In recent weeks, the debate around curation has been heating up. In this op-ed, Fern Potter and Rob Webster give their thoughts on what curation really offers

Recently, discussions around curation have reignited debate, with many critiques missing the point entirely. While some argue whether curation parallels an ad network, such comparisons overlook the broader impact. Curation is much more than any conventional ad network model. It's a way to achieve a strategic necessity for the open web; a product that drives value for publishers and advertisers alike. 

This may sound obvious, but in recent years the open web has lost a huge amount of market share to the walled gardens. What is needed, and that curation can provide, is solutions to the challenges that the open web endures, in order to tempt back that market share towards the amazing product that the open web media landscape can be.  

A commitment to quality media

A major challenge within the open web ecosystem is accountability. When issues arise, each stakeholder often deflects responsibility. True quality media requires cohesion — a blend of inventory quality, absence of fraud, viewability, and meaningful audience attention. These elements must align to meet advertisers' standards, creating a product of value and integrity. Programmatic advertising has often missed the mark here, resulting in subpar placements that harm brands and frustrate advertisers. The key differentiator with curation is its proactive responsibility for quality. Curation partners can ensure advertisers’ needs are met with a tailored product, offering a far superior alternative to an ecosystem where no single entity assumes accountability.

Enhancing addressability through curation

The open web's addressability has taken significant hits, especially following privacy controls from Apple and Google. These changes have hampered data-driven targeting and reduced transparency, pushing advertisers towards walled gardens with better access to first-party data. Curation, however, offers an alternative by facilitating the integration of sell-side data. It can be more effective to match data on the sell side and link it to a variety of first-party and second-party assets to strengthen addressability on the open web. The retail media industry's embrace of curation illustrates its powerful potential to improve targeting precision and also closed loop measurement for advertisers. CTV also uses curation in a similar way, allowing broadcasters first-party audiences to be used without fear of leakage. This is a trick that mirrors the walled gardens approach. Imagine Meta or Google allowing their best data assets to exist in a bid request, its not going to happen. Copying this approach via curation is a way for the open web to reset the balance.

Re-establishing trusted connections between advertisers and publishers

In the past, advertisers maintained direct relationships with key publishers, creating a symbiotic environment where both parties thrived. Curation allows advertisers to regain this sense of partnership by connecting them with carefully curated, high-quality audiences and publishers that align with their brand ethos.

Through curated private marketplaces, fashion brands can connect with renowned publications, travel companies with authentic travel content, and sports brands with engaging sports media. This tailored approach ensures advertisers gain access to premium inventory without the unpredictability of the open programmatic ecosystem. Some naysayers may say this is just a PMP, but that's part of the point - curation allows for PMPs to exist with quality and scale, something they struggled with before.

Transparent value 

One criticism often directed at curation is its perceived addition to the “tech tax.” However, curation, when done right, enhances transparency rather than increasing hidden costs. With curation, advertisers know exactly what they are paying for, receiving a consolidated package that includes media, data, addressability, and quality controls. Unlike conventional ad networks, curated ad environments allow for streamlined integration through preferred platforms, offering both efficiency and cost-effectiveness. Curation takes the best of the ad network world and makes it available in an automated fashion, again offering quality and scale.

To summarise, the open web faces mounting challenges in an era of walled gardens and diminishing control over audience data. Curation, by enabling collaboration among premium publishers, advertisers, and data providers, offers a powerful pathway to restoring balance.

The only argument left then really is that much of this could equally occur within a DSP. To that we wholeheartedly agree. In a world where SSPs and DSPs are both competing to add the value it doesn't matter where this work happens; what does matter is that this value creation, focus on quality, transparency, accountability at scale happens at all. If we end up with these principles front and centre of both the buy side and the sell side and used in harmony, the open web might yet have a chance.

As Steve Jobs says. "You have to start with the customer experience and work backwards." This is what curation does; allowing buyers to using their own tools access quality sell side solutions that work for both parties.

Fern Potter is SVP of Strategy and Partnerships at multilocal, and Rob Webster is Founder at Tau Marketing Solutions.