Julie Selman

Curation has become one of the biggest talking points among adtech professionals and digital marketers in 2025. In digital advertising, curation refers to the selection and packaging of specific, high-quality ad inventory, making it easier for advertisers to buy media that’s brand safe, targeted, and effective. Essentially, this means that a partner, such as a media company or a sell-side platform (SSP) , carefully selects premium ad spaces and audiences that fit an advertiser’s specific criteria and bundles them into curated deals that can be bought programmatically. Programmatic advertising, or the automated buying and selling of digital ad space, has revolutionised the digital advertising industry over the past two decades. However, a shift is now taking place among marketers, from a scale-at-all-costs approach to intentional, intelligent trading – especially in high-value channels like video and CTV. Curation is redefining what ‘good’ looks like in programmatic. The benefits of curation Traditional programmatic buying on the open marketplace can present its own challenges around efficiency and clarity. Curated deals, on the other hand, streamline the supply path, cut duplication and embed first-party data, giving buyers the precision and control they need while letting publishers surface high-value impressions. Brands can tap into curated deals built around specific audience segments, inventory types, or campaign objectives. These tailored environments improve targeting and offer higher confidence in media quality. For publishers, curation means more predictable demand and better yield. Rather than commoditising inventory, curation allows sellers to package and present their content in ways that align with buyers’ evolving needs – whether that’s contextual relevance, premium placements, or bespoke audience overlays. Crucially, curated deals also help streamline the supply chain, reducing hops and intermediary fees. This efficiency benefits everyone involved by making the transaction cleaner and more transparent. But what does effective media curation really look like in practice? How advertisers and publishers can make curation work Effective curation doesn’t happen by accident. It requires the right technology, the right partnerships, and a mindset shift across the ecosystem. SSPs play a central role in helping buyers and sellers create, manage, and optimise curated deal environments that deliver real outcomes. Tools are now available to help advertisers target specific audiences with relevant messaging across devices and formats, while ensuring frequency is controlled and performance is tracked, such as dynamic deal creation, first-party data onboarding, and AI-driven optimisation. On the publisher side, curation helps open the door to more strategic monetisation. By leveraging AI and packaging inventory around key audience insights or content verticals, publishers can increase the value of their supply and attract higher-quality demand. Publishers should seek out sell-side platforms that can provide the tools and controls to categorise, curate and activate their first-party audience data safely. Seller-defined audiences (SDAs), for instance, provide the sell-side with standardised, exchange-curated audience taxonomies that publishers can expose to buyers in the open market while ensuring that the data itself is fully protected. Publishers can reset programmatic with purpose As AI continues to mature, its influence extends far beyond content generation, with breakthroughs in curation and streamlined automation proving just as game-changing for digital advertising. AI technology allows publishers to analyse their ad workflows and monetisation strategies in ways that simply weren’t possible before, including curating audiences specific to a brand’s unique requirements. Combining AI with streamlined, curated offerings can further maximise the value in terms of driving cost efficiencies as well as profitability. As the ecosystem evolves, programmatic players who lean into curation will be better positioned to navigate a fragmented, privacy-conscious landscape. As agencies and brands seek greater clarity and performance from their programmatic media investments, curation is emerging as a solution that brings value to all parties. Far from a repackaging exercise or a mere trend, curation is a genuine structural shift that’s helping advertisers and publishers align more effectively and sustainably. For both groups, embracing curation means stepping away from commoditised media buying and toward a more strategic, value-driven future. As media consumption habits continue to evolve and premium channels like CTV become increasingly central, curation will undoubtedly play a vital role in helping the industry reset itself on smarter, stronger foundations.

Julie Selman

Curation and The Great Programmatic Reset