The fight for clean, unified, and AI-ready customer data is getting sharper, and Redpoint just scored a major credibility boost. QKS Group has named the company both a Leader and Ace Performer in its latest SPARK Matrix, a competitive evaluation that benchmarks global technology vendors on capability, innovation, and market impact. With enterprises racing to modernize customer experience and AI pipelines, the recognition puts Redpoint front-and-center in the data readiness conversation.

The QKS SPARK Matrix is known for its detailed analysis of vendor landscapes and competitive positioning. In a market flooded with CDPs, data fabrics, and AI data enablers, the report helps enterprises cut through marketing noise and compare real technical capabilities. This year’s assessment highlights the growing demand for trustworthy, contextual, and analytics-ready customer data—a space where Redpoint has carved out a very specific niche.

Redpoint’s flagship Data Readiness Hub is designed for one problem: ensuring customer data is clean, complete, accurate, and instantly usable for any AI, CX, or analytics workflow. Its approach prioritizes real-time quality, identity resolution, and data compliance, giving enterprises unified customer records that can power everything from personalized marketing to predictive modeling.

QKS analysts praised several strengths that set Redpoint apart. The platform continuously maintains enriched, unified golden records built for enterprise use. It processes data in real time with low latency, supports powerful no-code workflow orchestration, and offers full observability across the data pipeline—from ingestion to cleansing to activation. Metadata is generated and consolidated across the entire lifecycle, giving data teams unprecedented visibility into data lineage and trustworthiness.

Redpoint also leans into AI-readiness. It supports model integration, privacy-preserving MPC servers, and a flexible “bring your own models” approach. Its architecture is composable, API-driven, headless, and platform-agnostic, making it suitable for organizations modernizing their data stacks without rebuilding from scratch.

What differentiates Redpoint from more general-purpose data platforms is its laser focus on customer data challenges: fragmented identities, poor data quality, inconsistent attributes, and broken cross-channel journeys. The system updates unified profiles continuously, not periodically—a critical shift as enterprises move toward real-time personalization and risk-aware decision systems.

By resolving accuracy, identity, and compliance gaps before data flows into critical systems, Redpoint establishes a data foundation that can actually be trusted. The payoff is straightforward: sharper insights, faster activation, and measurable business outcomes across marketing, sales, service, and analytics.

Redpoint Global CEO Dale Renner called the recognition a validation of the company’s mission. He noted that Redpoint was purpose-built to address the toughest customer data problems—issues that undermine both AI models and customer experience systems. For clients, the benefit is clear: decisions powered by clean, reliable, continuously updated data rather than inconsistent or outdated inputs.

QKS Group analyst Arun U emphasized Redpoint’s strength in data quality intelligence and observability. He highlighted capabilities such as automated profiling, validation, and remediation, all delivered with real-time visibility into data health. With anomaly detection and rule-driven quality monitoring, Redpoint accelerates root-cause analysis and boosts overall data reliability—a critical advantage as organizations scale AI workloads that depend on accuracy.

The broader market context is worth noting. As generative AI accelerates across enterprises, the value of foundational data quality is increasing. Models built on noisy or incomplete datasets deliver weak predictions, inconsistent personalization, and higher operational risk. Vendors that can guarantee clean, contextual, and compliant customer data are positioned to gain ground.

Redpoint’s performance in the SPARK Matrix suggests the company is aligning with this industry shift. The Data Readiness Hub is not only keeping pace with trends but also influencing how organizations think about customer data infrastructure in an AI-first world. As enterprises intensify efforts to break data silos and unify identities, platforms like Redpoint will play a central role in powering next-generation customer engagement and analytics.

With this recognition, Redpoint enters 2025 as one of the few vendors positioned to address the messy, structural problems that limit AI’s potential in customer experience. And in a market where everyone wants AI results but few have AI-ready data, that positioning matters.

DoubleVerify is adding serious firepower to its leadership bench. The media-quality verification company has appointed Stuart Flint—most recently a senior executive at TikTok—as its new Managing Director for EMEA. The move signals DV’s intent to scale aggressively across a region primed for advertiser demand, regulatory shifts, and rapid innovation in AI-fueled ad measurement.

As global brands push for greater transparency, accuracy, and proof of performance in digital campaigns, DV is positioning itself as the go-to validation layer for modern advertising. The company’s platform verifies media quality, optimizes ad performance, and measures outcomes across channels. Bringing in Flint is expected to strengthen DV’s commercial focus while broadening its reach among enterprise marketers and platforms.

Steve Mougis, DV’s Global Chief Commercial Officer, said the hire reflects a broader goal: staying ahead of advertiser expectations. Flint’s experience across major tech and media companies—including Microsoft Advertising, AOL, Yahoo, Verizon Media, and TikTok—gives him a deep understanding of the forces reshaping digital advertising. His expertise in building commercial teams and forging strategic partnerships will be key as DV aims to expand its footprint in one of the world’s most diverse and complex markets.

Flint joins DV at a moment when EMEA’s advertising landscape is undergoing rapid change. Marketers face tightening privacy laws, fragmented measurement standards, and rising pressure to justify budgets. DV’s verification platform is designed to provide clarity amid this disruption. It ensures ads appear in brand-safe environments, reach real humans, and deliver measurable outcomes—areas where brands have zero tolerance for uncertainty.

At TikTok, Flint helped scale the platform’s Global Business Solutions team across Europe, driving significant revenue growth. His ability to balance creativity, compliance, and commercial execution earned him recognition as one of the industry’s more influential regional leaders. DV is betting that this mix of experience will help advance its go-to-market strategy and accelerate solution adoption across EMEA.

Flint said he’s joining at a “pivotal moment” for the industry, one marked by both complexity and opportunity. His focus will be on deepening client relationships, helping brands navigate fragmentation, and expanding DV’s presence across markets that differ widely in maturity and regulatory environments. The goal is clear: strengthen DV’s influence as advertisers demand sharper metrics and stronger ecosystem accountability.

DV’s momentum in EMEA has been supported by several product innovations. The company recently introduced DV Verification AI, which enhances fraud prevention and media quality analysis with automated intelligence. It also rolled out DV Authentic AdVantage, a solution designed to improve campaign efficiency by optimizing toward ads that are viewable, fraud-free, and served to the right audience. Additionally, DV’s acquisition of Rockerbox pushed the company deeper into outcomes measurement—a capability increasingly essential for brands evaluating performance across channels.

The appointment of Flint reflects DV’s ambition to build the strongest leadership team in the verification space. As the company invests in AI-driven capabilities and expands its global footprint, it is aiming to reinforce trust and transparency across a digital ad ecosystem that still struggles with fraud, waste, and measurement blind spots.

The broader implication is clear: as advertisers demand higher-quality insights and more reliable performance signals, companies that pair verification with actionable intelligence will stand out. With Flint steering EMEA strategy, DV appears ready to capitalize on this shift and strengthen its position as brands reassess how—and where—they spend in an increasingly complex digital marketplace.

Walker Sands is sharpening its growth trajectory with a heavyweight addition to its board. The integrated B2B growth services agency has appointed George Gallate—one of the industry’s most seasoned marketing executives—to guide its next phase of expansion. The move follows Walker Sands’ recent partnership with Mountaingate Capital, signaling a clear push toward scaling capabilities, accelerating acquisitions, and expanding its influence across the enterprise technology market.

Gallate enters with a résumé that few in the sector can match. Over a 40-year career, he has built, led, and transformed global marketing organizations. His 27-year tenure at Havas included serving as Global CEO and Chairman of Havas Digital, where he helped scale the business into the world’s largest digital network during the 2000s. His track record extends to leading the Rimm Kaufman Group through its sale to Merkle in 2014, eventually becoming Merkle’s Global Chief Marketing Officer.

Today, Gallate is CEO of the consultancy MKTG2.U and serves as an independent board member and investor across several major marketing services companies, including Tinuiti, Real Chemistry, Bounteous, Anteriad, Bond Loyalty, and WebFX. His experience spans every corner of the ecosystem—from digital transformation to data-driven marketing to operational leadership. He has also held previous board roles at Mars United Commerce and co-founded NEAR, Networks for Emergencies and Relief.

His appointment marks a strategic moment for Walker Sands. As the agency doubles down on becoming the leading data-driven B2B growth partner, Gallate’s mix of operator insight, investor maturity, and advisory expertise is expected to play a central role. For the past eight years, he has helped shape and scale category leaders across the marketing services industry, making him a valuable guide as Walker Sands looks to strengthen its go-to-market model and broaden its services.

The timing is closely tied to Walker Sands’ acquisition by Mountaingate Capital. Backed by new investment, the agency plans to expand its capabilities across strategic communications, digital marketing, GTM strategy, marketing technology, revenue operations, and content and creative. The goal is clear: build a modern B2B growth services platform equipped to support enterprise clients through the full funnel, from brand strategy to pipeline acceleration.

Gallate said Walker Sands’ reputation as a trusted growth partner for major B2B brands made the opportunity compelling. He credited the agency’s Outcome-Based Marketing approach for driving measurable business results—a model he believes positions the company for global leadership in the B2B services category. His focus now will be helping the leadership team scale its capabilities and capture new market opportunities.

Walker Sands co-CEO Andrew Cross added that Gallate brings a rare combination of operational leadership and investor rigor—experience that aligns directly with the agency’s ambitions. With the marketing services landscape becoming more data-driven and acquisition-heavy, Gallate’s strategic guidance is expected to help Walker Sands accelerate growth without losing focus on client outcomes.

The broader takeaway: Walker Sands is signaling that it intends to compete at the top tier of B2B marketing services. Backed by capital, strengthened by leadership, and anchored by a performance-focused model, the agency is positioning itself to expand aggressively and deepen its role as a partner to enterprise technology brands navigating increasingly complex markets.

Online holiday shopping is exploding, and new data from Algolia shows just how big the surge really was. Between Black Friday and Cyber Monday, shoppers generated 33.5 billion search queries, up 13% from last year. November overall hit 184 billion searches, a massive 61% YoY spike.

Algolia kept everything running with 99.999% uptime, even as traffic reached nearly 120,000 queries per second at peak.

So what were people looking for?

The top search growth came from:

• Pet Products: up 81% (the biggest surprise of the season)

• Apparel & Fashion: up 51%

• Health & Wellness: up 41%

• Home Goods: up 16%

Pets officially took over Cyber Weekend—shoppers might be cutting back on luxury splurges (down 49%), but not on spoiling their furry family members.

Algolia’s CEO Bernadette Nixon says the trends show consumers aren’t spending less—they’re spending smarter, focusing on comfort, wellness, value, and everyday joy.

How people shop is changing too. Nearly half of consumers now use AI tools like Perplexity and ChatGPT to compare products, find deals, or discover gift ideas. Only 23% are ready to buy directly inside AI tools, but that number is expected to grow as GenAI shopping gets smoother.

Another major insight: 72% of shoppers want retailers to use AI ethically, and say it will influence where they choose to shop. That puts pressure on brands to modernize their tech infrastructure for the “agentic AI era,” especially as peak season traffic gets even heavier.

Algolia says relevance and speed in search directly translate into revenue—every millisecond saved helps shoppers find what they want, boosts conversions, and keeps customers loyal.

AI platforms are fast becoming the new front door for business discovery—and Aker Ink wants to make sure brands aren’t left standing outside. The PR and marketing agency has launched AkerGEO™, a generative engine optimization service that helps organizations improve how they appear, rank and get referenced inside tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Copilot and Perplexity.

Unlike traditional SEO, which focuses on web search visibility, GEO tackles the AI layer, where generative models increasingly influence what people read, trust and choose. With more research now happening in AI chat interfaces than search bars, this shift isn’t subtle—it’s rewriting the rules of digital visibility.

AI Is Becoming the New Decision Engine

AI systems pull from a hybrid mix of owned content, earned media, technical signals and perceived authority. The problem? Many brands haven’t optimized any of these inputs for AI consumption. That often leads to incomplete profiles, outdated references or, worse, invisibility in algorithm-generated recommendations.

AkerGEO addresses this by blending PR fundamentals, digital marketing infrastructure and a structured content strategy. The goal is simple: provide generative engines with accurate, trustworthy and strategically positioned signals so brands appear consistently in AI-driven outputs.

“AI is driving one of the most meaningful shifts we’ve ever seen in how people discover and evaluate businesses,” said Andrea Aker, CEO of Aker Ink. She noted that generative platforms evolve by the hour, and brands can’t afford piecemeal fixes. A unified approach is required to maintain clarity, competitiveness and authority across these fast-changing environments.

Research Shows the Shift Is Already Here

A recent McKinsey analysis found that over half of U.S. consumers now use generative AI for online research. That trend aligns with the rise of zero-click behavior, where people get answers—or recommendations—directly from AI, bypassing search engines altogether. As this becomes the default information pathway, companies risk losing influence over how they’re represented unless they adapt their strategies.

AkerGEO is designed to bridge this gap. By strengthening AI-facing signals, the service helps organizations:

• Improve accuracy in generative model outputs

• Increase authority across AI-driven recommendations

• Enhance how products, experts and brand narratives are framed

• Support greater trust and relevance in early-stage decision flows

Tiered Options for Different Maturity Levels

Because organizations are at wildly different stages in understanding AI-driven visibility, Aker Ink built tiered entry points. These include:

• Foundational Assessments – For companies exploring how they currently appear in AI platforms

• Integrated GEO Programs – Blending PR, content and digital execution to consistently shape AI signals

• Advanced Optimization – For brands already deep into SEO, thought leadership and long-term digital investment

This flexible structure allows companies to adopt GEO without overhauling their existing marketing approach.

GEO Doesn’t Replace SEO—It Extends It

Aker emphasizes that GEO isn’t a substitute for SEO, PR or owned content. Instead, it acts as the connective tissue that allows these efforts to translate properly within AI models.

“Strong SEO, PR and content programs are still doing the heavy lifting,” Aker said. “But GEO helps transfer that equity into AI environments. In a market full of new AI gadgetry, the biggest impact will come from treating AI visibility as part of a unified marketing strategy—not a standalone tactic.”

The rise of AI-based discovery means companies can no longer rely solely on traditional search visibility. As generative engines become the primary interface for recommendations, credibility and brand recall will increasingly depend on how well organizations optimize for the AI layer.

AkerGEO enters that landscape with a clear message: the future isn’t search-first or social-first—it’s AI-first, and the brands that prepare now will own the next wave of digital visibility.

GDC is entering a new era—and it’s bringing one of gaming’s most iconic creators to the center stage. The newly expanded GDC Festival of Gaming announced that Hideo Kojima will deliver its first keynote in five years, marking a major milestone for the event and a symbolic moment for the industry. The festival returns to San Francisco on March 9–13, 2026, and registration is now open.

The keynote, titled “Restarting from Zero: A Message to Creators Considering Independence,” revisits the bold decision Kojima made a decade ago when he founded KOJIMA PRODUCTIONS. For an industry facing massive restructuring and creative uncertainty, the session promises a candid look at what it really takes to break away, rebuild, and chart a new path—something many developers are actively considering in today’s turbulent landscape.

A Creator Who Redefined the Medium

Hideo Kojima needs no introduction. Often referred to as the father of the stealth genre, he changed how players experience narrative, tension, and cinematic storytelling. His move to establish KOJIMA PRODUCTIONS in 2015 was more than an exit—it was a signal that independent studios could still shape the future of complex, large-scale games.

The studio’s debut, DEATH STRANDING (2019), became a landmark release, winning global praise for its unconventional design and atmosphere. Its sequel, DEATH STRANDING 2: ON THE BEACH, launched in 2025 on PlayStation 5, continuing the franchise’s blend of emotional storytelling, star-powered performances, and experimental design.

The studio’s pipeline also includes OD, created with Xbox Game Studios, as well as a growing slate of DEATH STRANDING universe projects: a live-action adaptation in partnership with A24, an animated series, and additional expansions. Kojima is also developing PHYSINT, a new action-espionage IP that nods to the genre he helped define.

Along the way, he has earned some of the highest honors in the field, including the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Game Developers Choice Awards (2009) and a BAFTA Fellowship (2020).

A Keynote Aligned With a Changing Industry

GDC Festival of Gaming isn’t just a rebrand—it’s a realignment. The event is evolving to bring together the full ecosystem: developers, publishers, founders, toolmakers, technologists, marketers, educators, and investors. Kojima’s keynote captures that shift toward inclusivity and creative reinvention.

“Hideo Kojima is one of the most influential creative voices of our time,” said Nina Brown, President of GDC. She noted that his presence sets the tone for the festival’s next chapter—one powered by bold thinking and the willingness to rebuild from scratch.

As studios continue to face layoffs, consolidations, and rising production costs, many creators are exploring independent paths. Kojima’s keynote will address that reality head-on. He plans to share personal insights into founding a studio, building a brand from nothing, securing talent, and navigating the complexities of creative control. It’s the kind of behind-the-scenes perspective that rarely surfaces in public forums.

A Festival Designed for Today’s Game-Making Era

Beyond the headline keynote, the GDC Festival of Gaming aims to deliver a broader, more interactive experience. The week-long celebration includes:

• Festival Hall immersive experiences

• GamePlan, an expanded networking and matchmaking program

• GDC Nights, featuring community-driven evening events

• Luminaries Speaker Series, designed for executive-level insights

The goal is clear: create a space where everyone who touches the game-making process—from brainstorming to launch to scaling—can connect, collaborate, and build what’s next.

Why This Moment Matters

Kojima’s appearance comes at a moment when creative independence is both attractive and daunting. Many developers aspire to break away from traditional structures, yet few fully understand what that transition demands. Kojima’s journey offers a blueprint for navigating the risks, pitfalls, and rewards of rebuilding from zero.

His keynote is more than a retrospective. It’s a timely message for an industry facing reinvention. As GDC steps into its new identity, choosing Kojima to open the festival underscores a shared belief: the next decade of gaming will be shaped by creators willing to take bold leaps—and the ecosystems that support them.

The future of social media marketing is arriving faster than most teams expect—and Emplifi believes 2026 will be the year everything converges. The social media marketing platform released six predictions based on performance data and insights from tens of thousands of global brands using its tools for marketing, customer care and commerce. The message is clear: AI, authenticity, and integrated workflows will define the next era of brand building.

Susan Ganeshan, Emplifi’s CMO, puts it bluntly: “The next era of social media marketing will test brands like never before.” With generative AI now embedded across nearly every martech stack, marketers are gearing up for major strategic and operational changes.

What Emplifi outlines isn’t vague futurism—it’s a blueprint shaped by actual usage patterns from high-performing global brands.

1. Short-Form Video and UGC Will Dominate Creative Strategy

Marketers are doubling down on formats that feel real, immediate and unpolished. Emplifi’s data shows that 73% of marketers will prioritize short-form video in 2026, with 47% leaning into user-generated content.

Consumers want authenticity, not cinematic perfection. Brands that win will swap high-gloss production for customer-driven stories that feel natural, relatable and fast to consume.

2. Paid Budgets Shift Toward Instagram, YouTube and TikTok

Video-centric platforms are becoming full-funnel commerce engines. Emplifi sees budgets moving aggressively toward Instagram, YouTube and TikTok, where social commerce continues to surge.

But the biggest unlock isn’t spend—it’s creative fit. Repurposing generic content won’t work. Emplifi expects top performers to build:

• immersive Shorts for YouTube

• creator-first narratives on TikTok

• interactive, high-retention Reels on Instagram

Native content will be the price of entry.

3. Generative AI Will Move From Experiments to Embedded Workflows

The pilot phase is officially over. In 2026, Emplifi predicts generative AI will become a foundational workflow layer for marketing and customer care teams.

We’re heading toward agentic AI—systems that handle real-time tasks like drafting copy, making optimizations, adjusting spend and responding to customers. This shift frees human teams to focus on strategy, creative direction and experience design instead of execution.

4. Virtual Influencers Will Play Supporting Roles, Not Replace Humans

Even though purely AI-generated influencer partnerships fell 30%, Emplifi expects virtual creators to remain valuable—when used wisely.

Brands will use AI-generated influencers to scale storytelling and experiment with visual formats. But human voices still carry the most trust. Transparency will be mandatory, especially since 83% of consumers want disclosure when AI is involved.

The takeaway: virtual influencers should amplify, not replace, human creators.

5. Agentic AI Will Reduce Burnout Across Social Teams

Burnout remains one of the industry’s biggest challenges. Emplifi’s research shows 52% of marketers experience burnout frequently, and another 24% feel it occasionally.

The company expects a shift in the next 12 months. As brands adopt agentic AI for scheduling, reporting, routing and operational tasks, teams will spend less time on manual work and more on high-impact creativity.

In short, automation becomes a pressure valve, not a threat.

6. Social, Care and Commerce Will Merge Into One Unified Experience

With two-thirds of social teams already partnering closely with customer care and commerce, Emplifi predicts 2026 will break down the remaining silos.

Social platforms will become the front door to the entire customer experience, handling:

• discovery

• product research

• purchase

• support

Consumers will expect everything to happen in one continuous journey, with no hand-offs or channel breaks.

Ganeshan sums it up: “Brands that thrive will balance AI-powered workflows with authentic experiences. They won’t just survive the new age of generative AI—they’ll define what customer-centricity really means.”

Emplifi’s CMO will dive deeper into these trends during a live webinar on December 9, offering tactical insights for brands preparing for 2026’s rapid shifts.

Retail media continues to surge, yet the underlying infrastructure supporting it is still painfully fragmented. Agencies operating across retailers, markets, and formats spend more time wrestling with dashboards than optimizing campaigns. GoWit, a global AdTech player already powering thousands of brands, believes the industry has reached a breaking point—and it’s offering a fix.

This week, the company unveiled GoWit One, a unified AI operating system designed to replace the cobbled-together toolchains agencies use today. Instead of jumping between dashboards, rules, and compliance sheets, teams can now plan, activate, and optimize retail media campaigns in one place. GoWit claims the platform reduces manual AdOps workflows by 98%, shrinking tasks that once took hours into minutes.

The launch arrives at a moment when retail media expansion shows no sign of slowing. Yet, according to the IAB, 70% of the market still operates without end-to-end AI adoption. That gap exposes agencies to errors, lost time, and missed opportunities to scale. GoWit One aims to close that gap by treating fragmentation not as an annoyance, but as an industry-wide crisis demanding a technical reboot.

A Single Dashboard for a Fragmented Ecosystem

Retail media has always struggled with complexity. Each retailer has its own ad formats, specs, pricing, policies, and analytics frameworks. For agencies, managing multi-retailer campaigns often requires separate processes for each partner, multiplied across markets.

GoWit One tackles this operational sprawl head-on through a unified command center. It integrates the company’s existing infrastructure, which already connects 7,000+ brands to leading retailers across 20+ EMEA markets.

The platform’s core capabilities revolve around automation, unification, and real-time intelligence:

• Rapid Execution: Automated workflows replace manual data entry and campaign configuration.

• Unified Intelligence: A single performance view spans on-site, off-site, and in-store formats.

• AI-Guided Compliance: Real-time checks ensure formats, specs, and pricing meet retailer requirements before launch.

This structured approach allows agencies not only to move faster, but also to scale consistently, even when campaign volumes spike during high-demand retail cycles.

AI at the Center of AdOps

GoWit’s leadership argues that the answer to retail media’s systemic inefficiency is simple: AI must sit at the center of the ecosystem, not the edges.

“By putting AI at the core of AdOps, we’re enabling agencies to reclaim time, eliminate inefficiency, and scale smarter than ever before,” said Emrah Adsan, CEO of GoWit. He added that GoWit One’s value lies in bringing automation, multi-retailer unification, and real-time intelligence into one connected environment.

This positioning aligns with broader AdTech trends. While platforms like Amazon, Walmart Connect, and CitrusAd invest heavily in retail media innovation, the cross-retailer layer remains underserved. Agencies operating across markets often rely on spreadsheets, custom scripts, or siloed activation tools. GoWit One steps directly into that gap with an infrastructure designed for interoperability rather than isolation.

WPP Media Becomes the Exclusive Pilot Partner

To validate its technology, GoWit has partnered with WPP Media Turkey, naming it the exclusive pilot agency. Given WPP’s global footprint and influence across commerce and retail media, the partnership signals confidence in the platform’s scalability and readiness.

According to Evren Gülyaşar, Managing Director for Commerce at WPP Media Turkey, GoWit One “sets a new benchmark” for retail media operations. He emphasized that the ability to manage multi-retailer and multi-market campaigns end-to-end within a single ecosystem removes critical bottlenecks, granting teams both speed and precision.

For WPP, which handles some of the world’s largest commerce and brand portfolios, that level of efficiency could be transformative. Retail media remains one of the fastest-growing digital advertising segments, yet it also remains one of the most operationally burdensome. If GoWit One performs as advertised, agencies may be able to shift talent away from repetitive tasks and toward strategic planning and optimization.

A Platform Built for Scale, Not Just Convenience

What separates GoWit One from typical workflow automation tools is its attempt to redefine how retail media operations should function at scale. Instead of treating retail media networks as separate entities, the platform brings them under a common architecture.

This matters because the next phase of retail media growth will depend not on new networks entering the market, but on agencies’ ability to manage complexity without losing efficiency. With third-party cookies fading and commerce data becoming the new competitive currency, retail media buyers need platforms that allow smarter and faster decision-making.

GoWit One positions itself as that missing infrastructure layer, linking retailers, brands, and markets in a single operational loop. If adoption accelerates, it may force competitors—both legacy AdOps tools and retailer-specific platforms—to rethink their approach to interoperability.

The Bigger Picture for Retail Media

The timing for GoWit One is notable. Retail media is expected to become the third major digital advertising pillar alongside search and social. As spending increases, agencies face greater pressure to deliver performance while keeping operational costs in check.

By centralizing workflows and introducing unified intelligence, GoWit One provides a blueprint for how Retail Media 2.0 could unfold. It brings AI-driven decisioning to an ecosystem that still depends heavily on manual execution. And it creates a shared operational standard where none previously existed.

The early endorsement from WPP Media suggests the platform may become a template for how global agencies manage multi-retailer commerce advertising. If the pilot succeeds, broader adoption across EMEA—and potentially beyond—seems likely.

For now, GoWit One enters the market with strong momentum, a clear value proposition, and an industry-wide pain point to solve. Whether it becomes the connective tissue retail media has been missing will depend on execution, but the direction is unmistakably forward.