This week’s round-up of the latest mergers and acquisitions, partnerships, and account moves include Sony, Pubmatic, MSQ, Spotify, and Walmart.
Deal Desk rounds-up the latest moves across the global affiliate and digital marketing industry and why it matters.
This week, Sony Pictures Entertainment names PubMatic as its preferred programmatic partner; MSQ acquires January Digital; and Spotify integrates its ad exchange with Walmart DSP.
Sony Pictures Entertainment partners with PubMatic
Sony Pictures Entertainment has chosen PubMatic be its preferred programmatic platform for ‘live TV on playstation 5 (PS5)’.
The pair have entered an agreement which will see PubMatic work alongside Sony’s advertising partner to make its connected TV (CTV) inventory become available to brands and agencies globally.
Advertisers will be able to access performance-focused supply and preferred partnership opportunities as well as audience insights either through their existing DSP or directly through PubMatic’s platform.
Jason White, vice president of Ads at Sony Pictures Entertainment said: “Streaming gives us an opportunity to build something fundamentally different from linear and broadcast.”
“Our PlayStation audiences are highly engaged and highly loyal, but they have historically been difficult for many advertisers to reach. Partnering with PubMatic brings our premium inventory and authenticated audience insights closer to brands, agencies and performance-focused advertisers seeking more direct and measurable ways to invest in connected television.”
Nicole Scaglione, vice president of CTV at PubMatic, added: “CTV is attracting a new generation of performance-focused advertisers, but accessing premium inventory can still be complex.
“By bringing Sony’s premium inventory into PubMatic’s unified platform, we’re combining the quality and engagement of premium CTV with the intelligence, transparency and control advertisers need to drive measurable performance.”
Leaders take
Launched at the end of August, Live TV on PS5 enables advertisers to reach playstation 5 users directly within the console experience – something that has historically been a challenge to do. PS5 users known for being highly engaged audiences and this partnership with PubMatic provides a direct path to reach them through traditional TV and streaming media plans.
At the same time, through PubMatic’s agentic AI model offers support across workflows, audience discovery, inventory curation, activation, measurement and fee transparency.
MSQ acquires January Digital
MSQ Group has acquired independent US-based media agency, January Digital.
January Digital was founded 14 years ago by chief executive Vic Drabicky, who has been looking for a strategic buyer for over a year.
Peter Reid, Group chief executive of MSQ said: “Our model is to build scale that accelerates growth in individual core specialisms and strengthens our market-leading multi-disciplinary approach. Recent acquisitions in the US have increased our presence and strength in creative and tech; January Digital brings significant additional media capabilities to our US clients and agencies, while augmenting our global media presence.
“A warm welcome to Vic and the January Digital team as we maximise these opportunities.”
Drabicky added: “We are thrilled to join the MSQ family of agencies. In MSQ, we have found a partner that not only adds to our capabilities and scale but does it while aligning perfectly with the values we built JD upon.
“I am genuinely excited about our future and can’t wait to see all the amazing things we accomplish together.”
The terms of the deal have not yet been disclosed.
Leaders take
MSQ is a private-equity backed group that has been looking to compete with large holding companies and this acquisition puts it one step closer to that, alongside expanding its footprint in the US. Last year, the agency bought out Arke (now MSW DX), and in 2024, it acquired New York creative shop Big Spaceship. January Digital, which has offices in New York and Dallas has now been added to that portfolio.
The combined group, alongside MSQ Intelligence – the global team launched earlier this year dedicated to developing AI-powered products, services, platforms and data capabilities – offers brands across all verticals something to consider when looking for an agency.
Spotify integrates ad exchange with Walmart DSP
Spotify Ad Exchange is being integrated into Walmart DSP, which will allow advertisers to reach shoppers during their daily moments on the audio streaming platform.
Advertisers can now see how Spotify inventory across audio, video and display ad formats, paired with first-party data signals from Walmart’s digital properties and 4,600 plus stores can drive commercial outcomes. And with Walmart DSP, this reach is now addressable and measurable.
Brands that already use Walmart’s adtech can now include Spotify music and podcast audiences to their campaigns without having to establish a separate buying relationship.
Walmart will also allow advertisers to use customer data to target Spotify listeners, and measure the conversion of the sales at Walmart stores or on its website.
Leaders take
The integration is part of Walmart Connect’s expansion, and will use customer data and sales measurement. With Spotify data showing that ads on its platform get double the attention compared to social media platforms, this opens up huge possibilities for advertisers.
Advertisers will get access to first-party customer data for targeting specific groups as well discovering new audiences. Meanwhile Walmart is also expanding access to CTV inventory through Magnite and Yahoo DSP, illustrating a rapid expansion of its advertising ecosystem.
Other notable deals
PayPal and Venmo have joined Meta, OpenAI, and Shopify as design partners for Personal Agent Protocol (Poppy). Poppy is a set of open standards for personal AI agents, assessing how they should identify themselves, work with customer permission, and interact with businesses.
TikTok is also opening its off-platform ad network, Pangle, to advertisers in the US after a testing phase. The network spans almost 400,000 apps worldwide, including 44% of the top 100 US gaming apps. Advertisers cannot choose apps individually, but TikTok says privacy and ad policies are still applicable.
