As advertising becomes increasingly automated, the operational gap between media buying and creative execution is becoming harder for brands and agencies to ignore. Clinch is responding by expanding its EMEA presence and positioning its Flight Control platform as a unified operating layer for omnichannel advertising.
The company has appointed Colin Cherry as Vice President of Growth, EMEA, and opened a new London hub in Soho. Clinch says the expansion follows increased enterprise demand in the region, including several new Fortune 500 advertisers and a 57% increase in full-time headcount across EMEA and APAC.
The announcement is notable less for the office move itself than for what Clinch is trying to build around it: an advertising technology stack that connects creative, data and media execution in a single workflow.
Clinch’s Flight Control platform is designed to help advertisers and agencies plan, activate, optimize and measure campaigns across channels. Instead of treating creative production and media activation as separate operational processes, the platform connects them so campaign teams can respond to live performance signals while maintaining control over how advertising is delivered.
That distinction is becoming more important as AI and automation reshape media buying.
Traditional advertising stacks often involve multiple systems for demand-side media activation, creative management, audience data, campaign trafficking and measurement. DSPs such as The Trade Desk focus heavily on media buying and audience activation, while broader marketing platforms from companies such as Adobe and Salesforce address different parts of the customer and marketing lifecycle.
Clinch is targeting the layer between those workflows.
Its proposition is particularly relevant to omnichannel campaigns where creative variations need to respond to factors such as audience, placement, channel or campaign performance. Bringing those decisions closer to media execution can potentially reduce the manual work involved in coordinating creative and media teams.
For enterprise advertisers, the appeal is operational as much as technical. Campaign teams increasingly have to manage fragmented inventories spanning display, video, connected TV, social and other digital environments. When creative and media operations are disconnected, changes to targeting or campaign strategy can create additional trafficking, approval and measurement work.
A unified workflow does not eliminate those complexities, but it can provide a common control layer.
Clinch’s EMEA expansion comes as Cherry takes responsibility for regional growth across agencies, brands and technology partners. His previous roles include senior positions at The Trade Desk and Criteo, giving him experience across both media buying and performance advertising ecosystems.
That background could be relevant to Clinch’s strategy because the company is not attempting to replace every component of the advertising stack. Instead, it is seeking to connect systems that already exist.
The shift also reflects a broader movement toward advertising orchestration. As AI-powered tools automate individual stages of campaign planning and execution, advertisers need infrastructure capable of coordinating those automated processes. The competitive question is increasingly about how effectively platforms can connect data, creative decisions, media activation and measurement without creating another isolated technology layer.
Clinch’s approach will therefore compete indirectly with several categories of advertising software. DSPs remain central to programmatic buying, creative management platforms specialize in content production and optimization, while large marketing clouds provide broader customer-data and campaign capabilities. Clinch’s differentiation rests on combining creative and media execution specifically around omnichannel advertising.
The London hub will serve as the company’s base for further expansion across the UK and continental Europe. For agencies and global brands, the more important test will be whether that technology translates into measurable improvements in campaign speed, operational efficiency and performance.
As advertising systems become more autonomous, the next generation of AdTech may be defined less by another standalone buying platform and more by the infrastructure connecting the pieces.
Market Landscape
Advertising automation is pushing enterprise teams toward more integrated campaign infrastructure. IAB’s 2026 Internet Advertising Revenue Report shows U.S. digital advertising continuing to expand across video, social, search and other channels, increasing the operational complexity advertisers must manage across fragmented environments.
The market remains highly segmented. The Trade Desk and other DSPs concentrate on media buying and programmatic activation, while companies such as Adobe provide broader marketing technology suites. Creative optimization and campaign-management vendors occupy adjacent portions of the workflow.
Clinch is positioning Flight Control around the intersection of these categories: creative orchestration, media activation, data and campaign optimization.
That positioning could become more relevant as AI automates individual advertising tasks. The challenge for enterprise buyers will be determining whether an orchestration layer genuinely reduces workflow fragmentation or simply adds another platform to an already complex stack.
Top Insights
- Clinch appointed Colin Cherry to lead EMEA growth as its Flight Control platform targets increasingly automated omnichannel advertising workflows.
- Flight Control connects creative, data and media execution, giving agencies and brands a unified environment for campaign activation and optimization.
- Clinch’s expansion follows reported Fortune 500 adoption and 57% headcount growth across EMEA and APAC, signaling broader regional investment.
- Cherry’s background at The Trade Desk and Criteo gives Clinch experience spanning programmatic advertising, agency relationships and performance media.
- The company’s strategy reflects a wider AdTech shift toward orchestration layers connecting creative decisions, media buying, audience signals and measurement.
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