Employment Associate General Counsel

The growth gap: why marketers keep making the same media decisions. The Trade Desk's first-ever Open Forum event explains why closing the gap between changing consumer behaviour and media investment decisions is critical to unlocking growth across CTV, audio, DOOH and the open internet. The Trade Desk Open Forum event The Trade Desk's inaugural Open Forum event in Dubai brought together leading advertisers, agencies, media owners and technology partners to examine a growing challenge for modern marketers: Setting the scene, Terry Kane, Managing Director - Africa, Middle East & Turkey at The Trade Desk, spoke about the continued investment in content and technology in the region and the real opportunity for brands to get exposed to growing audiences in a very premium environment. Kane said, "This region gives us enormous reason to be ambitious, but it takes collaboration to make that opportunity work commercially. We have to connect creative and quality media with the technology and the measurement to help businesses grow. Bringing the perspectives of advertisers, agencies, media owners, tech partners into the same room is key to drive the industry forward." Across conversations on CTV, Audio, DOOH and AI, there was a central question: are media strategies really adapting to changing consumer behaviour, or are advertisers continuing to invest in what feels familiar? Education emerged as the common thread with a need for greater understanding of what premium channels offer, how to measure their contribution, and how to use them effectively. Consumer behaviour has moved away from planning behaviour Consumers now spend 61 per cent of their media time on the great open internet, but only 30 per cent of the media investment goes there. "Consumers have moved on, but the budgets haven't", said Lukas Fassbender, Senior Vice President - EMEA at The Trade Desk. Despite having more data, better measurement and advanced AI tools than ever before, marketers often continue to make the same media investment decisions. Research from The Trade Desk looked into this and found there's a clear behavioural bias: * 72 per cent of respondents believed that the channels that are easier to buy and easier to measure receive more credit just because it's simpler to measure * 75 per cent feel more confident investing in social because they're more familiar with it * 68 per cent of marketers that responded believe it is riskier to disinvest in social, despite the alternatives available. The reasons? An efficiency loop in which familiarity bias, risk aversion and easily quantified results reinforce existing media choices. Fassbender added, "We overinvest in short term success versus long term impact when making media planning decisions. This weakens our long-term strategy, and is actually hurting durable brand growth. We don't create as much future demand because we focus on servicing what's existing. Less brand activity weakens brand recall and the trust in the brand. Acquisition costs rise and sales flatten. I say advertising has never grown brands less." Premium media delivers 58 per cent more attentive seconds per dollar spent and creates 12 per cent higher market share. According to Fassbender, it's not about deciding to invest in one channel or the other but for every channel to earn its place, depending on its contribution to growth. Why premium wins in CTV The CTV panel brought together leaders from Netflix, OSN+, MBC Shahid and Disney+ for the first time on the same stage, connecting global storytelling perspectives with regional audience expertise. A central insight was that audiences define what's premium through the content they choose to engage with, and that premium storytelling belongs in a premium environment. The panel explored why premium wins in CTV and how Campaign Middle East can continue to grow its role in the region. This includes a better understanding of the effectiveness and measurement as CTV continues to advance. For brands, this means evaluating more than the volume of impressions delivered and recognising that premium content cannot compensate for weak advertising. Creative must suit the environment and deserve the viewer's attention. Cultural relevance adds another dimension. Local storytelling requires an understanding of language, culture and dialects, identities and relatable characters, with local stories having the power to travel and resonate internationally, an opportunity to create long term brand value. Education is critical because not all impressions carry the same value. Premium CTV connects brands with audiences who actively choose and engage with content, creating value beyond reach alone. However, premium environments still require premium creative. Advertisers must earn attention, not simply buy it. While reach and impressions are easy to measure, attention is harder to capture, making it even more important for marketers to understand why premium CTV commands a premium. Audio: building confidence through testing In the Audio discussion, with perspectives from Anghami, Next Audio and Capital.com, the panel was challenged on some of the misconceptions around audio: that it's small, niche, difficult to measure and expensive. According to 2026 YouGov research, 81 per cent of UAE respondents consume audio or video podcasts on a daily basis compared with 54 per cent in the US, and the UAE is the global number one podcast consumer market. What makes audio particularly interesting is that it gives brands access to attention when people aren't looking at a screen. Yet, advertising investment in audio hasn't necessarily moved at the same speed as audience behaviour, demonstrating the behaviour gap Lukas identified in audio as well. The audience has moved. The technology has moved. The measurement has moved. Media plans need to move too. Experiences shared during the session illustrated how audio can support commercial outcomes when creative and attribution reflect the way audiences listen and respond. Its role across the customer journey deserves consideration beyond a simple comparison with channels built around clicks. Today, investment remains constrained by the demand for existing proof points. Advertisers want evidence before testing, while developing relevant evidence requires someone to commit. The practical outcome is a case for disciplined experimentation: clear objectives, suitable measurement and a willingness to learn. Education, once again, was highlighted as a tool to create the confidence to begin that process. DOOH: closing the capability gap The DOOH stage was moderated by Ashnee Thacker from the Trade Desk, with panellists from Hypermedia, WPP Media, and JCDecaux Middle East, and they didn't hold back. The discussion highlighted a clear gap between available technology and market understanding. The discussion echoed a recurring theme from the day: the challenge isn't a lack of technology, but a gap between what is possible and what advertisers feel confident enough to do. The scale of locations, capability on measurement and verification is already in the market, but awareness of what's possible hasn't caught up yet. Also here, more education is needed across clients and agency partners alongside the technology and supply vendors to make this happen. Programmatic capabilities offer opportunities for audience-informed planning, dynamic creative and measurement. Yet traditional buying habits and limited awareness can restrict their use. Integrating DOOH at the start of campaign planning gives teams greater scope to connect it with other channels and develop creative around the objective. Realising its potential requires stronger briefs and creative ambition alongside technical knowledge. Education is key to show what DOOH can do and the value it can create. What's needed is for brands to be brave and to step outside their comfort zone. Campaign Middle East need brands to test, to try and to learn, to close that skill gap. From insight to action Dr. Noah Raford's closing keynote on AI widened the discussion to the relationship between technology, creativity and culture. Alongside Fassbender's warning about flawed objectives, it reinforced the importance of human judgement as automation advances. Across every discussion, from CTV and Audio to DOOH and AI, the challenge was not a lack of technology, data or opportunity. The challenge was making different decisions. Closing the growth gap will require marketers to move beyond familiarity and align investment with how consumers actually spend their time and attention. Education is the starting point, but action is what ultimately drives growth. Anup Oommen is the Editor of Campaign Middle East at Motivate Media Group, a well-reputed moderator, and a multiple award-winning journalist with more than 15 years of experience at some of the most reputable and credible global news organisations, including Reuters, CNN, and Motivate Media Group. As the Editor of Campaign Middle East, Anup heads market-leading coverage of advertising, media, marketing, PR, events and experiential, digital, the wider creative industries, and more, through the brand's digital, print, events, directories, podcast and video verticals. As such he's a key stakeholder in the Campaign Global brand, the world's leading authority for the advertising, marketing and media industries, which was first published in the UK in 1968.

The Trade Desk shares trade near $12, down about 91% from their December 2024 record close of $139.51. The stock has fallen about 68% since the end of 2025, leaving the ad tech company worth about $5.8 billion. Second-quarter 2026 revenue rose 3% to $715 million, while net income fell about 29% to $64 million. The company guided third-quarter revenue of at least $650 million, a decline of about 12% from a year earlier. Buybacks have cut the diluted share count from about 507 million in late 2024 to 470 million. The company holds about $1.5 billion in cash and short-term investments and no debt. One analyst estimates the stock could reach about $16 by the end of 2029, assuming revenue returns to growth and the net margin recovers to 15%. In a bear case, it could fall to about $7.

Retail media must prove how retailer data improves advertising beyond owned channels. Retail media networks (RMNs) have spent years expanding beyond their owned properties, building capabilities across social, search, connected TV, and the open internet. But as shopping journeys become more fragmented, the industry's next challenge is demonstrating how retailer data can improve advertising investments across those channels. That was a central theme of "Partnerships Powering the Future of Discovery," a panel featuring executives from Target, Pinterest, Google, and The Trade Desk. The event was held Oct. 13 at The Roundtable: NYC, hosted by Target's Roundel. The boundaries between discovery and shopping continue to blur. US off-site retail media ad spending will reach $17.98 billion in 2026 and $35.57 billion by 2030, according to EMARKETER forecasts. But expanding into more channels doesn't automatically give advertisers a compelling reason to shift their budgets. Consumers increasingly move between social platforms, search engines, AI-powered assistants, and physical stores as they discover and evaluate products. Nearly half of purchases that begin with ecommerce browsing are completed in stores, according to Bhaskar Mishra, vice president of digital product at Target. For the retailer, the opportunity is to make those transitions easier, including through AI-powered experiences that help consumers navigate product choices and move from discovery to purchase. Pinterest is seeing a related shift in how consumers express shopping intent. Rather than beginning with a specific product or brand, consumers often arrive with an idea, aesthetic, or occasion in mind, according to Kristin Patterson, vice president of omnichannel retail at Pinterest. The platform sees more than 80 billion searches each month, roughly half of which are commercial, and 96% of its top searches are unbranded. AI is making it possible to interpret these less explicit signals of intent. Stefanie Stewart, head of industry for retail media at Google, highlighted how search is also evolving toward more conversational, visual, and exploratory experiences. For advertisers, these changes create opportunities to influence demand earlier in the shopping journey, while raising questions about what unique value retailers can contribute when discovery increasingly happens on platforms they don't own. Retailer data must make existing media investments better. Retail media's expansion across the funnel has largely focused on building access to new advertising environments. Yet despite widespread partnerships between RMNs and major social platforms, just $1.30 billion in social advertising spending will flow through RMNs in 2026, according to EMARKETER forecasts. That's less than 2% of total retail media spending and less than 1% of social media spending. For advertisers already investing heavily in these environments, access alone isn't a compelling reason to involve another intermediary. The opportunity lies in what retailers know about actual purchasing behavior. Amy Babcock, senior director of client development at The Trade Desk, emphasized how retailer transaction data can help advertisers understand who purchases a brand, chooses a competitor, or buys complementary products. Through its partnership with Roundel, The Trade Desk incorporates SKU-level sales data from Target's online and physical stores to inform audience strategies and campaign optimization. That intelligence can help advertisers identify valuable customers, understand where their brands have opportunities to grow, and make more informed decisions across their broader media plans. Retailer data can also improve the consumer experience by connecting inspiration with relevant, available products, making it easier for shoppers to act on an idea. Scaling adoption requires simpler activation and stronger measurement. Even when retailer data can improve campaign performance, advertisers face practical barriers to adopting these capabilities at scale. Buying processes, measurement systems, and budget ownership often differ across shopper marketing, brand, social, and broader media teams. Adding retailer data can introduce another layer of complexity unless integrations fit naturally into existing workflows. For Pinterest, simplifying activation is an important part of that equation. The company reports that its Performance+ tools require 50% fewer inputs to launch a campaign, while product-catalog sales campaigns have delivered an average 20% improvement in cost per acquisition compared with business-as-usual setups. Measurement must also evolve to reflect retail media's broader role in discovery and demand creation. Connecting advertising exposure with a transaction remains valuable, but attribution alone doesn't establish whether advertising changed consumer behavior. Advertisers increasingly need to understand whether their investments are attracting incremental customers, influencing consideration, and generating sales that otherwise wouldn't have occurred. For Target, Mishra identified incremental buyers, lower acquisition costs, and the relevance of sponsored recommendations as important indicators of progress. Ultimately, retail media has made considerable progress expanding where advertisers can reach consumers. Its next phase of growth will depend on making discovery more useful for consumers and demonstrating that commerce intelligence delivers measurable value across the broader media plan. You've read 1 of 2 free articles this month. Get more articles - create your free account today!