This acquisition sounds the death knell for independent adtech, to usher in the era of so-called “concentrated data” infrastructures. The consequences are necessarily numerous and raise questions.
The acquisition of LiveRamp, adtech until now independent, by the giant Publicis represents a real earthquake for the global advertising market. While we can rejoice that a French group is acquiring an American platform that structures the global advertising chain, this acquisition nevertheless sounds the death knell for independent adtech, to usher in the era of concentrated data infrastructures. First party data is officially no longer a peripheral tool, but rather the strategic backbone and the ultimate judge of the peace of tomorrow’s advertising.
The Retailer, master of granular, omnichannel and agreed data.
The Retailer has established itself today as the most strategic data collector. Indeed, faced with the obsolescence of third-party cookies, it holds the new black gold: ultra-granular behavioral and transactional data, in that it reflects the physical and digital reality of the purchase; and above all data collected in a framework of trust via loyalty programs or e-commerce actions. In short, this is invaluable data in the face of current and future regulatory tightening.
However, after the acquisition of Acxiom by IPG/Omnicom, then that of InfoSum by WPP, the acquisition of LiveRamp (historically perceived as the “neutral Switzerland of data”) raises an existential question for Retail Media. While the open and agnostic advertising ecosystem is shrinking to nothing, what choice will Retailers make: will they continue to “rent” their identity and/or data infrastructure to two or three players belonging to advertising groups that have an oligopoly in media buying, or will they, on the contrary, take back ownership and control of their customer graph?
What counter-power to hyper-concentration?
The acquisition of “data clean room” solutions by advertising groups is likely to pose a major conflict of interest: how can independent governance be guaranteed when it belongs to dominant buyers? A solution will lie in the federation of retailers around the creation of powerful and autonomous data alliances. Pooling data between Retailers within an open consortium will not only achieve critical mass without sacrificing independence but will also constitute the essential basis for addressing future agentic commerce and training AI agents. These agents, fed by rich and varied data, will also make cutting-edge personalization and innovative services possible for end customers. Inter-retailer data collaboration thus becomes a counter-power guaranteeing the autonomy of technological intermediation, as well as the excellence of the customer experience, without depending on infrastructures imposed by agency networks.
At a time of these consolidations, the sustainability of these models actually relies solely on the trust that consumers have in their merchants. Retailers must maintain this essential link which makes this market possible and of which infrastructure is only the tool. The advertising market desperately needs open ecosystems to preserve this balance of trust, but also the autonomy of advertisers, and above all, total respect for consumers.
