18 June 2026: The Open Web Speaks to the Open Web 🎙️

By Max Legrand · GreyFox Ads · A French perspective on programmatic advertising

On 18 June, a date that carries particular resonance here in France, imagine a rallying cry for the Open Web. The message? Walled gardens may dominate digital advertising, but the battle for a better, more competitive Open Web is far from over. 🎖️🪖

The 18 June appeal: “The Open Web Speaks to the Open Web”

“The figures from SRI and Alliance Digitale are in, and they make grim reading. Walled gardens now capture 76% of the €12 billion advertisers invest in digital advertising, while French publishers have seen their revenues decline for the fifth consecutive year.”

That is the dramatic opening of this imaginary address. The figures are reproduced from the original post (their scope and period should be checked against the underlying SRI and Alliance Digitale reports before using them as current market benchmarks).

And the general's question is simple: Is defeat final? Absolutely not. 🙂‍↔️

Why is the French Open Web losing ground?

Walled gardens do not win only because they have enormous volumes of content. They also offer advertising formats that command attention — particularly full-screen and content-integrated placements — alongside a wide range of targeting options. Open Web publishers can compete on content quality, but too often the advertising experience itself is less compelling.

That is why this appeal is not merely about making the existing pipes cheaper. It is about improving what advertisers and users actually experience. For a related argument, see why AI alone will not save the Open Web.

1. Stop cramming pages with ads. Embrace better formats 📺

Rather than filling pages with ever more standard display units, publishers should experiment with high-impact, thoughtfully integrated and, where appropriate, full-screen advertising experiences. The objective is not to maximise the number of ads on a page; it is to improve the value of each exposure without sacrificing the user experience.

This is the idea behind the case for full-screen formats and the debate around advertising attention on the Open Web (format quality and attention are related, but neither guarantees effectiveness on its own).

2. Activate publisher audiences across the entire Open Web 🔜

Publishers need to make their audiences easier for advertisers to buy across compatible inventory, rather than keeping them trapped in isolated environments. That could involve DMP-to-DSP audience activation or specialist Curator seats, with appropriate contractual, technical and privacy safeguards.

Programmatic curation can help package supply and targeting into simpler buying paths. But interoperability is not automatic: identity matching, permissions and buyer-side activation still matter.

3. Build a more trustworthy and addressable Open Web 🔐👪🆔

The appeal proposes three complementary moves: consider consent and login walls, strengthen checks that visitors are real humans, and deploy alternative identifiers where technically available — including in Safari environments.

• Consent and login: create opportunities for durable publisher relationships and permissioned data use, without assuming that every visitor will accept a wall.
• Human traffic: strengthen invalid-traffic controls and inventory verification; see the bot-traffic challenge.
• Safari addressability: test lawful, privacy-conscious approaches beyond third-party cookies; read the Safari privacy analysis.

Alternative identifiers are not a licence to bypass consent or browser protections (the legal basis and implementation must be assessed for each use case).

4. Make LLMs pay, limit social publishing and reduce reselling 🤖👍🔌

Publishers create content that generates attention, traffic and value well beyond their own websites. The appeal therefore calls for a fairer economic relationship with AI services, a more deliberate approach to distributing content on social platforms and less unnecessary reselling in programmatic supply chains.

These are distinct policy and commercial questions, not a single technical fix. For further reading, explore how AI systems access publisher content, the challenges of SPO and the role of resellers in bid requests.

5. What if the Open Web had a shared app? 📱

One final proposal: build a shared application that brings publishers together and helps audiences discover their content. It is an ambitious collective-distribution idea, rather than a ready-made product specification. The challenge would be aligning incentives, governance, identity, discovery and the reader experience.

Explore the related vision of a super-app for the Open Web.

The flame of the Open Web must not go out 🔥

Whatever happens, the flame of the Open Web must not go out — and it will not go out!

👏👏 Bravo, General! 🫡🥲 We couldn't have put it better ourselves. 😉

The serious message behind the historical parody is that the French Open Web still has choices. Better formats, useful audiences, more transparent supply and collective action could make it more attractive to advertisers — if the industry is willing to change.

Adapted from the original LinkedIn post by Max Legrand.