RampUp 2025 brought together some of the smartest minds in AdTech to talk about the future of our industry. I had the opportunity to ask attendees key questions about AI, data collaboration, and the challenges they wish they could solve instantly. Here’s what they had to say.
AI is everywhere in ads—How is it changing things?
AI’s influence on advertising is undeniable, and industry leaders at RampUp 2025 emphasized how it is transforming the way data is used across marketing workflows. The increasing presence of Generative AI like ChatGPT is making it easier to stitch together data from various sources and act on insights, helping marketers execute campaigns with more efficiency.
AI is no longer just about automation; it is now deeply embedded in audience building, personalization, and measurement, enabling marketers to optimize every step of the customer journey.
What’s the one AdTech headache you’d fix forever?
AdTech leaders agreed that some industry challenges have lingered for too long. Many expressed frustrations with the ongoing conversation about unifying cross-screen targeting and measurement. While the technology exists, aligning business priorities remains a roadblock. Others highlighted issues like the complexity of billing and reporting, which still needs to be faster and more reliable. There was also a strong push to educate brand marketers on the continued impact of offline media, such as billboards, and how data-driven strategies can enhance the effectiveness of out-of-home advertising.
Beyond these operational challenges, another recurring theme was the increasing importance of identity as the backbone of effective advertising. While brands are focused on collecting first-party data, the true challenge lies in activating that data at scale. Without a strong identity resolution strategy, first-party data alone is not enough to create meaningful audience connections across multiple platforms and devices.
What’s one AdTech tool or strategy you can’t live without?
When it comes to must-have tools and strategies, data collaboration and clean rooms emerged as essential. These solutions help companies, agencies, and publishers work together seamlessly while maintaining security and efficiency.
Another key strategy discussed was traffic shaping, which allows advertisers to push activation closer to publishers, reducing data leakage and improving overall performance. Both of these approaches are critical for advertisers aiming to scale.
However, as brands continue to seek more flexibility and efficiency, the conversation at RampUp expanded beyond individual tools toward a broader industry transformation. Interoperability has become a top priority, with brands, platforms, and data providers focused on ensuring seamless connectivity across clean rooms, customer data platforms (CDPs), and activation partners. The days of being locked into a single walled garden are over—the future is about data portability.
“RampUp made it clear that the industry is shifting toward curated, interoperable, and always-on identity solutions—and Experian is perfectly positioned to lead this next phase of growth.”
Suzanna Stevens, Sr. Enterprise Partnerships Manager
This shift is also driving changes in how brands manage identity. Rather than relying on one-off data onboarding, companies are increasingly adopting subscription-based identity solutions that provide an always-on, continuously refreshed identity graph. This model ensures that brands have up-to-date customer profiles while reducing inefficiencies associated with batch processing.
What privacy regulations should marketers be watching?
Privacy remains one of the most pressing concerns in AdTech, and industry experts highlighted the need for a better approach to regulation. Consent management was identified as a major priority since it is fluid and directly impacts how marketers engage with consumers. There was also a strong sentiment that the current state-by-state approach to privacy regulation in the U.S. is unsustainable. Instead, the industry would benefit from a national framework that simplifies compliance and ensures more consistent data governance across all states.
Final thoughts from RampUp 2025
RampUp 2025 showcased the rapid shifts happening in AdTech, from AI-driven efficiencies to the growing importance of data collaboration and privacy-first strategies. As the industry works to solve long-standing challenges, such as unification and regulatory fragmentation, innovation continues to drive new opportunities.
Experian remains committed to helping advertisers and marketers navigate these changes by enabling smarter, more connected, and privacy-conscious advertising solutions. We’re excited to see how these themes evolve throughout the year and look forward to collaborating with our partners to shape the future of digital advertising.
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Cookies are leaving us, but that doesn’t have to mean performance has to. That’s why Experian is taking the steps needed to future-proof identity in our Graph, including adding Unified ID 2.0 (UID2) from The Trade Desk. Experian currently supports UID2 in our Graph outputs for demand-side platforms (DSPs). UID2 support in our Graph outputs will be available to all approved partners by December 2023. In this blog post, we talk about why cookieless IDs, like UID2, that are coming to market because of cookie deprecation, are important, and how incorporating cookieless IDs into an identity graph can help you prepare for a cookieless future. What are cookieless IDs? Like cookies, cookieless IDs provide you with a comprehensive view of a consumer’s digital activity. Unlike cookies, identity providers produce cookieless IDs, using user-consented data and deterministic and probabilistic data signals (like hashed emails or mobile ad IDs). Cookieless IDs are a newer identifier that allows the advertising industry to maintain our understanding of consumers’ digital actions, helping to ensure we continue to generate smart, data-driven insights, targets, activation strategies, personalized experiences, and measurement and attribution. Why should you incorporate cookieless IDs into an identity graph? Adding cookieless IDs to an identity graph allows for licensees of the graph to: Resolve the universal ID to a consolidated consumer profile and know which other digital IDs tie to the cookieless ID Establish a unified view of the consumer with a privacy-compliant ID Produce data-driven and informed advertising strategies that still drive results, without the use of cookies Experian’s Graph Experian’s Graph is one of the most robust and signal agnostic identity graphs in the market. Experian’s Graph supports most digital IDs, including cookieless IDs, such as ID5, UID2, and Hadron ID. When you license Experian’s Graph, you increase your ability to better understand the different digital IDs that tie to a household or individual. Additionally, with our cookieless ID support, you can continue to understand your consumer and their digital IDs in the cookieless world. Why is it crucial to include UID2 support in Experian's Graph outputs? The Trade Desk is the largest, independent demand-side platform. They’ve created a cookieless ID, UID2, that they hope can power the advertising world to come across the open web. UID2 is an alternative solution to third-party cookies that when utilized in an identity graph, can offer a clearer picture of your consumer, enabling frequency controls and better management, across both digital and connected TV (CTV). Approved DSPs can add UID2s to their Experian Graph, giving them access to one of the more trusted and prominent cookieless IDs in the market today. Additionally, DSPs can use this identifier to decide whether to bid on certain inventory or not, on behalf of their advertiser partner. And, if we hedge our bets, it will only grow in prominence and use. While only available to approved DSPs today for use in the Experian Graph, the forthcoming encrypted UID2 token will provide this capability to the entire ecosystem, which allows us all to speak the same language and operate as efficiently as possible. "We are excited to support UID2, one of the premier IDs to support the future of addressability across the open internet, in the Experian Graph. We continue to see the adoption of UID2 across the demand-side ecosystem, increasing addressability across growing channels like CTV and beyond. I am personally excited to see how this momentum continues to increase over the remainder of 2023 and into 2024."chris feo, svp, sales & partnerships, experian Future-proof your identity strategy with Experian Graph and UID2 We’ve seen the impact that cookies have had on digital advertising and marketing. With the impending third-party cookie deprecation, you will need to adopt alternative cookieless ID solutions such as Unified ID 2.0. Experian is well-positioned to help you navigate this change, offering UID2 support in our Graph outputs for all approved partners by December 2023. Take the right steps now to future-proof your identity strategy and discover lasting success even without cookies. Alongside Experian’s Graph solution, you can achieve resilience in an ever-changing world of digital marketing and advertising. Now is the time to get ready for a cookieless future. Connect with an Experian team member to learn more about our Graph capabilities today. Learn more about Experian's Graph today Latest posts
In this article…How data collaboration is evolving from 2023 to 2024How to create efficient data collaboration strategies We live in a data-driven world, and businesses need effective data collaboration strategies to remain successful. Before you determine your 2023 and 2024 data collaboration options, it’s essential to understand what data collaboration is. In short, it involves sharing and combining data from multiple sources to better understand a customer base and make informed marketing decisions. Read on to learn more about our three-step plan to create new data collaboration strategies, how it’s evolving, and what we do to ensure our solutions help maintain your company’s data privacy. How data collaboration is evolving from 2023 to 2024 Data collaboration strategies continually evolve thanks to changing industry dynamics and new technologies. As we move from 2023 to 2024, we’ll likely see collaboration extending outside businesses, meaning data can be shared with external partnerships in the form of a data ecosystem. A data ecosystem is a platform that combines numerous information points, including packages, algorithms, and cloud-computing services, to allow businesses to store, analyze, and use the data they’ve collected. To ensure you’re ready for 2024 data collaboration, you’ll need to take a forward-thinking approach toward new data strategies. How to create efficient data collaboration strategies Here are our three steps for efficient collaboration to make the most of 2023 data collaboration and prepare for 2024. Identify your collaboration goal What are you hoping to gain from data collaboration? Do you understand the audience you’re trying to target and what you want regarding outcomes? To measure your success, you should set short- and long-term goals surrounding data collaboration in 2023 and 2024. Maximize the value of your data One of the most important reasons to gather data is to discover in-depth insights into your audience and the effectiveness of your marketing efforts. You’ll be able to identify hidden patterns and pinpoint trends you may not have noticed before. With this information, you can make more strategic marketing decisions to stay competitive in your industry. Resolve digital identities Collaborating on data with trusted partners can help you gain a more complete view of your customers by building comprehensive digital profiles. Resolving digital identities can provide greater insight into online and offline behavior of individual consumers, allowing you to better connect with your target audience and boost brand loyalty. Find an alternative to third-party cookies Digital privacy regulations are getting more strict, which is why it’s so important to find more secure alternatives to third-party cookies. By collaborating on data, you can gather essential insights without relying on cookies. This means you’ll still get the information you want while complying with privacy regulations. Choose the right collaboration partner Before you choose a data collaboration partner, it’s essential to ensure their privacy standards align with yours. How do they collect data and use it ethically and responsibly? At Experian, we are dedicated to protecting consumers and delivering responsible and transparent data practices. We focus on five Global Data Principles — security, accuracy, fairness, transparency, and inclusion — to ensure we treat data carefully and respectfully while boosting economic growth and resilience in the marketing environment. When you partner with us for data collaboration, you can trust that your data is protected in a system built for 2023 data collaboration needs — both known and unknown — while still evolving for 2024 and beyond. Choose a secure environment for collaboration Data collaboration security is vital to safeguard your business and consumers’ information. You can make sure your new data collaboration options are protected in several ways. We’ve outlined three options below. Collaboration in clean rooms Clean rooms are secure, private environments where data is shared and analyzed without exposing the underlying raw data. This ensures that sensitive information remains protected and insights are discovered securely. Experian has vetted clean room partners if this is an option you prefer while still getting industry-leading identity resolution. Collaboration directly Collaborating directly with your partner can be a good option if you have robust security measures. Encryption, access controls, and regular audits are essential to maintain data security in direct collaborations. Collaboration with Experian We excel at meeting our clients where they are and accommodating their technical capabilities and how they manage their data. We offer a secure and compliant environment for data collaboration. Our data collaboration solutions are designed to protect your data while enabling deeper insights. At Experian, we understand the importance of data privacy, and our platform reflects our commitment to safeguarding your information. Enable deeper insights and activation with Experian’s data collaboration solution Data collaboration is crucial in today’s business world, and Experian’s solutions are designed to help you bring together your 2023 and 2024 data collaboration strategies securely and efficiently. With Experian, you can unlock deeper insights, resolve digital identities, and confidently navigate the evolving data privacy landscape. If you’re looking for the right partner to enhance data collaboration to drive growth and innovation in your business, you’ll find a secure environment and the right partner with Experian. Contact us today to get started. Contact us Latest posts
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