Tag: media
-
Butler/Till Pointed Its Buying Agent at iHeart’s, Skipping the SSP
Two AI agents — one built by the agency, one by the publisher — met over an MCP server and placed just under $10,000 of podcast and streaming audio inventory. No SSP in the middle. Butler/Till says CPMs came in 42% below the client’s own benchmark for direct buying.
-
Omnicom Media’s CEO Says the Holdco Is Now a “Capability Company”
Ralph Pardo runs the North American arm of the world’s largest agency holding company, and he says the traditional holdco is finished. His argument isn’t that AI is coming for agencies — it’s that AI has flattened the scale advantage holdcos were built to sell.
-
WPP Media Tests the Synthetic Audiences for Programmatic Buying
WPP Media is testing “synthetic audiences” for programmatic buying in the U.S. through a partnership with Givsly, a tech company founded in 2019. The audience segments are built partly from charity donation data: where donations happen, how often, and to what kinds of causes. The pitch is simple enough. Instead of relying only on open-web…
-
Duluth Lets AI Bid, But Keeps Humans on the Jokes
Duluth Trading Company is taking the agentic media buying trend and drawing a fairly human boundary: AI agents can handle tasks like bidding and creative iteration management, but anything resembling brand voice, humor, or “ethos” stays closer to people with pulse rates. Marketing director Ellie Uberto framed it during a live Digiday Podcast recording at…
-
Butler/Till’s agentic media-buying tests cut costs and time
Butler/Till just wrapped its first real-world test of an “agentic” programmatic buy for Geloso Beverage Group, working with PubMatic—and the numbers are hard to ignore. Across two flights (Dec. 2025–Jan.) running on CTV, online, and mobile app inventory from names like Samsung, Paramount, Vizio, and Tubi, the setup cut supply chain costs by 82% (with…
-
The Future of Media Planning Automation
Trading desks may never look the same. Ad tech companies like MIQ and Viant and agencies like Horizon Media are putting AI trading agents to work, using tools built on large language models to collapse hours of media planning into seconds. At MiQ, Sigma has already clawed back 6,000 labor hours and led to a…
-
Transforming Retail: Wayfair’s AI-Driven Shopping Experience
Wayfair’s CMO Paul Toms is revolutionizing the customer journey through AI, introducing an AI-powered “Discover” tab that simplifies product discovery for users. With over 30 million items, this feature aims to alleviate choice paralysis and seamlessly convert inspiration into purchases. Collaborating with CTO Fiona Tan, Toms is rethinking cross-channel marketing metrics, utilizing first-party data to…
-
AI or Bye: Why Agencies Can’t Show Up Empty-Handed at Reviews
AI has transitioned from being a novel advantage to a fundamental expectation in media agency evaluations. Brands are demanding deeper insights into AI capabilities, leading agencies to reveal intricate details about their technologies. While agencies need to be proficient in AI, brands often lack understanding, necessitating education and clearer questioning. This evolution is altering agency…
-
Stagwell Taps Palantir to Supercharge Ad Targeting
Stagwell is dipping into Palantir’s toolbox to see if military-grade AI can sharpen its data targeting game. During its Q2 earnings call, CEO Mark Penn shared that they’re running a trial with Palantir’s technology to supercharge their ID Graph by combining both structured and unstructured data across platforms like BERA and the National Research Group.…