Will technology enable independent agencies to match the holdcos? They think so

As the bigger independent media agencies lick their chops in anticipation of a shakeout of medium-sized clients dropping the agency holding companies, those independents also have wasted no time investing in technology that they believe matches them up effectively. Sometimes that tech can even be free.

Horizon Media, the OG of indies, in mid-December announced the launch of HorizonOS, what it dubbed an “open operating system” designed to follow a different path than the automation-first strategies which dominate the industry, mainly at the holdcos. It had also built its AI-driven connected marketing platform Blu to be agnostic in the various AI LLMs it uses.

It’s probably the biggest distinction between indies and holdcos that the former tend to remain more “promiscuous” in their adoption of tech — not committing to one provider but leaving their architecture open enough to adapt to changing tech needs. After all, only three years ago it looked as if blockchain and metaverse tech was going to rule the media universe, so much so that Facebook changed its name to Meta. 

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