where advertising value is migrating across the premium, open internet. 

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For most advertisers, programmatic advertising is a one-stop shop: log into a demand-side platform (DSP), place your bids and call it a day. 

Mars Petcare, however, is doing things differently.

When it comes to CTV, it’s using a supply-side platform — the tool publishers normally use to manage ad sales — to buy ads directly, skipping the usual DSP route altogether. 

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Meta is borrowing a page from Elon Musk’s X on free speech and censorship, but advertisers aren’t hitting the panic button — yet. 

For now, they’ve brushed off Meta’s decision to scrap its U.S. fact-checking program in favor of a community notes system reminiscent of X’s and to loosen restrictions on contentious topics like immigration and gender identity. 

Instead, marketers are in wait-and see mode, hoping for clearer guidance on what content Meta will still police. So far, CEO Mark Zuckerberg has offered them little beyond vague assurances, leaving the details up in the air.

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One subplot worth tracking as M&A ramps up this year: brand advertising — or, more accurately, its metamorphosis into a marketing-entertainment mashup.

The days of this being mere theory are over. WPP teaming up with Universal Music Group for ad-fueled entertainment, talent agencies muscling into the ad industry, and the rise of new players like Common Interest all make one thing clear: the brand dollars are no longer waiting — they’re already there and moving fast.

“For a long while, we’ve been witnessing the death of the campaign and the birth of the cultural moment. Traditional advertising is entertainment’s understudy, while brands are learning merely to be protagonists in culture stories,” James Kirkham, co-founder of brand consultancy Iconic, explained.

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Every December, the industry churns out breathless predictions about what’s next in media and advertising. Spoiler alert: most of it won’t happen. 

Unified CTV measurement? Influencers with integrity? Ad tech that’s not a black hole for your budget? Dream on. 

Instead of joining the prediction parade, let’s talk about the things we know won’t materialize in 2025 — because some traditions are just too persistent to break.

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This year, chatter concerning mergers and acquisitions is all about whether 2025 will spark a deal frenzy across advertising and ad tech. Here’s the twist: the deal flow never really dried up in 2024.

In fact, the year kicked off with LiveRamp snapping up Habu for $200 million, and the pace of dealmaking steadily picked up — though it never quite became a flood.

Month after month of 2024 delivered notable deals, from Walmart’s February acquisition of Vizio to Outbrain’s August purchase of Teads.

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Agencies aren’t platforms — and they never will be. Let’s not kid ourselves. 

At best, they’ve dabbled in platform cosplay; a pinch of data here, a smidge of recurring revenue there. 

But the idea that they’re about to shed their old-school holding company identity? Wishful thinking. Still, it’s a myth that just won’t die, enthusiastically recycled by holding company CEOs for years.

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For 2025, Uber Advertising is sticking with what works: scaling up markets, doubling down on programmatic and adding new formats, according to Paul Wright, its head of international advertising. No need to fix what isn’t broken — especially when the ride-hailing app turned ads business already humming along.

So much so that the business hit a 1 billion annual net revenue run rate earlier this summer.. That’s double its 2022 run rate of $500 million. An impressive milestone for an ad business that’s just two years old.

And the way things are going, more milestones are bound to fall in 2025.

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Originally published on Nov. 15, 2024, this article has been updated to include an explainer video featuring interviews with industry executives filmed during the Digiday Programmatic Marketing Summit in December 2024.

After several years of fits and starts, curation in ad tech is finally having its moment in the spotlight. 

And if you need a clear sign of its mainstream arrival, even Google is jumping on board.

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Ever since whispers surfaced about Omnicom making moves to snap up rival IPG Ryan Kangisser’s phone has been practically vibrating off his desk for clarity on what this means for the industry.

As chief strategy officer at Mediasense, the media advisory firm tasked with untangling this industry’s endless plot twists, he’s someone marketers call when they need answers. And right now, that’s in short supply. 

“We’ve had a few people reach out to us [since the news],” said Kangisser, playing coy about naming names.

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This year, reality bent to the will of the meme. 

The shift has been building for years, fuelled by a potent cocktail of politics, creators and fandoms. But over the past 12 months, it finally crossed the threshold. 

Think that’s overstated? Just look around.

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Next year’s ad spending forecasts echo a familiar story: growth, but with a slower tempo. 

It’s an outlook that has come to define the post-pandemic ad economy, a far cry from the boom days when spending surged on the back of unexpected, chaotic tailwinds.

How much this slowdown bites depends on the source, but one thing is clear: while 2025 shows potential for another solid year in ad spending, optimism should be tempered by a mix of slowing growth, regional disparities and uncertainty surrounding the return of a Trump administration in the U.S. 

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The curation buzz is no longer just talk — it’s shaping the market, especially in M&A. Case in point: Experian snapping up Audigent.

The data broker announced the deal yesterday, but stayed tight-lipped on the price. A former Audigent insider, however, pegs the valuation at somewhere between $200 million and $250 million. This estimate was backed by several other sources, citing knowledge of Audigent’s business. Experian, for its part, declined to comment on the financials.

It’s likely that there were no third-party bankers involved, given the pair have had a formal relationship since 2022; plus, the estimated price tag (as cited above) would likely mean that Experian’s corporate development team would not have to seek board approval to close the deal. Formal negotiations on a sale are understood to have taken place since early fall 2024.

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Ad tech’s obsession with “curation” has sparked plenty of chatter — some informed, some less so. 

But don’t worry about separating the wheat from the chaff. Digiday’s cut through the noise, debunked the myths and laid out the facts straight to you. 

Myth: Curation is new.

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