What the Deal Entails
The acquisition, disclosed in a July 16, 2026 press release, brings AdSkate’s technology, talent, and product roadmap under Brunner’s umbrella. AdSkate, founded in 2022, specializes in dissecting creative assets—images, video, copy—and link them to audience behavior and return‑on‑ad‑spend (ROAS). Brunner’s leadership, including Partner Kevin Amos, says the integration will “help clients make smarter decisions, move faster, optimize campaigns with greater confidence, and maximize the impact of every marketing dollar.”
How AdSkate’s Platform Works
AdSkate’s engine ingests raw ad creative, applies computer‑vision models to identify visual elements, and cross‑references performance metrics from programmatic exchanges, CTV, and social feeds. The platform then surfaces predictive scores that tell marketers which design tweaks are likely to lift click‑through rates or conversion. By turning creative evaluation from a subjective art into a data‑driven discipline, AdSkate promises to reduce the time spent on A/B testing by up to 40%, according to internal benchmarks shared with Brunner.
Why the Acquisition Matters
The adtech market is at a tipping point where AI‑driven creative intelligence is no longer a niche add‑on but a core capability. Gartner forecasts that by 2027, 70 % of marketers will rely on AI for creative decision‑making, up from just 25 % in 2023. Brunner’s purchase of AdSkate gives the agency a proprietary AI stack that can be bundled with its existing demand‑side platform (DSP) integrations and data‑management platform (DMP) services. For enterprise marketing teams, the combined offering means a single point of contact for media buying, audience segmentation, and creative optimization—a consolidation that can cut vendor overhead and improve data hygiene.
Competitive Context
Brunner now joins a handful of agencies that have internalized creative intelligence. The likes of Publicis Sapient’s “Marcel” and Accenture Interactive’s “Mediaverse” have also built AI‑driven creative labs, but few have paired those labs with an independent media‑buying platform. Competitors such as The Trade Desk and MediaMath focus primarily on programmatic buying and audience targeting, leaving a gap in automated creative insight. By integrating AdSkate, Brunner can differentiate its media‑buying platform with a built‑in creative performance layer, potentially attracting brands that have struggled to align creative testing with real‑time bidding.
Implications for Enterprise Marketers
For large‑scale marketers, the acquisition translates into three practical benefits:
- Unified Data Flow – Creative metrics are automatically fed into Brunner’s existing analytics dashboards, eliminating manual data stitching.
- Predictive Creative Guidance – Machine‑learning models suggest asset variations before launch, reducing wasted spend on under‑performing ads.
- Cross‑Channel Consistency – The platform normalizes performance signals across CTV, OTT, display, and social, enabling a single optimization loop for multi‑screen campaigns.
These capabilities align with a Forrester study that found organizations using AI‑enhanced creative tools achieve a 15 % lift in campaign efficiency and a 12 % increase in ROAS compared with traditional workflows.
Industry Outlook
The broader adtech ecosystem is increasingly converging on AI‑first architectures. Privacy regulations such as the EU’s ePrivacy Regulation and the U.S. state‑level data‑rights laws are pushing vendors to rely on first‑party data and on‑device inference. Platforms that can extract actionable insights from the creative itself—without needing third‑party cookies—are gaining strategic relevance. Brunner’s move signals that agencies are positioning themselves as both data custodians and creative innovators, a hybrid role that could reshape agency‑client contracts in the next three to five years.
Market Landscape
- AI‑Centric Creative Tools – Companies like Adobe (Sensei) and Google (Ads Creative Studio) are expanding AI features, but most remain add‑ons to broader ad suites.
- Programmatic Consolidation – DSPs are acquiring DMPs to offer “one‑stop” solutions; Brunner’s addition of a creative analytics layer mirrors this trend.
- Retail Media Growth – As retailers build their own media networks, the need for rapid creative iteration becomes critical; AI‑driven platforms can meet that demand at scale.
- Privacy‑First Measurement – With cookie deprecation, attribution models are shifting toward probabilistic and deterministic signals derived from first‑party interactions—areas where AdSkate’s audience‑behavior linkage can add value.
Top Insights
- Unified AI Stack – Brunner now offers a single platform that combines media buying, audience data, and creative performance, reducing vendor sprawl for enterprise marketers.
- Speed to Insight – AdSkate’s predictive analytics can cut creative testing cycles by up to 40 %, accelerating campaign launch timelines.
- Competitive Edge – Few agencies pair AI‑driven creative intelligence with an independent DSP, giving Brunner a differentiator in a crowded market.
- Privacy Alignment – The solution leans on first‑party data and on‑device inference, positioning it well against tightening privacy regulations.
- Enterprise ROI – Early adopters report a 12 % lift in ROAS, echoing Forrester’s broader findings on AI‑enhanced advertising efficiency.
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