Enda Gallen, Senior UX/UI Designer

Time is running out. On 28 June 2025, the European Accessibility Act (EAA) becomes enforceable across the EU, bringing with it strict accessibility standards for digital services and products. If your business isn’t compliant, you’re not just risking legal penalties. You’re missing out on a rapidly growing market, damaging your reputation, and falling behind more forward-thinking competitors.

Accessibility is no longer a ‘nice to have’. It’s a business-critical requirement – and the brands that act now will be the ones that thrive.

What Is the European Accessibility Act?

The EAA is an EU directive designed to ensure that people with disabilities have equal access to everyday digital products and services – from banking apps to e-commerce platforms, e-books to transport ticketing systems.

First passed in 2019, enforcement begins 28 June 2025, with full compliance for legacy services required by 2030. Crucially, any updates to existing platforms after June 2025 must meet the new standards immediately.

If you offer digital services in the EU and you’re not a micro-enterprise (under 10 staff and €2M turnover), this applies to you. That includes:

• Marketing agencies managing digital properties
• Brands with consumer-facing websites or apps
• Providers of online services like banking, e-commerce, or streaming
• Distributors and importers of electronic goods

Why It Matters: Business Risk and Opportunity

For marketing leaders, brand owners, and digital teams, the EAA represents more than a compliance checkbox – it’s a strategic turning point. Here’s why:

1. Legal Exposure

Non-compliance in Ireland can result in fines of up to €60,000, imprisonment, and personal liability for company directors. Irish regulators are mandated to enforce these rules with teeth.

2. Missed Market Reach

Over 85 million people in Europe live with a disability – a massive market segment. Ignoring accessibility means excluding a sizable and loyal audience with growing buying power. Additionally, SEO benefits of accessible design push you higher in the competitive search space.

3. Brand Reputation

Consumers and partners are paying attention. Demonstrating accessibility sends a clear message about your brand’s values. Falling short risks alienating audiences – and being publicly called out.

4. Innovation and Efficiency

Accessibility drives better design. Think voice interfaces, screen readers, or captioned content – features born from accessible design that now benefit everyone.

5. Competitive Advantage

While many businesses scramble at the last minute, those who act now gain the edge. You’ll launch faster, iterate better, and scale with confidence – all while meeting your compliance obligations.

What Compliance Actually Requires

The EAA requires that digital services are:

• Perceivable – content is accessible in multiple ways (e.g. alt text, captions)
• Operable – usable without a mouse (e.g. keyboard navigation)
• Understandable – intuitive, consistent, and readable
• Robust – compatible with assistive technologies

These principles are closely aligned with WCAG 2.2 Level AA, the international benchmark for digital accessibility. The success of each principal can be empirically verified through its success criteria, meaning the path to compliance is clear, measurable, and achievable.

The Act means your websites, mobile apps, online platforms, self-service kiosks, and customer support systems must be accessible by default, and stay that way through every product iteration. While this may seem like a major challenge, you have a partner ready to help!

Your Digital Partner in Compliance – and Beyond

At Connelly Partners, we don’t just help you avoid risk – we help you unlock opportunity.

Our team of accessibility-certified UX designers, strategists, and developers work hand-in-hand with your internal teams to ensure your digital ecosystem is compliant, accessible, and high-performing. Here’s how we deliver value:

• Accessibility Audits – Identify WCAG and EAA gaps across your digital products
• UX and UI Redesign – Create intuitive but compliant interfaces without sacrificing creativity
• Accessible Design Systems – Build scalable component libraries for consistency across channels
• Brand Accessibility Guidelines – Align accessibility with your visual identity and tone of voice
• Accessibility Compliance Monitoring and Maintenance – Ongoing support to ensure compliance, even as your products and services continue to grow and evolve

Our approach doesn’t just tick boxes. We future-proof your platforms and position your brand as a leader in accessible design.

Ready or Not – The EAA Deadline Is Approaching

With the imminent launch of the EAA, now is the time to act – don’t wait to scramble for compliance. The businesses moving today will be the ones who build trust, gain market share, and lead the next generation of digital experience.

We’re here to guide you through every step – from audit to implementation, strategy to scale.

Let’s make accessibility part of your competitive advantage.

Ready to make your business accessible to all? Talk with Connelly Partners today.

Nick Maumus, Assistant Media Planner

Sustainability is a buzzword in every industry, and it will only become more prominent as the climate crisis continues to grow. But when “carbon emissions” is mentioned in conversation; we default to thinking about the energy sector, big oil companies, and that dreaded Honda Civic revving its engine every early morning. What we forget is the prevalent and material impact caused by the digital world, and more specifically, advertising and media.

Firstly, carbon emissions in digital advertising are very real and have a much more prevalent impact than most of us realize. For context; 1M impressions creates 1 metric ton of CO2e (One passenger on a round-trip flight from Boston to London), and Google serves about 30 billion on an average day! 

Scope 1, 2, and 3: Categorizing Carbon Emissions

In terms of how we identify and categorize these carbon emissions; there is the Scope framework, which is divided into three categories.

• Scope 1 includes direct emissions from the business such as buildings, facilities, and company vehicles. 
• Scope 2 is related to energy consumption primarily demanded from the power grid to fuel activities, included in but not limited to those covered in Scope 1. It also encompasses utilities and power sources produced by entities other than the one using the energy.
• Scope 3, which accounts for approximately 90% of carbon emissions, originates from a business’s supply chain.

When we think of this in the context of media, the supply chain is not necessarily raw materials or manufactured inputs as might be the case for a computer chip manufacturer. For brands and agencies, the supply chain is most evident in the programmatic marketplace, where each publisher has multiple bid requests for every ad slot, and buyers are bidding on it all.

Additionally, every transaction and exchange of data that occurs on the programmatic supply chain releases a variable amount of carbon emissions; the larger and less efficient the supply chain, the more carbon is emitted. Publishers often duplicate ad bids for the same slot on overlapping DSPs and direct partnerships, leading to unnecessary and wasted transactions.

Measuring Media Emissions

Media emission measurement partners, such as Scope3, have entered the space to analyze programmatic publishers and raise awareness of their environmental impact. They provide a comparative ranking of the publisher’s total carbon footprint, their programmatic supply chain, and how their footprint breaks out among ad selection; media distribution; and creative delivery. 

Another valuable resource is a study conducted by Fifty-Five titled The Carbon Footprint of Media Campaigns. This public study examines the carbon emissions generated by a one-month mock omnichannel media campaign. The fascinating part of this study is how they were able to analyze the emissions from the four digital channels they chose to include. In their findings, they discovered that 323 Tons of CO2e were released over the course of one-month. However, if advertisers take sustainable digital advertising best practices into account, they can bring that total down on average 32% to 218T. 

Sustainability and Advertising: A Win-Win Partnership

Every impact, whether large or small, makes a difference in the climate issue. It is important that we spread awareness and resources to educate ourselves, and our industry, on the ways we can each drive change. In the context of programmatic supply chains, MFA (Made for Advertising) sites and ad-cluttered platforms are much less environmentally friendly—and on top of that, advertisers typically avoid these sites anyway. 

So, an incentive makes itself clear; a more efficient campaign is a cleaner campaign, and a cleaner campaign is a more effective campaign. All in all, understanding areas of improvement while maintaining the integrity of our campaigns can lead to bottom line improvements and notable environmental impacts. Next time you are in planning or see an innovative media placement, I invite you to explore the associated carbon journey and how you might be able to include sustainable digital advertising practices into your value chain. 

To celebrate its brand refresh, we partnered with Flair Airlines, transforming a vacant Gastown space into Flair/FWD, an immersive photography exhibition that brought the art and emotion of air travel to ground level. The two-week installation featured the work of National Geographic Explorer and photographer Mackenzie Calle. 

Through her lens, the exhibit explored both the wonder of flight and the behind-the-scenes choreography of aviation, reflecting how Flair is charting a new course and disrupting the air travel space with their mission to provide affordable air travel that connects Canadians to the people and experiences they love. 

Highlights included:

• Mackenzie Calle’s imagery offered a striking perspective on the art of air travel – capturing both the beauty of the journey and the behind-the-scenes moments that take passengers from departure to destination.
• A mix of photography reproduction, and print techniques, along with layered textures, lighting, and large-scale prints gave the space a larger-than-life experience
• A private kickoff event welcomed stakeholders, partners, and employees for an experience designed to toast the airline’s new trajectory. 
• A public opening on April 12–13 invited Vancouverites to explore the installation before it hits the road, with stops planned in other Canadian cities where Flair has major hubs.

The activation was a fresh take on airline marketing and a signal that Flair isn’t just refreshing its look, but making a deeper shift in how the airline connects with its community.

“Flair FWD was designed to signal a new era for Flair—one defined by confidence, clarity, and momentum,” said Patrick Smith, Creative Director at Flair Airlines. “Using award-winning photographer Mackenzie Calle’s distinct and beautiful imagery, we captured the essence of a brand on the rise. This was a Flair-led creative vision, brought to life with the support of Connelly Partners and Wildfire Events, who helped execute and implement the initiative with precision and energy.”

Nadine Cole, Co-Managing Director, Connelly Partners West also commented on the project, sharing that “the most fulfilling work happens when clients are clear on their mission and brave enough to break the mold. That’s what we’ve found with Flair. We believe in what they’re building, and we’re proud to travel alongside them as partners on what we know is an important journey.”

One of the industry’ most respected figures, Murphy has over 25 years experience working across a number of agencies including The Hive, Publicis Dublin and more recently as chief commercial officer of ACNE, the Deloitte Digital owned agency.

Murphy is also a past president of IAPI and a former chair of the Marketing Society as well as a former board member of Copy Clear.

“Connelly Partners is an agency that embodies the values I’ve always championed throughout my career: Integrity, Curiosity, and Empathy,” says Murphy. “Their impressive growth and portfolio of work are a solid foundation and I’m excited to contribute to the agency’s continued success. This is an exciting time and I look forward to the challenges ahead.”

“We are thrilled to welcome Jimmy to our team. His vast experience, leadership, and industry knowledge will be invaluable as we continue to grow and evolve as an agency. We are excited about the energy and perspective he will bring to Connelly Partners, as well as his ability to deliver commercial success for our clients,” adds Vaunnie McDermott.

Over the past 12 months, Connelly Partners has enjoyed considerable growth and now has a 50-person strong team in Dublin. Recent recruits also include co-creative directors Sam Moorhouse and Mikey Fleming.

Clients include Heineken brands Birra Moretti & Coors, The National Transport Authority and ESB & Electric Ireland.

Read the full Adworld article here.

Additional coverage:
Business Plus
Business Post
marketing.ie

Vaunnie McDermott was appointed Managing Director of Connelly Partners’ Dublin office in 2018. She has overseen the growth of the agency to a 50 person team in Ireland and led the integration of ZOO Digital. Under her leadership, the Dublin office has become a key hub for Connelly Partners—a global agency with offices also in Boston and Vancouver.

What are your main priorities and goals in your role?

My goal is for Connelly Partners to be recognised as Ireland’s most effective advertising agency—one that delivers commercial growth for our clients through standout, strategically-led creative solutions to their business challenges. My priorities are twofold: drive strategic business growth and continue building a high-performing, future-ready team. That means continuing to invest in upskilling, particularly around emerging tech like AI, while creating an environment where talent feels supported, inspired, and empowered to do their best work.

What are your biggest challenges as a business leader?

Companies across the country are facing challenges around the speed of change – and our challenges are no different. It’s about staying agile, always finding new solutions and acknowledging that previous processes and ways of working may no longer be of value. Managing teams and driving organisational culture with hybrid working, balanced with rising costs of running a business.

What have been your highlights in business over the past year?

The past year has been a real turning point for us. We welcomed new creative leadership with Sam Moorhead and Mikey Fleming as Co-Creative Directors, joining legendary Executive Creative Director Mike Garner and digital specialist and Creative Director, Chris Preston. We have other exciting additions coming soon too. We’ve had some major new business wins, including Waterways Ireland, University of Galway, the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration & Youth, and being added to the HSE agency framework. The merger with ZOO Digital has made us one of the largest independent full-service agencies in Ireland, and having the support and insights from our teams in Boston and Vancouver allows us to deliver meaningful work that resonates both locally and internationally.

Where do you want your business/brand to be this time next year?

A year from now, we hope to be operating on a bigger, more connected scale. Not just growing our team, but working smarter. We’re currently exploring a new office space that encourages creative collaboration across disciplines and makes it easier to work face-to-face with our clients. We want collaboration to be less of a scheduled event and more a part of how we work every day.

Our goal is for clients to see us not just as their agency, but as a trusted partner—someone they can count on to help them move their business forward and understands the commercial goals of their business.

Over the past few years, we’ve focused on breaking down silos between teams, offices, and even countries to deliver the best thinking, quickly. Next year, we want to keep building on that—going deeper into the industries we know best, fine-tuning how we work, and staying one step ahead so we can help brands do the same.

What new trends are emerging in your industry?

AI is constantly evolving in our industry and everyday new tools are available. The challenge/opportunity is to use AI effectively and efficiently for our clients – using human minds to prompt and curate the technology to augment our talent and get the reliable results our clients need to keep them ahead of their competitors.

What are the challenges facing the industry going forward?

One of the biggest challenges is the sheer volume of content competing for attention. In a world of constant change and content overload, brands are under enormous pressure not just to stand out—but to truly connect. Our response is to think outside of traditional advertising. It’s about understanding what motivates your audience’s behaviour and building campaigns that are culturally resonant, not just creatively clever. This is especially important to reach younger audiences. They expect brands to show up authentically, in the spaces they already occupy, with ideas that feel relevant.

This shift demands more from agencies: more agility, more integration, and a deeper understanding of both the customer journey and the world our audiences live in. It also challenges agencies and clients to move beyond the brief and become true strategic partners.

Are there any major changes that you’d like to see in your sector?

I’d like to see the reframing of the client/agency relationship so agencies are seen as a strategic investment on the P&L, not just a transactional service that costs money. Too often, the conversation still starts with cost and ends with deliverables. That mindset limits what we can achieve together. Agencies should be viewed as growth drivers, not suppliers.

Our job is to see around corners for our clients. We bring a deep understanding of consumer behaviour to the table, and when that’s combined with the client’s brand expertise, it becomes a powerful partnership. That’s where real impact is made—and where our value lies. It’s time we moved the conversation on from hourly rates, and towards measurable impact and long-term value. When we’re aligned around growth, everyone wins.

As an employer, are you finding any skill gaps in the market?

What we’re noticing isn’t so much a lack of individual skills—it’s a gap in how brands are able to keep up with the pace of change, especially when it comes to delivering consistently across the full customer journey. Too often, efforts are still fragmented—different partners for different channels, each with their own priorities. That slows things down and makes execution harder than it needs to be. That’s why, back in 2021, we set a clear goal: to simplify things. We wanted to remove the friction of working across multiple agencies, verticals, and markets. So we expanded strategically, made acquisitions, and built out new capabilities to offer everything under one roof. Now, our clients have one agency, one partner, one call.

We understand how each piece of the customer journey connects—from awareness to conversion to retention—and our teams are set up to move with that full view in mind. It’s not just about having the right skills; it’s about having them all work together seamlessly. That’s where we’ve seen the biggest difference for our clients—and it’s why we’ve built the model we have today.

How do you keep your team/staff motivated?

Culture has always been a commitment at Connelly Partners—not a buzzword. Staying aligned on values and building a strong internal identity around our mission and vision is key to keeping teams engaged. People need to know why they’re here, and why they’d choose us over another agency. That clarity and sense of purpose makes a real difference.

We also invest in initiatives that support both personal and professional growth. One example is CP Abroad, which gives team members the opportunity to work from any of our global offices. It’s been a huge motivator—broadening perspectives, deepening collaboration across hubs, and reinforcing our commitment to being a truly connected, international agency.

What is the best advice you have been given, or would give, in business?

Control what you can control…. Find a way to get back into a flow mindset where you are at your best. Focus on how you can get the job done and not be overwhelmed by the deliverables because with a clear calm mind, you will do a much better job.

Check out the full article from Business & Finance here.

Senior Partner and Chief Creative Officer Alyssa Toro has worn many hats throughout her life—designer, creative, pro athlete, entrepreneur, health coach, and mom. As a part owner of Connelly Partners, Alyssa has been at CP since day one, helping to build the agency from the ground up. Joining Christy Hiler on the Own It podcast, Alyssa shares her journey to leadership with honesty, warmth, and a few surprises.

Listen here.

Gene Begin, Managing Director, Connelly Partners Education
Erin Mullaney, Media Director
Kim Mazejka, Sr. Media Planner

Colleges and universities are vying for the attention of prospective students who are bombarded with information from every angle. While “performance media” (driving leads, opportunities, applications, etc) is a must-have in a shrinking education-seeking market, institutions must also embrace a comprehensive, full-funnel advertising strategy to build a foundation for that performance, especially due to the intensifying market competition. 

The number of graduate and online programs grew 69% from 2005 to 2022 nationwide. Notably, online/hybrid programs alone contributed to 78% of the year-over-year program growth between 2021 and 2022, according to the Postsecondary Equity & Economics Research Project.

In my role, I’ve been seeing more and more institutions focusing on finding performance media partners for these programs, hoping to convince prospective graduate and online students to apply, enroll, and deposit. But do you know how you get them to take those actions? Moving students to action requires understanding the student motivations at each stage of their education decision journey and their mindset in that moment. 

The Power of Awareness: Planting the Seeds Early

Imagine a prospective student who’s thinking about advancing their career but hasn’t yet considered a graduate degree, or perhaps doesn’t realize the breadth of quality online programs available, even in their local area. You must build a relationship with them to first educate that your graduate and online programs actually exist, with the hope you will be one of the half dozen or less institutions they typically apply to. 

Awareness-building strategies are about planting seeds. They’re about getting your institution and its programs on the radar of individuals who might not even know they need you yet. In a saturated market with few differentiators between programs, being first and loudest can win consideration and loyalty, generating more “warm” prospects for future conversion. This isn’t about immediate ROI, but about long-term pipeline development. Given that more competition leads to increased costs, stronger awareness and wider reach allows for more prospects to enter the funnel and can lower your conversion costs at the bottom of the funnel.

For Graduate Programs: Think about the working professional looking to upskill, the recent undergrad considering further specialization, or even someone contemplating a career change. Are you reaching them through thought leadership content, articles highlighting industry trends your program features and benefits address, or even broad-reach digital campaigns showcasing the impact of your students and alumni?

For Online Programs: The online learning landscape is vast and sometimes overwhelming. Awareness campaigns can highlight the flexibility, quality, and diverse range of your online degrees, differentiating you from the myriad of options available. This could involve showcasing student success stories, highlighting the expertise of your online faculty, or addressing common misconceptions about online education.

Moving to Consideration: Nurturing Interest

Once awareness is established, the next step is to move prospects into the consideration phase. This is where you provide more detailed information, address specific needs, and demonstrate the value proposition of your programs.

Targeted Content: For graduate programs, this might involve info sessions and webinars featuring program directors, virtual open houses, detailed program brochures, or alumni testimonials that speak to career advancement.

Authentic and Personalized Experiences: For any and all programs, this could first be done through influencer marketing. We have seen student and alumni influencer content outperform branded content for all of our partners, given that it is more immersive to the prospective student seeing what their life might look like if they enroll. And for online programs, deeper personalization could mean offering free sample modules, virtual tours of your online learning platform, or personalized consultations with admissions advisors who can address concerns about work-life balance or technology.

Retargeting Campaigns: For both, effective retargeting of individuals who have shown initial interest (e.g., visited a program page, downloaded a brochure) can keep your institution top-of-mind and guide them further down the funnel.

Optimizing Performance: Converting Intent into Enrollment

Finally, performance media comes into play. This is where you convert engaged prospects into inquiries and applicants and ultimately, enrolled students.

Clear Calls to Action: Streamlined application processes, easy-to-find financial aid information, and clear deadlines are paramount. So much improvement still needs to be made to university websites to ensure they are clear, concise and easy to find next steps.

A/B Testing: Continuously optimize your ad creative, your CTA copy and your landing pages to ensure they are as effective as possible in driving conversions.

CRM Integration: Seamlessly connect your advertising efforts with your CRM system to nurture leads and provide personalized communication throughout the application journey. While some systems and institutional processes are easier than others to connect the dots, it’s absolutely essential to eventually measure the return on your ad spend and investment.

Caution: if you only play in the conversion part of the funnel, it’s about who can outspend, not outsmart. You and your competition are vying for much of the same audience on the same platforms using the same algorithm. Awareness media can sometimes be less expensive, can properly penetrate your target audience, and can ensure you are top of mind and/or on their short list when they decide it’s time to apply.

The Bottom Line: Invest in Your Future Pipeline

By embracing a full-funnel strategy, colleges and universities can:

Expand their reach: Tap into new audiences who may not have previously considered higher education or your specific programs.

Build stronger brand recognition: Establish your institution as a leader and innovator in key areas to create more memorable associations.

Develop deeper pipelines: Ensure a consistent flow of qualified leads for all your programs, cross-promoting when necessary.

Maximize ROI: While awareness campaigns may not show immediate returns, they significantly enhance the effectiveness of your performance media in the long run.

Moving students to action requires media choices and tactics that students will intersect with at each stage of their decision journey. Our holistic approach requires consistency with brand but flexibility in message, thinking outside the ad, measurement at each stage, and respecting how people consume media today.

JoAnne Borselli, Group Brand Director

There’s a shift happening this summer that’s going to have a much louder impact than people realize: significantly fewer Canadians are traveling to the U.S.

According to Tourism Economics, visitation from Canada is expected to drop by 20.2% in 2025, part of a broader 9.4% decline in international arrivals. At first glance, it might seem like just a tourism issue. And it is. But it’s also much bigger than that.

Canadian travelers are a steady, reliable presence every summer, especially in key destinations in the Northeast and border regions across the northern portion of the U.S. They’re not just filling hotel rooms and lining up at attractions — they’re shopping, dining and spending in communities that count on their return year after year. So when they don’t show up, the ripple effect is real.

According to USA Today, a 10% dip in Canadian tourism alone could cost the U.S. $2.1 billion in spending and put 140,000 jobs at risk. That’s not just hotel and airline jobs — it’s restaurant staff, retail workers, drivers, seasonal employees and small-business owners who build their year around summer.

We’ll definitely feel it here in Boston, and in classic summer tourist towns in Massachusetts like the one where I live part of the year. Canada is Massachusetts’ No. 1 international tourism market during the summer, and when those visitors don’t come, it shows: fewer bookings, emptier tables, lighter foot traffic. It all adds up. For many local businesses, summer isn’t just the busy season. It’s make-or-break.

And the truth is, the impact doesn’t stop when vacation season ends. Less visitor spending means less local revenue. It affects everything from job creation to city budgets. And it’s often the smaller, family-run businesses without deep pockets or backup plans that feel it the most. When their income shrinks, so does their own household spending, creating a cycle that touches everything from grocery stores to gas stations.

For businesses that rely heavily on Canadian visitors, it’s easy to feel like this shift is completely out of their hands. But while you may not be able to change the border traffic, you can take steps to adapt your marketing strategy and build resilience during the slowdown:

• Lean on your own customer database to re-engage past Canadian customers directly.
  Use your own data to reach out with personalized offers. Highlight what makes your business worth the trip, and consider adding incentives like loyalty perks, bundled packages or flexible booking terms to help bring them back.
• Tell your story in a way that resonates with values.
  People choose destinations that feel authentic and connected. Share what makes your business unique — whether it’s a generational family story, your commitment to sustainability or the ways you support your community. These narratives build loyalty through human compassion and connection.
• Double down on U.S.-based local markets.
  With cross-border travel down, look closer to home. Target customers in nearby regions that are within a few hours’ drive. Emphasize convenience, value and the kinds of experiences people can’t get elsewhere, especially for weekend getaways or spur-of-the-moment summer plans.
  

These kinds of efforts won’t replace lost international traffic overnight. But they can help stabilize revenue, deepen connections with your audience and position your business for stronger recovery down the road.

Because the bottom line is this: when travel slows down, a lot of other things do too. That’s why it’s so important to keep the bigger picture in mind. Travel isn’t just a business sector — it’s a spark that powers so much more.

Despite the evolving media landscape and continual doomsaying about the death of linear, upfronts arguably remain the most pivotal week of the year for TV networks. Billions of dollars in ad commitments take shape during the annual industry showcase, providing a view into the evolving dynamics of media buying—and the tech that will measure those investments.

Ad tech played a pivotal role in the 2025 upfronts and NewFronts, with Google, Yahoo, Netflix and Fox driving home the importance of AI- and data-driven ad tools for marketers. Gen Z once again dominated the demographic conversation, with tailored lineups and targeted content, while the dynamics between streaming and legacy networks continued to play out against a backdrop of Trump’s tariffs, increasing economic uncertainty and a fragmented media landscape. Amid so much disruption and reinvention, we turned to the experts for their key takeaways from TV’s biggest week.

Live Programming Is Essential Business

Michelle Capasso, Partner & Chief Media Officer

No surprise: Live tentpole events, especially sports, are still king of the hill—and played a big role in the upfronts. But this year’s focus on ad tech and new ways to buy recognizes the importance of ad-supported metrics. Ad buyers have always cared about performance and transparency, and now the platforms are finally responding. Netflix, once the champion of ad-free experience, is now touting the importance and relevance of their ad-supported tiers, and Amazon featured their ad-supported growth in streaming as a centerpiece in their pitch. This shift hopefully means more transparency for buyers—all that star power on stage touting programs in development means more when advertisers can finally get a piece of it.

The rush to sports should help support upfront spending as budgets get tighter with economic uncertainty. Big brands need it to capture large audiences. Deals will likely be more concentrated, while advertisers try to consolidate into “sure things” like live sports to reach audiences that continue to fragment, driving up pricing. But the heavy focus this year on ad tech and more ways to buy programmatically could ding upfront spend and incentivize advertisers to not lock up those budgets now.

Read the full AdAge article here.

Katie Flores, Associate Director of Programmatic Media Investment

According to a report published by AI Digital, 83% of digital ad revenue is projected to be controlled by Walled Gardens by 2027¹. A walled garden refers to how platforms such as Google, Meta, Apple, and Amazon control their platform insights and information such as ad inventory, user data, and performance metrics, limiting outside access.

The report also states that 90% of consumers spend their online time within these walled garden environments. Wow, 90%! That means only 10% of users spend their online time engaging with media that we can gain insights from and create leverageable audience segments to optimize against. Walled Gardens can pose a risk to the media ecosystem but also have undeniable benefits.

What is a Walled Garden & Why Are They So Attractive?

Walled Gardens have dominated the media industry for years. But why? Well, the attraction of working with Meta or Netflix for example should be obvious. The latter reported that their daily average viewing duration was two hours and in 1H’24, consumers streamed over 94 billion hours of content². Mass reach is an understatement. And Meta has mass reach locked down. Facebook has over 3 billion users. The rich, complex, and extensive user data stores gathered from those 3 billion users are just one of the many things that sets Meta apart. 

With the further deprecation of cookies and tracking capabilities, these Walled Garden’s first-party data stores will become even more sought after by marketers looking to gain deeper insights into their consumers. Their precision targeting capabilities are vast, the platforms are widely recognized and engaged millions of times a day, and buying on a platform such as Meta allows for a complete campaign journey from launch, campaign optimizations, and campaign wrap-up measurement. 

Along with the ease of working with a partner throughout the campaign cycle, Walled Gardens can also provide a full view into the consumer journey from discovery to purchase

The Dark Side: Transparency and Black Box Measurement

All of this sounds incredible, but what does it mean for a platform that isn’t a Google or Apple, or Meta? Well, sometimes the grass isn’t always greener inside of these Walled Gardens. Issues such as transparency, data collection and ownership, inflated inventory and fee costs, and trust are just the beginning.

Transparency has always been a hot topic when it comes to the Googles and Metas of our world. These companies have the right to withhold or provide a client with any information or data that they choose. And the transparency issue goes far beyond data but also applies to how the company’s ad tech algorithms work, how ads are served and where, and what audiences are seeing them. This is often referred to as Black Box Measurement and it’s something that the advertising industry is just starting to unpack and examine. How do you challenge and trust a platform that acts as judge, jury, and executioner without third party validation? This is a question that we as media buyers and planners should ask ourselves daily.

The Automation Illusion: When Simplicity Hides Complexity

Since third party measurement partners aren’t allowed to be utilized within these platforms, brands must rely on the honesty of the publisher, that they are providing them with the correct data, and that the data that brands can ingest into the platforms are actually being used for their intended purposes. The lack of transparency seems to be only increasing, under the guise of enhanced performance through automation. 

For example, Google’s Performance Max and Meta’s Advantage+ are newer products that significantly reduce advertiser control of where ads are serving and how they are appearing. While these platforms promote simplicity and automation, allowing their algorithms to handle the work as ‘best practice,’ good advertisers must scrutinize these directives, recognizing the platforms’ inherent drive for monetization. 

While we can’t directly track and validate these platforms with 3rd parties, we can conduct test & learns and other forms of measurement to make our own informed decisions. 

Scrutiny around transparency has come from not only platform users but government officials as well. This pressure has led to some closed ecosystems experimenting with ‘clean rooms’ to provide partners with more insights than ever before. For example, in 1H’24, Amazon launched AWS Clean Rooms ML. 

This product allows Amazon partners to use AWS’s proprietary machine learning technology to create audience modeling and predictive insights without Amazon having to disclose any of their raw data. It’s a step in the right direction but is it enough?

History Repeats: From Prime Time TV to Prime Video

I often compare Amazon Prime and Netflix, who just recently announced they will stop reporting paid subscribers come 1Q’25, to how media buyers viewed the Prime-Time daypart ‘back in the day.’ Before we had the granular and specific audience data reporting tools, us media buyers would pay ABC, CBS, and NBC exorbitant costs to air in those three to four hours of content a night solely because Nielsen’s Household reporting panel of 0.01% of the US population told us those shows had the highest ratings on tv. 

We trusted this data because of Nielsen’s longtime standing as a consumer reporting titan, similar to how we in the media industry trust the statistical data that Meta and Amazon supply us with. Looking back, we now know that Nielsen’s murky in-home panel system fraudulently reported inaccurate age, sex, and content data resulting in millions of ad dollars lost to inaccurate targeting tactics³. Even when it comes to billion-dollar, household institutions, question, examine, and challenge everything.   

Thus far we have covered issues with transparency, concerns over data ownership, and Black Box measurement processes. Which leaves us with one last thing to discuss, and that’s money. The premium content that a Netflix or an Amazon Prime provides to us consumers sure does come at a premium cost. 

In addition to award-winning content, their large user bases/scale, time spent in-platform, white-glove service offerings, measurement capabilities, and high-quality ad experiences mean that our bargaining power goes out the door if we want to continue engaging with our clients’ in-platform target audiences. 

All in all, Walled Garden pricing can be as inflated as these companies want since media buyers must purchase their content via Direct IO and not on the open market. Demand is high and supply is low. Econ 101!  

Regulatory and Industry Pushback: Cracks in the Walls

We are at the whim of these Walled Garden companies, and they know they hold the chips, but some government officials, tech companies, smaller publishers, and media buyers are trying to reclaim some of this power. On a global scale, the EU’s Digital Markets Act of 2023 has put a spotlight on creating fairer and more competitive marketplaces by regulating Walled Garden platforms from abusing their position in the market. 

In the United States, the California Consumer Privacy Act allowed California residents the right to share or exclude their data, and US antitrust laws aim to reduce monopolization of certain sectors where it has occurred. 

On a smaller scale, publishers, agencies, and ad tech companies are coming together to collaborate on solutions such as clean rooms, contextual and AI predictive targeting methods, building identity alternatives like UID 2.0, and sharing transparent rate/fee cards to challenge the way these closed ecosystems operate. 

For example, LiveRamp is continuing to grow its global data community to help solve inadequacies in available measurement and audience insights. While these Walled Gardens are closing in, innovations in data collection and collaboration from every corner of the industry are expanding.

Looking Ahead: Will 2026 Bring More Openness?

As we look at the rest of 2025 and 2026, will we see Walled Gardens continue to grow or will we see open access to their inventory across different platforms and increases in data and measurement transparency? 

For example, smaller-scale DSPs plan to start selling Amazon Prime inventory beginning in 2H’25, which will remove the costly commitments and barriers of entry of buying directly with these partners. Hopefully, this trend continues in a forward direction and more and more Walled Garden platforms will follow suit as we move into 2026.

Balance the Power but Don’t Ignore the Value

In conclusion, Walled Garden companies are necessary for the industry and economy, have undeniably advanced targeting capabilities, captivating and alluring content, and billions of users who engage with their platforms for hours on end. 

However, the lack of transparency, accountability, data ownership and measurement, and insights into where and when ads run is a problem that simply cannot be ignored. When planning for 2026, keep an eye out for publishers with ad tech partnerships that can provide complete clarity into their data control and usage capabilities, reporting and measurement potential, transparent cost and fee structures, and last but not least, partners you can trust.

1. Liveramp; eMarketer ↩︎
2. Netflix 3Q’24 Shareholder Letter, Netflix.com, What We Watched the First Half of 2024 ↩︎
3.  MNTN – How Nielsen Got It Wrong – and Performance TV Gets it Right, Stephen Graveman ↩︎