Save 50% on a 3-month Digiday+ membership. Ends Dec 5.
Digiday covers the annual trade show in Cologne. More from the series →
Digital advertising is arguably facing one of the most tumultuous periods ever before. The industry’s pivot to privacy has begun to accelerate trends far beyond the lip service given to them for years, namely around the demise of the third-party cookie.
Publishers, marketers, agencies and ad tech vendors are all on the hunt for third-party cookie alternatives to maintain effective ad targeting and measurement. Finding new forms of identity targeting, among many others issues facing ad tech, will be hot topics at ad tech conference Dmexco, which kicks off today Sept. 11 in Cologne Germany.
Much has changed in the last year. Here’s a list of what’s in and what’s out Dmexco this year.

More in Media
What publishers are wishing for this holiday season: End AI scraping and determine AI-powered audience value
Publishers want a fair, structured, regulated AI environment and they also want to define what the next decade of audience metrics looks like.
Digiday+ Research Subscription Index 2025: Subscription strategies from Bloomberg, The New York Times, Vox and others
Digiday’s third annual Subscription Index examines and measures publishers’ subscription strategies to identify common approaches and key tactics among Bloomberg, The New York Times, Vox and others.
From lawsuits to lobbying: How publishers are fighting AI
We may be closing out 2025, but publishers aren’t retreating from the battle of AI search — some are escalating it, and they expect the fight to stretch deep into 2026.
Ad position: web_bfu