Womansplaining Curation

The other day, over a glass of sherry, I asked the barman at the Marquis to explain the rules of football (yes, even the infamous offside rule). His response? A toddler-level tutorial, complete with a pen-and-paper pitch diagram. As my eyes glazed over his masterpiece, it sparked an idea with me: what if I and my fellow @curate Aardvarks used that same spirit of mansplaining to explain the equally baffling world of curation?

Why? Because, despite all the hype, most of adland still can’t actually explain what curation is. Its definition has become a choose-your-own-adventure: Joe Bloggs will call it one thing, John Smith another. And like many things in adtech, it becomes overly complicated when it doesn't need to be.

So, I thought I’d give it a go. Not to mansplain, but to womansplain if you will - breaking it down simply, clearly, and (hopefully) once and for all.

‘Look at the state of you love’.

No, that is not the familiar sound of a whiteman van driving past a young Aardvark. It is, in fact, time to take a long, hard look at the state of the market.

Let’s not sugar-coat it: the ecosystem is a mess. Budgets vanish into thin air, inventory gets flipped more times than a dodgy mattress on Facebook Marketplace, and everyone’s been nodding along like this is just “business as usual.” Spoiler alert: it isn’t.

Enter Curation

Think of curation as the nightclub bouncer you wish you had in programmatic. Instead of sweaty men piling in, hair extensions hanging by a thread, and Big Dave attempting the worm, you get the best guests who will bring the classy club vibes. (I'm more of a pub goer these days, but in my time I did enjoy a disco-tech.)

At its core, curation is about control: selecting, organising, and packaging the right inventory and data to deliver better results. It’s not about casting a wide net like we’ve done for many years; it’s about casting a smarter one. One based on quality not quantity.

Programmatic has always promised efficiency, but with curation, we finally get there.

The Bottom Line

Curation is quietly transforming the digital media landscape - and we’ve created a 101 Guide to explain why. It’s the breakdown you didn’t know you needed (but probably did).