CANNES It’s now a hackneyed industry forecast: “This will be the year of mobile advertising.” But VivaKi products and services president Kurt Unkel thinks advertisers is still testing out the opportunity.

“There are a lot of things still being learned about mobile,” Unkel told Beet.TV in this video interview during Cannes Lions.

“How do we define an audience in a mobile space that’s a cookie-free environment? We’re finding other identifiers that we have to get savvy about. Nobody’s cracked it.”

But one thing Unkel is convinced has now fully materialised is “programmatic” ad-buying techniques, which he interprets as the holy grail of addressable advertising.

“The client appetite for it is very high. The technology has met the philosophical goal,” Unkel said.

Beet in Chicago on July 10

Unkel is hosting a Beet.TV event about programmatic buying at the VivaKi headquarters in Chicago presented by TubeMogul.