Written by Elan Carter
Elan Carter is the Vice President of Growth and Business Development at Start.io. He’s worked in the advertising industry for more than 15 years, and lives in New York.
POSSIBLE 2025 is now in the books—can you believe that this must-attend industry event is just 3 years old? It’s been a couple of weeks since we all got back from Miami Beach and compared notes. Here are my big takeaways from three very packed days:
My first takeaway upon arriving at the Fontainebleau on Monday morning was, ‘Did our industry grow 10x?’
The hotel’s lobby was so packed, you could barely breathe. It was like taking the F Train during rush hour; I couldn’t hear myself think. And yet, when I looked across the lobby, I saw a lot of people in the advertising industry who were so happy to reconnect with friends and colleagues.
Second takeaway: For an event that launched in 2023, there has been consistent buzz that POSSIBLE is on track to become the new Cannes Lions. The heat, the attire, the back-to-back-to-back happy hours, rosé or Aperol spritz—heck, even the overpriced cups of coffee reminded me of southern France. Yacht Row in Miami was less impressive, but who knows what next year will bring.
Third, in terms of actual rumblings, or my version of what I’m hearing, there was a lot of talk about what’s next for Google’s adtech business. What will they choose to (or be forced to) spin off or sell?
I also got into a lot of ‘How about them cookies?’ conversations this year.
Regardless of what’s happening at Google, there was continuous chatter around advertising attention, identity, and addressability. More companies want to expand into additional channels, diversify their revenue streams, and figure out what’s actually AI—and what says it’s AI, but really isn’t.
Finally, mobile-centric companies like Start.io tend to get identified as ‘performance’ or ‘outcome-driven’ companies—that’s a partial misconception that I talked about a lot with people at POSSIBLE.
It’s not that there’s anything wrong with performance or brand performance, but at the Start.io cabana, I found myself tirelessly explaining how our user segmentation and audience curation capabilities help our clients optimize their campaign results with high-quality, impactful targeting.
The quality play is not new, but it is a path for brands and technology partners to optimize ad strategies across the industry. Ultimately, it’s about publishers who work hard on the content we all consume being able to capitalize on their hard work.
What’s next? Father’s Day in Cannes—I’ll see you there!
