The Washington Post, Disney, and The Boston Globe Join DanAds-Led Self-Serve Summit

Representatives of several leading US publishers – including The Washington Post, Disney, and Boston Globe Media – gathered earlier this week in Chelsea, New York for the world’s first summit dedicated entirely to self-serve advertising.

The Self-Serve Summit, arranged and hosted by leading Swedish ad tech provider DanAds, brought together leading voices in the publishing and advertising spheres to talk automation, privacy, first-party data, and Big Tech dominance in digital advertising revenue. 

Julia Belanger, general manager of Zeus Technology (The Washington Post’s ad network), was one of the panelists at Thursday’s event: “The opportunity to sit down face-to-face and dig into some of the opportunities and challenges around publisher ad revenues has been long overdue. As the last two years have shown, consumers and businesses increasingly want digital tools that prioritise flexibility, transparency and reduced manual work. With Zeus, our mission is focused on enabling efficient, transparent connections between local media and advertisers in service of readers. Self service enables that mission.”

Also in attendance were senior leaders from Disney, DISH Media, and The Boston Globe. Lisen Zethraeus, chief marketing officer at DanAds, reflects on the event: “DanAds has been building self-serve solutions for the past eight years, but this is the first time that we decided to put all the leading figures of our industry in a single room and really listen to what they’re saying. Bringing about meaningful change in this industry is like turning a ship - it’s very slow. But we’re at that tipping point where the world’s leading brands are seeing the value of automation and first-party data solutions, and where they go the rest of the industry will follow suit. I think when we convene again next year we’ll be looking at a very different landscape, where self-serve is the rule rather than the exception.”