Amir Sharer, CEO, BRAVE, and Tamir Shub, VP of Business Development, IntentIQ join ExchangeWire to discuss how audience curation is evolving into a foundational element of programmatic

As the post-cookie era unfolds and signal fragmentation becomes the norm, curation has evolved from a tactical add-on into a strategic cornerstone. Today, it's the foundation of scalable performance and durable addressability—not a luxury, but a necessity.

Two forces are driving this shift: identity intelligence and real-time supply path optimisation. At this intersection stand BRAVE, a machine learning-powered SSP engineered for predictive performance, and IntentIQ, a leader in deterministic, privacy-compliant ID resolution. Together, they're transforming how curated supply and audiences are activated across the programmatic stack.

Amir Sharer, CEO of BRAVE, sat down with IntentIQ’s VP of business development, Tamir Shub, to explore:

• How ID-driven curation is shaping the future of supply and demand alignment
• What DSPs expect from infrastructure partners in a post-cookie world
• Why SSPs are evolving from simple auction pipes into predictive logic layers

From transactional to strategic: The evolution of curation

Curation once meant bundling contextual segments or targeting parameters for convenience. But in today’s fragmented ecosystem, that’s not strategy — that’s survival mode. In 2025, curation is evolving into strategic infrastructure: The connective tissue powering scalable, privacy-safe performance.

Executives at DSPs are asking sharper questions:

• How do we preserve reach without sacrificing addressability?
• How can we eliminate waste and duplication from opaque supply paths?
• How do we align scale with real-time performance and brand suitability?

The answer isn’t simply more data—it’s smarter infrastructure and identity resolution built for interoperability, fidelity, and privacy at scale.

The most effective approach to audience curation treats it as an always-on orchestration layer—bridging demand and supply, identity and context, reach and relevance. It’s not about finding the right audience somewhere in the ecosystem; it’s about activating them through the cleanest, most performant, and transparent paths. This is especially vital in signal-fragmented environments like CTV and in-app gaming, where scale demands sophisticated orchestration.

Amir: "Without quality identity inputs and a clean bidstream, even the best algorithms underperform. That’s why we’re not just optimising access—we’re reshaping how it’s built."

Tamir: "Today, audience curation isn’t segment packaging—it’s real-time proactive orchestration that incorporates fragmented IDs, deterministic identity, and privacy compliance. Curation connects identity, context, and consent—it’s foundational to scalable performance in a privacy-first world."

Why identity-led curation wins

Identity has evolved from a static signal into a living, dynamic graph. In a landscape defined by consent frameworks, fragmented identifiers, and the deprecation of third-party cookies, deterministic identity is emerging as the new performance backbone.

Curation strategies built on real-time ID resolution are delivering the clarity, compliance, and precision buyers need—without sacrificing scale.

That’s where partnerships like BRAVE and IntentIQ thrive. By combining clean, deterministic identity with high-quality, curated supply, they enable DSPs to transact with confidence—where consent is honoured, IDs are reconciled, and the bidstream is free of noise.

Tamir: "Identity curation is the unlock. Deterministically informed match rates improve CPM efficiency, drive better win rates, and give DSPs a cleaner lens through which to optimise."

Amir: "What we’ve seen is that when you pair deterministic identity with a predictive SSP and clean traffic shaping, you get not just better addressability, but fewer wasted impressions, better yield, and faster time-to-performance."

Identity-led curation is quickly becoming the differentiator between average campaigns and scalable, data-resilient success. DSPs that lean into these capabilities today are building the infrastructure they’ll need tomorrow.

SPO is no longer a hygiene play—It’s a strategic lever

Supply path optimisation (SPO) was once seen as a clean-up job—removing intermediaries, trimming duplicative paths, and cutting unnecessary fees. But in today’s fragmented, signal-thin environment, SPO has become something more critical: a strategic lever for performance, efficiency, and accountability.

For DSPs navigating thousands of supply routes across web, in-app, and CTV, where identity signals and content context vary dramatically, precision matters. The difference between a performant path and a noisy one can be millions in wasted media dollars—or worse, a campaign that misses its audience entirely.

That’s why smarter curation must go hand-in-hand with intelligent SPO.

Amir: "You can’t separate curation from SPO. It’s not just about trimming paths—it’s about elevating the ones that perform. When you know which routes deliver clean signals, scalable identity, and brand-safe placements, you can build smarter buying strategies that reduce waste and drive results."

By embedding real-time SPO logic into the curation layer, BRAVE enables DSPs to activate against inventory that’s not only targetable—but verified, efficient, and aligned with performance goals. The result is not just cleaner supply, but supply that’s ready to perform.

Tamir: "When you combine curated identity graphs with transparent, optimised paths, the result is a high-fidelity buying environment—one where every impression has a well-defined value and verified provenance."

In 2025, performance doesn’t just depend on who you reach—it depends on how you get there.

Precision in a fragmented ID world

As third-party identifiers fade and walled gardens dominate deterministic signals, precision requires more than matching cookies or hashed emails—it requires a dynamic, ID-agnostic system that activates audiences across fragmented environments in real time.

Amir: "Identity continues to splinter—universal IDs, first-party frameworks, fingerprinting. How should advertisers navigate this to keep targeting both efficiently and compliantly?"

Tamir: "You need a multi-layered, privacy-safe identity infrastructure. IntentIQ resolves identity across all devices and environments–both cookies and cookieless–using both deterministic and probabilistic signals, all while staying compliant with privacy laws and consumer consent frameworks. The goal isn’t to force one ID solution, but to combine signals into a usable, actionable audience infrastructure."

Amir: That’s exactly where BRAVE leans in. Our SSP isn’t rigid—we dynamically curate audiences and inventory using whatever ID signals are available. Whether it’s a LiveRamp ID, IntentIQ signal, or contextual layer, we use ML to re-segment in real time. Precision isn’t just about IDs—it’s about how infrastructure flexes to make sense of them.

Tamir: "SSPs have evolved far beyond simple supply pipes — BRAVE is now actively driving strategic curation and value creation across the programmatic ecosystem."

Amir: "SSPs used to be marketplaces. Now, they’re becoming data and logic engines. At BRAVE, we’ve layered in audience segmentation, predictive bid shaping, and curated deal creation directly into the supply path. Our stack doesn’t just serve impressions—it shapes outcomes. Curation is our operating model: real-time audience packaging, enriched by identity, optimised by machine learning."

Amir: "In today's privacy-first environment, publishers are regaining leverage through first-party data. How does curation support that shift?"

Tamir: "Curation amplifies publisher value. With the right ID strategy, publishers can create exclusive, high-value packages, not just avail their supply. It empowers them to activate all of their data on their terms, to their best advantage, in safe and scalable ways."

Amir: "Exactly. BRAVE enables custom deal packaging tied to publisher data. They stay in control, and we ensure delivery aligns with their audience strategy. It's not just monetisation—it's activation with integrity."

Amir: "We talk a lot about SPO. But how does curated supply reshape optimisation for the buy-side?"

Tamir: "Curated supply equals more predictable performance. With a stronger identity, curated inventory becomes more targeted, which fuels more efficient SPO. It’s a feedback loop: better IDs → smarter curation → optimised outcomes."

Amir: "Exactly. We combine predictive SPO with curated packaging. That means buyers get cleaner paths, fewer hops, far less waste–and better campaign KPI’s for everyone."

What’s next for curation?

Tamir: "AI-powered segmentation. Identity resolution will become even smarter–more context-aware and consent-driven across the board. Expect more tools that let publishers control how and when their data is used to best effect."

Amir: "Agreed. On the SSP side, we’re scaling adaptive curation models that react to engagement, viewability, and brand-fit in real time. And sustainability will rise. Smarter curation means less wasted compute, cleaner QPS, and more efficient supply chains—especially in high-velocity channels like CTV and mobile gaming, where scalable performance depends on real-time audience packaging."

In conclusion

In a fragmented, cookieless world, curation isn’t a feature—it’s a foundation.
Audience precision, once a luxury, is now essential for programmatic performance. BRAVE and IntentIQ show that by pairing identity veracity with SSP-side intelligence, marketers and publishers can thrive in a landscape defined by privacy, trust, and transparency.

Curated media isn’t just scalable—it’s imperative.