DIGITAL ROUNDUP

July 2025

Welcome to this month’s edition of the roundup to some core updates in the digital advertising industry.

NB: the following represents my own opinion & not that of my employer

Apple WWDC25 plugs AI but limited Ads Updates

Apple had their annual WWDC event, with Apple Intelligence at the heart of it

(https://developer.apple.com/videos/play/wwdc2025/101/)

DEEPDIVE

Apple made their annual updates to all things Safari / iOS / MacOS, with WWDC25 running between 9th & 13 of June 2025. More broader updates saw the consolidation of the versions across all Apple products, with the 26th version coming into effect later in the year across the board. As well as bigger pushes towards Apple’s AI known as Apple Intelligence though notably some partnerships with the likes of OpenAI / Gemini also continued to be pushed as part of their narrative.

In terms of advertising specific updates, further follows from Apple making Apple Search Ads just known as Apple Ads now were not on show, with any intentions for Apple to move beyond just a search based ads platform still likely to come in the future. But instead, focus remains on the App iOS side of things, with AdAttributionKit, formerly known as the SKAdNetwork continuing to build out additional capabilities such as conversion window customisation, geo data in postbacks, custom attribution rules and more transparent reporting. This remains critical for any ad network / ad platform or MMP to integrate with, to provide advertisers with some form of accurate iOS App Install / Event view. The full video can be found here.

The other big update which was buried deep in the developer notes, was the intention for Apple to increase fingerprint protection on Safari. This is something that has already existed to date in Private Browsing Mode, Apple’s Incognito mode for Safari. But remains to be clear exactly what it means for the core browser and if there are major differences to how ITP Intelligent Tracking Protection works today. That being said, the use of click based query parameters such as gclid / fbclid as well as other signals like IP address are already subject to issues with tracking, to which the likes of Google are trying to mitigate with alternative workaround revolving on 1st party data.

Cannes sees Vendors debut new Solutions & Partnerships

Cannes saw multiple updates from key vendors in the adtech space, whilst heavily focus on AI based solutions

(https://digiday.com/marketing/what-you-missed-at-cannes-lions-2025/)

DEEPDIVE

Cannes has become more a key event for advertising vendors to flex their products, specifically after Google (Marketing Live) & Apple (WWDC) have showcased their intentions on a wider consumer level. This year was no different, with the likes of Amazon, Netflix & Disney all flexing their muscles.

  • Amazon and Disney teamed up to allow Amazon DSP to access the Disney Ad Exchange DRAX, meaning plenty of opportunities for inventory / audience / measurement

  • Amazon also brought a new partnership with Roku, enabling a CTV authenticated offering that for the US market could hit approximately 80m households

  • Netflix brought a new DSP partnership for their ads in the form of Yahoo DSP, joining the big 2 in DV360 / TTD alongside legacy Microsoft

  • Reddit announced a partnership with CVS to access US shopper data through the ads platform later in the year, made possible via data clean room tech

  • Omnicom announced plenty of partnerships across the board with key adtech vendors, but much focus was on Influencer / Live Streaming narratives here

  • WFA brought more updates on the state of Aquila & Origin for cross-reach measurement, with more platforms / channels and the likelihood of moving into an open-beta stage

  • DoubleVerify, IAS and Scope3 all showcased updates to their approach for ad verification, both from brand suitability to outcome based buying

There are some core takeaways here. First is that the advertising medium is somewhat shifting away from the legacy dominance of Meta / Google to plenty of other partners with authenticated scaled data backed by AI / automation. That is not to say Google / Meta are going quietly but the next challenge for advertisers / agencies is how to media mix effectively, which is already a huge problem, especially in the world of measurement.

Second is that partnerships matter but privacy / transparency matters more. You cannot create a buzz around new solutions that may be baked in AI without showing how it operates & what the data flows / legals look like behind the scene. How many vendors may be leveraging LLM AI solutions as a backbone, but host the data on US servers, with connotations for what this means for data transfer in EU markets? AI is already starting to make strides beyond the traditional machine learning that it was known for in the past, but still needs human context / prompting to maximise the results.

OTHER KEY CALLOUTS

SOCIAL / SEARCH HIGHLIGHTS 📱

  • CMA are looking to focus in on Google’s domination on Search in general (CMA)

  • Meta have released Opportunity Score to all ad accounts (Meta)

  • LinkedIn have debuted new ad video formats (LinkedIn)

  • Meta continue to push Conversion Values solution over legacy Bid Multipliers (Meta)

  • Meta are also formally introducing ads to WhatsApp (Computing)

PROGRAMMATIC HIGHLIGHTS 🌐

  • Sky / Channel 4 / ITV have announced a combined premium video marketplace (Sky)

  • Uber have expanded their Journey Ads product into leading DSPs in Europe (NewDigitalAge)

  • Marriott have introduced a new Travel Media Network called Marriott Media (Marriott)

  • Channel 4 have announced a new partnership with Adform for BVOD ads (Advanced TV)

  • Amazon have announced some new Geo based insights for DSP & AMC (Amazon)

IDENTITY HIGHLIGHTS 🆔

  • CMA have announced that they are reviewing the need to continue monitoring Google on the Privacy Sandbox (CMA)

  • ID5 have announced a small rebrand, focusing in on adaptive identity (ID5)

  • Supermetrics, most known for their ETL / Data solution have acquired the CDP Relay42 (Supermetrics)

  • Tealium have brought a new solution to market in CloudStream, a zero-copy orchestration tool (Tealium)

  • Utiq have formally launched their UK offering for telco ID marketing (Utiq)

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