Programmatic Advertising — The Working Group for cross‑segment collaboration.

Programmatic Advertising (PA) continues to be on a successful growth path in Germany, with double‑digit growth rates. It is a central success factor for the future of the media business and one of the key advantages of digital channels in the competition for media budgets. The objective of this Working Group is to further develop and sustainably shape the programmatic trading of digitally addressable media in Germany. We promote quality, define standards, and enable cooperation across the market.

Scope of application

The Working Group is composed of agencies, publishers, technology service providers, and platform providers and focuses on cross‑segment collaboration. Its main tasks are the communication of key technical terms, mechanisms, and methodologies, the development of technical standards, as well as the assessment of quality criteria and the use of data. The Working Group also cooperates with various national and international partner associations, such as IAB Europe and IAB US, for which BVDW is the license holder in Germany, in order to align and advance developments across countries.

Our New Format: Expert Talk Reloaded

With Expert Talk Reloaded, the Programmatic Advertising Working Group has launched a new format that provides a platform for the combined expertise of its members – both here on the committee page and on BVDW’s social media channels.

Learn more

The network Women Alliance Programmatic (WAP)

We are a women’s network in a technology domain that is still predominantly male‑dominated. Career level is not a deciding factor – on the contrary, we welcome a diverse mix of participants, ranging from trainees to CEOs. Our network does not remain purely digital. We actively promote and support personal, in‑person meetings.

What we have in mind
We have received so many great ideas and inspiration from you. That’s why we will also try to establish small digital snack formats in addition to the personal exchange formats. For example, for current trend topics in our industry – but of course also on topics that concern us as women. Last but not least, we want to challenge and encourage each other. Perhaps one of you would even like to present a current topic from your company or a current challenge in your job? We are open to anything!

Communication channels
We use three channels to stay in contact with each other. We’ll wait and see how each channel develops.

You can subscribe to the BVDW e-mail distribution list here.
You can join our LinkedIn group here.
You can join our Signal group here.

If you have any questions, please contact Sabrina Büchel (BCN Brand Community Network), Nicole Mortier (Virtual Minds) or Julia Wittich-Sauer (Google), the three patrons of the network, or Ina Franke directly at BVDW.

Labs

Lab Agentic Programmatic Advertising

Analysis of new AI standards and protocols for programmatic advertising
Definition of the concept of “Agentic Programmatic Advertising” – clarification of what “agentic” means in the context of programmatic advertising
Evaluation of technological changes across the entire programmatic ecosystem – analysis of the impact of agentic models on:
- DSPs and SSPs
- data flows (first‑party, contextual, predictive)
- measurement methods, attribution, and fraud prevention
Identification of opportunities, risks, and challenges resulting from agent‑driven programmatic advertising
Development of working papers and guidelines for the programmatic market (e.g. concrete recommendations for advertisers, agencies, and AdTech providers)
Promotion of exchange and cooperation with other AI‑related working groups, such as the WG AI, the WG Search, the Lab Agentic Commerce (in formation), and the OVK workstream on the impact of AI/LLMs on the business models of publishers and marketers
Rapid development of PR and communication strategies to establish clear market positions

Lab Leadership

Sven Wegholz
Publicis Media
Benedict Gründig
Criteo
Eric Hall
Halls of … (Executive Sponsor)

Lab Curation

The Lab aims to reduce potential purchasing barriers and to highlight potential and opportunities for the buy side (agencies and advertisers). The focus is on education as well as on agreeing on and describing minimum standards among the involved market participants. This is achieved in particular through:

Description and publication of use cases (e.g. Curation Compass, expert articles)
Development and publication of a Code of Conduct
Development of a certificate for solution providers to be used by the BVDW

In addition, the working group serves as a neutral forum for exchange between buy‑side and sell‑side stakeholders in order to support innovation in the area of curated inventory, identify market developments, and define shared guardrails.

Lab Leadership

Ekaterina Sutt
Virtual Minds
Marvin Heinrich
WPP Media
Christoph Herick
Ströer
Sascha Dolling
Mediaplus Realtime (Executive Sponsor)

Lab Data Clean Rooms

The topic of data clean rooms is becoming increasingly important for the entire programmatic advertising ecosystem. In addition to other aspects, issues such as data protection compliance, digital marketing in a cookieless future, first‑party data strategies, and supply‑path optimization play a major role. There is also still a lack of clarity regarding how data clean rooms work, the different use cases (analytics, activation), and terminology.

The goal of the Lab is education and awareness‑building for the individual market participants, including through the development and publication of white papers, provider overviews, and use cases, as well as participation in events.

Lab Leadership

Eric Hall
Halls of …
Sven Wegholz
Publicis Media Germany

Lab Ecosystem Development

The overarching objective of the Lab is to create a transparent, well‑founded, and up‑to‑date overview of the German programmatic advertising market. This overview is intended to provide orientation for external audiences and newcomers as well as for existing market participants, to make market mechanisms understandable, and to serve as a reference for discussion, education, and strategic decision‑making. The Lab follows an iterative approach in order to reflect the currently highly dynamic and rapidly changing market environment.