Q&A with Charlie Pinkney, Global Business Development Director at 4D and Rhys Denny, Co-founder and CEO at @curate

Many of you will have seen and heard of curation. Throughout the AdTech landscape, it has become one of the hottest trends set to establish and transform Programmatic Marketplace (PMP) deals. Many advanced curation platforms are playing a critical role in integrating inventory and leveraging signals to optimize these transactions. And, among the various signals, ‘attention’ has surfaced as a particularly important metric, driving the relevance and effectiveness of curated ads.

‘Attention’ has become a real interest of mine over recent years, especially through my lens here at Silverbullet. To help me better understand how curation is impacting the (m)adtech landscape, I sat down with Rhys Denny, co-founder and CEO @curate.

Before I even started the questions, Rhys gave me a little insight into his new company, @curate.

“@curate has been designed to enhance existing trading strategies. Through our offering, businesses can achieve more precise and efficient ad placements and curate relevant and high-performing inventory, benefiting both advertisers and publishers. This strategic shift highlights the very future of our landscape” said Rhys.

Impressive stuff.

Alongside understanding curation a little better, I am also super interested in understanding how curation – when driven by AI and underpinned by contextual – can offer new ways to both advertisers and publishers, to capture ‘attention’ in those crucial moments, all the while supporting the navigation surrounding the challenges of privacy and data regulation.

I quizzed Rhys on the benefits that curation will present to the industry.

So Rhys, there seems to be an abundance of efficiencies that can be achieved through curation; whether that be closer relationships and transparency across deals, or through optimization and bidding – can you help us understand this better?

“Of course. The great thing about curation is that it can automate many aspects of the ad buying and placement process. By automating tasks like audience segmentation, ad creation, and bidding, curation allows advertisers to scale their campaigns more effectively. This is particularly important in programmatic advertising, where speed and scale are critical.

Innovative curation solutions can also help in curating vast amounts of content and inventory, making it easier for advertisers to find the most relevant opportunities in an increasingly complex digital landscape.

When we look more at optimization of ad placements and bidding strategies, curation can also play a leading role. Through machine learning, AI can analyze historical data, predict outcomes, and adjust bidding strategies in real time to ensure that ads are shown to the most relevant audiences at the optimal cost. This can lead to better ROI for advertisers and more efficient use of ad spend.

What’s more, curation can analyze the quality and relevance of inventory, helping advertisers choose the best placements for their campaigns. This ensures that ads are not just reaching any audience but the right audience, in the right environment, at the right moment.”

Amazing. Relevancy is huge right now isn’t it, and something we are massively passionate about here at 4D. There’s also a huge privacy play with curation isn’t there? 

“As third-party cookies become less and less desired, curation can help navigate the shift toward privacy-centric advertising.

As you know more than most, first-party data, collected directly from users with their consent, is becoming increasingly important. We can essentially process this data to derive insights and curate personalized ad experiences without relying on invasive tracking methods.

Curation solutions like ours, supported by AI, ensure that ads are relevant and respectful of user privacy, aligning with new regulations like GDPR and CCPA. This builds trust with consumers, who are more likely to engage with brands that prioritize their privacy.”

You mentioned the ‘right person, place and time’ earlier, which is the long-standing goal for advertisers and publishers alike. Can you take us through how curation impacts personalized experiences online?

“Of course! In short, curation involves carefully selecting and organizing content to meet the specific needs and preferences of an audience. When combined with AI, curation can achieve an unprecedented level of personalization, through the analysis of first-party data to understand individual user behaviors, preferences, and intents. This allows for the creation of highly curated ad experiences tailored to the unique profiles of each user, delivering the right message at the right time.

With these technical advancements, we can ensure that the ads served resonate more deeply and drive higher engagement. This level of personalization not only improves the user experience but also increases the likelihood of conversion, making advertising more effective. It’s a win-win really, and something I am really excited about in the future of @curate.”

And finally, when it comes to curation and contextual intelligence working closer together – what gets you excited about those types of partnerships?

“These are the partnerships that future-proof and offer credible alternatives to the current buying status quo. Coupling the relevancy of contextual alongside the outcome-driven optimization of curation with the ability to overlay data through a deal ID offers an exciting and impactful future to how media can be traded.”

My final thoughts:

I spoke a little about curation and contextual intelligence a few weeks back (you can read the full article here!) but this chat with Rhys really did remind me of how exciting these partnerships will have on the future of AdTech.

My take is that curation is set to revolutionize online advertising and programmatic exponentially. And, when you overlay that strategy with the contextually driven data and insights, you end up with a very attractive and privacy-safe strategy that not only solves for the cookieless future (despite the fact third-party cookies are here to stay), but it creates a positive future. One that is simple, bright, and better. Much, much better.

If you want to meet up with myself and Rhys for a coffee, then get in touch today! Either head to our Contact Us form, or DM me here.