Opti Day London: From Traffic Decline to Value Optimisation. How Publishers Are Reframing Monetisation in 2026

Opti Digital, the leading AdTech company specialising in publisher revenue optimisation, hosted the London edition of Opti Day last week, bringing together senior publisher revenue leaders to exchange on the operational realities shaping monetisation strategies today.

Following previous editions in Paris and New York, the London session reinforced the role of Opti Day as a platform for practical, experience-led discussions, moving beyond high-level trends to focus on how publishers are adapting their models in increasingly complex and constrained environments.

A changing paradigm: from volume to value

Opening the session, Magali Quentel-Reme, CEO at Opti Digital and Olly Aulakh, CRO, outlined the structural shifts currently impacting publisher monetisation.

Traffic volatility, declining acquisition from key channels, and sustained pressure on open market CPMs are redefining how growth is approached. Scale alone is no longer a viable lever.

At the same time, user experience and technical performance have become directly linked to revenue outcomes. Page speed, latency, and overall site efficiency now play a central role in audience acquisition, engagement, and monetisation.

“Publishers can no longer rely on volume alone, maximising value per user has become the new growth driver,” Magali Quentel-Reme told That's Business.

In this context, publishers are facing a fundamental challenge: how to maximise the value of each user interaction while operating within increasingly complex and fragmented environments.

Drawing on its experience working with a broad portfolio of publishers globally, Opti Digital emphasised a model combining lightweight, performance-driven technology with a consultative approach, positioning itself as a strategic partner focused on balancing revenue growth, user experience, and operational efficiency.

Publisher panel: navigating complexity in practice

The publisher panel, featuring Hasan Ramadan (Head of Digital Advertising, Euronews) and Alistair Patterson (Head of DataLab, 1XL), provided a grounded perspective on how these challenges are translating into day-to-day operations.

A key theme was the growing complexity of publisher stacks. Fragmented setups, multiple demand partners, and evolving ecosystem dynamics are not always generating incremental value — and in many cases, are introducing inefficiencies and revenue leakage.

Audience behaviour is also shifting, particularly among younger users, pushing publishers to rethink both distribution strategies and monetisation approaches.

Rather than relying solely on traditional setups, publishers are actively experimenting with new formats, new integrations, and alternative ways of capturing demand more effectively.

Both speakers also highlighted the importance of close collaboration with partners such as Opti Digital, not only from a technology perspective, but in enabling faster execution, improving performance, and aligning monetisation strategies with operational realities.

Client spotlight: execution as a competitive advantage

The session with Thomas Porteus (Director of Product and Partnerships, Navigate Health) illustrated how these challenges translate into execution.

Facing legacy technology constraints, performance issues, and declining monetisation efficiency, the publisher partnered with Opti Digital to rebuild its infrastructure and improve site performance.

By focusing on speed, mobile optimisation, and simplified monetisation frameworks, Navigate Health achieved a significant uplift in revenue performance (up to +46%), while also reducing operational complexity for a lean internal team.

Beyond performance gains, the collaboration enabled the team to shift focus from technical troubleshooting to growth, highlighting the importance of execution speed in a fast-moving ecosystem.

From insight to business impact

Across all sessions, one element stood out: the level of operational depth in the discussions.

Rather than focusing on abstract trends, conversations centred on execution, what's working, what isn't and where publishers are actively testing new approaches.

Opti Day London confirmed publishers are operating in a market defined by structural constraints, but also by increasing opportunities for those able to adapt.

Performance will increasingly depend on:

maximising value per user rather than scale

aligning monetisation with user experience

simplifying infrastructure

executing faster and more efficiently

More broadly, the event reinforced the role of collaborative, peer-driven formats in helping publishers navigate these challenges.

As the ecosystem continues to evolve, the next step is clear: translating insight into execution, and execution into measurable business outcomes.

RoRo, RoRo Your Boat More Easily as Customs Declarations UK Goes Live with French ELO, Delivering End-to-End Channel Crossing Compliance in Single Platform

Customs Chaos? There’s Finally One Less Border Headache for UK Hauliers.

If you've ever watched someone trying to deal with post-Brexit customs paperwork, you'll know it resembles a cross between air traffic control, speed dating and an escape room designed by accountants.

Just when operators thought they'd finally got their heads around CDS declarations, ENS filings, GVMS references, MRNs and the thousand other acronyms now haunting Britain’s logistics sector, along came another delightful addition from France: the Enveloppe Logistique Obligatoire, or ELO.

Because obviously what cross-Channel freight really needed was another mandatory digital envelope.

Thankfully, Customs Declarations UK, better known as CDUK, has announced it's now fully live with France’s ELO system following direct integration and certification with the French customs authority, the DGDDI.

And for businesses moving goods between the UK and France, that's actually rather important news.

So... What Exactly Is ELO?

The ELO is now mandatory for road freight vehicles travelling between the UK and France via RoRo routes like Dover, Folkestone and the Channel Tunnel.

In simple terms, it acts as a digital logistics envelope linking together all the customs and safety paperwork connected to a crossing.

Or, put another way, it's one more thing drivers absolutely do not want to discover is missing while sitting in a queue at Calas.

The system connects vehicle details, customs declarations, safety filings and barcode data so French customs authorities can see everything before the truck even arrives.

Without it, things can get very awkward very quickly.

One Platform Instead of Seven Browser Tabs and Mild Panic

What makes CDUK’s announcement significant is operators can now complete the entire process from one system instead of bouncing between multiple portals while quietly questioning their career choices.

Users can:

Submit UK CDS import and export declarations

File ENS declarations for GB safety and security

Complete ICS2 filings for EU requirements

Generate the ELO directly within the platform

Download the required barcode instantly for border presentation

That means fewer duplicated entries, fewer mismatched references and considerably less opportunity for somebody to accidentally upload the wrong form at 4.57pm on a Friday afternoon.

ICS2: The Acronym That Sounds Like a Robot from Star Wars

For goods heading into the EU, the ELO is heavily tied into the ICS2 safety and security framework.

French customs requires ELO submissions to reference the relevant ENS or ICS2 filing data, which means operators without a proper ICS2 setup can find themselves with a rather alarming compliance gap.

CDUK says its platform handles ICS2 filings across road, sea, air and rail transport, including both House and Master-level declarations.

Which is useful, because modern customs compliance increasingly feels like trying to complete a Sudoku puzzle while driving a lorry through Kent.

Free ELO Access? In This Economy?

In a rare and refreshing twist, CDUK says its ELO functionality will be available free of charge under a fair usage policy for both existing customers and new subscribers.

Given the growing pile of costs facing hauliers, freight forwarders and importers, that decision will likely be welcomed with the sort of enthusiasm normally reserved for functioning motorway services coffee machines.

Jawahir Lal Lund, Director and CEO of AJ Software Solutions Limited, summed it up neatly, saying businesses are already facing enough regulatory complexity without having to juggle multiple systems and risk costly mistakes.

And honestly, after several years of border bureaucracy multiplying faster than supermarket meal deal prices, few in logistics are likely to disagree.

For operators regularly moving goods across the UK–France corridor, particularly through busy RoRo crossings, this integration could remove one of the more frustrating administrative bottlenecks from the process.

Which, in 2026, practically counts as a miracle.

https://www.customs-declarations.uk

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