LiveRamp is making a clear statement about where advertising data is headed next—and it’s not just toward better targeting, but toward AI systems that can reason, predict, and act using real-world, permissioned data.

The data collaboration company today announced a major expansion of its Data Marketplace, adding support for AI training data, third-party AI models, and AI-powered applications and agents. The move effectively transforms the Marketplace from a data licensing destination into a centralized hub for building, deploying, and scaling AI across advertising and marketing workflows.

For marketers, data scientists, and developers, the promise is simple: easier access to high-quality data and AI capabilities—without sacrificing governance, privacy, or control.

Why LiveRamp Is Reframing the Data Marketplace Around AI

AI adoption in marketing has accelerated rapidly, but most teams face the same constraint: models are only as good as the data they can safely access.

Public data is limited. First-party data is siloed. And licensing third-party data or models often involves complex negotiations, technical integration, and compliance risk. LiveRamp’s expanded Marketplace is designed to remove that friction.

By enabling clients to license data for AI training, license partner AI models, and soon license AI-powered applications, LiveRamp is positioning its Marketplace as infrastructure for responsible AI—not just a transaction layer.

The shift reflects a broader industry reality: AI in advertising is moving from experimentation to production. And production-grade AI demands governed access to real consumer signals.

A Centralized, Governed Marketplace for AI

At the heart of the expansion is LiveRamp’s focus on trust and control.

Through a single, user-friendly interface, clients can now access premium datasets and AI intelligence for specific, auditable use cases. Every interaction in the Marketplace is authenticated, purpose-bound, and logged—an important distinction as regulators, brands, and consumers scrutinize how data is used in AI systems.

For data partners, the Marketplace offers something equally important: visibility.

Instead of losing control once data or models are licensed, partners retain clear insight into how their assets are being used, where they’re deployed, and by whom. That transparency lowers the barrier for data owners who want to participate in AI ecosystems without exposing sensitive assets.

For marketers, the result is a single destination to power AI initiatives—without stitching together point solutions or navigating legal gray areas.

Three Core AI Use Cases LiveRamp Is Targeting

LiveRamp’s expanded Data Marketplace is structured around three primary AI-driven use cases, each addressing a different layer of the marketing stack.

1. Licensing Data to Train and Tune AI Models

Clients can now securely discover and license AI-ready, permissioned datasets spanning consumer behavior, commerce activity, media engagement, and transaction signals.

These datasets help fill persistent blind spots in consumer intelligence—improving model accuracy, scoring, and real-time decisioning. For brands building predictive models or personalization engines, access to richer signals can mean the difference between generic automation and meaningful relevance.

Crucially, the data remains governed throughout the process, ensuring it’s used only for approved purposes.

2. Licensing Partner AI Models—Without Data Movement

In a notable shift from traditional data sharing, marketers can license a partner’s AI model and apply it to their own first-party data—without sensitive information moving or being exposed.

This model-first approach allows brands to tap into external intelligence while maintaining control of their data. It also opens the door for specialized modeling partners to distribute AI capabilities without handling raw customer records.

For enterprises concerned about data leakage or compliance, this architecture is likely to resonate.

3. Licensing AI-Powered Applications and Agents (Coming Soon)

Looking ahead, LiveRamp plans to enable direct access to AI-powered applications and agents within the Marketplace. These tools will support use cases such as audience building, measurement, and media optimization—effectively packaging AI outcomes, not just inputs.

If executed well, this could significantly lower the technical barrier for marketers who want AI-driven results without building or training models themselves.

Why Permissioned Data Is Becoming AI’s Competitive Advantage

As large language models become more commoditized, differentiation is shifting to data—specifically, data that is accurate, current, and permissioned.

“Just as language is now fuel for AI reasoning, consumers and their attributes help AI drive the most effective possible ad targeting,” said Adam Heimlich, CEO of Chalice AI. He pointed to LiveRamp’s role in enabling AI systems to operate privately within trusted environments like clean rooms.

That distinction matters. AI systems trained on ungoverned or low-quality data risk poor performance and regulatory exposure. By contrast, AI powered by permissioned, real-world signals can deliver more incremental lift—while staying on the right side of privacy expectations.

LiveRamp’s extensive network gives brands reach and scale that would be difficult to replicate independently, particularly as third-party cookies disappear and identity resolution grows more complex.

LiveRamp’s Broader AI Push Comes Into Focus

The Marketplace expansion doesn’t exist in isolation. It builds on a series of recent LiveRamp innovations designed to make AI usable across data collaboration workflows.

Those include multi-agent collaboration, AI-powered segmentation, and AI-driven search, all aimed at reducing friction between data, insights, and activation.

Taken together, the strategy is clear: LiveRamp wants to be the connective tissue between enterprise data and AI execution—especially in environments where privacy and trust are non-negotiable.

According to LiveRamp Chief Revenue Officer Vihan Sharma, safe access to premium data will fundamentally reshape enterprise intelligence. “By increasing access to the world’s most powerful data collaboration network, we can empower the ecosystem with the highest quality signals for superior, responsible performance,” he said.

Implications for Marketers, Data Scientists, and AI Builders

For marketers, the expanded Marketplace simplifies AI adoption. Instead of managing multiple vendors, contracts, and integrations, they can source data, models, and applications in one governed environment.

For data scientists and developers, it shortens the path from experimentation to deployment—especially for models that require real-world behavioral signals to perform well.

And for data partners, it creates a new revenue stream that aligns with modern expectations around transparency and control.

In a market where AI ambition often outpaces operational readiness, LiveRamp is betting that infrastructure—not algorithms—will decide who wins.

From Data Licensing to AI Infrastructure

LiveRamp’s expansion marks a meaningful evolution in how data marketplaces are defined. This is no longer just about buying and selling datasets—it’s about enabling AI systems to operate responsibly at scale.

As advertisers, agencies, and platforms race to embed AI deeper into planning, measurement, and optimization, access to trusted data will become a prerequisite rather than a differentiator.

By turning its Data Marketplace into a hub for AI data, models, and applications, LiveRamp is positioning itself at the center of that shift—where data collaboration meets AI execution.

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Programmatic advertising may power most of today’s digital media buying, but its biggest criticism hasn’t gone away: too much happens in the dark. Advertisers struggle to understand what they’re buying, publishers struggle to see where value leaks out of the supply chain, and everyone pays the price in trust.

The Trade Desk thinks the fix starts at the auction itself.

The ad tech giant today announced broad publisher support for OpenAds, a new auction environment designed to give publishers and buyers a more direct, transparent, and high-integrity way to transact. Early supporters include AccuWeather, The Arena Group, BuzzFeed, the Guardian, Hearst Magazines, Hearst TV, Newsweek, People Inc., and Ziff Davis—a lineup that spans premium journalism, entertainment, and large-scale digital audiences.

The message from both sides is clear: the industry wants cleaner auctions, clearer signals, and fewer hidden fees.

Why OpenAds Matters in a Programmatic-First World

Programmatic advertising is no longer the future—it’s the default. As brands push more budgets into automated buying, expectations have shifted. Advertisers want visibility into fees, reseller paths, and audience quality. Publishers want auctions that properly value premium inventory instead of commoditizing it.

OpenAds is The Trade Desk’s latest attempt to address those tensions.

The company positions OpenAds as a high-integrity auction environment that prioritizes transparency and signal quality. In practical terms, that means advertisers can better understand what they’re buying and who they’re reaching, while publishers gain clearer insight into how their inventory is being sold.

“OpenAds represents a major advance in how our industry thinks about a clean and transparent supply chain, starting with the auction,” said Will Doherty, SVP of Inventory Development at The Trade Desk. “This technology benefits buyers and publishers by helping advertisers understand what they are buying and the audience they are reaching with the best signal possible.”

That emphasis on signal is key. As third-party cookies fade and identity becomes more fragmented, the quality of auction signals increasingly determines campaign performance—and publisher revenue.

Building on OpenPath, Not Starting From Scratch

OpenAds doesn’t appear out of nowhere. It builds on The Trade Desk’s OpenPath, which focuses on creating more direct connections between advertisers and publishers by reducing intermediaries.

Where OpenPath tackled access, OpenAds tackles auction mechanics.

By offering a transparent, auditable auction environment, OpenAds aims to ensure that the highest bid truly wins—and that publishers can independently verify how auctions are run. That’s a direct response to long-standing complaints about opaque fee structures and unclear reseller activity in programmatic supply chains.

For publishers, that transparency isn’t theoretical. It directly impacts yield, forecasting, and trust.

Publishers See Transparency as Revenue Protection

The early publisher quotes underscore a shared frustration: value often disappears somewhere between buyer and seller.

“One of the biggest challenges in programmatic is understanding where value is lost between buyers and publishers,” said Megan Hong, Senior Director of Partner and Yield Management at The Arena Group. “OpenAds brings much-needed transparency to the auction, especially around fees and reseller activity.”

That sentiment is echoed across the publishing ecosystem. With ad revenues under pressure and newsroom economics under constant strain, publishers are increasingly vocal about wanting auction environments that reward quality rather than arbitrage.

At the Guardian, the appeal is verification.

“It means the highest bid wins in a transparent, auditable auction environment that publishers can independently verify,” said Dave Strauss, VP of Revenue Operations and Strategy. “The Guardian is excited to be a part of that strategy.”

Verification matters because it shifts power back toward publishers—especially premium ones—by giving them confidence that their inventory is being fairly valued.

Premium Publishers See Strategic Alignment

For Hearst, early support for OpenAds aligns with a broader push toward transparent monetization models.

“Hearst Magazines’ early support for OpenAds underscores our commitment to transparent, high-integrity auction mechanics,” said Scott Both, VP of Programmatic Monetization & Operations at Hearst Magazines. He noted that OpenAds advances buyer transparency while reinforcing the value of premium publisher inventory.

Hearst Newspapers and TV echoed that view, framing transparency as essential to the future of programmatic monetization and fair representation of high-quality journalism.

This is an important signal. Large media groups don’t back new auction environments lightly. Their participation suggests OpenAds addresses real operational and commercial pain points—not just theoretical ones.

Advertisers Want ROI, Publishers Want Proof

From the advertiser side, the value proposition is efficiency with accountability.

“At People, we have proven over time that better ads, on the best brands, drive better outcomes for advertisers,” said Patrick McCarthy, SVP of Programmatic Monetization at People Inc. “We believe having a more transparent advertising supply chain benefits everyone.”

That’s a subtle but important point. OpenAds isn’t positioned as charity for publishers—it’s pitched as a way to deliver efficient premium outcomes. In an era where marketers are scrutinizing every dollar, transparency isn’t just ethical; it’s economical.

Ziff Davis, long known for its digital publishing scale and experimentation, framed OpenAds as an industry step forward.

“OpenAds represents a step forward for advertising online, helping ensure more efficiency and accountability in programmatic,” said Mark Obermoller, VP of Programmatic Strategy and Yield.

The Broader Industry Context: Clean Supply Chains Are Back in Focus

The launch of OpenAds lands at a moment when the ad tech industry is once again grappling with supply chain reform.

Initiatives like ads.txt, sellers.json, and supplychain object helped expose bad actors, but they didn’t fundamentally change how auctions operate. Meanwhile, concerns around MFA sites, arbitrage, and signal dilution persist.

OpenAds is part of a newer wave of efforts that focus less on blocking problems and more on restructuring incentives. By making auctions transparent and auditable, the theory goes, healthier dynamics emerge naturally—publishers with quality inventory win more often, and advertisers get clearer value.

It’s also a strategic move for The Trade Desk. As one of the most vocal advocates for the open internet, the company has consistently positioned itself against opaque “black box” buying environments. OpenAds reinforces that stance while giving publishers a concrete reason to align more closely with its platform.

What Happens Next Will Matter

Support from major publishers gives OpenAds credibility out of the gate, but adoption will determine its impact. Advertisers will want to see measurable improvements in performance and clarity. Publishers will look for proof that transparency translates into better yield, not just better reporting.

If OpenAds gains scale, it could pressure other auction environments to match its level of openness—or risk being viewed as part of the problem.

At minimum, it raises the bar for what “transparent programmatic” is supposed to mean.

In a market where trust is fragile and budgets are scrutinized, that may be exactly the conversation the industry needs to have again—this time, with the auction at the center.

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PMG, the global independent marketing services and technology company, has acquired London- and New York-based influencer marketing agency Digital Voices, marking a strategic move to deepen its creator marketing capabilities as the influencer economy enters a rapid growth phase.

The acquisition comes as influencer marketing is projected to grow nearly tenfold over the next eight years, evolving from a brand awareness channel into a full-funnel driver of performance, commerce, and customer loyalty. While financial terms were not disclosed, the deal signals PMG’s continued investment in customer-centric, technology-enabled marketing at a global scale.

Founded with a focus on blending data, creativity, and technology, Digital Voices has built a strong reputation for delivering influencer campaigns that generate measurable business outcomes. The agency employs around 70 people across London, New York, and Costa Rica and has worked with major global brands including General Mills, Adobe, DoorDash, and Unilever.

Strengthening PMG’s Influencer and Full-Funnel Capabilities

With the addition of Digital Voices, PMG significantly expands its influencer marketing practice, positioning creators as a core component of integrated media and commerce strategies rather than a standalone tactic.

Digital Voices brings proprietary technology to PMG’s ecosystem, including its tools Chord and Composer. These platforms provide AI-led insights, centralized campaign management, benchmarking, and predictive analytics—capabilities designed to improve efficiency and strategic clarity for global influencer programs.

As part of the integration, PMG plans to layer these tools into its proprietary operating system, Alli, further enhancing its ability to unify data, media execution, and performance measurement across channels.

“This is another exciting step forward in PMG’s global growth and our commitment to giving customers an edge in a rapidly evolving landscape,” said George Popstefanov, Founder and CEO of PMG. He noted that the creator economy has matured into a strategic lever for performance marketing, brand storytelling, and commerce, making Digital Voices a strong cultural and technological fit.

Data-Backed Creativity Meets Scalable Technology

Digital Voices has differentiated itself in the crowded influencer marketing space by combining talent strategy with deep channel expertise. Rather than focusing solely on reach or creator popularity, the agency emphasizes authenticity, scalability, and measurable impact across platforms.

Its work spans multiple industries, including technology, CPG, beauty, education, and health and wellness—sectors where trust, storytelling, and creator alignment play a critical role in influencing purchase decisions.

“Joining PMG means multiplying the value we create for both creators and brands,” said Jennifer Quigley-Jones, Founder and CEO of Digital Voices. She emphasized that PMG’s scale and technology platform will allow Digital Voices to expand its media capabilities, accelerate innovation, and help clients unlock stronger commercial outcomes.

Part of a Broader Growth Strategy

The Digital Voices acquisition marks the fourth in PMG’s 15-year history and follows the company’s purchase of Momentum Commerce in summer 2025. Over the past year, PMG has accelerated its expansion across EMEA, launched Alli Marketplace, and added new capabilities in retail media, commerce, and marketing measurement.

Together, these moves reflect PMG’s strategy to position itself as a future-forward partner that helps brands navigate fragmented media environments by unifying technology, storytelling, and performance under a single operating framework.

Influencer marketing, in particular, has become increasingly intertwined with retail media, paid social, and commerce platforms. By bringing Digital Voices in-house, PMG aims to help brands better connect creator-led storytelling with measurable business impact across the customer journey.

Integration Begins Immediately

PMG confirmed that the integration of Digital Voices will begin immediately, with a focus on maintaining service quality and continuity for existing clients. Both organizations will prioritize collaboration, talent retention, and innovation as they scale influencer marketing programs globally.

As brands continue to seek authentic connections with audiences in an increasingly competitive digital landscape, the acquisition positions PMG to play a larger role in shaping how influencer marketing evolves—from awareness-driven campaigns to performance-oriented, technology-enabled growth engines.

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2X, a global leader in subscription-based go-to-market (GTM) services, has acquired The Kiln, a top-performing Clay partner known for its deep expertise in GTM Engineering Services. The move significantly expands 2X’s capabilities beyond marketing execution into full go-to-market orchestration, positioning the company among the first Marketing-as-a-Service providers to deliver integrated strategy and execution across the entire revenue technology stack at enterprise scale.

The acquisition combines The Kiln’s specialized GTM Engineering expertise with 2X’s enterprise-grade delivery infrastructure, which spans nearly 1,300 professionals across the U.S., Malaysia, and the Philippines. Together, the companies aim to address a growing market gap as enterprise organizations look to adopt GTM Engineering at scale without sacrificing reliability, governance, and operational maturity.

Bridging the Gap Between Innovation and Enterprise Scale

Clay’s ecosystem of more than 100 boutique agencies has demonstrated the effectiveness of GTM Engineering across thousands of SMB customers. However, enterprise clients often require more than innovation alone—they need proven frameworks, delivery consistency, and long-term organizational stability.

By bringing The Kiln into its platform, 2X is positioning itself to meet those enterprise demands, offering a unified approach that blends advanced GTM engineering with large-scale managed services delivery.

Backed by private equity firms Recognize Partners and Insight Partners, 2X now orchestrates the full GTM system for enterprise clients. This includes identifying in-market accounts, enriching and activating contact data, automating personalized outreach, and executing campaigns at scale across marketing, sales, and revenue operations.

Deepening Expertise Across the Revenue Tech Stack

The acquisition builds on 2X’s recent expansion into Revenue Operations and GTM Technology through prior acquisitions, including Intelligent Demand and Outbound Funnel. As a result, the company now brings hands-on expertise across a broad range of leading revenue platforms, including 6sense, Salesforce, Adobe, HubSpot, Clay, Gong, Bombora, WordPress, Google, Meta, and others.

“Traditional marketing providers deliver demand generation and content,” said Domenic Colasante, CEO and Co-Founder of 2X. “We now orchestrate the complete GTM system—across marketing functions, the full GTM tech stack, and into sales and revenue operations. The Kiln brings exceptional talent and proven Clay expertise that, combined with our global delivery infrastructure, enables predictable revenue growth for enterprises.”

Scaling GTM Engineering Without Losing Its Edge

Founded in New York City by Patrick Spychalski and Mathias Powell, The Kiln has built its reputation helping companies unlock revenue through GTM Engineering. The acquisition allows the firm to scale its impact to enterprise clients without compromising the agility and effectiveness that defined its success.

“We’ve built our business helping clients unlock revenue through GTM Engineering, but scaling that expertise to serve enterprise clients requires infrastructure we couldn’t build alone,” said Spychalski. “2X gives us the resources, enterprise relationships, and delivery capability to take our work to companies that need it most—without losing what makes us effective.”

Varun Anand, Co-Founder of Clay, also welcomed the deal, highlighting The Kiln’s leadership within the Clay ecosystem and the strategic fit with 2X as GTM Engineering adoption accelerates globally.

A Single Partner for Strategy, Technology, and Execution

For 2X clients, the acquisition means access to a single partner that can deliver both GTM strategy and execution, spanning services and technology. This integrated model reduces reliance on multiple vendors, accelerates time to value, and helps GTM leaders drive greater impact while lowering operational costs.

As enterprises continue to modernize their revenue engines, the combination of 2X and The Kiln reflects a broader shift in the market—from fragmented marketing services toward fully managed, technology-enabled GTM orchestration designed for scale and measurable growth.

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As home service marketers continue to demand clearer ROI and higher-quality leads, VIIRL is betting that tighter integration—not more channels—is the answer.

VIIRL, an all-in-one Marketing as a Service (MaaS) platform focused on lead-driven growth, has announced a strategic partnership with eLocal, a long-established leader in pay-per-call advertising. The collaboration brings eLocal’s high-intent consumer leads directly into VIIRL’s unified marketing and analytics platform, giving contractors a clearer line of sight from lead to revenue.

At a time when many home service businesses struggle to connect fragmented lead sources with actual business outcomes, the partnership aims to close that gap—operationally and analytically.

Turning High-Intent Calls Into Measurable Revenue

Pay-per-call has long been attractive for home services, where phone calls often signal strong purchase intent. But tracking what happens after the call—conversion quality, close rates, and revenue attribution—has remained a weak spot.

By integrating eLocal’s leads directly into VIIRL, contractors can now route, manage, and optimize those calls inside a centralized platform. More importantly, they can attribute real revenue back to specific lead sources using VIIRL’s real-time reporting and analytics.

“We have long admired the quality of leads eLocal delivers,” said Jed Winkler, President of VIIRL. “When high-intent leads meet our marketing platform, contractors gain a more predictable and measurable path to growth.”

The combined solution is designed to reduce wasted ad spend, improve close rates, and eliminate the guesswork that often surrounds customer acquisition in the home services sector.

A Practical Response to Fragmented Local Marketing

The partnership reflects a broader MarTech trend: moving away from disconnected point solutions toward integrated systems that tie marketing activity directly to business performance.

Home service companies typically juggle multiple vendors for lead generation, call tracking, CRM, and reporting. VIIRL and eLocal are positioning their integration as a way to simplify that stack—without sacrificing lead quality or data transparency.

Jeff Paradise, CEO of eLocal, framed the partnership as a complementary pairing of strengths. “eLocal’s leadership in driving high-quality, high-intent demand is the fuel, and VIIRL’s intelligent platform is the engine,” he said. “Together, we’re providing service businesses with a sophisticated, data-backed path to scale that simply didn’t exist before.”

What’s Coming—and When

The rollout begins in early 2026, with Phase 1 focused on core capabilities including lead routing, conversion tracking, and performance reporting for home service businesses. Additional functionality is expected to follow as the integration deepens.

For contractors navigating rising acquisition costs and increasing pressure to prove ROI, the partnership signals a more accountable model for local digital marketing—one where leads, calls, and revenue finally live in the same system.

As pay-per-call advertising and Marketing as a Service models continue to converge, deals like this highlight where the category is headed: fewer tools, better data, and outcomes that can actually be measured.

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For years, marketers have been promised a future where data collaboration doesn’t mean data exposure. This week, Adstra, Stagwell’s The Marketing Cloud (TMC), and Databricks took a meaningful step toward making that promise real.

Adstra, a long-standing player in identity resolution, has announced a collaboration with TMC and Databricks that brings its Conexa Identity Network directly into Databricks Clean Rooms. The result: marketers can resolve and enrich first-party data, build high-fidelity audiences, and activate campaigns—without moving, copying, or directly sharing sensitive customer data.

In an era defined by privacy regulation, signal loss, and mounting pressure to prove ROI, the partnership speaks directly to one of MarTech’s biggest challenges: how to make identity useful again without crossing compliance lines.

Why This Matters Now

Clean rooms have quickly become table stakes for large brands, but many implementations still feel more theoretical than practical. Data collaboration is technically possible, yet often slow, rigid, and limited in scale.

This collaboration aims to remove those friction points. By making Adstra’s identity graph available inside Databricks Clean Rooms, TMC clients can “meet” their first-party data with Adstra’s insights in a governed environment—no file transfers, no brittle integrations, and no raw data leakage.

For marketers, that means identity resolution and enrichment can finally happen at the speed campaigns demand, not the pace legal reviews tolerate.

Inside the Integration: Identity Without Data Movement

At the core of the partnership is a zero-copy approach to data enrichment. Instead of exporting customer files or onboarding data to external platforms, brands can run identity matching, overlap analysis, and attribution modeling directly within Databricks.

This is powered by Delta Sharing, Databricks’ open-source framework for securely sharing live data across platforms and clouds. Combined with Databricks Clean Rooms, it enables privacy-centric collaboration that keeps all data governed, permissioned, and auditable.

Adstra contributes its Conexa Identity Network, which brings privacy-compliant attributes such as health and wellness indicators, caregiver status, wealth propensity, and other high-value demographic and lifestyle signals. According to Andy Johnson, Adstra’s Chief Data and Product Officer, these attributes are designed to give marketers more precision without introducing regulatory risk.

The Marketing Cloud adds its AI-driven marketing infrastructure and Stagwell’s proprietary, privacy-first IDGraph, effectively turning identity resolution into an activation-ready capability rather than a back-office process.

From Infrastructure to Addressable Audiences

The most tangible outcome so far: scale.

Through this collaboration, The Marketing Cloud has unlocked more than 365 new addressable audiences. These include high-value segments such as high net-worth individuals and healthcare decision-makers—audiences that are notoriously difficult to reach accurately in a post-cookie world.

Early pilots point to meaningful gains: stronger match rates, faster activation windows, and broader audience reach, all while maintaining strict privacy controls. That combination—performance lift without compliance tradeoffs—is exactly what enterprises have been asking for.

Akram Chetibi, Director of Product Management at Databricks, framed it simply: enterprises want to leverage their own data at scale without compromising privacy. Connecting clean rooms with identity intelligence and AI infrastructure is how that happens in practice.

A Broader Signal for the MarTech Stack

Zooming out, the partnership reflects a broader shift in MarTech architecture. Identity is no longer a standalone product; it’s becoming a shared service layer embedded directly into data and AI platforms.

Instead of marketers stitching together CDPs, clean rooms, and identity graphs through custom integrations, the industry is moving toward native collaboration inside data environments where analytics, modeling, and activation already live.

For Stagwell’s The Marketing Cloud, this reinforces its positioning as an operating system rather than a collection of tools. For Adstra, it’s a strategic move that places identity intelligence closer to where decisions are made. And for Databricks, it further cements clean rooms as a foundation for marketing, not just analytics.

As Mansoor Basha, CTO of The Marketing Cloud, put it, the challenge isn’t access to data—it’s turning that data into revenue without slowing down campaigns or risking compliance. The promise here is reduced media waste, better customer identification, and more precise measurement, all delivered through infrastructure rather than workarounds.

What Marketers Can Do Today

Unlike many clean room announcements that remain aspirational, this integration is available immediately. Brands using Databricks Clean Rooms can already leverage the Adstra–TMC connection to enrich first-party data, generate high-fidelity audiences, and activate campaigns across the programmatic ecosystem.

The practical benefits are clear: faster time to insight, broader audience visibility across identity clusters, zero data exposure, and improved campaign performance. Just as importantly, it offers a blueprint for how identity, privacy, and AI can coexist without forcing marketers to choose between scale and safety.

In a market crowded with identity claims, this collaboration stands out not for introducing something entirely new, but for making something long promised finally usable.

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After a surprisingly resilient 2025, the global consumer technology and durable goods market is heading into a holding pattern. According to NielsenIQ’s (NIQ) 2026 Consumer Tech & Durable Goods (T&D) Outlook, released in collaboration with the Consumer Technology Association (CTA), worldwide sales are expected to level off in 2026, signaling a transition from post-inflation recovery to a more selective, value-driven growth phase.

The headline numbers tell a story of moderation. The sector is on track to close 2025 at roughly $1.3 trillion, up 3% year over year, but 2026 sales are projected to dip slightly by 0.4%. Yet beneath that near-flat global average lies a far more uneven—and strategically important—set of regional and category dynamics.

For brands, retailers, and manufacturers, the message is clear: growth isn’t disappearing, but it’s fragmenting.

A stable global market with sharply different regional outcomes

While global sales appear flat on paper, NIQ’s data shows that regional performance in 2026 will vary widely.

• Eastern Europe is projected to lead growth at +5%, followed by Western Europe and the Middle East & Africa at +3%, and Latin America at +2%.

• North America is expected to remain largely stable, reflecting a mature market where replacement cycles—not expansion—drive demand.

• Asia-Pacific, however, is forecast to decline 3% overall, weighed down by China’s projected -5% contraction.

China’s slowdown is particularly notable given its recent strength. NIQ attributes much of the decline to elevated baselines created by government trade-in incentives, which pulled forward demand in prior years. As those programs normalize, growth comparisons become tougher—even as underlying consumer demand remains intact.

“In 2025, global Consumer Tech & Durable Goods purchases grew by a solid 3%,” said Julian Baldwin, President of Tech & Durables at NIQ. “Growth is expected to slow in 2026, but most regions should remain stable or see modest gains. The exception is China, where elevated baselines from recent trade-in policies will weigh on performance.”

Value over volume defines the next phase

Across regions, one theme cuts through the data: consumers remain cautious and value-driven.

Even as inflation eases in many markets, shoppers are prioritizing products that clearly justify their price—whether through better performance, convenience, energy efficiency, durability, or long-term cost savings. Incremental upgrades or vague “smart” features are no longer enough.

This shift puts pressure on brands to make product benefits highly visible and immediately relevant at the point of decision, especially as discretionary budgets remain constrained.

The implication for marketers is significant. Positioning around price alone isn’t sufficient, but neither is premiumization without proof. The winners in 2026 will be those that align pricing, innovation, and experience with local expectations and category-specific needs.

Category outlook: small appliances and IT show resilience

From a sector perspective, NIQ expects uneven performance across product categories:

• Small Domestic Appliances (SDA) are forecast to continue growing, supported by demand for convenience, efficiency, and lifestyle upgrades.

• IT & Office equipment should see modest gains, helped by delayed replacement cycles and renewed interest in higher-performance devices.

• Major Domestic Appliances are expected to remain broadly stable, reflecting saturation in mature markets.

• Telecom and Consumer Electronics are projected to experience slight declines, as smartphone and TV markets remain highly competitive and replacement-driven.

That said, stability doesn’t mean stagnation. Even in slower categories, specific innovation-led subsegments are outperforming, particularly where clear use cases exist.

Replacement cycles and premium features fuel selective demand

NIQ’s outlook suggests that replacement demand—rather than first-time purchases—will be a key growth lever in 2026. PCs and smartphones, in particular, are entering refresh cycles after years of delayed upgrades.

What’s different this time is the nature of the upgrade. Consumers are showing willingness to pay more for features they can clearly understand and use. Examples include:

• AI-native PCs, positioned around productivity, battery optimization, and on-device intelligence

• Mini LED and OLED TVs, benefiting from better picture quality and energy efficiency

• Built-in and smart home appliances, which promise long-term convenience rather than novelty

Televisions, in particular, are expected to get a demand lift from the 2026 World Cup, a familiar but still powerful catalyst for premium TV upgrades. Meanwhile, open-ear headsets continue to gain traction, carving out a differentiated position in the crowded audio market.

Across categories, NIQ notes that AI-enabled features offer real premiumization potential—but only when the benefits are explicit. Abstract promises of “AI-powered” performance are less persuasive than tangible improvements tied to everyday use.

AI as a differentiator, not a default

The report reinforces a growing industry reality: AI alone doesn’t sell products—use cases do.

“Consumers remain value-driven but are prepared to spend where they see compelling product features,” said Steve Koenig, Vice President of Research at CTA. “Built-in Artificial Intelligence continues to present strong opportunity as a product differentiator, but adoption will depend on clear use cases that illustrate direct benefits and ROI.”

This distinction matters as AI becomes more ubiquitous across consumer tech. As more devices include some form of AI by default, differentiation will shift from presence to performance—and from marketing claims to measurable outcomes.

Trade, policy, and competitive pressure loom large

Beyond consumer behavior, NIQ highlights external risks that could reshape the market trajectory in 2026.

Tariffs and trade policy remain key variables, particularly in the U.S., while China’s evolving trade-in programs continue to influence demand patterns. At the same time, Chinese brands are expanding aggressively into new markets, intensifying competition on price and accelerating global AI adoption through more affordable devices.

For established players, this raises strategic questions around positioning, margin protection, and local relevance—especially in emerging markets where accessibility often outweighs brand legacy.

What this means for brands and retailers

The 2026 outlook suggests a market that rewards precision over scale. Broad-based recovery is no longer the primary growth driver. Instead, success will hinge on:

• Targeting high-potential regions by both volume and value

• Aligning innovation with local consumer expectations

• Making product benefits clear, visible, and defensible

• Preparing for continued volatility from policy and supply chain shifts

In a flat global market, share gains will come at someone else’s expense. The brands that adapt fastest to regional nuance—and communicate value most effectively—are likely to be the ones still growing.

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Connected TV keeps attracting more ad dollars—and more scrutiny. As programmatic CTV scales, advertisers are increasingly uneasy about opaque supply chains, inconsistent inventory quality, and limited insight into where ads actually run. Marketing Architects says it has a fix.

The all-inclusive TV agency has announced a partnership with Jounce Media aimed squarely at one of CTV’s most persistent pain points: supply-side transparency. The collaboration integrates Jounce’s programmatic supply chain intelligence directly into Annika®, Marketing Architects’ proprietary media-buying AI, giving advertisers clearer visibility into inventory quality and supply paths—and more control over where their budgets land.

In an ecosystem often criticized for black boxes and guesswork, the move signals a push toward more accountable, outcome-driven CTV buying.

Why CTV transparency is suddenly mission-critical

Programmatic CTV has matured quickly, but not always cleanly. Advertisers routinely struggle to answer basic questions: Which apps carried their ads? Were impressions sourced directly or through multiple intermediaries? And how much performance was lost to inefficient or low-quality supply paths?

Those concerns have grown louder as CTV budgets expand. Unlike linear TV, programmatic CTV’s complexity makes it easy for inefficiencies to hide in plain sight. Verification tools help, but they often operate after the fact—and don’t always reveal how supply decisions affect outcomes.

Marketing Architects’ partnership with Jounce Media is designed to address those gaps earlier in the process, before dollars are spent.

What Jounce Media brings to the table

Jounce Media has built a reputation as one of the industry’s most detailed observers of the programmatic supply chain. By aggregating and analyzing bidstream data at scale, the company classifies inventory quality, maps direct and indirect supply paths, and evaluates seller behavior across CTV and digital video.

Rather than focusing solely on impressions or domains, Jounce applies a seller-oriented lens—helping advertisers understand who they are buying from and how inventory reaches them.

By integrating Jounce’s data into Annika, Marketing Architects is embedding that intelligence directly into campaign planning and execution, not layering it on as a post-buy diagnostic.

“Partnering with Jounce Media lets us apply a data-enriched lens to every campaign,” said Marrika Zapiler, Director of Advanced TV at Marketing Architects. “We're building a foundation for more effective, transparent CTV buys that better serve our clients’ goals.”

How Annika’s update changes CTV buying

Annika already plays a central role in how Marketing Architects identifies and buys high-performing media. The Jounce integration significantly expands that capability by reshaping how supply is evaluated in the first place.

With access to Jounce’s taxonomy and app-level supply data, Annika can now:

• Unify premium inventory across the supply ecosystem

• Identify and deprioritize opaque or inefficient supply paths

• Favor high-quality, direct inventory across CTV environments

• Reduce reliance on manual research or assumptions about inventory quality

The result is a more intentional planning process—one that treats supply path decisioning as a performance lever, not an afterthought.

Instead of relying on black-box verification tools to flag issues later, Annika uses supply intelligence upfront to guide smarter campaign setup.

A shift toward seller-aware planning

The partnership also reflects a broader shift in how sophisticated advertisers approach programmatic buying. Rather than optimizing solely around CPMs or reach, there’s growing emphasis on seller transparency and accountability.

“Jounce exists to help advertisers understand what they’re buying and where it comes from,” said Chris Kane, founder of Jounce Media. “By taking a seller-oriented approach to media planning, execution, and measurement, Marketing Architects is embracing the industry’s movement toward a more trusted and accountable programmatic supply chain.”

This seller-aware mindset aligns with ongoing efforts across the ad tech ecosystem to reduce arbitrage, minimize redundant intermediaries, and improve working media efficiency—especially in CTV, where margins can erode quickly.

Why this matters for advertisers

For advertisers, the implications are practical rather than theoretical. Better supply intelligence means:

• More confidence that ads appear in premium, brand-safe environments

• Fewer wasted impressions tied to indirect or low-quality supply paths

• Stronger alignment between media quality and business outcomes

As CTV increasingly competes with retail media, paid social, and search for performance budgets, transparency becomes a competitive differentiator—not just a hygiene factor.

Marketing Architects argues that enriching Annika with supply-level data allows its AI to focus on what actually drives results, rather than optimizing around noisy or incomplete signals.

Raising the bar for outcome-driven CTV

The company positions the partnership as more than a feature update. Combined with Annika’s existing performance modeling, the integration represents what Marketing Architects calls a new standard for optimized, outcome-driven CTV campaigns—one less dependent on trust-me claims and more grounded in verifiable supply data.

In a market where advertisers are demanding clearer answers about where their money goes, this move puts pressure on the rest of the CTV ecosystem to follow suit.

As programmatic CTV continues its rapid growth, transparency is no longer optional. Marketing Architects’ collaboration with Jounce Media suggests that the next phase of CTV buying won’t be defined just by scale or automation—but by how intelligently, and transparently, that automation operates.

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