Technology Spotlight
A conversation with Stevie Antonioni, Managing Director, UK at Adnami brought to you by Ultimate Asset.
“We’re here to shift the conversation from cheap reach to meaningful reach.“
What’s Adnami’s elevator pitch?
Adnami empowers brands and publishers to win the single most valuable currency in modern advertising: human attention. The industry has spent far too long optimising for metrics like clicks and viewability that measure presence, not impact. Just because an ad is “viewable” doesn’t mean it was seen, remembered, or acted on.
Attention, on the other hand, is a far better proxy for outcomes – in fact, seven times better at predicting brand awareness than viewability (IAB). That’s why we’ve built our business on two core pillars: premium, high impact ad formats designed to cut through the noise, and Sonar, our proprietary attention measurement tool. Together, they help our customers capture, measure, and optimise attention at scale, all while delivering better user experiences across the open internet.
What business problem is Adnami solving?
The biggest problem? The industry is still obsessed with outdated, easily gamed metrics. Viewability tells you if an ad could be seen; CTR tells you if something was clicked (accidental clicks on mobile are estimated to be between 40%-60%). Neither tells you if the ad made any real impact.
Advertisers often chase reach at the lowest possible CPM, but not all reach is created equal. High impact display formats deliver five times more attention than ads buried in social feeds, and that attention correlates directly with stronger brand recall, higher purchase intent, and better long-term sales.
We’re here to shift the conversation from cheap reach to meaningful reach. From “Did it load?” to “Did it land?”.
What sets Adnami apart from competitors?
Most companies can give you good-looking creatives or some form of measurement, but rarely both at scale. We do. Our responsive formats are engineered for attention, not just aesthetics, and Sonar measures what really matters: attention and key attention signals. We bridge the gap between creative execution and performance optimisation, so brands aren’t left guessing whether their ads are actually doing the job.
Who is your primary target audience? What are their needs and pain points?
We work with advertisers, agencies, and publishers — three groups that face different challenges, but share the same underlying need: to cut through the noise and prove value.
For agencies and advertisers, it’s about:
- Formats that deliver genuine attention and brand impact
- Seamless integration into programmatic workflows
- Real-time insights to optimise spend and creative mid-flight
Their pain points? Declining performance from standard display, ad blindness, and campaign setups that feel like spaghetti code – messy, fragmented, and hard to measure.
For publishers, the needs are:
- Maximising yield without tanking user experience
- Access to international, premium demand
- Transparency, control, and compliance
Their headaches? Navigating an over-complicated ad tech landscape, ad fraud, and dependence on major tech players that can change the rules overnight, often to the publisher’s detriment.
How does Adnami solve these need states of the audience and fill the gap in the market? What is the value you bring to them?
For advertisers:
We make attention scalable. Our formats are interactive, large and demand attention. But, they are non-intrusive, meaning that there are no pop-ups, no auto-play sound, no user irritation. Adnami’s video solutions offer even more potential to grab attention. Adaptive streaming ensures video ads have smooth playback while cutting data consumption and only playing when they’re in view, eliminating inflated metrics.
Advertisers can access premium publishers, reaching 1B+ consumers globally, with no middlemen or custom coding. And with Sonar, they can measure real attention across devices, formats, domains, and markets, even for creatives not built with Adnami tech.
For publishers:
We help publishers monetise smarter, not just harder. Whether it’s direct, PMP, or programmatic, they stay in control of pricing, formats, and inventory. We provide premium, high-performing formats – from skins and midscrolls to interactive in-stream video – that enhance the reading experience instead of disrupting it.
Once a site is certified with us, formats run flawlessly across devices, DSPs, and SSPs. And with Sonar, publishers can finally price based on quality of attention, not just volume of impressions.
Describe Adnami’s company culture.
We’re a young, vibrant and international team across seven European offices, but we operate like one crew. We’ve built a culture that’s collaborative, ambitious, and pretty badass ;).
We believe in transparency, accountability, and trust – not just in our tech, but in how we work with each other and with partners. We challenge ourselves to innovate constantly, not because it’s trendy, but because staying ahead of the curve is the way to deliver lasting impact.
We set big goals, measure them rigorously, and celebrate when we smash them. And we do it all while making sure work stays fun.
What are the most common misconceptions about Adnami or sector within technology?
The first misconception is that we’re a DSP or a network. We’re not. We don’t own inventory, and we don’t sell it. We’re the tech that connects advertisers, agencies, and publishers so campaigns run at their best.
The second misconception is that we’re “just” about our own high impact formats. While those are our flagship, we also support a large range of standard display formats – including ones that might be standard but pack a punch with video, interactivity, and adaptive design. Small doesn’t have to mean small impact.
What are some of the key consumer and industry macro and micro economic trends impacting Adnami?
High impact formats and video are dominating. And that for a reason: they work. They deliver greater attention, better ROI and drive more meaningful engagement. That’s where brand spend is heading, and it’s where we’ve been positioned from day one.
Real-time measurement is also becoming non-negotiable. Marketers want proof of value as campaigns run, not just a post-mortem at the end. With Sonar, we can give them that visibility instantly, and that changes the way they plan, buy, and optimise.
What are your predictions for the remainder of this year?
I expect more advertisers to pull spend from social platforms and reinvest in premium publishers. Social ad environments are saturated, users are scrolling on autopilot, and attention there is dwindling.
High impact display ads and attention measurement will play a central role in this shift. They provide better experiences for users and better outcomes for advertisers.
And of course, AI looms large. It will disrupt everything from creative production to optimisation. The real winners will be the ones who adopt it fast but keep human attention as their north star.
One statement, piece of advice that the industry should be thinking about this year?
Transparency, in every sense. No more black boxes, no more vanity metrics. Show exactly where the budget goes, what attention was earned, and what business outcomes followed.
It’s simple: if you can’t prove it, you can’t expect customers to keep paying for it.
A conversation with Stevie Antonioni, Managing Director, UK at Adnami
Technology spotlight is a series brought you by the team at Ultimate Asset. Our aim is to highlight brilliant adtech across industry. From their elevator pitch, to the problem they are trying to solve, we hope you can take something new away from each interview. With over 50,000 new technology businesses incorporated in the UK each year, there will be something for everybody.
Ultimate Asset are a boutique global digital recruitment consultancy, specialising in hires in adtech, martech, media owners, brands and media agencies. With over 20 years of recruitment heritage in media, we support businesses across the UK, Europe, Asia & North America.
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