I still remember how DMEXCO suddenly looked like a trade fair for display advertising a few years ago. All of a sudden, the big display networks had booths everywhere. This year there was once again one dominant topic. It is not hard to guess, almost everything revolved around AI in marketing. The booths talked about AI, and the talks and masterclasses were hardly about anything else.
CMO Forum at DMEXCO
A particularly interesting appointment for me was the CMO Forum hosted by marketing BÖRSE. Marketing leaders from banking, travel, retail, telecommunications and professional football sat together in a circle and shared where their companies stand with AI in marketing.
Back in spring at OMR, I had said in the marketing BÖRSE podcast that AI is now part of many areas of marketing. The group at DMEXCO confirmed this almost unanimously. Ad creation, content research, campaign optimization, email production. Nobody was asking anymore whether to use AI.
On the contrary, according to most participants, the phase of experimentation is coming to an end. Many teams are now turning their tests into established processes and frameworks, and agentic AI has landed on a surprising number of roadmaps. Some even spoke about becoming an AI first company.
For me, this leads to a clear conclusion. When every vendor sells AI and every company uses it, AI is no longer a differentiator, and the advantage shifts to what cannot be bought, namely proprietary data and real customer value.
I shared some of these thoughts on LinkedIn.
Why I Value DMEXCO
Regardless of the AI topic, I really like the DMEXCO format. It is less noisy and easier to navigate than OMR, and ideal for meeting many interesting contacts in person within a short time and for initiating or strengthening partnerships.
