Horizon Media

When AI agents can churn out the strategy deck in seconds, agencies need a better pitch than “we do everything.”

Agencies are differentiating their tech stacks by building custom agentic AI tools for their clients. And they’re rethinking owning those AI tools – particularly since licensing them creates new revenue streams.

Horizon is bringing Roku’s streaming-TV data into its homegrown intelligence platform to help advertisers act on viewing signals while campaigns are still in flight.

According to Horizon Media’s Bob Lord, most agencies are trying to solve the wrong problem by obsessing over cost efficiency at a time when AI has quietly unlocked something far more valuable: the ability to become a growth partner to advertisers.

Newton Research introduced a fully agentic layer to its platform that can handle each step of a campaign lifecycle and better predict future outcomes.

PubMatic has run more than 30 fully autonomous, end-to-end agentic campaigns through the SSP’s AgenticOS platform, in addition to more than 1,000 direct publisher deals.

Domenic Venuto, indie agency Horizon Media’s chief product and data officer, sat down with AdExchanger during POSSIBLE at the Fontainebleau in Miami to unpack the role of AI in today’s media and advertising landscape.

Who says TV is the only media channel that could benefit from converged buying?

On Wednesday, and in time for the upfronts, Nielsen added more than 200 advanced audience segments in Nielsen ONE, its cross-platform analytics dashboard.

If any single event can be considered the jumping-off point for TV upfronts, it’s the Consumer Electronics Showcase (CES), which kicks off this week in Las Vegas, Nevada.

What does it feel like to be a media buyer and planner in 2025? That question launched a fascinating “Ask Me Anything”-style discussion at Cynopsis ScreenShift in New York City on Tuesday.

Delivery apps are launching social networks now; Google is the latest Big Tech company to write a huge check to Trump; and ad agencies of all sizes apparently aren’t big enough.

As the newly appointed president of Horizon Media Holdings, Bob Lord is dubious that megamergers between holding companies are actually good for the client. “Bigger is not always better,” Lord says.

ADT tracks a bespoke metric called “marketing cost per installation” that measures the impact of media on what ADT cares most about: the roughly 1 million alarms its technicians install every year.

Enjoy this weekly comic strip from AdExchanger.com that highlights the digital advertising ecosystem … 

How big of a deal is The Trade Desk’s top 100 list? AdExchanger spoke to industry experts for their reactions and bounced some of their hot takes off The Trade Desk.

In today’s newsletter: Publishers fear they’ll be excluded from The Trade Desk’s “premium internet”; buyers weigh in on Netflix’s plans to offer an ad server; and PayPal launches an ad network and data brokerage.

Fixating on ROAS makes it harder to figure out how certain parts of a campaign perform, especially now that retail media buys often include other, less performance-focused channels like display and CTV as audience extension.

In today’s newsletter: Google PAIR snags a CTV partnership with NBCU; why Madison Avenue and Hollywood will never make their relationship official; and TV buyers explain why they aren’t all-in on alternative currencies just yet.

Agencies will keep testing cookie alternatives, devising first-party data strategies and exploring commerce media in 2024.

TV programmers and agencies say they’re ready to transact their ad buys using a measurement provider other than Nielsen. But panel-based currency is proving more difficult to dethrone than anticipated.

Ampersand has a new self-service tool within AND, its TV ad buying platform, that turns linear campaign reporting around in 24 hours so buyers can optimize campaigns quickly based on a short list of priority metrics.

As third-party cookies disappear, advertisers can rely on retail data to target consumers, said The Trade Desk’s Ben Sylvan at Night Market’s eCommFronts event in New York City last week.

Dentsu launched a set of identity solutions for Merkury, its identity resolution platform, on Tuesday. The identity solutions try to create a single customer view for marketers.

It may look as if there hasn’t been much progress with alternative currencies – at least not commensurate with the hype. Just because alt currencies didn’t take over the upfronts this year doesn’t mean there hasn’t been movement.

Claritas acquired AI-driven marketing automation platform ArtsAI to strengthen its personalization, measurement and AI capabilities.

Magnite’s still enamored of CTV. CTV’s contribution to Magnite’s revenue was up 8% YOY, from $52 million to $56 million.

In its Q4 earnings report Tuesday, PubMatic highlighted how SSP consolidation is an opportunity for the company to pursue its goal of capturing a fifth of the SSP market.

The integration is the latest sign that agencies are getting serious about supply-path optimization (SPO) by forging direct relationships with SSPs. It also illustrates the need for SSPs to differentiate themselves from their peers by providing publishers and broadcasters with unique connections to demand sources.

In 2022, SPO solutions largely revolved around creating direct connections to so-called premium publishers. But machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) also took on a bigger role in SPO this year. And 2022 was the year the ad industry began touting SPO as the solution of choice for sustainability-focused marketers.