Dmexco 2018: Industry analysis

This year’s Dmexco was a strong turnout, as always. Drawing in big industry players to the German city, we weren’t short of agency, publisher or adtech executives giving their view on the latest industry trends and expectations for the coming year. What was lacking, however, were the brands.

Dmexco seems to be an event which year-on-year still fails to draw in big numbers of brand-side marketers to the field. For them, it’s a good opportunity to hear from the horse’s mouth, as it were, as to what the industry is doing to keep their brand safe, ensure transparency and deliver the best possible results.

Key themes which stood out this year included regulation, AI and industry shakeups. Unusually, few announcements took the limelight despite the event often acting as a platform to leverage new and exciting industry changes.

What was noticeable is that new products, mergers and acquisitions will mean our industry is going to continue to grow and change. Innovation will continue to have an impact on where budget is spent, but overall we will move towards the end goal of ultimate transparency and measurable results – something I hope to see more of at next year’s event.

Ben Walmsley, digital commercial director, News UK

Dmexco 2018 had a new look and a new website, seemingly designed to be impossible to understand and navigate. In contrast, the ad tech industry seems to have realised that it must head in the opposite direction. Consistency, clarity and interoperability seem to be embraced.

Jargon, subterfuge and over-complication risk sharp condemnation. As I’d hoped, a single ID, self-regulation and the emergence of new trust-building standards such as ads.cert were front of mind.

As the tech giants, with their foliage-covered, brick-clad stands seem increasingly distinct from the open internet, consistency and uniformity on the rest of the floor is crucial.

Creativity is still notable by its absence but that might be changing. I met a leader from a US creative agency who, although still in the minority, was there to talk about the challenges and opportunities in brand-building through voice and AI.

I’m left with an optimistic view of the future; as ad tech’s growing pains subside, creativity will return to the fore. The tremendous enhancements to storytelling that emerging technology offers will dominate the agenda of Dmexcos ahead.

Henry Clifford-Jones, director marketing solutions – Central, Southern Europe and MENA, LinkedIn

Dmexco this year certainly came with an air of uncertainty. With GDPR guiding brands into unchartered territory and rumours of new management making the conference less international, we were expecting a very different sort of event.

Despite this, the event remained a crucial reminder of the importance of personal connections. Marketers, vendors and advertisers across every sector could be seen in all corners of the Koelnmesse, generating a real meeting machine. From my conversations, both B2B and B2C brands were united on at least one question: how can you make my business grow?

When it came to the key themes being discussed, from what I saw, the exciting capabilities of Artificial Intelligence in marketing appeared to drown out noticeable worry around GDPR. AI leaked into a variety of different elements of the conference, from eradicating unconscious bias in hiring to its role in programmatic advertising.

And fears about the event not being international enough were quashed, as Rosie Hawkins, Chief Innovation Officer for Kantar took to the stage to discuss China’s growing opportunity for business.

I was especially interested to hear more about how Alibaba’s use of AI and cloud technology could bring their computational power to everyone.

Nick Beck, CEO, Tug

This year’s Dmexco was overshadowed by talk of what effect the new management would have on numbers attending, content quality and results. There was also talk that the reason for the decline in numbers last year, down to a not insignificant 40k attendees, was as a result of GDPR.

Questions were abundant around whether Europe was still holding its value as a marketing stronghold in the wake of tightening restrictions on privacy. The answer was a residing yes. Europe, and DMEXCO itself is still a strong centre for digital marketing.

Although there were fewer than usual companies announcing new acquisitions, there was a focus on companies who have already consolidated their position and who were unveiling the results of their partnerships.

In fact, that seemed to be the common theme this year; proving the model and showing real evidence of success and performance. What became clear this year, is that the race for supremacy is slowing down. This is primarily as a result of fewer people being seduced by the technology alone.

While it will always play a vital role, we are moving towards a time when the best performing companies are those who can show demonstrable proof of how they have successfully aligned the media+creative+tech to truly deliver qualifiable results and strong performance for marketers.