In the first part of this series, The Fragmentation Paradox, we showed how too many tools and fractured workflows grind teams down. This second chapter looks at something even more alarming: what all that fragmentation does to the money.
If you ask people in advertising what their biggest challenge is right now, most won’t say identity. Or cookies. Or measurement. Or even AI.
For more than a decade, programmatic buying relied on systems that delivered automation and scale, but offered limited visibility into how decisions were made. But those constraints are now harder for agencies to justify.
For years, independents were told they couldn’t match the scale or sophistication of the holding companies. That story is over.
We brought a group of ten independent agency leaders to Infillion HQ for a wide-ranging discussion about their pain points, challenges, and opportunities. Within minutes, one topic dominated: AI’s growing role in reshaping how agencies work, pitch, and profit.
At Advertising Week 2025, clicks and impressions were background noise. The real conversation was attention: how to measure it, buy it, and prove it. Attention is no longer a side metric. It’s the new currency of marketing for the moment when someone chooses to lean in.
Advertising Week 2025 made one thing clear: retail media has moved from experiment to essential. It is no longer a niche channel or a shopper-marketing sideshow—it is the connective tissue of modern advertising.
Tax filing is not a single date on the calendar. For tax preparation companies, it is a four-month free-for-all where attention is scarce and competition is fierce.
Amid the AI hype and retail media buzz, one shift cut through louder than any panel: the industry finally admitted the Frankenstack doesn’t work. The era of bolted-together ad tech is coming to an end, and composable ad tech platforms are taking its place..