STUDIO / MARKET EVIDENCE
Martech and adtech trends, cited
The Studio is built against the market, not in a vacuum. Every finding below is dated, sourced, and mapped to the Studio module and roadmap item it shapes. Updated weekly.
Showing 38 of 38 findings
Agencies adopt synthetic consumer populations for planning and simulated incrementality tests
Goodway Group uses Arima's synthetic populations of US, UK and German consumers (built from census, BLS, Nielsen and custom survey data) to run incrementality tests in simulation, then validates with small live activations. Kenvue, Magnum and Vans use Vurvey Labs personas; WPP and Dentsu also use synthetic data. Skeptics warn personas on weak data are unreliable.
Aveeno Body strategy brief cut from 30 days to 3 (Kenvue, via Vurvey)Roadmap:M1M2G3This validates Studio's synthetic-data premise and suggests a 'simulate then validate' incrementality flow, while sitting against the February ANA finding that 83% avoid synthetic data.
Olyzon agents now plan and shift CTV budgets across four DSPs in live buys
Olyzon moved its agentic orchestration platform to full commercial release on 7 October 2026. Its agents plan, activate, measure and reallocate CTV budgets across The Trade Desk, Amazon DSP, DV360 and Yahoo DSP without buyers giving up seats or direct deals, bounded by caps, approval thresholds and an audit log. The release gives no campaign, client or spend metrics.
4 DSPs orchestrated; 13 named partners; no performance metrics disclosedRoadmap:G2G4P6Studio's agent-to-agent buying demo should show cross-DSP reallocation with human approval thresholds and an audit trail, since that is the governance pattern the first live product ships with.
Safari blocks The Trade Desk's ad domain; IAB Tech Lab pushes Trusted Server as the server-side answer
After Safari began blocking adsrvr.org (WebKit commit merged February 2026, iOS 27 rollout from 14 September), IAB Tech Lab CEO Anthony Katsur called its open-source Trusted Server edge runtime 'production ready' on 8 October. PPC Land found the GitHub repo has 0 tags and no published releases, and notes server-side moves do not prevent IP-level blocking.
Trusted Server repo: 343 commits, 0 releases, 196 open issues; Permutive vendor figure: 41% CPM penalty for impressions without an identity signalRoadmap:I1F1P4P7Studio's identity module should model a 'browser identity loss' scenario where third-party ad domains are blocked and show the yield gap closed by first-party fan ID and server-side calls.
IAB clean room framework: 9 of 14 commerce use cases often work without a clean room
IAB's Data Clean Rooms in Commerce framework (published late September 2026, covered 9 October) sorts 14 commerce use cases: five depend on a clean room (overlap analysis, enrichment, BYOD targeting, suppression, retailer audience activation) and nine, including attribution, incrementality, reach and frequency and media mix analysis, can often run on existing tools when data sits in one environment. It states a clean room does not by itself create a legal basis for processing.
14 use cases: 5 clean-room-dependent, 9 enhanced; 5 screening questions; 71 contributorsRoadmap:C1C2C3C5M4Studio's clean room module should open with a 'do you need a clean room' screener using IAB's five questions, and separately flag that consent, not the room, provides the legal basis.
- 8 Oct 2026sports media
IPA and SEF: only four in 10 are confident sponsorship delivers business results
IPA and Sponsorship Effectiveness Forum research (143 brands, agencies and rights holders, presented 7 October) finds only 40% confident sponsorship delivers business results (45% among brands). Those practising clear commercial objectives, commercial impact measurement and integration are almost six times more likely to be confident; 43% say common measurement standards would help most. Brands rarely share commercial data with rights holders.
4 in 10 confident (45% of brands); 43% want common measurement standards; ~6x confidence with the three fundamentalsRoadmap:M3C7C8C4Studio's sponsor portal should make shared KPIs and two-way data sharing the default, because the evidence says the data gap between brand and rights holder is the main driver of low confidence.
- 5 Oct 2026sports media
MediaRadar Total Event Investment: 6,737 brands spent $1.42bn around the 2026 Men's World Cup
MediaRadar launched Total Event Investment, a framework combining advertising and sponsorship data for the sports economy, plus computer-vision logo recognition. It says 6,737 brands invested $1.42 billion in the 2026 Men's World Cup across advertising, official sponsorship, athlete and team partnerships and creative. Figures are company-reported.
6,737 brands; $1.42bn total event investment (company-reported)Roadmap:M3C6C8Studio's sponsorship value module should count ambush and adjacent ad spend around an event alongside official rights, so a club can show sponsors the full competitive set they are buying against.
iOS 27 Safari blocks UID2, ID5 and LiveRamp domains
After iOS 27 shipped, Safari stopped loading requests to uidapi.com, id5-sync.com, rlcdn.com and The Trade Desk delivery domains; Apple later asked TTD to test a 27.2 beta.
Shipped 14 Sep 2026; fix beta reported 5 Oct 2026Roadmap:I1P8Reinforces first-party fan ID (I1) and server-side person-level frequency (P8) over third-party ID scripts.
GumGum Sports Media turns verified logo views into audiences across nine leagues
GumGum launched Replay, Counterplay and Sports Audiences using Relo Metrics sponsorship measurement and VideoAmp viewership.
Nine leagues covered; no performance figures publishedRoadmap:M3P9C7Sponsorship exposure as an audience signal: connect sponsorship value (M3) to moment-triggered paid (P9).
YouGov US Sport Sponsorship Impact Rankings 2026 use a Sponsorship Impact Score
Ranking of top sponsors across eight leagues based on change in ad awareness, impression and consideration over a season.
Eight leagues ranked; rankings behind downloadShapes:sponsorship valueRoadmap:M3Adopt awareness, impression and consideration deltas as inputs to the sponsorship value model (M3).
ANA drafting retail media measurement standardisation guidelines
ANA is working on member guidelines to standardise retail media network measurement (summary of a Digiday report).
No numeric statRoadmap:M4C5Add the ANA retail media measurement guidelines to the standards map (M4). Originates from a Digiday report summarised by ATDb.
Publicis agrees to acquire LiveRamp
Holding company moves to own identity and clean room infrastructure, consolidating the identity layer.
Reported 17 May 2026Roadmap:C4P7Neutral, owned fan identity (I1) matters more as agencies own identity vendors; reflect it in the supply path view (P7).
Forrester Wave 2026 data clean rooms: widening gap between Leaders and Contenders
Summary of the Forrester Wave notes use cases moving beyond audience matching to attribution and incrementality, judged on interoperability and PET integration.
Page gives no numeric stat (summary only; vendor placements not listed)Roadmap:C1C3C5Differential privacy budgets (C3) and interoperability are the evaluation criteria to showcase.
Private UID2 operator sent improperly encrypted tokens for about three months
A CTV publisher running a private UID2 operator went undetected for roughly three months with malformed tokens.
About three months undetected (May 2026 reporting)Roadmap:I4G4Add token and signal monitoring to data contracts (I4) and governance (G4).
61% of US retail decision-makers use MMM to measure incrementality
MMM tops the incrementality stack for retail brands because heavier methods like ghost bids and geo tests exceed typical budgets; IAB State of Data 2026 says buy-side leaders find measurement underperforms.
61% use MMM (Feedvisor); 75% of buy-side leaders say core measurement underperforms (IAB)Roadmap:M2C5Offer a lightweight MMM (M2) for sponsors of a team media network, not only deep tests.
IAB agentic video whitepaper: 69% of analytics teams scaling AI
IAB whitepaper says autonomous media processes are one to two years away and measurement becomes active, though a fully autonomous marketplace is not imminent.
69% of analytics teams scaling AI; 44% implementing agent-based platformsRoadmap:G3G4P6Natural-language insights (G3) and guardrailed pacing agents (P6) match the near-term adoption curve.
Gartner 2026 CDP Magic Quadrant adds agentic process optimization
Gartner frames CDPs as enterprise data strategy with a split between platformization and agentification; Hightouch praised for composable architecture, Salesforce sole original Leader.
141% YoY growth in paying Data 360 customers (Salesforce, FQ3 FY26)Roadmap:I3G1G3Support a composable, warehouse-first reference profile in the blueprint and expose it to agents via G1.
NFL onboarded 30-plus clubs into a league-wide martech stack
ANA case study (June 2025) describes the NFL connecting clubs into a shared stack with journey orchestration across seven-plus channels.
30-plus clubs onboarded in 2024; seven-plus orchestrated channelsRoadmap:O1I2P1League-plus-club shared infrastructure is the proven sports pattern; model it in the blueprint and audience extension.
Two thirds lack unified taxonomies and 83% avoid synthetic data
ANA roundtable polling (Aug 2025) shows weak shared taxonomies in cross-channel measurement and low synthetic data use.
66% lack unified taxonomies; 83% not using synthetic dataRoadmap:M4I4The IAB/MRC standards map (M4) and data contracts (I4) address the taxonomy gap, and the Studio is a safe synthetic-data entry point.
Nearly one in three martech deployments fail or deliver neutral results
ANA reports that martech implementations frequently fail outright or produce neutral results (State of Martech Implementation, June 2025).
Nearly one in three organizations say their most recent martech deployment failed outright or produced neutral resultsRoadmap:I3F1A synthetic reference stack lets clubs rehearse integration before buying, addressing the implementation failure risk.
IAB Project Eidos: multi-year overhaul of ad measurement incl. MMM standards
IAB launched Eidos at its 2026 leadership meeting to unify measurement taxonomies, connect exposure to outcomes and standardise MMM inputs; State of Data 2026 surveyed 400+ decision-makers.
60-75% say measurement falls short; AI could unlock $26.3B media investment and $6.2B productivity; AI clauses in about 40% of contractsRoadmap:M4M2M1Track Eidos in the IAB/MRC standards map (M4) and align MMM inputs to it.
Sponsorship strategy and measurement are now inseparable
Vendor view: sports is a strategic growth engine, buyers want fewer partners, deeper integration and near-real-time data over periodic reports.
No numeric stat (vendor claim)Shapes:sponsorship valuesponsor portalRoadmap:M3C7C8Always-on sponsor reporting in the portal (C7) and renewal pack (C8) fits the shift away from periodic reports.
66% of organisations use clean rooms; fewer than half of RMNs offer them
Clean rooms are now core retail media infrastructure; Amazon made AMC free for Sponsored Ads advertisers in Sept 2025.
66% using clean rooms (SKAI); 48% of US RMNs offer them (Mars United); 39% struggle to turn outputs into insightRoadmap:C1C2C4C5Clean room setup and threshold controls (C1, C2) are table stakes; differentiate on actionable insight and room-to-network export (C4).
IAB Tech Lab publishes 2026 agentic standards roadmap
Roadmap extends OpenRTB, OpenDirect, VAST, GPP and TCF with MCP, Agent2Agent and gRPC, with five 2026 initiatives including buyer/seller agent reference implementations and a neutral MCP reference server.
Five planned 2026 initiatives; workshops from February 12Roadmap:G1G2G4P4Build the Studio MCP server (G1) against the IAB reference server direction and map agent profiles to roadmap items.
Martech additions fell 40% while exits rose 13%; AI squeezes the middle
Incumbents bundle AI from above and AI-native startups attack from below, squeezing mid-size vendors; 45.5% of removed products had $1M-$10M revenue.
Additions 2,489 to 1,488; removals 1,211 to 1,367Roadmap:I3I4Vendor churn argues for data contracts (I4) so clubs can swap tools without rebuilding. Publication date approximate.
2026 martech landscape reaches 15,505 products, effectively flat
The landscape grew only 0.79% from 15,384, which Brinker calls possible peak martech, as AI reactivates old categories.
15,505 products vs 15,384 (+121, +0.79%)Roadmap:I3F1Sports orgs face stack sprawl; the integration map (I3) should show consolidation paths. Publication date not stated on page (approximate).
Retail media shifts to always-on measurement and consolidation
Single deep-dive studies cost tens of thousands of dollars, brands are narrowing buys, and GEO/AIO is seen as an extension of retail media; eMarketer expects retail media at a quarter of US ad spend by 2028.
A quarter of US ad spend by 2028 (eMarketer estimate)Roadmap:C5C6M1A club media network must offer always-on measurement or risk the same mid-tier squeeze.
46.9% of US marketers will invest more in MMM
EMARKETER and TransUnion survey (July 2025) shows MMM leading 2026 plans and rated the most reliable method.
46.9% will invest more in MMM; 27.6% rate MMM most reliableRoadmap:M2M1M3Prioritise MMM (M2) alongside incrementality v2 (M1) in the Studio measurement story.
Incrementality testing used by 52% of US marketers, 36.2% to invest more
Incrementality is widespread but resource-intensive; top barriers are reliability concerns (44%), applying it across ad types and retailers (43%) and limited tools (41%).
52% already use incrementality testing; 36.2% plan to invest moreRoadmap:M1C5Incrementality v2 (M1) should lower the tooling barrier with synthetic geo and holdout designs.
Google keeps third-party cookies in Chrome; cookie alternatives still being adopted
Google reversed its Chrome cookie phase-out and wound down Privacy Sandbox, yet most organisations still pursue cookie alternatives.
Only 5.3% not looking at cookie alternatives (ID5, July 2025); 38% of US consumers accept cookies less often than three years agoRoadmap:I1F1Fan ID/SSO (I1) is the durable path; do not build the Studio identity story around cookie deprecation timing.
ARTF v1.0 released for public comment with fraud agents before bidding
ARTF v1.0 moves third-party capabilities, such as fraud vendors, inside the DSP as agents so fraud can be flagged before bidding.
Typical ad serving response times of 400 to 600 millisecondsShapes:dspagentsRoadmap:P4P7G4Model pre-bid agent checks in the supply path view (P7) and govern them under G4.
IAB Tech Lab unveils Agentic RTB Framework (ARTF)
ARTF lets agents run in containers inside shared data centre environments so DSPs and SSPs interact faster, and works with MCP and agent-to-agent messaging.
Bid latency down up to 80%; round trips from 600-800ms to about 100msRoadmap:P4P5G1G2The Studio bid stream and auction (P4, P5) should expose an ARTF-style agent hook to stay standards-aligned.
Ad Context Protocol (AdCP) launches at v2.0.0 with nine core tasks
AdCP, announced Oct 15 2025 and led by Scope3 with six founding companies, defines tasks like get_products and create_media_buy for agents to buy across platforms; critics question overlap with A2A and MCP.
9 core tasks; v2.0.0; 6 founding companiesRoadmap:G1G2P3Package builder (P3) and sponsor portal should be callable by AdCP-style agents; prototype get_products and create_media_buy equivalents.
Gartner expects over 40% of agentic AI projects cancelled by end of 2027
Article cites Gartner caution on agentic project survival alongside AdCP hype and skepticism on transparency.
Over 40% of agentic AI projects cancelled by end of 2027Shapes:agentstrendsRoadmap:G4M5Agent governance (G4) and outcome scoring should be a headline feature, not an afterthought.
Forrester 2026 predictions: display budgets cut 30%, third of brands erode trust with AI self-service
Forrester predicts premature genAI chatbots damage trust, advertisers cut display as consumers shift to AI answers, and AI privacy class actions rise.
Display budgets cut 30%; AI class actions +20%; 85% of US B2C marketing execs to review media agenciesRoadmap:O5O3G4Fan assistant (O5) and over-communication guard (O3) need visible consent and trust controls.
Data integration and quality is the top barrier to agentic AI
Data integration and quality, not model capability, is what martech leaders say blocks agentic AI.
74% cite data integration and quality as a top barrier to implementing agentic AIRoadmap:I3I4F1Lead agent demos with the integration map and data contracts (I3, I4) to show why unified sports data comes first.
Unclear ROI and talent gaps hold back agentic AI deployment
Leaders cite business-case and skills problems as the main deployment challenges for agentic AI.
70% unclear ROI or business case; 68% talent and skill gapsShapes:agentstrendsRoadmap:G3M5Pair every agent feature with a measured outcome on the board scoreboard (M5) to answer the ROI objection.
Fewer than half of organisations say their data is ready for AI
Most organisations lack an adequate, unified data foundation for AI.
44% say data quality and accessibility are adequate for AI; 42% have a unified customer data foundationRoadmap:I1I4Position the club blueprint as the unified foundation step that most sports organisations still lack.
Martech leaders expect agentic AI to handle half of support within 18 months
Martech leaders expect agentic AI to take on a large share of customer support interactions soon (Adobe 2026 AI and Digital Trends, survey fielded Oct-Nov 2025).
77% expect at least half of customer support interactions to be handled directly by agentic AI within 18 monthsRoadmap:O5G1G4Fan assistant agent (O5) is now a mainstream expectation, so the Studio should demo it with governance (G4) rather than as a novelty.
Sources we track
- AdExchangertrade_press · daily
- Adobe Digital Trends reportreport · annual
- ANA martech trends and practicessurvey · annual
- chiefmartec (Scott Brinker)analyst · annual landscape plus posts
- CX Todaytrade_press · daily
- Digidaytrade_press · daily
- dunnhumby Retail Media Insightsvendor_research · annual
- EMARKETERanalyst · daily
- Forrester B2C Marketinganalyst · quarterly plus annual predictions
- IAB Research and Insights (State of Data)standards_body · annual plus ad hoc
- IAB Tech Labstandards_body · ongoing
- MarTech.orgtrade_press · daily
- MediaPosttrade_press · daily
- PPC Landtrade_press · daily
- Refacto: AdTech with analysis (LinkedIn newsletter)newsletter · weekly
- Relo Metrics Insightsvendor_research · monthly
- SportBusinesstrade_press · daily
- YouGov Sport Sponsorship Impact Rankingssurvey · annual
Findings are captured by a weekly research pass and verified against the source page before they are shown.