The Proactive Data Privacy Shift
The biggest conversations around privacy focused on Apple’s App Tracking Transparency (ATT) framework. However, the quieter, more important shift was brands proactively auditing and reducing their data footprint beyond legal requirements.
Contextual 2.0: The return to contextual advertising was widely discussed, but the “nobody’s talking about” part was the focus on hyper-local, ephemeral contexts. Think ads served based on what’s happening right now in a five-block radius (e.g., a sudden queue at a coffee shop, triggering an ad for a competing store’s mobile order).
Data Minimalism: Smart advertisers started moving toward data minimalism, asking: “Do we need this specific piece of user data, or is it a liability?” This wasn’t about regulatory compliance; it was about building trust. Brands realized that being a “good data citizen” was becoming a powerful, though silent, competitive advantage.