Observed Signal · Feb 9, 2026 · Industry Analysis · Source: Adzine · Impact: 2/5 · Sentiment: Positive
Open Web's Path: Embrace Standards for Growth
Ahead of ADZINE CONNECT 2026, industry leaders discussed how the Open Web can remain competitive with Walled Gardens by leveraging its strengths—transparency, contextual quality and cross-publisher control—while addressing technical and measurement gaps. Speakers argued Open RTB works well for single-impression programmatic trading but does not cover many premium, private-deal and direct-booking use cases. Measurement (notably attention metrics and cross-platform frequency capping) and fragmented standards for contextual targeting, identity and creatives are cited as key obstacles. Proposed remedies included new abstraction layers around campaign goals, allowing external measurement in closed platforms, adoption of deterministic identity where applicable, and protocols such as the Ad Context Protocol (AdCP) and agentic systems to reduce complexity.
Market commentary from industry practitioners highlights practical interoperability and measurement gaps (standards, attention metrics, cross-platform frequency capping) that affect programmatic scale and publisher monetization; useful for stakeholders but not an immediate platform-level policy or product announcement.
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Key Takeaways & Evidence Grounding
- ADZINE CONNECT 2026 speakers debated the Open Web's competitiveness versus Walled Gardens and identified interoperability and measurement as central challenges.
- René Plug (CRO, Gotom) said Open RTB is a successful standard for single-impression automated trading but does not address private deals, premium inventory and direct bookings.
- Dennis Beivers (Director Sales DE/AT, Readpeak) highlighted fragmentation in the Open Web and lack of unified interfaces for contextual targeting, identity solutions and creative standards.
- Carsten Becker (Managing Director, OMG Solutions) argued the RTB protocol demonstrates interoperability but called out attention measurement as a gap and proposed permitting external measurement providers in Walled Gardens.
- Markus Caspari (Head of Performance Marketing & Digital Consulting, Dentsu) emphasized the absence of cross-platform frequency capping in Walled Gardens and argued Open Web can optimize net reach across publishers.
Connected Companies & Entities
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Open Web: The Future of Transparent Advertising Awaits
The article argues the advertising industry must now operationalize a functioning Open Web that restores transparency, control and interoperability after a decade dominated by walled gardens. It identifies structural problems with closed platforms—limited auditability, non-comparable metrics, closed data ownership and reduced media diversity—and presents IAB Content Taxonomy and the EU Digital Markets Act (DMA) as complementary technological and regulatory foundations. Digital audio is used as a case study (noting Spotify’s withdrawal from shared measurement bodies) to illustrate measurement and ID challenges. The piece calls for deterministic, interoperable ID infrastructures (e.g., NetID, Utiq, Listener-ID), cookieless readiness (contextual methods, clean rooms) and concrete action from advertisers, publishers and agencies to diversify budgets and roll out standards.
Open Web: The Future of Ad Spend and Targeting
The discussion contrasts the Open Web with Walled Gardens, arguing that Google, Meta, and Amazon control about half of German ad spend while the Open Web offers simplicity, scalability, performance, and quality through programmatic advertising. With the end of third-party cookies, addressability now relies on deterministic identifiers and publisher-provided audiences, supported by multi-device strategies and technologies like FedCM. Publishers gain a growing role in audience offerings via DSPs, Data Marketplaces, and SSPs, aided by AI and ML for targeting. Standardization remains essential, driven by privacy and addressability frameworks (DSGVO, TDDDG, TCF), while new AI-related challenges prompt discussion around model data usage and monetization (e.g., MCP). Advertisers should engage in standards-building to sustain a pluralistic media landscape. The OVK Universe highlights about 1,000 high-quality sites that enable selective targeting.
Will Open Web Reclaim Ad Budgets by 2026?
Adzine surveyed ad‑tech experts about whether the Open Web can reclaim advertising budgets from Walled Gardens in 2026. Contributors from Welect, Teads, Fraud0, Flap.One/Traffective and Adnomaly say the Open Web has structural advantages—reach, independent quality environments, transparent value chains and user data sovereignty—but that these strengths remain largely theoretical without binding standards, consistent measurement and marketable products. Transparency, fraud resistance, context quality and demonstrable incrementality are cited as decisive. Publishers must invest in their brands and create bundled, measurable offers. Technological advances such as agentic AI and interoperable standards could reduce operational fragmentation, but increasing automation risks turning parts of the Open Web into a new 'black box.' Experts expect gradual, selective budget shifts rather than a wholesale migration.
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