A coalition of European media owners, data companies, telcos, retailers, marketplaces and advertising technology partners have announced the launch of the European Media Marketplace, a new initiative designed to transform how advertisers, agencies and publishers activate campaigns and connect across Europe’s premium open web.

The first founding members, including T Advertising Solutions (part of Deutsche Telekom), Equativ, Experian, lastminute, leboncoin and Kleinanzeigen (part of Adevinta), Orange Advertising (Orange France), Vinted, Virgin Media O2 and Vodafone are joining forces to address one of the most persistent challenges in European digital advertising: the fragmentation of media buying, audience data and activation across countries, channels and platforms.

A New Advertising Infrastructure for Europe

The European Media Marketplace will serve as a collaborative marketplace that connects media owners, first-party data and AI-powered activation through a single interoperable framework. Built on sovereign technology already operating at scale, it will serve to unlock the strength of Europe’s open web while preserving the independence, control and value of every participating partner.

Through a single access point, advertisers and agencies can activate campaigns across Connected TV, video, display, native and retail media, reaching audiences consistently across publishers, channels, devices and markets. Europe’s premium media ecosystem thus becomes easier to access, easier to scale and more powerful to activate.

Unlike closed ecosystems, the European Media Marketplace is designed to be collaborative, privacy-safe, interoperable and publisher-friendly. Partners retain full control over their inventory, data and commercial strategy, while advertisers benefit from streamlined activation, greater transparency and stronger campaign outcomes.

By reducing unnecessary intermediaries and creating more direct connections between advertisers and audiences, the marketplace is designed to return more value to Europe’s sovereign media and data ecosystem (including publishers, CTV platforms, broadcasters, telcos, retailers and data owners) while giving brands access to trusted audiences in premium environments across the open web.

“For too long, buying media across Europe has required navigating dozens of disconnected platforms, fragmented data sources and complex activation paths,” commented Arnaud Créput, CEO at Equativ. “The European Media Marketplace creates a new way forward. By bringing together premium media, trusted data and AI-powered activation within a single framework, we are unlocking the true scale and value of Europe’s open web. Our ambition is not simply to make media buying easier, but to make Europe’s premium digital ecosystem impossible to ignore.”

“T Advertising Solutions looks at sovereignty from many perspectives. This is a facet of data sovereignty that is often underestimated, but an important one. We are committed to a trustworthy European foundation for digital advertising – one where data is processed locally and consumer protection is the default, not the exception. Our contribution to the European Media Marketplace is privacy-by-design: consented profiles, processed and stored strictly within Europe. To us, data privacy isn’t just a box to check. Advertising fuels a massive part of Europe’s free web, especially for independent publishers. For European advertisers, it provides seamless, transparent access to regional reach on a legally secure, localised data foundation. Ultimately, this initiative is a massive win for many aspects of digital sovereignty. It proves that high-performance advertising and data privacy don’t clash – they are a unique European strength,” said Stephan Jäckel, CEO, T Advertising Solutions (part of Deutsche Telekom).

“The future of advertising in Europe will be defined by those who can connect trusted data, identity and premium media at scale. At Experian, we play a critical role in enabling that connection – helping brands move seamlessly from deep consumer insight to real-world execution, delivering addressable and measurable outcomes across the ecosystem. As a founding member of the European Media Marketplace, we’re proud to help shape an open, scalable framework that strengthens the competitiveness of the European digital economy and unlocks greater value for advertisers, publishers and consumers alike,”  commented Colin Grieves, Managing Director, Marketing Services, Experian UK&I.

“As part of an AI-powered travel company, we see firsthand the value that trusted customer relationships and intelligent data activation can create. Through Forward, we’re proud to join the European Media Marketplace and contribute to a more transparent, collaborative and AI-enabled advertising ecosystem across Europe,” stated Giacomo Giuriani, Business Director at Forward, the creative and media house powered by lastminute.

“Kleinanzeigen is Germany’s leading online marketplace, a brand trusted by more than 32 million people every month. Every day, we see more than one million searches from people with a clear intention to buy, creating one of Europe’s richest sources of real commercial intent. Bringing that first-party demand signal into the European Media Marketplace means advertisers can reach consumers not just based on who they are, but on what they’re actively looking to purchase. That’s a powerful step towards a stronger, more competitive European advertising ecosystem,” said Anna-Lena Mikoteit-Zerb, Director Advertising Monetisation, Kleinanzeigen (part of Adevinta).

“At leboncoin, we have long believed in the value of first-party data as a driver of advertising performance. The European Media Marketplace extends this vision by combining high-quality data, premium brand-safe inventory, and Equativ’s technology into a single access point. The goal is simple: to facilitate campaign activation across Europe and deliver measurable results for advertisers,” commented Nicolas Ribar, Customer Success Director Re-Commerce, leboncoin (part of Adevinta).

“At Orange, we believe the future of digital advertising depends on trusted ecosystems that respect users’ data privacy. By joining the European Media Marketplace, we are contributing to the creation of a sovereign European alternative that gives advertisers simple access to premium audiences at scale, while creating sustainable value for European media and the broader digital ecosystem,” said Stéphane Bourse, Chief Executive Officer of Orange Advertising at Orange France.

“Every day, millions of people across 25 markets in Europe use Vinted to buy and sell second-hand fashion and consumer goods. This gives us a unique understanding of our members and their needs across Europe. Joining the European Media Marketplace as a founding partner lets us turn that insight into measurable, transparent value for brands while keeping our members’ data under our own governance,” said Satya Vinnakota, Business Director of Ads, Vinted.

“Our deep understanding of how consumers connect, communicate and engage gives advertisers access to audience intelligence that is both unique and highly actionable, whilst keeping our customers’ data anonymised and safe. The European Media Marketplace is a first-of-its-kind framework to bring that value to market, enabling brands to control and activate smarter campaigns across Europe’s premium digital ecosystem with the scale, transparency, and performance they need,” added Nikos Vlachopoulos, Vodafone Group Commercial Functions Director.

The European Media Marketplace will initially launch across the UK, France, Germany, Spain and Italy, with further expansion planned.

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Categories: Advertising, Articles

Tags: advertising, Deutsche Telekom, Equativ, Virgin Media, Vodafone