The Curation Equation

Ad Tech Insights

Yahoo Says Yes to Curation at CES

The story: At this year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES), Yahoo made a bold case for its demand-side platform (DSP), emphasizing advertising-focused curation and supply-side intelligence. As part of this strategy, Yahoo announced partnerships with key vendors like Jounce Media , PEER39 , and Scope3 to integrate supply-path optimization, contextual insights, and sustainability metrics directly into its DSP.?

This approach, seen as “industry-first” by 雅虎 advocates, aims to empower advertisers to self-curate inventory decisions rather than relying on DSPs to manage the process. Nicole Kilaita , Yahoo’s Director of DSP Strategy and Supply, explained, “By integrating trusted vendor data directly into Yahoo DSP, we aim to give you more transparency to curate your media buying strategies, letting you decide.”?

Yahoo’s positioning comes as programmatic advertising grapples with mounting challenges. A 2024 ANA benchmark revealed that 26% of ad budgets are wasted on invalid traffic, made-for-advertising (MFA) sites, or non-viewable placements. Yahoo’s solution addresses these pain points by equipping advertisers with tools to evaluate inventory quality, optimize spend, and align media buys with their unique objectives. Additionally, Yahoo’s integration with Roku Data Cloud, utilizing its Backstage and ConnectID offerings, enhances publisher inventory management. This further blurs the lines between DSPs and SSPs in an increasingly interconnected ad tech ecosystem.?

The takeaway: Yahoo’s latest strategy highlights three key trends: the demand for transparency in supply-path optimization, the growing need to empower advertisers to self-curate inventory, and the convergence of DSP and SSP functions in programmatic advertising. As inefficiencies in programmatic buying persist, tools that combine supply intelligence with autonomy are poised to drive the next wave of ad tech innovation.?

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Extra Industry Insights

DoorDash has partnered with Ibotta to expand its digital promotions offering. Here’s what you should know:

• Following their announcement in early January, DoorDash will now offer a catalog of digital promotions and coupons to users through its multi-year partnership with Ibotta .
• Customers can expect personalized offers on items across grocery, health and beauty, home improvement, and alcohol categories to go live across DoorDash ’s Marketplace this year, according to a statement by Ibotta.
• This marks the digital promotions company, Ibotta’s, fourth high-profile partnership within the year. Other partnerships have included Schuck Markets, Family Dollar, and Instacart.?
• CPG brands will be able to serve up digital personalized promotions and coupons through IPN across DoorDash’s North American market, which includes 115,000+ non-restaurant retailers.?
• “This partnership is especially impactful as brands continue to look to the IPN to reach new audiences, expand their market share, and drive incremental units,” Ibotta Founder and CEO Bryan Leach said in a statement.?

??PUBLISHED: Kevel Blog “Key Highlights from NRF 2025”

The National Retail Federation ’s 2025 Big Show (NRF 2025) brought together thousands of retail leaders, innovators, and visionaries to discuss the future of the industry. This year’s event emphasized artificial intelligence, retail media networks, sustainability, and the evolving in-store experience. In this Kevel blog, we discuss the most notable trends and insights shared by industry experts and retail executives over three days of game-changing discussions and showcases.

?Read the full blog post here.?

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