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Digital advertising is entering a new chapter—one shaped by transparency, contextual relevance, and a rebalancing of where and how attention is captured. As audiences spend more time outside the confines of walled gardens, the open internet is gaining ground. And with it comes a renewed focus on signals that are timely, localized, and meaningful.
In a recent conversation with The Financial Express, Tejinder Gill, Managing Director of The Trade Desk India, highlighted a shift that has been years in the making. For a long time, advertisers operated in an environment of limited choice. Now, with the evolving open internet and maturing programmatic platforms, they can embrace transparency and control like never before.
Yet in this evolving ecosystem, defined by its scale, fragmentation, and complexity, how do advertisers maintain relevance without relying on cookies or personal identifiers?
One increasingly important answer lies in environmental intelligence.
The open internet refers to the vast digital landscape beyond tightly controlled ecosystems. It includes connected TV, digital audio, mobile apps, news publishers, and emerging formats like digital out-of-home. It’s where users spend over half their online time, but where ad budgets have yet to catch up—something Gill rightly flagged as a gap, and an opportunity.
Unlike closed platforms, the open internet invites advertisers to bring their data, shape their individual targeting strategies, and measure outcomes across channels with greater granularity. It's not about rejecting any one model; it’s about having multiple options and making those options work smarter.
With the deprecation of cookies, smarter means context-driven, but context today isn’t just what’s on a screen. It is what’s happening outside the screen, in the world we all live in.
Ambee enters this space not with a bold promise to disrupt, but with a clear and practical proposition: real-world environmental data can help brands reach people when it truly matters.
By providing hyperlocal insights on air quality, pollen, temperature, UV index, and more, Ambee equips advertisers with signals that don’t rely on personal information, yet offer rich contextual relevance. These environmental triggers influence everything from how people feel to how they move, shop, and engage.
Case in point: Boots, a leading British health and beauty retailer, partnered with Ambee to boost sales of allergy-relief products. By integrating Ambee’s pollen API, they delivered hyper-personalized messages through emails and their app—sharing local pollen forecasts, health tips, and timely discounts. The campaign led to a significant increase in app engagement, retention, and product sales. Customers responded positively to the sense of urgency triggered by real-time environmental conditions, proving the power of contextual intelligence in a privacy-first world.
Whether it's a wellness brand responding to rising pollution levels, a skincare product adapting creatively based on UV intensity, or a retailer aligning campaigns with weather shifts, environmental intelligence adds a layer of precision that respects privacy and enhances performance.
This kind of contextual targeting aligns with how platforms like The Trade Desk are opening up digital ecosystems by giving advertisers tools to be more intentional, responsive, and respectful of consumer boundaries.
As marketers adapt to a privacy-first era, many are rediscovering the value of context, especially context rooted in physical reality. Environmental data offers an elegant solution: it enables personalization without surveillance, relevance without intrusion.
It also offers a deeper kind of accountability. Climate change is not just a policy issue—it’s a daily lived experience. Advertising that reflects this reality, even subtly, is more likely to resonate with audiences who are increasingly driven by values. For brands with sustainability goals, Ambee provides a credible and data-backed way to align messaging with real-world conditions.
Case in point: Bayer, for example, used Ambee’s air quality data to power Claritine ads in Egypt, triggering creatives only when pollution levels in Cairo and Alexandria crossed certain thresholds. The result? A 59% increase in sales, a 2X improvement in CTR, and a 13% uplift in ad viewability. By aligning their message with real-world conditions, not personal data, they created a campaign that was both ethical and effective.
This isn’t just good practice. It’s fast becoming a good strategy.
The shift toward the open internet is not a rejection of what came before, but a recalibration of what came before. It’s an opportunity for advertisers to combine the scale of digital with the nuance of real-world insight. In that equation, environmental intelligence plays a meaningful role.
Case in point: Global adtech firm Adylic used Ambee’s historical and real-time pollen data to run dynamic allergy campaigns across Australia. Ads were only shown in cities like Melbourne and Sydney when pollen levels were moderate to high. This precise targeting led to a significantly lower cost per click and helped their client outperform competitors during allergy season. “We were able to target users’ needs at the right time based on their location,” noted Stefanie Wong, DCO Specialist at Adylic.
Ambee supports this future, not with flash or friction, but with clean, accessible data that helps campaigns feel more human, timely, and grounded. As the advertising industry matures into a space that values ethics alongside efficiency, the ability to incorporate environmental context may become less of a competitive advantage and more of a basic expectation.
After all, what good is digital intelligence if it can’t understand the world we live in?
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