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CES is once again upon us, both an opportunity and a curse for most of the media to immediately snap out of vacation mode and head to Las Vegas. With each passing year, CES becomes a more important place for ad tech agencies and companies to not only learn what’s around the corner, but also to show off what they’ve built.
Tech, in its various guises, is fast becoming a differentiator between holding companies and independent media agencies alike. And it is technology that has helped French agency holding company Publicis rise to the fore of its holdco siblings – at least by measures of financial results and stock performance.
Much of this technology resides in or operates through Publicis Media Exchange, the media investment arm of Publicis. And that group in North America is led by Joel Lunenfeld, a boomerang of sorts at the holding company — he worked for Moxie Interactive for ten years until 2011, when he moved to Twitter as its longtime VP of global brand strategy. Lunenfeld returned to Publicis last March as CEO of PMX and will have his shoes on at CES this year.
Digiday asked Lunenfeld about his thoughts on CES, the programming world and how acquisition of influencer agency Influencial and Mars United Commerce last year it expands investment opportunities for Publicis clients.
The following interview has been edited for space and clarity.
What do you hope to take away from this year’s CES?
I’ve been attending CES for the past 20 years and I’m always excited to see the immediate future of consumer technology and how it will impact brand connection and engagement. In 2025, it’s remarkable how AI has now impacted every category at the show, from connected devices to cars to wearables, displays and content delivery/creation. Aside from the rise of the IOT, there has never been a single through line for every technological advancement. Personally, I’m also excited to see AI/robot technology this year and how humanoid robots will soon be integrated into our daily lives.
Influencers and creators have worked their way into serious consideration in media planning. How does access to Influential, an agency that Publicis bought last year, help you integrate that world into your offering? How much are clients looking for it?
Influencer marketing is now a strategic channel vs. a separate tactic to promote engagement on social networks. Our clients are looking for scalable 360 [degree] activations across all channels that lead back to measurable business results. By combining Influential’s world-class team and capabilities with Epsilon’s unique data and identities and the scope of Publicis Mediawe improve our ability to understand consumers. This allows us to better identify creators who can authentically connect brands with their target audience and reach them across the internet.
What is the biggest change that programmatic investments need to undergo this year?
Programmatic investing needs to get rid of passive targeting and activation methods, specifically open exchanges. PMX will continue to play an active role in dictating delivery route optimization and leveraging our expertise to serve our clients in the most efficient and effective manner possible. This means better partnerships with supply partners at the best prices in a market with fewer numbers [steps].
What will you primarily focus on at PMX in 2025? Clients, technology, integration, something else?
As always, our clients and their deliveries are our absolute priority. This is why we continue to invest in diversified capabilities and emphasize the integration of these capabilities within PMX. We will continue to focus on developing proprietary technologies such as the PMX Lift that leverage Epsilon’s … identity and technology. 2025 will also see us drive deeper integration of commerce and influencer capabilities within PMX. Programmatic as an activation strategy can go beyond standard media and PMX will be at the forefront of opening up these new channels for our clients.
Given the ubiquity of AI, what are PMX’s priorities for integrating AI into your systems – beyond what you’ve already done?
At PMX, we continue to evaluate third-party offerings on behalf of clients and guide them in diversifying their investments. We will always support continuous learning and development of internal tools such as Marcel and custom algorithms delivered through our proprietary Decision Sciences Framework (DSF) to help us continually improve our capabilities for clients.
Color by numbers
The rise in attention metrics and greater adoption of AR lenses have created a seemingly happy marriage for brands. At least that’s what an independent media agency claims Wpromote found with research developed in collaboration with Snapchat and Lumen Research. The three main findings that were made in October 2024 are: AR drives attention and results; Interactive brand experiences drive intentional decision making in consumers; Following the manual for effective creativity virtually guarantees results. Compared to campaigns without RR, the brand impact was calculated as:
- 2.4x higher advertising awareness
- 1.8x higher brand awareness
- 1.4x greater brand association
Takeoff and landing
- Horizon Media Holdings, which owns Horizon Media and all its offshoots (and there are many), named after an industry veteran Bob Lord its president, reporting directly to the founder and CEO Bill Koenigsberg. Lord has been consulting at Horizon for the past year. (Check out Lord’s thoughts heading into CES below.)
- Late December IPG Initiative won Volvo‘s global media business (excluding China), beating the incumbent Mindshare.
- Speaking of Initiative, Initiative India vp investments, Seema Nambiarleaves after 34 years within IPG.
Direct quote
“There’s so much opportunity for us, if we can let machines do the work and augment — not replace, but augment — our intelligence as human beings and create a better value proposition between the brand and their consumer, that’s ultimately what we want. do.”
— Bob Lord, newly minted president of Horizon Media Holdings, talks about the improved Horizon Blue Platform to be unveiled at CES 2025.