Digiday Daily

June 24, 2026

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With half the industry’s dealmakers and powerbrokers gathered in the south of France this week, agencies have been falling over themselves to boast AI agent-related tests, case studies and partnerships. They’re not just competing with each other, but rather against the chance clients will use the same technology to bring more of their marketing operations in-house — and off the market.

TOP STORY

Evolving Agencies

Agencies look to AI agents for edge, but must fend off brands looking to in-house with the same tech

AI agents are at the core of Dentsu and Dept’s market offerings, but a Hyundai agentic media pilot highlights threat of in-housing.

OTHER THINGS TO KNOW

Brands that invest in creative marketing outperform the competition and grow. Apple, known for its creativity, consistently reports remarkable growth, like a 36% increase in monthly engagement on Apple TV. Partner insights from Cannes Lions.
Programmatic buying has long relied on a combination of identity-based and contextual signals to guide decisions, but the latter has often been applied more narrowly. Partner insights from Seedtag.
The Next Gen Store Awards honor the brands and retailers experimenting with in-store technology, innovative store formats and standout activations, redefining how consumers engage with physical retail. Enter by July 10 to save.

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MARKETING

Marketing on Platforms

Cannes Briefing: The AI search crisis everyone’s talking about at Cannes is actually about brand coherence

Cannes search panic, decoded: it was never about search,

Audio Anywhere

Spotify rebuilds ad business around automation, AI to secure bigger media budgets

Spotify is expanding its ad business beyond audio with automation, AI and video as it competes for larger platform budgets.

PARTNER INSIGHTS FROM 3C VENTURES

Marketer’s guide to evaluating agency platform claims featuring identical language

As agencies work to keep up with the competition, they bring AI-powered platforms to market that use language nearly identical to other offerings. Marketers must distinguish between narrative and measurable capability to see what claims ring true.

Business of TV

Omnicom Media and Paramount+ partner on dynamic fixed ad units in the streamer's premieres

Sponsor units in the media company’s streaming premieres are dynamically adapted to enable advertisers to tell a sequential story in those ad breaks, the first time Paramount has added a dynamic insertion capability to streaming.

PARTNER INSIGHTS FROM CELTRA

What sets compelling AI creative apart from generic output

Most marketing teams today have access to capable generative AI technology, but what separates effective AI-generated creative from generic output is the context layer underneath.