The AdPlayer.Pro team members share their key observations from the recent DMEXCO 2025 in Cologne, Germany.
The annual DMEXCO expo & conference in Cologne definitely remains one of the most prominent online advertising events in Europe, bringing together thousands of market leaders, reputable analysts, media specialists and technology experts over the two days of the conference & expo to discuss key industry drivers and hottest trends, and expand their business partnerships in the sphere.
Undoubtedly, DMEXCO 2025 has been a massive success, too! And now that it’s over, it’s time to share our key takeaways from it.
AI Wins It All
If there was one topic that has stolen the limelight at this year’s DMEXCO, it was AI. From agentic AI use cases in digital marketing & advertising and the impactful shifts in online search, driven by ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini, to the newly-unlocked ways of automating and personalizing content and digital ad delivery across platforms using available AI-powered solutions, one thing becomes clear: the new era of online advertising is and will continue to be inextricably linked to AI technologies.
However, as many experts admit, it’s insufficient and potentially inefficient to jump into AI adoption without a careful strategy in mind, as well as substantial education regarding its ethical use in digital advertising. And this is where the growth area for 2026 and beyond lies.
Curation Leads the Programmatic Ad Boom
While direct partnerships take a big share of online ad deals in 2025, the programmatic advertising niche, undoubtedly, continues booming. In this respect, its unstoppable growth over the past year has been in many ways fueled by the rebirth of curation, which poses numerous benefits for all parties involved.
Namely, according to analysts’ data, the use of curation can help publishers to significantly improve their yield results, while brands & agencies confirm that its adoption helps increase the transparency, quality and efficiency of their digital advertising activities.
In view of this, more curation-led solutions are expected to launch by top-tier businesses on the market in the near future.
The AdPlayer.Pro team would like to say a big Thank You to DMEXCO 2025 organizers and everyone we’ve met at the event this year!
See you all at DMEXCO 2026!