DMEXCO 2024 in Cologne showcased the evolving digital marketing landscape, with a strong emphasis on artificial intelligence (AI), the rise of retail media, and the ongoing shift towards a privacy-focused environment.
What is DMEXCO?
DMEXCO (Digital Marketing Exposition & Conference) is a premier global event uniting marketing, media, and tech professionals, including advertisers, agencies, publishers, and technology providers.
The event is divided into key areas: the World of Agencies, World of E-Commerce, World of Media, World of Tech, and a dedicated Start-up area. Each area features exhibition booths, keynote stages, and masterclass sessions, offering diverse learning and networking opportunities.
Navigating the DMEXCO Maze:
With approximately 180 events across two days, spanning seven main stages and numerous masterclasses and specialized sessions, navigating DMEXCO presented a challenge.
The reality is that you need to choose to either:
- Focus on networking and check out what all the exhibition companies have to offer the topics interesting to you
- Or focus on one or two themes speeches to attend
- Or create a way to split yourself into multiple versions of yourself to see and hear everything
Supermetrics at DMEXCO:
Our team of six engaged with customers at our booth in the exhibition area and I hosted a masterclass with Jakob Pörschmann from Google Cloud titled "Modern marketing measurement with Supermetrics and Google Cloud". If you’re interested in learning more, register for our SuperSummit on October 24th for a dive into this topic and much more! 
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From Local to Global and Back Again:
DMEXCO has historically transitioned between German and international focuses. While the trend is shifting back towards a global audience, remnants of the German focus remain, with some booths primarily using German materials and roughly 40% of presentations delivered in German.
The dominant themes of DMEXCO 2024 were:
- AI represented about 38% of the presentations with topics about: Moving beyond the initial hype, AI discussions centered on practical, everyday applications. This encompassed AI's impact on marketing and advertising (campaign optimization, personalization, content creation, data analysis), the future of work (AI literacy, agency tools, client relationships), AI's integration with specific technologies (CTV, Search, Social Media), and ethical considerations surrounding responsible AI usage. There also were many measurement, creative optimization and DSP companies highlighting their usage of AI within their solutions.
- Retail Media had about 14% of presentations and talked about: Defining the scope of retail media was a key topic, with companies like Shopify, Douglas Marketing Solutions, Criteo, and Schwarz Media showcasing their approaches. Discussions focused on retail data as a key asset, leveraging first-party data for targeted advertising and measurement, and integrating retail media with other marketing channels.
- DOOH (Digital Out-of-Home) & CTV (Connected TV): These channels shared common themes related to the evolving digital advertising landscape. Key topics included measurement and attribution challenges, targeted and addressable advertising strategies, programmatic buying and automation, convergence with other channels, and innovations in advertising formats and technologies.
The Blurring Lines of Marketing:
The prominence of DOOH and CTV raises the question: should marketing still be categorized as strictly online/digital versus offline? The lines are increasingly blurred, and an integrated approach is becoming essential 
Did you attend DMEXCO this year and what were the highlights for you?