Product Advisory Board 2025

Returning for its seventh year on May 21st and 22nd, our Product Advisory Board (PAB) once again brought together clients and partners for two days of networking, knowledge exchange, and product updates. Held in Vienna, the event stayed true to its roots in transparency and collaboration, further solidifying its role as a forum where product development responds directly to client needs and shifting market dynamics. The importance of these conversations was underscored by the event turnout, which was the largest in PAB history. 

Our continued dedication to a client-led roadmap

Every PAB begins with our Round Table Committee (RTC) meeting. This closed-door session plays a key role in shaping our roadmap, offering RTC members the opportunity to share pain points, market shifts, and evolving expectations regarding our products. At the end of every meeting, participants vote on the direction they’d like us to take with our roadmap. Since only a maximum of three representatives from each client company attend, the format of the meeting ensures every voice is heard and every vote counts.

Updates from smartclip

Beyond giving clients a voice in shaping our roadmap, PAB also serves as a key forum for sharing company updates and product developments. This year, Thomas Servatius, Co-CEO at smartclip, opened the sessions with a look back at our 2024 milestones and a preview of what lies ahead for our company and platform. His update touched on key releases like our new identity features that combat industry-wide signal loss and ID fragmentation.

These features are part of our smart ID Hub, which is our privacy-first identity solution that helps broadcasters maintain addressability and measurement across cookieless, ID-less environments. By leveraging a future-proof identity infrastructure, it ensures consistent audience targeting even as traditional identifiers disappear.

Other highlights included the announcement of our recently announced AI initiative, the integration of Azerion’s HAWK DSP into smartx, and our implementation of SSP orchestration. 

Gloria Eichler, Chief Product Officer, then took the stage to share our product strategy for 2025, reflecting on releases from the previous year and highlighting the themes and areas of innovation set to guide our next chapter. 

“With this year’s product strategy, we’re looking to strike a balance between control and automation, simplifying the complex for our clients, and making a greater difference in society and industry at large.” 

Later, Frank Plähn, VP Audience Products at smartclip, and Sabine Fischbach-Neumann, Country Manager DACH at Realytics, presented a joint session on the integration of Realytics’ BEE solution into our smartx SSP and ad server. This in itself is a milestone as the integration of the award-winning measurement solution makes smartx the first platform to bring deterministic TV measurement to the supply side.

BEE provides broadcasters with deterministic, privacy-first TV measurement across linear and digital screens. With consistent metrics like reach and frequency, it offers a clearer understanding of how campaigns perform in today’s convergent landscape — helping broadcasters and advertisers plan, optimise, and report on campaigns with greater confidence.

AI was another hot topic this year. In a joint session, Thomas Servatius, Gloria Eichler, and Manon Teragnoli, Product Manager at Realytics, took the stage to share the latest on smartclip and Realytics’s AI initiatives — what’s in the works and where the technology is heading next.

Franck Litewka, VP Represented Media at RTL AdAlliance, joined Gloria Eichler to introduce our 1% Media Initiative — a purpose-driven project to help broadcasters and advertisers turn media spend into positive social impact. Inspired by recent DEI and sustainability rollbacks, this initiative encourages our clients to donate 1% of their inventories to NGOs so that they can amplify their messages. RTL AdAlliance will also participate in this initiative by offering Ad Operations as a managed service for these campaigns. Additionally, we will provide all related marketing and communications materials and won’t charge any serving fees for these ads.

Wrapping up the company updates, Mariana Berezin, Head of Product Education at smartclip, returned to the PAB stage to share what’s new on the client education front. After introducing the smartclip Academy last year, she gave attendees an early look at our latest learning tool — the smartclip Knowledge Centre.

The Knowledge Centre is designed to be a central hub for everything our clients need to understand and navigate our products. It features a wide range of resources — from quick guides to in-depth documentation — all created by our Product Education team to make even the most complex topics easier to grasp.

Updates from our clients across Europe

While PAB gives us a chance to share key updates, it’s just as much a platform for our clients to showcase how they’re using adtech to tackle real business challenges, seize new opportunities, and drive innovation in their local markets.

Simone Branca, Head of Adtech & Data at Rai Pubblicità, offered a look into the success of Mare Fuori and how the company used our Vegan Ads solution to enhance viewers’ ad experience and advertisers’ audience targeting while respecting privacy regulations. 

Kaj de Smet, Senior Product Owner Digital Advertising at RTL Nederland, spoke about the growing relevance of the SAVOD market in the Netherlands and how RTL Nederland is responding to new viewer demands and monetisation models.

Claudia Ostermann-Schabata, Director Marketing & Business Development at IP Österreich, discussed the recent news that IP Österreich will become a part of RTL AdAlliance, offered a detailed look into the unique Austrian market, and discussed the company’s ambitions within the  Total Video space.

Dr. Oliver Vesper, Co-CEO at smartclip and Deputy CEO/CDO at RTL AdAlliance, and Pieter van den Bergh, VP Product & Revenue Development at RTL AdAlliance, presented the company’s new self-service AdManager platform, designed to simplify and scale cross-market campaigns.

Martin Hoberg, Chief International Adtech Officer at RTL Deutschland, offered updates on key adtech projects within the RTL ecosystem, while Tim Nieland, General Director Product & Price at Ad Alliance DE, spoke on the company’s approach to Total Video and how its hoping to meet the demands of the German market through a simplified booking and implementation approach.

Enrique Mendivil Fuster, CTO at smartclip Spain, offered a deep dive into the company’s new contextual ads AI solution, including its potential use cases and roadmap expansion.

Guest perspectives & industry deep dives 

We always enjoy hearing from outside perspectives at PAB, and this year, we welcomed Olivier Daufresne, Associate Director at CESP, to offer his expert view on the role of media auditors in today’s data-driven ecosystem. In a landscape shaped by automation and AI, Olivier made a strong case for why third-party validation remains critical — helping ensure transparency, trust, and accountability across the industry.

Ian Whittaker, award-winning media and tech analyst, took the stage as this year’s keynote speaker to dissect the shifting power dynamics between traditional broadcasters and streaming giants. Exploring multiple trajectories in the ongoing ‘streaming wars,’ Ian outlined how each scenario could influence Europe’s media landscape — highlighting the growing importance of collaboration amongst broadcasters to stay relevant in the shifting market.

Ian also joined Stephen Byrne, VP Global Supply at RTL AdAlliance, Martin Hoberg, and James Collins, Chief Revenue Officer at Titan OS, for for a panel discussion that took a closer look at how streaming continues to disrupt the traditional media mix. The group shared their perspectives on what the future might hold for linear TV and where broadcasters should be placing their focus in an increasingly fragmented landscape.

An evening at the Austrian Parliament

After a packed first day of sessions, attendees were treated to a private tour of the Austrian Parliament, complete with an evening dinner overlooking the city. It was the perfect setting to continue conversations from the day — and kick off new ones.

A closer look at some of our key initiatives

The event wrapped with a series of focused breakout sessions, giving participants the opportunity to dive deeper into the tools and updates that matter most. In one room, Stefano Matteucci led a discussion on viewability, unpacking how we’re tackling ad fraud and driving more reliable, transparent metrics for advertisers and publishers alike.

Next door, Frank Plähn guided attendees through the latest updates to our smart ID Hub and Vegan Ads solutions, highlighting how the we’re evolving our approach to privacy-friendly targeting with even greater precision and control.

Meanwhile, Benjamin Kotzott and Gloria Eichler explored recent improvements in SSP orchestration. The session gave broadcasters a closer look at how we’re enhancing our ad serving infrastructure to support more complex, multi-SSP setups, ensuring smarter delivery, better yield, and a more adaptable tech stack overall.

Each session reflected the spirit of PAB itself: practical, open, and built on the belief that product innovation works best when it’s shaped directly by those who use it.

That’s a wrap! 

PAB 2025 wrapped up with thoughtful conversations, fresh perspectives, and renewed alignment on where we’re heading next. Thank you to everyone who contributed their time, insights, and ideas — we hope to see you at the next event.