Digiday Programmatic Marketing Summit

Registration opens and our team will be ready to greet you. Please stop by to check in and grab your badge.

Welcome. The editorial team will kick off the day’s sessions.

The programmatic supply chain is shrinking, as ad tech intermediaries consolidate and ad buyers deal directly with inventory suppliers. In this session, Stagwell Media Platform’s Matt Adams will break down how buyers are retaking the reins of the bid stream and what’s at stake.

Agentic advertising has spent much of the past year in the test phase. Now the results are coming in. In this session, Butler/Till’s Ryan Lammela will share what their company’s agentic ad buying tests have revealed: where the agents delivered, where they fell short and what the brand is changing as a result.

Programmatic advertising was built on a sprawl of specialized point solutions. Increasingly, though, ad tech companies are pitching unified platforms that bring buying, selling, data and measurement under one roof. In this session, Tinuiti’s Stephanie Del Real will explain what’s driving the shift to unified ad platforms and what advertisers gain — and give up — when more of their buying runs through a single system.

There are already so many new ad tech standards for AI agent-powered programmatic advertising. Too many, in many respects. In this session, Horizon Media’s Nav Singh will map out the agentic ad tech landscape and share how agencies can navigate the new intelligence layer.

Take a break, grab a coffee and connect with fellow attendees before the next session begins.

Agencies & brands only. Join us for a Town Hall session where we will create a challenge board and have an open and candid discussion about the industry. Together, we’ll create a challenge board and explore the real issues you’re facing — think of it as group therapy.

Sandboxes:

4:45pm – Quantcast

4:55pm – Blockboard

5:05pm – AdDaptive

Join us for a welcome drink and networking ahead of the 10-Minute Meetings.

The 10-Minute Meetings are designed to help connect participants with innovative technology platforms and build valuable business relationships.

Cocktails provided by illumin

Wrap Day 1 with cocktails and network with your peers.

Open to all.

Fuel up with breakfast, courtesy of Digiday, as we get the day started.

Welcome back! The editorial team is about to kick off day 2.

Programmatic is in the middle of a reset. Clients are asking harder questions, the buy side is reasserting itself and AI agents are changing how the work gets done. All the while, margins are shrinking and teams are stretched thin. In this session, Mosaic Media’s Mary Ann Pruitt will lay out an agency CEO’s outlook for programmatic in 2027 and share tips for managers on leading their teams through it, from training buyers on the fundamentals to setting clear expectations for AI-assisted work.

Curation has become programmatic advertising’s new way of cleaning up the supply chain. In this session, Havas Media Network’s Sarah Karges will walk through how the agency built its own curation operation with direct deals across hundreds of publishers, what it takes to keep it running and what agencies should know before doing the same.

Advertising’s identity picture has been in flux for years. Browser and mobile platform changes, a patchwork of privacy regulations and a proliferation of alternative IDs have all reshaped it. And AI agents need reliable identity signals as much as any human buyer does. In this session, a programmatic expert will take stock of identity in advertising heading into 2027, including what’s working, what’s fading and what advertisers should prioritize.

Programmatic advertising’s plumbing is being rerouted. Functions that once ran in the browser, from ad auctions to data collection, are increasingly moving to the server. In this session, a programmatic expert will break down the open web’s server-side shift and what advertisers need to know about it.

Take a break, grab a coffee and connect with fellow attendees before the next session begins.

Agencies & brands only. Join us for a Town Hall session where we will create a challenge board and have an open and candid discussion about the industry.

Sandboxes:

12:00 – Zefr

12:10 – On3

12:20 – Infolinks

Recharge with lunch and network with peers before the next session.

Invite Only

Take a break from today’s content, catch up on work or spend time with fellow attendees. We’ll see you back for our interactive working group session this afternoon – don’t miss it!  

In this live workshop, attendees and Digiday editors will brainstorm a list of the specific skills needed for programmatic marketers in 2027 and then discuss what individuals and companies can do to support that professional development.

The 10-Minute Meetings are designed to help connect participants with innovative technology platforms and build valuable business relationships.

Cocktails provided by On3

Join us for cocktails to wrap Day 2.

Open to all.

Fuel up with breakfast, courtesy of Digiday, as we get the day started.

Welcome back! The editorial team is about to kick off the final day of sessions.

AI agents optimize toward whatever goals and signals they’re given. That turns measurement from a report card into a steering wheel, and it puts new pressure on the methods marketers rely on, from media mix modeling to multi-touch attribution. In this session, a marketer will discuss how the brand is evolving its measurement approach and where MMM and MTA fit as more media buying is automated.

Advertisers keep expecting connected TV to deliver Google- and Meta-like returns, and when it doesn’t, they pull the plug. In this session, InterMedia Advertising’s David Nyurenberg will explain why the “performance CTV” narrative is doing more harm than good and share a playbook for resetting client expectations and measuring CTV on its own terms.

The programmatic buyer’s job description used to read like a list of platforms to master. Now that AI agents can operate those platforms, the skills that matter are shifting. In this session, Digitas’s Gabi Levy will walk through how the agency has rewritten its programmatic roles, what it now looks for in new hires and how it evaluates the people already on its team.

Digiday moderators will recap the event’s key takeaways.