- In a bid to offer clients more control over their ad tech partnerships, Horizon Media has introduced HorizonOS, an open ecosystem that permits clients to create marketing products with quite a lot of different vendors, per a press release.
- Tropical Smoothie Cafe and Orkin are two clients which have already begun using the platform, which features partners including ID5, ZeroToOne, Kargo, The Trade Desk, Smartly, Vidmob and Newton Research.
- Concurrently, Horizon unveiled a brand new innovation accelerator called Horizon Labs. The latest unit will work with clients to check, validate and scale latest capabilities.
The independent media agency is positioning HorizonOS as an open system alternative that creates freedom and selection for clients, versus the massive holding company systems which are limited and closed. Per Horizon’s announcement, the critical difference for HorizonOS is its use of human intelligence and insight, relatively than the automation-first strategies it insists are the hallmarks of the holding corporations.
“[The holding companies are] constructing closed systems of machines talking to themselves, eventually delivering essentially the most reductive solutions. We’re taking the other approach: HorizonOS is designed to bring human expertise and the most recent technology to the forefront, creating conditions for co-creation and client growth,” said Bob Lord, president of Horizon Media Holdings, in the discharge.
HorizonOS’ architecture is an interconnected system of technology and human intelligence. It relies upon Horizon’s Blu AI platform to create audience strategies, campaign activations and measurement, together with Agent Q, an “internal thought partner” built on Google Gemini and connected to Horizon’s proprietary data.
The platform’s point of differentiation, per Horizon, is the humans behind the tech. This includes Client Architects, who understand business challenges and competitive landscapes; marketing science and advanced analytics teams, and from the HorizonOS Labs enterprise, what the corporate refers to as Product Foundry builders.
The Labs unit will work with clients to check, validate and scale latest capabilities — including all the pieces from generative AI creative tools to advanced measurement systems — in a way that can grant access to latest technologies with less risk. Horizon said greater than 15 clients are actively working with HorizonOS Labs to develop pilot programs that address specific business challenges.
Two of those clients are Tropical Smoothie Cafe and Orkin. Through Labs, Tropical Smoothie and ZeroToOne created a pilot to create predictive audience models inside the Blu system. Orkin, meanwhile, has been working with The Trade Desk to directly link media investment to strategic business outcomes.
In addition to ZeroToOne and The Trade Desk, other tech partners for HorizonOS and HorizonOS Labs include: data company ID5; activation and planning corporations Kargo, Sightly and Vurvey Labs; creative and brand experiences agencies Firsthand, Kerv, Smartly and Vidmob; and analytics company Newton Research.
Horizon has been working hard to fortify its relevance in the brand new marketing landscape that has been created within the wake of Omnicom’s purchase of Interpublic Group. In September, Horizon Media Holdings launched a three way partnership with Havas to create Horizon Global, an entity that executives said was the primary agency network inbuilt the AI era and would promise a “seamless, AI-native experience” for its clients.
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