💥 BREAKING: THE CURATION GRIFT IS HERE. And it’s wearing a Patagonia vest.

Just like last year’s avalanche of “AI-powered” PowerPoints (we saw your decision trees in Excel, Larry), now everyone’s a “curator”. Not in the Louvre sense, not even Etsy. We're talking adtech “curation,” which—according to most of the current hype—means slapping together some half-baked URL lists and hoping the client’s too confused to ask questions.

Remember when every mediocre startup in 2023 added “AI” to their decks even though their “machine learning” was just conditional logic and wishful thinking?

Well guess what? Curation is 2025’s AI.
Same nonsense, new costume.

Now everyone is a curator.
SSPs? Curators.
Retail media platforms? Curators.
That guy who once ran retargeting campaigns in 2012? Oh yeah—he’s a curator now too.

The whole industry is suddenly a walking LinkedIn post about "curated PMPs." And just like with AI, most of it is... how do we say this politely?

🚫 Complete. Utter. Bupkis.

🎤 ENTER DREW STEIN: ADTECH’S UNLIKELY TRUTH-TELLER

At IAB Tech Lab’s 2025 gathering of buzzwords and politely restrained applause, Audigent’s CEO Drew Stein got on stage and basically nuked the room.
Not with more jargon, but with actual truth bombs the industry didn’t want to hear.

He didn’t mince words. He didn’t hide behind corporate doublespeak.
He flat out said what the rest of us have been whispering for months:

👉 “The industry is packed with bandwagon jumpers and poseurs.”
👉 “Everyone claims to be a curator — but is not.”
👉 “If it doesn’t have real data, real inventory access, and real optimization… it’s just complete nonsense.”

Let me translate for the folks in the back:
Most of what’s being sold as curation is a lie.

It's not curation if you're just:

• Repackaging unsorted inventory

• Slapping on third-party data you bought at clearance prices

• Calling your blocklist a “data strategy”

What you’re doing is ad network cosplay — and no one’s impressed.

💸 WHY THIS MATTERS: BECAUSE THE STAKES ARE REAL

This isn’t a pretend game for pitch decks. There’s over $100 BILLION moving through PMPs globally.
Real money. Real buyers. Real consequences.

Which means the grift is scaling. Fast.

But here’s the thing Stein made crystal clear: when done right, curation works.

Let’s run the numbers:
📈 +20% bid density
🏆 +118% win rates
💰 Up to 74% net publisher revenue gains (after fees!)
🧬 +260% revenue lift in health verticals
📱 +70% uplift in mobile app monetization
🎯 3x higher CTRs, 70% lower CPCs vs. DMP segments

These aren’t fake numbers. They’re from real campaigns. With real strategy. And yeah — real curation.

But those results only show up when you have:
✅ Unique data
✅ Robust inventory connections
✅ Optimization that doesn’t sleep

Miss one? You're not a curator. You’re a ✨segment decorator✨.

🧂 BONUS SHADE, BROUGHT TO YOU BY DREW

Just when you thought the man was done, he went full sarcasm mode.

Referencing the lazy PMP builders flooding the market with garbage, he deadpanned:
👉 “Do it. Do it.”

Yes. That’s a Starsky & Hutch quote.
Was it a flex? Was it passive-aggressive genius?
Does it matter?

What matters is he sees you.
And now, so do we.

🧠 THE TAKEAWAY

If you're still selling curation without actual audience data, without real-time optimization, without even understanding what a clean bidstream looks like…

You’re not in adtech. You’re in theater.
And the curtain’s about to fall.

So, to the marketers who want results, and the publishers who want revenue without getting fleeced:
Vet your curators. Demand receipts. Burn the fake scrolls.

📣 Stay Bold, Stay Curious, and Know More Than You Did Yesterday.
(And if you’re still calling a whitelist “strategy,” maybe sit this one out.)

💌 Forward this to a friend who’s still stuck in 2021.
🧠 Upgrade to the full issue below — where we really break down the data.

From Deal IDs to Data Divas: How Stacy Bohrer Is Rewriting the Curation Playbook

Stacy Bohrer of OpenX broke down curation into two buckets for us — and, in classic adtech fashion, made it sound both straightforward and revolutionary:

1. Inventory Curation:
   The old-school method. Bundle up specific domains, apps, or sites, slap them into a Deal ID, send it to the DSP. Buyer brings their own data (first or third party), applies it, and off they go. This has been the Programmatic 101 playbook for years.

2. Data-Driven Curation (where it gets interesting):
   Instead of waiting for the DSP to sprinkle in the data magic, OpenX pre-applies first, second, or third-party data before the Deal ID ever leaves the SSP. This flips the model — enabling publishers to activate their own first-party data without ceding control, and buyers to reduce "leakage" and boost performance.

Bohrer gave a real-world flex: a luxury auto client ran one Deal ID packed with 11 audience segments (think auto intenders, high-income households, etc.). Instead of layering on data at the DSP, they used OpenX’s curated segments up front — and saw better performance plus a 12% lift in working media dollars.

In her view, this kind of supply-side curation does a few key things:

• Brings buyers closer to publishers.

• Gives more visibility into inventory, signals, and context.

• Improves match rates and reduces waste.

• Drives trust and transparency in the supply chain.

Her bet on the future? Everything goes biddable — as long as the black boxes get cracked open and the value of every impression is clear. Because, as she says, "Only when we do that will the future be as bright as it can be."