March 5th-March 11th // Estimated Reading Time: 7 minutes

Below is a roundup of last week’s notable industry news, with summaries and our opinions. This week a big agency holdco is doing the acquiring…

U of Digital Will Be At Marketecture Live on March 17th For A Fun Session On The Identity Landscape and PETs!

Top Stories 👁️ 

Publicis doubles consumer reach to 4 billion with Lotame acquisition
Source: Reuters
March 6th, 2025

Summary: Publicis is beefing up its Epsilon marketing tech and data arm with the acquisition of Lotame. One of the original data management platforms (DMP) founded 19+ years ago, Lotame pivoted to identity and data collaboration as privacy restrictions tightened and data clean rooms gained traction. By adding Lotame’s 1.9B consumer profiles to Epsilon’s 2.3B, Publicis will now have access to over 4B global profiles—91% of all adult internet users.

Publicis has poured $1.5B into data and tech in just six months and isn’t stopping. Expect another ~$1B in acquisitions this year. The company boasts 25K engineers and its CoreAI system, which tracks digital behavior, makes predictions, and nudges consumer decisions across screens.

Publicis is outpacing its peers, growing 3x faster. It projects 4-5% organic growth in 2025, while competitors like WPP and Dentsu anticipate flat or ~1% growth.

Deal Grades:
Lotame: INC
Publicis: INC
(Because price matters)

Opinion: This deal is about three things for Publicis:

1. Expanding Epsilon’s identity footprint globally (Epsilon is heavily US-based).

2. Strengthening and scaling Epsilon’s deterministic (email-based) ID with Lotame’s probabilistic Panorama ID.

3. Integrating Lotame’s managed services (e.g., data curation, data collaboration, etc.)—an area where Lotame excels, into the agency holdco managed service offering.

Publicis has been crushing it in recent years, winning new business largely on the Epsilon CoreID pitch. Lotame helps fill gaps in their ID story (scale, global reach, probabilistic modeling), widening Publicis’s lead over its agency holdco rivals in this area.

While Publicis is doubling down on data / tech, others—namely Omnicom and IPG—are betting on scale. We like Publicis’s bet.

Historically, agency holdcos have struggled to make tech acquisitions work. But Publicis (Epsilon), IPG (Acxiom), and Dentsu (Merkle) are proving that in the era of signal loss and identity, data-driven agencies that own data / tech actually have an edge. Unlike with media, marketers seem perfectly fine with these capabilities living within their agencies instead of paying for external tech.

And, of course, there’s the AI angle to consider.

The AI era will favor:
✅ Proprietary data
✅ Unique partnerships and tech integrations
✅ Scale and network effects

Multi-click UIs and generic data won’t cut it.

Publicis is betting that Lotame + Epsilon + CoreAI = 🔥 for this new era—and they might be right.

Other Notable Headlines ✍️

T-Mobile Snags Location-Based Ad Firm Blis for $175M, Boosting Ad Tech Stack🔒 - Last week, it was reported that T-Mobile was eyeing UK location-based ad firm Blis—now it’s official. While most telcos have bailed on ad tech, T-Mobile is doubling down. Blis specializes in privacy-centric location targeting, which will strengthen T-Ads, already a $1B+ business. This follows T-Mobile’s $600M acquisition of Vistar Media (DOOH ad tech) and its 2022 purchase of Octopus Interactive (rideshare video screens). Now, T-Mobile offers advertisers premium inventory across mobile, in-store, OOH, and CTV, all powered by location data. Unique and compelling play!

Struggling Product Behind The Trade Desk's Revenue Woes Angers Buyers and Publishers -The Trade Desk's Q4 earnings report highlighted slow adoption of Kokai, the new AI-powered interface TTD wants all clients to use. While Kokai promises 43% lower cost per unique household and 27% lower cost per action, many buyers complain it’s harder to use (it’s designed to look like the periodic table), lacks key features like contract groups and programmatic guaranteed deals, and adds unnecessary steps. Publishers are frustrated too: Kokai automatically activates OpenPath, which lets advertisers buy directly from publishers, but publishers pay a 5% fee, which they see as an unnecessary “tax.”

Maybe running programmatic advertising through a periodic table isn’t it.

The DOJ Still Wants Google to Sell Off Chrome - The Justice Department just filed a final proposed remedy in its Google search antitrust case—and it still wants Google to offload Chrome and stop paying browsers and device manufacturers to be their default search engine. With 90% US market share, Google was ruled a monopoly last year. Some expected Trump’s DOJ to go easy on Google🔒, but it remains aggressive—likely aiming high before negotiating down. No matter what, Google will appeal like crazy, so don’t expect a resolution anytime soon. Meanwhile, we’re still waiting on the judge’s ruling in Google’s separate ad tech antitrust case (wrapped late 2024).

Google Has Pulled Nearly 200 Apps Due to Extensive Android Ad Fraud Scheme🔒 - Brand Safety and ad fraud detection firm Integral Ad Science (IAS) uncovered “Vapor Threat”, a network of nearly 200 fake health/wellness apps built solely to generate ad revenue. These apps—completely non-functional—ran full-screen video ads, tricking ad networks into 200M+ bid requests per day. They also used install manipulation tactics to climb app store rankings, racking up 56M downloads in a year. Google has since removed the apps and disabled them via Play Protect, its service for detecting malware, harmful apps, and apps that violate the company's policies. It’s a win for IAS, which has faced a lot of scrutiny in recent months. This discovery helps restore some credibility.

Kantar owners eye break-up of group, $6.5 billion Worldpanel sale, reports say - Bain Capital and WPP are reportedly planning to break up Kantar, with a potential $6.5B sale of its Worldpanel consumer insights division. If the deal goes through, Kantar would become a stand-alone brand strategy consultancy. The move follows the January sale of Kantar’s media division ($1B) to HIG Capital and the failed IPO attempt due to rough market conditions. Bain bought 60% of Kantar in 2019, valuing it at $4B. Through the first nine months of 2024, Kantar pulled in $2.5B in adjusted gross revenue.

LiveRamp to Lay Off 5% of Workforce in Restructuring🔒 - LiveRamp is laying off 65 employees (5% of staff) in a restructuring effort, costing $6.5M in severance/benefits.

The company reaffirmed its $741M-$743M revenue guidance for 2025, but the broader ad industry faces headwinds:

• Trump’s trade war (Canada, Mexico, China) is spooking brands, delaying ad spend.

• Health Secretary RFK Jr. wants to ban pharma TV ads, which could shift billions to other channels🔒.

• Ad industry job losses: Down ~1,500 jobs per month over the last three months, after prior growth.

Buckle up—2025 could be a bumpy ride.

Other Notable Headlines
(that you should know about too) 🤓 

Trump says US talking to four different groups on sale of TikTok - ByteDance has until April 5th to sell TikTok or face a ban. Potential buyers? Perplexity AI (pitched a merger), a billionaire-led group (Frank McCourt), Microsoft, and a Roblox CEO-backed consortium.

Senators Call for DOJ Probe of X’s Advertiser Pressure Campaign🔒 - Five Democratic senators fear Musk is using his Trump ties to pressure advertisers, but there’s zero chance the DOJ investigates.

Google Calculates Ad Emissions, Rolls Out Plan - Carbon Footprint for Google Ads will help advertisers measure & manage emissions in DV360, SA360, CM360, and Google Ads.

The Guardian Joins The Trade Desk’s Direct Route to Advertisers, OpenPath, Citing Sustainability🔒 - A more direct programmatic supply chain = fewer emissions + more ad sales.

Roku Bolsters Ads Team With New VP of Global Ad Sales🔒 - Lauren Benedict (ex-Spotter, MNTN, Hulu) joins to boost the ad business.

Basis Technologies Integrates with IRIS.TV for Contextual Targeting on Programmatic CTV Advertising - Basis will pass IRIS_ID’s contextual signals to its customers in order to strengthen CTV targeting. Reminder: Basis and Viant (IRIS.TV’s owner) are rivals.

Demandbase Launches Agentbase, a System of Intelligent, Connected AI Agents Trained for Faster, More Unified GTM Execution - The new AI-powered system brings automation + insights to B2B go-to-market workflows.

Google Launches AI Mode for Multi-Step Searches🔒 - Powered by Gemini 2.0, this AI-enhanced search handles complex queries in a single step.

Could ATT be rolled back?🔒 - France may fine Apple over App Tracking Transparency (ATT) and force a rollback. If successful, other nations could follow.

That’s It For This Week 👋

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