Azerion in the present day introduced the mixing of International Knowledge Assets into Hawk DSP, offering advertisers with privacy-compliant geo-demographic focusing on throughout 13 European markets. The mixing permits each Azerion groups and exterior purchasers utilizing HawkSaaS to entry GDR’s viewers taxonomy immediately throughout marketing campaign creation with out counting on cookies or consumer identifiers.
In response to the announcement, the partnership strengthens Hawk DSP’s viewers focusing on capabilities with what the corporate characterizes as one of many trade’s most superior geo-demographic datasets. The system targets geographic clusters and neighborhood-level patterns quite than people, eliminating private information assortment totally.
GDR operates as a geo-intelligence supplier that works with information companions and nationwide statistical places of work to construct viewers segments primarily based on way of life, life phases, family traits, earnings, financial savings, and shopper pursuits. The corporate’s strategy focuses completely on geographical patterns, guaranteeing no private information assortment happens and no reliance on cookies or consumer IDs exists.
The mixing makes GDR segments accessible throughout Austria, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the UK. This geographic enlargement offers advertisers with broad European attain supported by what the announcement describes as deep shopper insights.
Technical implementation for privacy-first environments
The privacy-first structure aligns with regulatory necessities as European authorities continue scrutinizing data protection practices. In contrast to conventional viewers information suppliers that observe people throughout websites, GDR’s methodology targets geographic areas, sustaining compatibility throughout demand-side platforms, supply-side platforms, social platforms, and omnichannel environments.
The ID-free activation framework permits entrepreneurs to achieve the identical viewers throughout a number of ecosystems with out compromising privateness. This strategy addresses rising issues about monitoring practices whereas sustaining focusing on effectiveness.
As a result of GDR segments goal geographic areas quite than people, the mixing proves significantly fitted to channels together with digital out-of-home, related TV, audio, cellular, show, and gaming environments. DOOH advertising has experienced sustained growth as programmatic capabilities bring automated buying to outdoor formats, with advertisers increasing DOOH spending 118% year-on-year through the first quarter of 2025.
The system permits cross-platform campaigns, offering constant viewers activation throughout units and codecs. Connected television advertising spending approached $33.35 billion in 2025, with 72% of entrepreneurs planning elevated programmatic funding in response to trade forecasts.
Historic context and rebrand from Nordic Knowledge Assets
The collaboration builds on established efficiency historical past. Underneath its earlier identify Nordic Knowledge Assets, GDR offered broadly used and best-performing information segments inside Azerion’s Delta platform, significantly throughout Nordic markets. Following the corporate’s rebrand to International Knowledge Assets and its enlargement past Nordic borders, this integration represents what the announcement characterizes as a big milestone.
Edouard Petitjean, DSP Gross sales Director Europe at Azerion, said that integrating GDR’s superior geo-demographic information into Hawk DSP “marks a serious step ahead in delivering privacy-first, exact viewers focusing on throughout Europe.” In response to Petitjean, the partnership enhances capabilities to supply purchasers location-based insights with out compromising consumer privateness, aligning with regulatory landscapes and the trade’s transfer away from individual-level monitoring.
Gunar Kihl, Chief Working Officer at International Knowledge Assets, said that the long-standing collaboration with Azerion has persistently proven what’s doable when know-how and privacy-first information work collectively. In response to Kihl, bringing GDR’s geo-demographic segments into Hawk DSP permits advertisers to activate significant viewers insights at scale whereas respecting customers and supporting the trade’s shift towards ID-free options.
Azerion’s programmatic infrastructure enlargement
Azerion has systematically expanded its programmatic capabilities all through 2024 and 2025. The company integrated smartclip’s supply-side platform in January 2025, increasing entry to premium CTV and audio stock throughout European markets by means of RTL AdAlliance’s portfolio.
Azerion partnered with Captify in July 2024 to expand cookieless audience solutions in France and Italy, integrating search-powered focusing on primarily based on open internet search information. That collaboration addressed the rising want for privacy-compliant promoting options as third-party cookie deprecation approached.
The platform maintains partnerships with supply-side platforms including those using telco-powered consent systems, positioning it inside the broader shift towards first-party information options that emerged all through 2025.
Azerion acquired Goldbach Austria in November 2024, strengthening its place in DACH area digital promoting markets. The merger mixed Azerion’s proprietary know-how with Goldbach’s established presence throughout tv, on-line, cellular, and digital out-of-home promoting channels.
Privateness regulatory context driving adoption
The mixing arrives as European privateness laws proceed evolving. The European Commission proposed major GDPR changes in November 2025 that may basically alter how organizations course of private information, significantly regarding synthetic intelligence growth and particular person privateness rights enforcement.
Germany submitted comprehensive GDPR reform proposals in October 2025, requesting quick amendments together with modifications to consent hierarchies, info necessities, breach notification deadlines, entry rights, and delicate information protections.
Various id options have gained traction as conventional identification strategies face growing limitations. Ad Alliance partnered with Utiq for cookieless targeting in Germany in September 2025, deploying telecommunications-powered identifier options throughout RTL Deutschland’s digital properties.
Research analyzing over 2,000 advertisers found that Privacy Sandbox recovered 46.3% of lost ad clicks and 43.5% of misplaced click-through conversions in comparison with cookieless situations. When adjusted for promoting expenditure, privacy-enhanced approaches achieved 86.4% of conventional retargeting effectivity.
Studies indicate cookieless ad inventory sells at approximately 40% lower value, although various options for promoting advert house have proven maturation. Business evaluation means that privacy-first approaches ship aggressive benefits by means of enhanced consumer belief and regulatory alignment.
Geographic focusing on with out particular person monitoring
GDR’s strategy differs basically from behavioral focusing on strategies that dominated programmatic promoting through the third-party cookie period. The system analyzes neighborhood-level demographic patterns, way of life indicators, and family traits with out creating profiles of particular person customers.
This technique addresses particular issues raised by information safety authorities throughout European markets. French regulators updated cookie exemption rules in July 2025, establishing frameworks for viewers measurement that emphasize information minimization, anonymization, and prohibition of cross-site monitoring.
The geographic clustering strategy permits advertisers to achieve audiences primarily based on location-correlated attributes whereas sustaining compliance with stringent privateness necessities. For channels like digital out-of-home the place particular person monitoring proves impractical, geo-demographic focusing on offers related viewers insights with out requiring private identifiers.
Demand-side platform aggressive panorama
The mixing positions Hawk DSP inside an more and more aggressive European programmatic promoting market. Amazon DSP expanded in-market audiences to 32 countries in November 2025 with unified focusing on definitions, including Belgium, Egypt, South Africa, and Poland to its current roster.
Yahoo DSP announced agentic AI capabilities in January 2026, marking one of many first implementations the place synthetic intelligence brokers can autonomously execute marketing campaign operations quite than merely offering suggestions. That launch remodeled Yahoo’s platform from a instrument requiring fixed human oversight right into a system the place AI brokers repeatedly monitor and execute corrective actions.
Amazon introduced AI targeting for DSP campaigns in November 2025, introducing synthetic intelligence-driven viewers section suggestions that remove hours of handbook focusing on configuration. The function permits advertisers to outline marketing campaign aims by means of pure language descriptions or doc uploads.
Microsoft announced in May 2025 it would discontinue its demand-side platform Microsoft Invest effective February 28, 2026, opting to give attention to AI-driven promoting options. That closure eradicated a platform recognized for transparency and comparatively low take charges from the aggressive panorama.
Market construction and aggressive positioning
Based in 2014, Azerion trades on Euronext Amsterdam below ticker AZRN. The corporate operates as what it characterizes as certainly one of Europe’s largest digital promoting and leisure media platforms, bringing international scaled audiences to advertisers by means of proprietary know-how.
Azerion maintains operations across 26 cities globally, with headquarters in Amsterdam reflecting its European origins. The corporate’s itemizing on Euronext signifies its place in European monetary markets.
Based in 2013 by digital promoting consultants Hakim Metmer and Renaud Biet, Hawk established its analysis and growth middle in Montpellier in 2014, staffed by 45 engineers. This technical basis supported their 2018 launch of a self-service DSP platform.
In 2020, Hawk expanded its platform capabilities to incorporate digital audio and in-game inventories, following earlier integrations with cellular, DOOH, and CTV codecs. This technical development demonstrates the platform’s evolution towards complete omnichannel capabilities.
GDR operates as a geo-intelligence and focusing on firm protecting virtually 2.5 billion individuals throughout 37 international markets. The corporate’s companies embody geo-intelligent focusing on, lifestyle-based viewers segmentation, market evaluation, and ID-free activation throughout show, video, social, DOOH, and CTV codecs.
Implications for European programmatic promoting
The mixing addresses basic challenges dealing with digital advertisers as conventional identification strategies grow to be unreliable. Browser restrictions on Safari and Firefox, mixed with regulatory strain throughout European markets, have decreased the effectiveness of third-party cookie focusing on whereas growing demand for privacy-compliant options.
Search budgets have begun shifting toward alternative digital channels including paid social, audio, CTV, and DOOH, in response to December 2025 evaluation from Intentsify. Generative AI instruments are inserting sustained strain on conventional search promoting, prompting entrepreneurs to diversify channel investments.
Google implemented new requirements for CTV and DOOH inventory in May 2025, establishing technical parameters publishers should embody in advert requests for programmatic monetization. These necessities included necessary display screen location parameters and session identifiers particularly for DOOH implementations.
The technical growth happens inside broader market consolidation developments. Adform acquired Splicky in December 2025, including DOOH capabilities and 200 purchasers to strengthen its place in DACH programmatic markets. That transaction demonstrated ongoing restructuring as corporations search sustainable positions in aggressive markets dominated by giant international operators.
Political promoting infrastructure differentiation
Azerion announced in November 2025 its commitment to continue hosting political advertising across the European Union below complete transparency and compliance frameworks. That call positioned Azerion as certainly one of few main platforms sustaining political advert companies after Google and Meta withdrew from the market citing operational complexity.
In response to that announcement, Azerion operates political promoting companies below necessities established by European Union Regulation 2024/900 on the Transparency and Focusing on of Political Promoting. The platform dedicated to verifying advertiser id, confirming authorized eligibility, and making use of inside compliance assessment processes.
The corporate emphasised it might not use focusing on of political adverts or private information that may increase issues about manipulation, permitting solely its personal contextual focusing on per EU steerage and inside coverage. That strategy aligns with the geo-demographic methodology now enhanced by means of GDR integration.
Timeline
Abstract
Who: Azerion, a European digital promoting platform buying and selling on Euronext Amsterdam below ticker AZRN, introduced the mixing in partnership with International Knowledge Assets, a geo-intelligence supplier protecting virtually 2.5 billion individuals throughout 37 international markets. Edouard Petitjean, DSP Gross sales Director Europe at Azerion, and Gunar Kihl, Chief Working Officer at GDR, offered statements in regards to the partnership.
What: The mixing provides GDR’s geo-demographic datasets into Hawk DSP, enabling privacy-compliant viewers focusing on primarily based on geographic clusters and neighborhood-level patterns with out gathering private information, utilizing cookies, or counting on consumer IDs. The system targets audiences primarily based on way of life, life phases, family traits, earnings, financial savings, and shopper pursuits by means of location-correlated attributes throughout demand-side platforms, supply-side platforms, social platforms, and omnichannel environments.
When: Azerion introduced the mixing in the present day, January 29, 2026. The collaboration builds on historic efficiency below GDR’s earlier identify Nordic Knowledge Assets, which offered broadly used information segments inside Azerion’s Delta platform. The mixing arrives as GDR completes its rebrand and European enlargement past Nordic markets.
The place: The GDR segments grow to be accessible throughout 13 European markets inside Hawk DSP: Austria, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the UK. The mixing applies to each Azerion groups and exterior purchasers accessing the platform through HawkSaaS, with explicit suitability for DOOH, CTV, audio, cellular, show, and gaming environments together with Nordic gaming markets.
Why: The mixing issues for the advertising group as a result of it offers privacy-compliant focusing on capabilities as conventional identification strategies face regulatory strain and technical restrictions throughout European markets. The announcement happens as browser restrictions on Safari and Firefox cut back third-party cookie effectiveness, search budgets shift towards various digital channels together with CTV and DOOH, and European authorities proceed scrutinizing information safety practices by means of GDPR enforcement and proposed regulatory amendments. The geo-demographic strategy permits advertisers to take care of focusing on effectiveness with out private information assortment, addressing basic challenges in digital promoting’s transition towards privacy-first environments whereas supporting channel progress in programmatic DOOH, CTV, and audio codecs that skilled robust enlargement all through 2025.
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