Three lessons on differentiation: in the Know with Horizon Media's Evanne Abneri. July 14, 2026 In the Know is a series that spotlights industry leaders sharing the ideas, strategies, and real-world insights driving meaningful impact in market. InMarket CMO Natalie Bastian sat down with Evanne Abneri, Director of Programmatic Partnerships & Product Development at Horizon Media, at POSSIBLE 2026 to talk programmatic strategy, culture, and what it really takes to stand out in a crowded landscape. These key themes stood out: Differentiation is the new competitive edge. In a landscape where sounding like everyone else risks turning you into a commodity, Evanne is clear about where a real competitive edge comes from: partners who bring something unique to the table, and, even better, who stay open enough to co-build with Horizon rather than handing over a fixed playbook. As she puts it: "We're looking for a competitive edge [in] where our partners are differentiated, where they're bringing something unique to the table - ideally exclusive - where they have an open architecture where we can work with them to co-build something together." Outcomes, not vanity metrics. One way Horizon puts differentiation into practice is through blu., the company's AI-powered connected marketing platform. Specifically within programmatic, Evanne's team uses it to analyze signals in the bid stream and custom-curate solutions for clients - signals more closely tied to outcomes than to vanity media metrics. That means partnering with companies to get log-level data and build custom bidding algorithms Horizon can run inside its DSPs to drive better outcomes for clients, rather than just impressions and clicks. It's one thing to build the technology - it's another to put it to work for a client. When asked for an example of this in action, Evanne pointed straight at Horizon's partnership with InMarket, which allowed Horizon to proactively build a custom taxonomy directly into a healthcare client's unique DSP. This gave Horizon the ability to build every audience segment the client might need and ensure they were already in place before the client needed them. See the person, not the data point. That same partnership work is what drives Horizon to dig into its audience rather than settle for a specific demographic. Evanne noted the importance of "understanding a user in its full capacity - not just one plucked-out data point - but [rather] who that person is throughout their entire day, throughout their entire week, month, year, and the journey that they're on." Doing so allows Horizon to gain more insight into reaching users in "organic and native ways that feel not intrusive, but seamless." Advertising that blends effortlessly into users' everyday lives feels less disruptive, and "natively fitting into user experience" can ultimately move the needle. Culture is the key to relevancy. Asked what insight leaders need to act on right now, Evanne's answer was culture - not as an internal hiring philosophy, but as a lens on audiences. She credits Horizon's multicultural team with helping the agency understand "a user and the complexities of them as a person," rather than reducing people to a single demographic or data point. "Remember that users and your audience and your target are humans, that are complex and layered, and they deserve that type of nuanced thought about who they are." As Natalie Bastian noted, "relevancy is key, and understanding who the user is and what their journey is like is absolutely fundamental," not only in ensuring each ad is effective, but in the ultimate goal - driving outcomes. How that shows up in the work. For Horizon Media, that same instinct - build for outcomes, with real partners in the room, for people, instead of data points - is central to how the agency works with InMarket. That's exactly what InMarket's Outcome Intelligence is built for: proving what media actually drives, not just what ran, so that every dollar can be tied back to a real business result. Connect with its team to see how InMarket can help you build custom, outcome-driven solutions for your brand. Get in touch at InMarket.com/Contact.

Horizon Media has launched agentic buying capabilities within its Blu marketing intelligence platform, enabling real-time media purchasing decisions across channels whilst maintaining human oversight. The system integrates audience intelligence, publisher data and campaign performance into a unified decision framework. The technology addresses fragmentation in traditional agency workflows where creative, activation and measurement teams operate separately. Horizon is testing the solution with major publishers including Disney, Fox, NBCUniversal and TikTok, using the Databricks platform. Alongside agentic buying, Horizon is expanding its "agentic integration layer" through APIs and agent-based connections, allowing partners to build customised solutions on the Blu platform. Current collaborators include Affinity Solutions, Innovid, Magnite and media companies like iHeartMedia and Snap. The open ecosystem approach contrasts with holding companies' proprietary technology stacks.

Horizon Media launches agentic orchestration layer for real-time media decisioning. HorizonOS' Blu Platform Connects Audience Intelligence, Activation, and Measurement across Publishers Disney, Fox, NBCUniversal, Enabled by an Open Ecosystem for Collaboration with the Databricks platform and Newton Research NEW YORK, June 18, 2026 /PRNewswire/ - Horizon Media Holdings, parent company of the world's largest independent media agency, today announced agentic buying capabilities within HorizonOS' Blu, the agency's marketing intelligence platform. This advanced technology delivers agents that make real-time decisions across channels and publishers, while keeping critical human judgement at the core of the media purchasing strategy. Instead of disconnected workflows, Blu's intelligent agents integrate audience intelligence, publisher data, and campaign performance into a unified decision system that optimizes media buys in real time across multiple channels simultaneously. This is Horizon's latest move to accelerate innovation to the agency's open ecosystem by focusing on how technology can best serve clients and solve a perennial problem for marketers. In typical agency marketing workflows, creative teams, activation teams, and measurement teams operate independently. That traditional framework results in layers of fragmentation that limits the ability to optimize in real time and creates friction when brands need to respond quickly to market conditions. Rather than trying to force clients to become test subjects in the race among traditional holding companies' tech implementations, Horizon's open operating system connects data, partners, and human intelligence into unified decision systems - emphasizing the practical, not the experimental. As part of its ongoing AI initiatives, Horizon is testing, validating and scaling solutions with leading players across the ad ecosystem, leveraging the Databricks platform. These existing partnerships include major media publishers like Disney, Fox, NBCUniversal, TikTok and agentic analytics solutions like Newton Research. By participating in Horizon's solutions, these collaborators are pioneering how the agentic buying process can be orchestrated to work on a practical level for all. "Agentic buying will soon be the new standard for high-performance media buying," said Domenic Venuto, Chief Product & Data Officer at Horizon Media Holdings. "And Horizon is enabling it at scale, while maintaining human judgement at the center of decision-making. By removing the intermediary layer, we're also simplifying the path marketers' take to reach the right audiences. This enhanced set of capabilities and partners changes how clients can respond to market conditions, audience behavior, and competitive dynamics in real time rather than in retrospect." The Bigger Picture: An Open Alternative to Vendor Lock-In The agentic buying strategy sits within a larger expansion of Horizon's platform interoperability. Alongside agentic buying, Horizon is expanding its "agentic integration layer" - a set of Blu audience APIs, MCPs (Model Context Protocol), and agent-based integration points. Rather than constraining clients into a single-vendor solution, this layer allows partners - from ad tech companies to media owners to marTech providers - to plug directly into Blu Platform. By building capabilities on top of its platform, partners can co-develop customized solutions within Horizon's open operating system that further extend benefits to its clients. "At a time when the industry is consolidating around fewer choices and closed ecosystems, Horizon is opening the door," said Jeremy Flynn EVP, Head of Product at Horizon Media Holdings. "Our agentic integration layer allows any qualified partner to build on top of Blu. We're creating the infrastructure that allows the best solutions to drive growth for marketers." Blu is broadening a network effect across the media landscape, leveraging Databricks for agentic platform development and Newton Research for real-time measurement. Collaborators taking advantage of Horizon's orchestration layer include Affinity Solutions, Innovid, Kartel, Kochava, Magnite, Predactiv, Sightly, Smartly, Vidmob, Vurvey Labs, ZeroToOne.AI and major media companies, including Clear Channel Outdoor, Disney, Fox, iHeartMedia, NBCUniversal, OUTFRONT Media, Snap, and TikTok. This approach stands in contrast to how holding companies typically operate: consolidating technology ownership and forcing clients into proprietary stacks regardless of fit. Horizon inverts that model. The agency provides the platform and orchestration layer, partners provide specialized capabilities, and clients choose the combination that works for their specific business. Proof Points and Client Impact Discover more Data Formats & Protocols Sweepstakes & Promotional Giveaways HiTechNectar is executing early deployments with key clients, including enabling SharkNinja to securely collaborate with retail partners using Blu audience APIs. "The scalability and efficiency benefit is significant," said Krish Kuruppath EVP, Head of Technology at Horizon Media Holdings. "Previously, if a brand wanted to use five different partners - creative optimization, audience expansion, measurement, activation - we'd have to custom-integrate each one. With the agentic integration layer, those partners can plug into Blu and immediately have access to the data and signals they need from the agency's API and HorizonOS partners. That dramatically accelerates go-to-market and reduces implementation friction." The broader agentic integration layer is available now, with existing and new partners able to integrate via APIs, MCP standards, or agent-based connections. This announcement is part of a broader series of HorizonOS announcements planned for Cannes 2026, where the agency will showcase how the open ecosystem model is enabling capabilities that closed, proprietary systems cannot deliver at the same pace or scale. "The fundamental insight here is simple," said Samantha Rose, EVP Head of Integrated Investment and Programmatic at Horizon Media Holdings. "Technology innovation is happening too fast for any single company - including Horizon - to build everything ourselves. The agencies and platforms that will excel are those willing to open their doors and collaborate. That's what we're doing with agentic buying. It's what we're doing with the integration layer. And it's what we're building toward with HorizonOS and the broader open ecosystem." About Horizon Media Horizon Media, the largest independent media agency globally, delivers data-driven business outcomes for some of the most innovative and ambitious brands. Founded in 1989, headquartered in New York, and with offices in Los Angeles and Toronto, the company employs 2,400+ people and has media investments of more than $8.5 billion. Horizon Media's fundamental belief is that business is personal, which drives its approach to connecting brands with their customers and engaging with its own employees, resulting in industry-leading workplace satisfaction levels (Glassdoor). The company is consistently recognized by independent media outlets for its client excellence and has earned several "Best Workplaces" awards reflecting its commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion and the life and well-being of everyone at Horizon Media. SOURCE Horizon Media HiTechNectar send you the latest trends and best practice tips for online customer engagement: Receive Updates: HiTechNectar hate spams too, you can unsubscribe at any time.