Fired Up 2 debates the five key trends turning up the heat in adtech

Fired Up 2 unleashed itself in London this week as the cream of adtech fervently debated which were the hottest topics in adtech right now.

Organised by UK adtech-focused fintech, Revving, CEO Chris Pettit told us: “If our first Fired Up event set the industry alight back in the spring, Fired Up 2 this week proved just how much hotter things can get.

“Tickets disappeared in 48 hours; we added more seats, and still people were queuing at the door.

“And why? Because this industry is ready – hungry, even – for conversations that are bold, unfiltered, high-energy and genuinely useful.”

“Over 100 industry professionals didn’t just watch – they voted, debated, challenged, and played their role in deciding what’s truly hot in adtech as we head into 2026.”

Five trends took the stage. Only one would walk away with the title. But each revealed something bigger about where we’re headed.

If you missed this hi-octane event, here’s how the top-five lined up:

1. Retail media: still wearing the crown (according to the numbers)

James Taylor from Particular Audience kicked off the debate advocating for the heavyweight: retail media – the reigning champion from Fired Up 1, and with good reason.

Retail media remains the fastest-growing ad channel, adding another 17.7% in 2025. It took just five years to rocket from $1bn to $30bn, and now we’re talking about a category that could be worth $1 trillion when you factor in CPG trade budgets.

As Taylor put it, retail media isn’t just the closest channel to purchase – it’s the only channel that can track the sale itself. And while traditional search slows, retail media accelerates – one in every five digital ad dollars already lands here.

Judge Bill Fisher from eMarketer posed a key challenge: would commerce media dilute retail’s dominance? No, said Taylor. If anything, adjacent media will only expand the pie.

So retail media didn’t just survive 2025 – it grew teeth. And having once again been crowned the winner, it remains the one to beat in 2026.

2. Human-in-the-loop AI: ‘Genius of average’ meets ‘power of human edge’

Nicola Cooper from ViVV Labs brought a different kind of fire – one aimed directly at the blind optimism surrounding automation.

When she asked the room how many people use AI daily, nearly every hand went up.

When she asked how many trust it? Not so many.

Her message was clear: AI executes, but humans decide. Human-first AI isn’t about babysitting machines, but establishing three irreplaceable roles:

• Control, where humans set the direction
• Risk, where humans judge the blast radius
• Go/no-go, where humans decide whether to proceed or veto

As Cooper explained, “AI is the genius of the average. But in a competitive market, average is death.” Her Formula 1 analogy also hit home: the cars are built and designed almost identically, but the driver wins the race.

And when it comes to key values such as accountability, intent, and courage – none of those are codeable.

3. Data marketing: While the cookie crumbles, the inbox wins

If Cooper got philosophical, Suzanna Chaplin from esbconnect got practical – and straight to the point. Data marketing isn’t abstract – it’s personal. It’s your email. Your postcode. Your phone number. It’s the data your granny understands – and can opt out of any time. And that’s precisely why it matters.

Data marketing eats cookies for breakfast because it’s permission-based, precise, and portable across channels. Recently, email-based targeting has delivered CPAs 37% lower for AA, and postal-email combinations have returned £8 ROIs.

But the real mic drop was this: Google, Amazon, Meta have spent millions collecting emails and addresses because they know first-party identity is the only long-term marketing play that scales without waste.

In a world allergic to waste and obsessed with ROI, data marketing isn’t old-school – it’s inevitable.

4. Creator: The nexus trend

While San Sareen from impact.com agreed the other trends were valid, he argued that creator is what connects all the others.

The customer journey is shattered – black-box algorithms, saturated paid media, disappearing signals. But consumers still trust real people. And 62.4% of them follow creators weekly.

He stressed that creators should not be considered as media buys, but true business partners. They drive intent, shape culture, and increasingly act as the operating system of brand discovery.

To unlock this channel, brands need to adopt a new model for:

• Hybrid compensation (fee + commission)
• Advanced attribution (beyond last click), and
• New metrics (CAC and LTV over ROAS)

As Sareen explained: “This isn’t a part of the marketing strategy. This is the marketing strategy.”

And with GenAI reshaping search, authentic human content becomes the fuel that feeds the machines.

5. GEO: the new frontline of search

Finally, Claire Dean from Alchemy Network addressed the elephant in the room: that search – the second biggest media channel in the world – is breaking. In fact, 60% of searches now end without a click.

CPMs are exploding. And one LLM – ChatGPT – is already the fifth-most visited site on the planet.

By 2027, LLM search could overtake traditional search – and it won’t be won by SEO tactics. Currently, fewer than 10% of GenAI citations overlap with Google’s top ten results.

Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO) is a different game entirely. It favours FAQs, comparisons, reviews – content humans trust and machines reference.

For brands already leaning in, the results are staggering: 312% share-of-voice increases, 30% conversion lifts, and 38% sales growth.

Search isn’t dying. It’s mutating. GEO is how brands stay visible when the screen stops being clickable.

So those are our five trends:

• Retail media showed us where the money is
• Human-first AI showed us who’s steering
• Data marketing showed us what’s real
• Creators showed us who consumers trust
• And GEO showed us where the battleground is moving

Taken together, they reveal one undeniable truth – the future of adtech belongs to those who act early, think boldly, and move fast.

And that’s exactly what Fired Up – and Revving – exist to accelerate.

See you at the next one?

Also Published in: Mediashotz