Artificial intelligence is becoming a strategic priority for colleges and universities seeking to improve student engagement, fundraising, and operational efficiency. Reflecting that momentum, Gravyty has expanded its executive leadership team by appointing Margaret Onisick Lawless as Chief Product and Technology Officer and Brandon Stec as Senior Vice President of Marketing, reinforcing its focus on AI-powered engagement solutions for higher education institutions.

As higher education institutions increasingly adopt artificial intelligence to modernize student engagement and institutional advancement, technology providers are strengthening their leadership teams to support the next phase of innovation. Gravyty, an AI-powered engagement platform for higher education, has announced two executive appointments aimed at accelerating product development and expanding market growth.

The company has named Margaret Onisick Lawless as Chief Product and Technology Officer (CPTO) and Brandon Stec as Senior Vice President of Marketing. Together, the executives will help advance Gravyty's unified AI platform, which supports student success, alumni engagement, fundraising, institutional advancement, and collegiate athletics.

The appointments come as universities face increasing pressure to improve enrollment, enhance student retention, strengthen alumni relationships, and operate more efficiently with limited resources. Artificial intelligence has emerged as an important technology for addressing these challenges by automating routine processes, delivering personalized engagement, and providing data-driven insights throughout the education lifecycle.

Lawless brings more than 25 years of experience leading product and technology organizations serving education and mission-driven institutions. Prior to joining Gravyty, she served as Chief Product and Technology Officer at TeachTown, where she oversaw engineering, information technology, curriculum, product management, marketing, and customer support. Her previous leadership roles at Blackbaud, Relias Learning, and Intelerad focused on scaling enterprise software platforms, modernizing product portfolios, and improving customer experiences.

As CPTO, Lawless will lead Gravyty's product strategy and technology roadmap while aligning product innovation with customer needs and long-term business priorities. Her responsibilities include advancing AI-powered solutions that help institutions create stronger engagement across the student journey while maximizing technology investments.

The company has also appointed Brandon Stec as Senior Vice President of Marketing. Stec brings more than a decade of experience leading marketing, demand generation, and growth strategies across education technology, nonprofit technology, and professional sports organizations. Most recently, he held senior marketing leadership positions at Frontline Education, helping K–12 institutions modernize operations and improve stakeholder engagement. Earlier in his career, he supported digital marketing initiatives for Community Brands following its acquisition of Gesture.

Stec will oversee Gravyty's global marketing organization, including brand strategy, demand generation, communications, and go-to-market initiatives. His role is expected to strengthen market awareness of Gravyty's AI platform while helping colleges and universities better understand how artificial intelligence can improve engagement with students, alumni, donors, and athletic supporters.

The leadership expansion reflects broader trends across the education technology sector. Institutions are moving beyond isolated digital transformation initiatives toward integrated platforms capable of supporting the entire education lifecycle—from prospective student recruitment and enrollment to fundraising, alumni relations, and lifelong engagement.

Gravyty's platform is designed around this connected approach, combining AI-powered engagement tools that enable personalized communications, automate repetitive workflows, and provide actionable insights for institutional advancement teams. Rather than deploying separate solutions for fundraising, student engagement, and alumni relations, universities increasingly seek unified platforms that centralize data and improve operational efficiency.

According to Gartner, artificial intelligence is becoming a strategic investment across education and enterprise sectors as organizations prioritize automation, predictive analytics, and personalized digital experiences. IDC also projects continued growth in AI software spending as institutions accelerate digital transformation initiatives to improve productivity and user engagement.

Competition within the higher education technology market continues to intensify as software providers incorporate generative AI, intelligent automation, and predictive analytics into their platforms. Enterprise technology companies including Microsoft, Google, Salesforce, and Adobe continue expanding AI capabilities that support customer engagement, workflow automation, and data intelligence, influencing innovation across education technology providers as well.

For colleges and universities, AI is increasingly viewed not simply as an operational efficiency tool but as a means of building stronger relationships throughout the education lifecycle. Personalized communications, predictive engagement models, automated fundraising outreach, and intelligent student support are becoming central components of institutional success strategies.

Gravyty's executive appointments underscore this evolving market direction. By strengthening leadership across both product development and go-to-market strategy, the company is positioning itself to expand its AI platform while helping higher education institutions adopt technologies that improve engagement, increase operational efficiency, and deliver more personalized experiences for students, alumni, donors, and other stakeholders.

Market Landscape

Higher education technology is rapidly embracing artificial intelligence to improve student recruitment, retention, fundraising, alumni engagement, and operational efficiency. Institutions are investing in integrated AI platforms that unify engagement across the entire education lifecycle rather than deploying disconnected point solutions.

The market is also witnessing greater convergence between education technology, CRM platforms, marketing automation, and predictive analytics. AI-powered engagement platforms are enabling colleges and universities to deliver personalized experiences while optimizing institutional resources and strengthening long-term stakeholder relationships.

Top Insights

• Gravyty has strengthened its executive leadership with new product and marketing appointments to accelerate innovation across its AI-powered higher education engagement platform.
• The company continues expanding AI capabilities that support student success, fundraising, alumni engagement, athletics, and institutional advancement through a unified technology platform.
• Higher education institutions increasingly rely on AI to improve operational efficiency, personalize communications, and strengthen engagement throughout the student lifecycle.
• Leadership investments reflect broader education technology trends emphasizing integrated AI platforms over disconnected engagement tools and manual workflows.
• AI-powered engagement solutions are becoming strategic assets for universities seeking to improve enrollment outcomes, donor relationships, and long-term institutional growth.

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As marketers rethink the balance between digital advertising and physical customer engagement, direct marketing is making a notable comeback. Quad has introduced Direct, a Quad Agency, a new full-service marketing agency designed to help brands unify audience intelligence, creative validation, production, and campaign measurement as businesses increasingly invest in personalized direct mail and omnichannel marketing strategies.

After years of enterprise marketing budgets shifting toward digital channels, direct marketing is regaining momentum as brands seek new ways to capture consumer attention in an increasingly crowded AI-driven media landscape. Responding to this trend, Quad/Graphics, Inc. has launched Direct, a Quad Agency, a dedicated agency focused on modernizing direct marketing through data intelligence, automation, and integrated campaign execution.

The launch reflects growing enterprise demand for marketing strategies that combine physical and digital customer experiences rather than treating them as separate channels. As consumers become exposed to larger volumes of AI-generated content and digital advertising, marketers are revisiting direct mail and personalized print experiences to improve engagement, increase response rates, and strengthen brand recall.

Unlike traditional direct mail providers, Direct positions itself as an end-to-end direct marketing partner that integrates campaign planning, audience targeting, creative testing, production, logistics, and analytics into a single operating model. The agency is intended to help enterprise marketers streamline campaign execution while improving measurement and operational efficiency.

At the center of the offering is Quad's proprietary marketing technology ecosystem. The agency combines audience intelligence powered by a household data platform covering approximately 97% of the U.S. adult population, pre-market creative validation through the company's Accelerated Marketing Insights (AMI) platform, automated direct mail workflows using At-Home Connect, in-house production capabilities, postal optimization technologies, and end-to-end campaign analytics.

This integrated approach reflects a broader shift occurring across the MarTech landscape. Enterprise marketing teams increasingly seek connected marketing infrastructure that links customer data, creative development, production, measurement, and optimization within unified workflows. Rather than managing multiple disconnected vendors, organizations are prioritizing platforms capable of orchestrating campaigns across both physical and digital channels.

According to Joel Quadracci, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Quad, effective marketing increasingly depends on integrating physical and digital experiences to capture attention and drive customer action. The launch of Direct brings together capabilities the company has developed over several decades into a dedicated agency model focused exclusively on direct marketing.

The agency will be led by Carl Fischer, Vice President of Direct Marketing, who brings more than 25 years of experience in audience intelligence, direct marketing strategy, and campaign optimization. Fischer joined Quad through its acquisition of Realyze, a marketing insights company whose technology now powers Quad's AMI platform. His previous experience also includes leadership at CFM Direct, later acquired by Merkle, along with client-side marketing leadership within the insurance industry.

The timing of the launch aligns with growing industry forecasts supporting renewed investment in direct marketing. Research from Winterberry Group projects that the U.S. addressable direct marketing industry will expand from $525 billion in 2026 to approximately $700 billion by 2029, driven by increasing demand for personalized, triggered, and data-driven marketing programs.

Consumer preferences also appear to support the trend. According to The Harris Poll, 69% of consumers say print media influenced their brand selection during the past year. Interest is particularly strong among younger demographics, with 72% of Generation Z and Millennial consumers indicating they would like brands to create more personalized experiences through direct mail.

Triggered direct mail is also gaining traction as organizations move away from large-scale batch campaigns toward automated, customer-specific communications. Data from the United States Postal Service Office of Inspector General suggests triggered direct mail campaigns can generate two to three times higher response rates than traditional batch mailings and could account for up to 30% of total direct mail volume by 2029.

The launch comes as marketing leaders increasingly adopt omnichannel marketing strategies that coordinate digital advertising, email, mobile engagement, direct mail, and customer relationship management into unified customer journeys. Major enterprise technology providers including Salesforce, Adobe, Google, and Microsoft continue expanding AI-powered marketing automation and customer engagement capabilities, enabling marketers to personalize experiences across multiple touchpoints.

According to Gartner, marketing organizations are prioritizing investments that improve customer engagement, campaign measurement, and operational efficiency through integrated marketing technologies. Meanwhile, Forrester continues to emphasize customer experience and cross-channel orchestration as critical drivers of modern marketing performance.

For enterprise marketers, Quad's launch of Direct highlights an important shift in marketing strategy. Rather than viewing direct mail as a legacy channel, organizations increasingly recognize physical marketing as part of a broader, data-driven customer engagement strategy. As AI reshapes digital advertising and competition for consumer attention intensifies, integrated direct marketing platforms may become an increasingly valuable component of enterprise MarTech stacks.

Market Landscape

Direct marketing is evolving into a technology-enabled discipline powered by first-party data, AI-driven audience intelligence, marketing automation, and advanced campaign analytics. Enterprise brands are increasingly integrating direct mail with digital channels to deliver consistent omnichannel customer experiences.

The resurgence of direct marketing reflects growing demand for measurable physical engagement in an era dominated by digital advertising. Organizations are investing in connected MarTech ecosystems that unify customer data, campaign orchestration, creative testing, and marketing measurement across online and offline touchpoints.

Top Insights

• Quad has launched Direct, a dedicated agency that combines audience intelligence, creative validation, production, logistics, and analytics into one integrated direct marketing solution.
• Enterprise marketers are increasingly blending physical and digital marketing channels to improve engagement, personalization, and campaign performance across customer journeys.
• Industry forecasts indicate continued growth in direct marketing, driven by increased adoption of triggered, data-driven, and automated direct mail campaigns.
• Consumer research suggests print media remains influential, particularly among Gen Z and Millennials seeking more personalized brand interactions beyond digital advertising.
• Integrated direct marketing platforms are becoming strategic components of enterprise MarTech stacks as organizations pursue measurable omnichannel customer engagement.

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As digital advertising grows more complex and AI reshapes campaign management, marketers are increasingly seeking platforms that automate more than just content creation. GIGR, a San Francisco-based AI startup, has introduced Playad Autopilot, a multi-agent artificial intelligence platform designed to automate the entire performance marketing workflow—from competitive research and creative production to campaign optimization and continuous learning.

Artificial intelligence is rapidly transforming performance marketing from a manual, channel-specific discipline into a continuous cycle of experimentation, optimization, and automated decision-making. Against this backdrop, GIGR has launched Playad Autopilot, an AI-native performance marketing platform that uses a multi-agent architecture to automate end-to-end campaign execution for enterprise marketing teams and digital advertisers.

The global launch comes at a time when worldwide advertising expenditure is projected to exceed $1 trillion in 2026, underscoring the growing complexity of digital marketing. As brands expand campaigns across social media, search, retail media, connected TV (CTV), mobile applications, and commerce platforms, marketers face increasing pressure to produce more creative assets, analyze larger volumes of performance data, and optimize campaigns at greater speed.

Playad Autopilot aims to streamline that process by bringing multiple stages of the marketing lifecycle into a single AI-powered workflow. The platform analyzes product information, audience insights, competitive intelligence, historical creative performance, and campaign data before generating advertising hypotheses, producing creative assets, preparing campaigns for launch, evaluating results, and recommending the next optimization cycle.

Unlike standalone generative AI tools that focus primarily on creating images, videos, or marketing copy, Playad is built around what GIGR describes as the complete performance marketing loop. Its multi-agent AI architecture assigns specialized agents to distinct functions such as market research, creative ideation, campaign setup, performance analysis, and optimization, enabling the system to automate workflows that traditionally require multiple software platforms and cross-functional teams.

This approach addresses a growing operational challenge within enterprise marketing organizations. Many large enterprises rely on more than 100 marketing applications spanning customer relationship management (CRM), marketing automation, analytics, creative production, media buying, attribution, and reporting. The resulting fragmentation often slows campaign execution, increases operational costs, and makes it difficult for organizations to capture institutional knowledge from previous marketing experiments.

Playad Autopilot seeks to reduce this complexity by consolidating research, creative production, campaign management, and performance learning into a unified environment. Marketers provide campaign objectives, audience information, brand context, and existing campaign data, after which AI agents generate testing strategies, produce multiple creative variations, prepare launch-ready assets, and recommend future optimization opportunities based on campaign outcomes.

One of the platform's distinguishing capabilities is its continuous learning model. Rather than treating every campaign as an isolated project, Playad builds an evolving knowledge base around each brand, retaining information about audience behavior, previous experiments, creative decisions, and historical performance. This allows future campaigns to benefit from accumulated organizational learning rather than restarting optimization from scratch.

The platform also supports production of multiple advertising formats, including static images, videos, user-generated content (UGC)-style creatives, interactive advertisements, and channel-specific assets. Automated formatting for major advertising platforms is intended to reduce production time while helping marketing teams maintain consistency across multiple digital channels.

According to GIGR, early customer deployments have demonstrated measurable operational improvements. The company says one customer reduced recurring marketing operations from an estimated 20–40 hours per week to approximately one hour, while achieving roughly 1.5x improvement in campaign performance over the same period. Although these figures represent company-reported results rather than independent benchmarks, they illustrate the productivity gains AI automation aims to deliver for performance marketers.

The company also reports early commercial momentum, with Playad Autopilot surpassing 6,000 user accounts during its first month of soft launch. Originally developed as an AI creative generation tool for gaming advertisers, the platform has expanded into an end-to-end marketing operations solution serving organizations across mobile applications, gaming, e-commerce, fintech, and consumer services.

The launch reflects broader industry trends toward agentic AI, where multiple AI agents collaborate to complete complex workflows with minimal human intervention. Major technology companies including Google, Microsoft, Salesforce, and Adobe are expanding investments in AI agents, intelligent automation, and predictive marketing capabilities, signaling a shift from content generation toward autonomous marketing operations.

According to Gartner, marketing organizations are increasingly investing in AI-enabled automation to improve productivity, optimize campaign performance, and support data-driven decision-making. McKinsey & Company has also identified marketing and sales as among the enterprise functions expected to generate the greatest value from generative AI adoption through automation, personalization, and accelerated experimentation.

For enterprise marketing teams, the emergence of platforms like Playad Autopilot represents more than another AI content tool. It reflects the growing convergence of marketing automation, creative intelligence, analytics, and workflow orchestration into unified systems capable of continuously learning and improving campaign performance. As digital advertising becomes increasingly algorithmic, the ability to rapidly test, learn, and adapt may become one of the defining competitive advantages for modern performance marketing organizations.

Market Landscape

Performance marketing is entering a new phase where AI agents automate entire campaign lifecycles instead of individual marketing tasks. Multi-agent AI systems combine research, creative generation, media preparation, analytics, and optimization into unified workflows that reduce operational complexity and accelerate experimentation.

As enterprise organizations consolidate fragmented MarTech stacks, AI-native marketing platforms are emerging as alternatives to disconnected point solutions. The trend is expected to accelerate as brands seek faster campaign execution, lower operational costs, and continuous performance optimization powered by machine learning.

Top Insights

• GIGR's Playad Autopilot uses multi-agent AI to automate research, creative production, campaign setup, analytics, and optimization within a single performance marketing workflow.
• The platform addresses growing MarTech fragmentation by reducing reliance on multiple disconnected tools while helping enterprise teams accelerate experimentation and campaign execution.
• Continuous learning capabilities allow Playad to retain institutional knowledge from previous campaigns, improving future marketing decisions through accumulated performance intelligence.
• Early adoption indicates strong market interest, with GIGR reporting more than 6,000 accounts during its first month of soft launch across multiple industry verticals.
• The launch reflects the broader evolution from generative AI content tools toward autonomous AI agents capable of managing complex enterprise marketing operations.

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As artificial intelligence reshapes customer expectations across the broadband industry, technology providers are placing greater emphasis on customer experience as a competitive differentiator. Plume has responded by creating a new executive role that unifies marketing and customer success, appointing Rebecca Stone as its first Chief Customer and Marketing Officer (CCMO) to oversee the entire customer lifecycle for Internet service providers (ISPs) worldwide.

Customer experience is emerging as one of the most important battlegrounds in the broadband industry, where Internet service providers (ISPs) are increasingly competing on service quality, subscriber engagement, and AI-enabled digital experiences rather than network speeds alone. Reflecting this industry shift, Plume Design, Inc. has appointed Rebecca Stone as its inaugural Chief Customer and Marketing Officer (CCMO), consolidating customer success and marketing under a single executive leadership role.

The newly created position expands Stone's responsibilities beyond marketing after she joined Plume as Chief Marketing Officer in January 2026. As CCMO, she will oversee the complete customer journey—from brand awareness and go-to-market strategy to customer success, retention, and long-term growth—for Plume's global network of more than 450 Internet Service Providers across 58 countries.

The appointment signals a broader strategic move as enterprise technology vendors increasingly align marketing, customer success, and revenue operations to create more connected customer experiences. Rather than operating as separate business functions, organizations are integrating these teams to improve customer retention, accelerate product adoption, and generate recurring revenue through lifecycle engagement.

For Plume, whose subscriber experience platform enables ISPs to deliver AI-powered connectivity and network intelligence, the leadership change reflects growing demand for customer-centric business models in the broadband sector. As AI transforms subscriber expectations, service providers are under increasing pressure to deliver proactive support, personalized digital experiences, and consistently reliable home connectivity.

According to Plume President and CEO Dan Herscovici, the new executive role was created to ensure customers experience consistent engagement throughout every stage of their relationship with the company. The strategy brings together brand development, customer engagement, commercial execution, and post-sale success under a unified leadership structure designed to strengthen partnerships with ISPs globally.

Stone brings more than two decades of enterprise technology marketing experience to the expanded role. Before joining Plume, she served as Senior Vice President of Revenue Marketing and Customer Solutions Marketing at Cisco, where she led strategy and operations for a networking portfolio valued at approximately $50 billion. Earlier in her career, as Chief Marketing Officer at Meraki, she led a global marketing transformation that expanded the organization's marketing capabilities while increasing marketing-sourced pipeline contribution.

Her appointment reflects a wider enterprise trend in which customer success is evolving into a board-level priority. Rather than measuring marketing solely by lead generation, organizations increasingly evaluate success through customer lifetime value, expansion revenue, product adoption, and long-term retention. Integrating customer success with marketing enables companies to create more cohesive customer journeys supported by data-driven decision-making and continuous engagement.

The announcement comes as Plume continues investing in its executive leadership team. The company recently named Peter Wulfraat as Chief Revenue Officer to accelerate commercial growth across its global ISP footprint, reinforcing a strategy focused on deeper partnerships with broadband providers.

The leadership changes also follow several company milestones, including multiple Gold Stevie Awards recognizing Plume's technology innovation and leadership, as well as inclusion among the Top 100 Global Most Loved Workplaces. While these recognitions highlight organizational momentum, the broader significance lies in the company's continued investment across product innovation, customer experience, and executive leadership as competition intensifies in broadband services.

Industry analysts increasingly view customer experience as a defining differentiator for broadband providers. Parks Associates notes that gigabit broadband penetration in the United States has surpassed 25%, creating a more competitive environment where subscriber retention depends less on raw network speed and more on service quality, managed connectivity, and personalized customer engagement.

Supporting that perspective, Plume recently collaborated with Parks Associates on a white paper examining how AI-driven engagement strategies can improve subscriber retention and reduce customer churn. The company has also introduced research focused on leveraging Wi-Fi 7 technologies to deliver performance outcomes associated with next-generation wireless networking.

The announcement reflects a broader transformation occurring across enterprise technology markets. According to Gartner, customer experience remains one of the primary competitive differentiators influencing enterprise technology investment, while McKinsey & Company has reported that organizations adopting AI across customer-facing operations can significantly improve customer satisfaction and operational efficiency.

Competition among enterprise platform providers—including Cisco, Salesforce, Microsoft, Adobe, and Google—has accelerated investments in AI-powered customer engagement, predictive analytics, and lifecycle marketing capabilities. In this environment, executive roles that unify marketing and customer success are becoming increasingly common as organizations seek to align brand strategy, customer engagement, and commercial outcomes.

For enterprise marketers and technology leaders, Plume's leadership restructuring illustrates how AI is reshaping organizational design alongside technology itself. As customer expectations continue evolving, companies are increasingly recognizing that delivering consistent experiences throughout the customer lifecycle requires closer integration between marketing, customer success, and revenue operations.

Market Landscape

Artificial intelligence is redefining customer engagement across the telecommunications and enterprise technology sectors. Broadband providers are investing in AI-powered subscriber experience platforms that enable predictive support, intelligent network management, personalized services, and proactive customer retention.

At the same time, enterprise software companies are restructuring leadership teams to unify marketing, customer success, and revenue operations. This organizational shift reflects growing recognition that long-term business growth depends on delivering connected customer experiences supported by data, automation, and AI-driven insights.

Top Insights

• Plume has created a Chief Customer and Marketing Officer role, signaling a growing enterprise trend toward integrating marketing and customer success under unified executive leadership.
• Rebecca Stone will oversee the complete ISP customer lifecycle, aligning brand strategy, customer engagement, retention, and growth within a single operational framework.
• AI is raising subscriber expectations, encouraging broadband technology providers to prioritize customer experience as a key competitive differentiator alongside network performance.
• Executive leadership integration supports stronger collaboration between marketing, customer success, and revenue teams, improving customer lifetime value and operational efficiency.
• The broadband industry is increasingly adopting AI-driven customer engagement strategies to reduce churn, strengthen loyalty, and differentiate services in highly competitive markets.

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As enterprise organizations expand partner ecosystems and distributed marketing operations, maintaining brand consistency while enabling localized execution has become a growing challenge. Against this backdrop, OneTouchPoint has been included in Forrester's The Partner Marketing Automation Platforms for B2B Landscape, Q3 2026, highlighting the company's presence in the evolving Partner Marketing Automation Platform (PMAP) market.

The rapid expansion of channel partnerships, franchise networks, and distributed marketing teams is reshaping how enterprises execute campaigns across multiple markets. Recognizing this growing segment, Forrester has included OneTouchPoint in its The Partner Marketing Automation Platforms for B2B Landscape, Q3 2026, a market overview of vendors providing Partner Marketing Automation Platforms (PMAPs) for business-to-business organizations.

The report reflects increasing enterprise demand for platforms that help marketing leaders coordinate campaigns across partners, regional offices, dealers, distributors, and franchise locations without sacrificing brand governance or operational efficiency.

Unlike traditional marketing automation platforms that primarily focus on customer engagement and lead nurturing, Partner Marketing Automation Platforms are designed to help organizations manage co-branded marketing, localized campaign execution, digital asset distribution, partner enablement, and performance measurement across distributed business networks.

For OneTouchPoint, its inclusion aligns with the company's long-term investment in connected marketing operations through its Connected Brand Experience™ strategy and the OTP One platform. The platform is designed to centralize brand governance while enabling localized marketing execution, allowing enterprise organizations to create content at scale, integrate marketing technologies, coordinate production and fulfillment, and measure campaign effectiveness from a unified operating model.

The growing importance of PMAP solutions reflects broader changes in enterprise marketing. Organizations are increasingly managing thousands of partners, resellers, retail locations, and regional marketing teams, each requiring localized campaigns that remain compliant with corporate brand standards. As a result, marketing leaders are prioritizing technologies that combine automation, governance, workflow management, and analytics within a single ecosystem.

According to Christine Kropp, President of Technology Solutions at OneTouchPoint, marketing execution has become significantly more complex as organizations balance centralized governance with localized execution across expanding partner networks. The company views its inclusion in Forrester's market landscape as validation of its continued investment in helping enterprises simplify marketing execution.

The OTP One platform supports several strategic capabilities, including centralized brand governance for distributed organizations, localized marketing execution through a unified operating model, and integration across marketing technology, production, fulfillment, and managed services. This connected approach aims to reduce operational complexity while improving consistency across marketing channels.

OneTouchPoint also emphasizes the challenge of execution rather than content creation alone. According to Casey Rush, Vice President of Marketing at the company, enterprise organizations increasingly require integrated platforms that connect strategy with execution across every partner, location, and customer touchpoint. This reflects a broader market trend in which operational efficiency has become as important as creative performance.

The Partner Marketing Automation Platform category is gaining momentum as enterprises pursue more scalable marketing operations. According to Gartner, marketing organizations continue to consolidate technology investments around platforms that improve workflow automation, operational efficiency, and campaign measurement. At the same time, IDC projects continued enterprise investment in AI-enabled marketing technologies and automation platforms as organizations seek greater productivity and more connected customer experiences.

Competition within the PMAP market also continues to evolve alongside broader enterprise MarTech ecosystems. Vendors increasingly differentiate themselves by combining partner enablement, digital asset management, workflow automation, analytics, content personalization, and integrations with platforms such as Salesforce, Microsoft, Adobe, and Google. Rather than relying on standalone marketing tools, enterprises are building interconnected technology stacks that support end-to-end marketing operations across both direct and indirect sales channels.

For enterprise marketing leaders, the significance of Forrester's latest landscape extends beyond vendor visibility. It underscores the growing importance of connected marketing infrastructure capable of supporting distributed execution while maintaining governance, compliance, and measurable business outcomes. As partner ecosystems continue expanding globally, technologies that bridge centralized strategy with localized execution are expected to become increasingly important components of enterprise MarTech strategies.

Market Landscape

Partner Marketing Automation Platforms are emerging as a specialized segment within the broader MarTech ecosystem, addressing the operational challenges of distributed marketing. These platforms enable enterprises to standardize brand governance, automate localized campaigns, support channel partners, and improve visibility into marketing performance across complex business networks.

As organizations expand partner ecosystems and omnichannel strategies, PMAP solutions are increasingly integrated with customer relationship management (CRM), digital asset management (DAM), marketing automation, and analytics platforms. The trend reflects a shift toward connected marketing operations that balance centralized control with regional flexibility.

Top Insights

• OneTouchPoint's inclusion in Forrester's PMAP Landscape highlights growing enterprise demand for platforms that unify partner marketing, brand governance, and localized campaign execution.
• The PMAP market is evolving beyond campaign management to include workflow automation, digital asset governance, fulfillment, analytics, and technology integration for distributed organizations.
• Enterprise marketing teams increasingly require connected platforms that help maintain brand consistency while empowering partners, franchises, and regional offices with localized marketing capabilities.
• Marketing operations are becoming a strategic differentiator as organizations invest in unified platforms that improve execution efficiency across complex partner ecosystems.
• Integration with enterprise MarTech platforms enables organizations to connect strategy, execution, measurement, and operational workflows within a single marketing environment.

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Artificial intelligence is increasingly shifting from experimental marketing initiatives to core business operations, and industry recognition is beginning to reflect that transition. At its AI Forum Singapore, Forrester announced Fortinet as the Asia Pacific winner of its inaugural B2B Marketing AI Impact Award, recognizing the cybersecurity company's enterprise-wide use of AI to improve marketing performance, sales alignment, and campaign execution across the region.

Artificial intelligence is becoming a foundational capability for enterprise marketing teams, with organizations moving beyond isolated AI pilots toward integrated, data-driven marketing operations. Reflecting this shift, research and advisory firm Forrester has named Fortinet the Asia Pacific recipient of its inaugural B2B Marketing AI Impact Award, recognizing measurable business outcomes achieved through enterprise AI adoption in marketing.

The award, presented during Forrester AI Forum Singapore, highlights organizations that demonstrate successful implementation of AI to improve marketing effectiveness, operational efficiency, and business performance. Rather than recognizing AI experimentation alone, the program focuses on companies that have embedded artificial intelligence into core marketing workflows and delivered quantifiable results.

Fortinet earned the regional recognition after implementing an AI-powered marketing transformation spanning multiple functions, including audience targeting, lead qualification, content creation, campaign optimization, and marketing performance measurement. The company integrated AI across its marketing operations to improve decision-making, strengthen collaboration between marketing and sales teams, and accelerate campaign execution.

The initiative reflects a broader evolution in B2B marketing, where AI is increasingly supporting end-to-end customer engagement instead of isolated automation tasks. Modern marketing organizations are using AI to identify high-value prospects, personalize customer experiences, optimize campaigns in real time, and generate actionable insights from large volumes of customer and campaign data.

Forrester noted that Fortinet's connected approach to AI adoption distinguished the company from traditional point-solution implementations. By integrating AI throughout the marketing lifecycle, the cybersecurity vendor improved marketing return on investment while enabling closer alignment between sales and marketing teams—a long-standing objective for enterprise revenue organizations.

According to Daryl Wright, Principal Analyst at Forrester, Fortinet demonstrated how a strategic and scalable AI deployment can improve marketing ROI while strengthening collaboration across business functions. The company will share its experience during the marketing leadership track session titled "Hello, GTM Singularity" at Forrester AI Forum Singapore.

Fortinet says its AI strategy centers on embedding intelligence into everyday marketing workflows instead of treating AI as a standalone technology initiative. The approach combines audience intelligence, campaign execution, lead qualification, and performance optimization within existing marketing processes, enabling teams to make faster and more informed business decisions.

For enterprise marketers, this recognition reinforces an emerging best practice: AI delivers the greatest value when integrated into existing marketing technology stacks rather than deployed as disconnected tools. Organizations increasingly expect AI platforms to work alongside customer relationship management (CRM), marketing automation platforms, customer data platforms (CDPs), analytics solutions, and sales enablement systems to create unified revenue operations.

The announcement also reflects growing investment across the enterprise marketing technology landscape. According to Gartner, organizations continue increasing investments in generative AI and intelligent automation as marketing leaders seek measurable productivity gains and improved customer engagement. Meanwhile, McKinsey & Company has estimated that generative AI could contribute trillions of dollars in annual economic value across industries, with marketing and sales representing one of the largest areas of opportunity.

Competition within AI-powered marketing continues to intensify as enterprise software providers expand AI capabilities across their platforms. Major technology companies including Salesforce, Adobe, Microsoft, and Google have accelerated investments in generative AI, predictive analytics, customer intelligence, and automated campaign optimization. Against this backdrop, recognition programs such as Forrester's AI Impact Awards increasingly highlight execution quality and measurable business outcomes rather than AI adoption alone.

For B2B organizations across Asia Pacific, Fortinet's achievement illustrates how AI adoption is evolving from technology experimentation toward operational transformation. Enterprise marketing leaders are under increasing pressure to demonstrate measurable business value from AI investments while maintaining governance, data quality, and cross-functional collaboration.

As AI becomes deeply integrated into enterprise marketing operations, success is likely to be defined less by the sophistication of individual models and more by how effectively organizations connect data, people, and workflows to improve business performance. Fortinet's recognition signals that scalable AI adoption, supported by measurable outcomes, is becoming a defining benchmark for modern B2B marketing organizations.

Market Landscape

Enterprise AI is rapidly becoming a strategic component of modern MarTech stacks rather than an optional enhancement. AI-powered audience segmentation, predictive lead scoring, content generation, and campaign optimization are increasingly integrated into marketing automation platforms and customer data platforms to improve revenue outcomes.

Industry analysts expect enterprise AI spending to continue accelerating as organizations prioritize measurable ROI, marketing efficiency, and stronger sales alignment. Companies that successfully operationalize AI across marketing workflows are expected to gain competitive advantages in customer acquisition, personalization, and revenue growth.

Top Insights

• Forrester recognized Fortinet's integrated AI marketing strategy for delivering measurable improvements in marketing performance, ROI, and collaboration between marketing and sales teams across APAC.
• The award reflects a broader shift from isolated AI experiments toward enterprise-wide AI integration across audience targeting, content creation, campaign optimization, and analytics.
• Enterprise marketing leaders increasingly view AI as a core component of modern MarTech infrastructure that supports faster decision-making and scalable customer engagement.
• Competitive differentiation is moving beyond AI availability to measurable business outcomes, operational efficiency, and cross-functional workflow integration.
• Organizations investing in AI-enabled marketing platforms are prioritizing revenue impact, intelligent automation, and data-driven decision-making over standalone AI capabilities.

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As competition intensifies across the U.S. consumer packaged goods (CPG) market, expanding from regional distribution to national retail shelves has become increasingly challenging for emerging brands. Against this backdrop, The Daily Crave's latest expansion across the West Coast illustrates how commercialization partners are playing a larger role in helping brands scale beyond product development into sustainable retail growth.

TruLife Distribution announced the release of a customer testimonial featuring Lisa LaMattina, Founder and CEO of The Daily Crave, detailing the company's experience working with the commercialization and retail distribution firm during its expansion into retail locations throughout the Western United States.

According to the companies, the partnership focused on developing a structured commercialization strategy that combined retail planning, buyer engagement, sales execution, account management, and ongoing business guidance. The result has been broader retail availability for The Daily Crave across the West Coast, representing an important milestone in the brand's growth strategy.

Although the announcement centers on a customer success story, it highlights a larger shift occurring across the retail industry. Consumer brands increasingly require expertise beyond product manufacturing to successfully enter competitive retail environments.

Commercialization Is Becoming More Complex

Launching products into national retail channels now involves far more than securing shelf placement.

Brands must prepare for retailer compliance requirements, category management, pricing strategies, merchandising support, promotional planning, inventory forecasting, and ongoing retailer relationships. These operational demands have fueled demand for commercialization partners capable of supporting multiple stages of market expansion.

Rather than functioning solely as sales representatives, firms like TruLife Distribution increasingly position themselves as commercialization platforms that coordinate retail readiness, sales execution, marketing support, retailer engagement, public relations, and long-term brand management.

This integrated approach reflects changing expectations among retailers, many of whom seek suppliers capable of consistently supporting products after initial placement rather than simply securing distribution agreements.

Why Distribution Strategy Matters

For emerging food, beverage, wellness, and personal care companies, retail expansion often represents one of the most resource-intensive phases of growth.

According to McKinsey & Company, consumer packaged goods companies continue investing in data-driven commercialization strategies as retailers demand greater operational efficiency and measurable category performance. Statista also reports continued growth across health-conscious food and wellness categories, increasing competition for premium shelf space in supermarkets and specialty retailers.

As retail buyers evaluate thousands of new products each year, brands increasingly depend on specialized market expertise to improve retailer readiness and demonstrate long-term growth potential.

The Daily Crave's expansion reflects this broader trend, where commercialization support extends beyond distribution logistics to include strategic planning and ongoing retailer relationship management.

Technology Is Reshaping Retail Commercialization

Modern commercialization strategies are also becoming increasingly technology-driven.

Retail analytics, demand forecasting, customer insights, digital merchandising, and AI-powered sales intelligence are helping brands make more informed decisions about product launches and retail expansion.

Enterprise commercialization platforms now integrate customer relationship management (CRM), retail execution software, marketing automation, and performance analytics to provide greater visibility into distribution performance.

These technologies enable brands to monitor retailer engagement, sales trends, inventory levels, and promotional effectiveness while identifying opportunities for market expansion.

For growing CPG brands, combining retail expertise with data-driven decision-making is becoming an important competitive advantage.

Enterprise Perspective

The TruLife and The Daily Crave partnership underscores a broader evolution within retail commercialization.

Rather than treating distribution as a standalone sales function, many organizations now view commercialization as an integrated business process that combines retail strategy, marketing, analytics, public relations, and customer engagement.

For brands operating in health, wellness, sports nutrition, food, beverage, and personal care markets, successful commercialization increasingly depends on coordinated execution across multiple disciplines rather than individual retail introductions.

As retailers continue raising expectations around supplier performance and consumer demand becomes more fragmented across channels, commercialization partners capable of supporting end-to-end retail growth are likely to play an increasingly important role in helping emerging brands scale nationally.

Market Landscape

Consumer packaged goods companies are investing more heavily in integrated commercialization strategies as retail competition intensifies across grocery, specialty, and omnichannel markets.

According to McKinsey & Company, successful CPG growth increasingly depends on combining consumer insights, digital capabilities, and retailer collaboration. Statista also projects continued expansion across global health and wellness food categories, creating new opportunities—and greater competition—for emerging brands seeking retail distribution.

Technology-enabled commercialization platforms that integrate analytics, retail execution, and customer engagement are becoming a key differentiator for brands expanding into competitive retail environments.

Strategic Outlook

The Daily Crave's retail expansion illustrates how commercialization is evolving into a technology-enabled growth discipline rather than a traditional distribution function. As AI, retail analytics, and omnichannel commerce continue reshaping consumer goods markets, brands that combine operational readiness with data-driven retail execution are likely to achieve stronger long-term market performance.

Top Insights

• The Daily Crave has expanded its retail presence across the U.S. West Coast through a commercialization partnership with TruLife Distribution focused on long-term retail execution.
• The collaboration demonstrates how emerging consumer brands increasingly rely on integrated commercialization strategies rather than traditional sales representation alone.
• Modern retail expansion requires coordinated planning across buyer engagement, merchandising, retailer management, and ongoing sales support to sustain growth.
• Technology, analytics, and retail intelligence are becoming essential components of commercialization strategies for health, wellness, and consumer packaged goods companies.
• The partnership reflects broader industry demand for end-to-end commercialization platforms capable of supporting brands from retail readiness through market expansion.

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ZoomInfo Technologies is under renewed investor scrutiny after a proposed securities fraud class action was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington, alleging the company made misleading statements regarding demand for its artificial intelligence-powered go-to-market platform.

The lawsuit follows one of the company's steepest single-day market declines in recent years. On May 12, 2026, ZoomInfo's stock fell approximately 33%, dropping from $6.04 to $4.06 per share, after the company lowered its full-year revenue guidance and acknowledged slowing customer momentum tied to uncertainty surrounding AI and agentic technologies.

The proposed class action, Tejeda v. ZoomInfo Technologies et al., alleges violations of Sections 10(b) and 20(a) of the U.S. Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Investors who purchased ZoomInfo securities during the proposed class period have until August 24, 2026, to seek appointment as lead plaintiff.

Revenue Guidance Revision Triggered Market Reaction

Earlier in the year, ZoomInfo projected 2026 revenue between $1.247 billion and $1.267 billion, citing its strategy of expanding adoption of its AI-powered go-to-market platform across enterprise customers.

However, when reporting first-quarter 2026 earnings, the company reduced its revenue outlook to $1.185 billion to $1.205 billion, representing a notable downward revision.

During its earnings discussion, ZoomInfo attributed weaker customer growth to what executives described as "AI and agentic confusion," suggesting that some enterprise buyers had delayed purchasing decisions as organizations evaluated rapidly evolving AI technologies. Those comments contributed to a sharp decline in investor confidence and triggered the significant share price drop. The earnings announcement and revised guidance were widely reported at the time.

Allegations Center on AI Adoption Claims

The complaint alleges that ZoomInfo overstated customer demand and engagement for its AI-powered products while failing to adequately disclose weakening customer retention and adoption trends.

According to the filing, investors were led to believe that AI functionality was driving stronger engagement across enterprise sales and marketing organizations. Plaintiffs argue that customer hesitation toward the company's AI offerings contributed to deteriorating business performance before the revised guidance became public.

It is important to note that these allegations remain claims made in a civil lawsuit. They have not been proven in court, and ZoomInfo will have an opportunity to respond through the legal process.

Why the Case Matters Beyond ZoomInfo

The lawsuit arrives during a period when enterprise software companies are increasingly positioning generative AI as a primary growth driver.

Across the MarTech, SaaS, and sales technology sectors, vendors have rapidly introduced AI assistants, autonomous agents, predictive analytics, and workflow automation tools in response to growing enterprise demand. Companies including Salesforce, Microsoft, Adobe, and Google have accelerated investments in enterprise AI platforms as organizations evaluate how generative AI can improve productivity and customer engagement.

This environment has also increased investor attention on how software companies measure and communicate AI adoption. Revenue generated from AI products, customer retention rates, product usage, and monetization strategies have become important metrics for evaluating whether AI investments are translating into sustainable business growth.

For enterprise buyers, the case highlights the distinction between announcing AI capabilities and achieving widespread customer adoption. Organizations evaluating AI platforms increasingly seek measurable business outcomes, integration with existing workflows, and clear return on investment before expanding technology deployments.

AI Expectations Continue to Shape Enterprise Software Markets

Research from Gartner indicates that generative AI remains among the fastest-growing enterprise technology investment priorities, although many organizations continue moving cautiously from pilot projects to production deployments. IDC likewise expects AI spending to continue rising globally, while noting that successful adoption depends on governance, workforce readiness, and demonstrable business value.

The ZoomInfo litigation illustrates how investor expectations surrounding AI can amplify market reactions when financial performance diverges from growth narratives.

Regardless of the lawsuit's eventual outcome, the case underscores the increasing importance of transparent communication around AI commercialization, customer adoption, and revenue performance in the enterprise software industry.

For publicly traded technology companies, particularly those positioning AI as a strategic differentiator, investors are likely to continue closely monitoring whether AI product launches translate into sustainable customer growth rather than short-term market enthusiasm.

Market Landscape

Enterprise software providers continue integrating generative AI into customer relationship management (CRM), sales intelligence, marketing automation, and revenue operations platforms. As AI becomes a central competitive differentiator, investors increasingly evaluate vendors based on customer adoption, retention, monetization, and measurable business outcomes rather than product announcements alone.

According to Gartner, enterprise AI spending continues to expand despite organizations adopting phased implementation strategies. IDC similarly forecasts sustained growth in AI investments as businesses prioritize automation, predictive analytics, and intelligent decision-making across sales and marketing functions.

Strategic Outlook

The ZoomInfo lawsuit highlights growing legal and financial scrutiny surrounding AI-related disclosures by publicly traded software companies. As enterprise AI matures, investors are expected to demand greater transparency regarding product adoption, revenue contribution, customer retention, and commercialization strategies. Vendors that provide clear performance metrics alongside AI innovation may be better positioned to maintain investor confidence amid an increasingly competitive software market.

Top Insights

• ZoomInfo faces a proposed securities fraud class action after reducing its 2026 revenue guidance and reporting slower customer growth linked to AI purchasing uncertainty.
• Plaintiffs allege the company overstated customer adoption and engagement for its AI-powered go-to-market platform before revising financial expectations.
• The nearly 33% share price decline reflects heightened investor sensitivity to enterprise AI growth narratives and revenue guidance revisions.
• The case underscores increasing regulatory and investor attention on how public software companies communicate AI commercialization and customer adoption.
• Enterprise technology buyers continue evaluating AI platforms based on measurable business value rather than feature announcements alone.

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