The ACCC’s 2025 Digital Platform Services Inquiry confirmed what advertisers already know: advertising technology needs stronger competition. Google dominates the supply chain, with its entrenched ad buying platform, structurally incentivised to direct advertiser demand toward its own channels. And now, Amazon is quietly following the same playbook.
For marketers under pressure to justify every dollar, these conflicts of interest denies them the transparency and accountability they need to ensure ad spend is truly optimised for growth.
The Trade Desk’s new campaign ‘Own Your Future’ calls for marketers to break free from the stranglehold of walled gardens and place control at the centre of their media strategy.
With seven in 10 Australian marketers already acknowledging the industry’s over-reliance on Big Tech for campaign delivery, the need for independent platforms is more critical than ever. Free from structural conflicts of interest, The Trade Desk empowers brands with the clarity, control, and accountability required for sustainable growth.
“When advertisers hand over their strategy and data to walled gardens, they place control in platforms with inherent conflicts of interest. The Trade Desk empowers advertisers to retain control of their data, direct every campaign dollar toward measurable outcomes, and maintain the transparency needed for sustainable growth,” said James Bayes, VP ANZ, The Trade Desk.
As a buy-side only platform that does not own media, The Trade Desk puts advertiser success first.
Own Your Future calls on brands to:
- Own your data: Independent platforms support an open ecosystem that returns data to marketers, enabling them to retain audience insights and first-party data that power better performing campaigns.
- Own your strategy: With no vested interest in selling media, independent buying platforms make decisions driven by data and aligned with your brand’s goals, not a platform’s inventory priorities. Walled gardens, by contrast, are built to monetise their own inventory, often at the expense of transparency and advertiser outcomes.
- Own your ad spend: Direct every dollar to where it drives real impact, with full transparency into performance.
- Own your reach: Access premium inventory across the open internet, from BVOD and audio to display and news.
- Own your results: Walled gardens grade their own homework, skewing measurement to their benefit. On the open internet, marketers can rely on independent third-party measurement for an objective view of performance, from sales and brand lift to incremental reach.
The Trade Desk is the world’s leading independent demand-side platform, championing the open internet and an industry built on trust, transparency, and precision, helping brands unlock the full value of their data-driven advertising to deliver measurable, long-term growth.
