Duncan Illing

Great to be back at Cannes Festival of Creativity again. Had loads of productive meetings and catch up’s. Bumped into so many people out and about too. It’s about the people, the connections and collaboration.

I’ve embarked on the next chapter of my career at Experian leading the growth of business development partnerships across adtech, media publishing, gaming, audio, & beyond, lots of opportunities to help fuel quality journalism & content producers. Remember ad revenue fuels an entire ecosystem.

As is having actual proven substance to your offering.

The quickening of change moves ever faster. A new era in Adtech and Martech is emerging. Product innovation and partnership collaboration is more vital than ever.

Microsoft bought Skype (2011) for $8.5bn (£6.1bn). Today it closes down due to a lack of strategic investment in user friendly product innovation & resulting user drop off. From $6.3bn for aQuantive 2007 onward, Nokia. What is it with MSFT success rate with acquisitions? Like the Daniel Levy of tech

Re Deepseek over recent days. Why does Wall Street always immediately act like frightened kittens in such situations?

Secondly perhaps how the EU potentially responds too.

Tik Tok banned in U.S. Not surprised at all. Question is who will buy the U.S business?

While consulting / open to new projects. 2025 focus is a new role in Martech/Adtech. I build & scale solution partnerships allowing businesses to evolve marketplace offering; drive value proposition, product capabilities, revenue & business growth. Pioneering BD for market leadership. Get in touch.

Will 2025 be a year of greater collaboration and partnership? I think for many it needs to be.

Another acronym in an industry of acronyms. SSA. Super Signal Aggregator. Experian for example, is a data partner and an SSA. One of the best too in my experience.

From conversations this month a theme. Reminder the next challengers for market leadership: invest, product innovate with solution capabilities, take calculated risks. Big picture thinking. Substance. Too often: buzz words, repackages of decade old concepts, short term thinking leads to fading away

Many it seems finding consistent glitches on Chrome today. No official recognition by Google yet. Back to Safari.

Seems it’s on then. Just some regulatory hurdles it would seem…

As the Observer’s editor, I was not consulted on its sale to Tortoise Media | Letter Former Observer editor Paul Webster responds to an article by the chair of the Scott Trust Ole Jacob Sunde says that the Scott Trust, which he chairs, decided to sell the Observer to Tortoise Media “after extensive internal and external consultation”…

As the Observer’s editor, I was not consulted on its sale to Tortoise Media | Letter

The landscape continually evolves. But, Omnicom / IPG, will it happen? Still nothing confirmed despite the noise. What about other interested parties…

Great to see everyone at @walshjon.bsky.social’s Adtech Xmas Drinks event yesterday evening, caught up with lots of good people and made new friends. First time at the Phoenix Arts Club for a while for me. Live fire eating too. Wow!

The fact the @theguardian.com is selling off the Observer highlights how quality journalism & media publishing across the board is under threat. Advertising with effectiveness proof points vital. Aided by fully opted in registered readership. So too ad rev shares for their IP from socials walled gds

I was building and scaling privacy compliant post cookie solutions in adtech and martech over 10 years ago. Adtech needs pioneering solutions. Cookie are 30 years old now, not robust or reliable. Inevitability be on the front or back end of change.

Google have now begun the gradual and complete roll out of opt in or out of cookies on the Chrome browser. Reports of a sample of people getting Accept or Reject this week in U.K. when opening a new browser window.