This morning saw the opening of ATS London 2014 where increased transparency was universally identified as a key requirement if programmatic advertising is to become the dominant means for brands to underpin their marketing strategies by panelists and presenters.

Brian O'Kelley, AppNexus, CEO, set the tone of the morning's proceedings when he told attendees that he believed that many investors – Wall Street in particular – 
did not understand the functions of ad tech firms, and the valuation of ad tech firms that publicly list are suffering as a result.

Increased transparency will not only help increase investors' appetite for ad tech, but also help to more evenly distribute wealth in the media industry, he added.

O'Kelley said: "As we see a lot of fraud squeezed out, we're going to see a lot more money go to publishers and content providers, that's a good thing… that was the foundation that AppNexus was built on."

Keynoe speaker Scott Brinker, ChiefMartech.com, CTO, also used his presentation to explain brands' increased desire to consolidate their marketing operations (including ad tech), and in many cases bring them in-house.

He said: "Core customer data is needed to have a coordinated customer campaign, and the brand has to own this… As brands start to consolidate into omnichanel campaigns, you have to have the data all in the one place, and the brand has to own this."

He further added how brands are becoming increasingly empowered in the agency/client dynamic as they increasingly invest in marketing cud technologies.

He said: "Agency technologists will no longer be the most technical people in the room, but as you get marketing technologists this will no longer be the case…. Agencies can be replaced more easily that marketing tech infrastructure"

Meanwhile, fellow panelist Zuzanna Gierlinska, Oracle, director, strategic agencies & account, marketing cloud, echoed this opinion adding that 40 % of live RFPs are from advertisers looking to bring their ad buying business in-house.

Elsewhere, in a panel session discussing closed or open ecosystems, representatives from Vivaki and Xaxis responded to a recent WFA report on programmatic media trading, which suggested that brands were beginning to take their automated media trading in-house, or turn to independent trading desks, over doubts about the opaque nature of some agency trading desks.

Caspar Schlikum, Xaxis, CEO, Europe, said: "I think it's quite disingenuous, I think that it [the WFA report and the trade press] picked up on a few comments… I have to ask questions.

"I'm surprised by the comment that independent trade desks people have much more clarity. We're very transparent with our clients at the moment in terms of how we operate."

Fellow panelist, Danny Hopwood, Vivaki, head of platform, EMEA, added: "Yes, more conversation over transparency is needed in the market . But I didn't see one comment from an agency trading desk in that piece."

The conference continues. Follow #ATSL14 on Twitter for real-time updates.