[June 22, 2026]

Horizon Media and Smartly Launch Partnership to Turn Audience Intelligence Into Performance

Smartly, the AI-powered advertising technology platform, and Horizon Media Holdings, parent company of the world's largest independent media agency today announced an expanded partnership that makes Smartly the first SaaS platform activation partner to bring Blu audience segments directly into social, commerce, and connected TV (CTV) campaign workflows via Blu Audience API.

The integration enables advertisers to connect Blu audiences with Smartly's campaign optimization and creative capabilities, helping brands reach high-value consumers more effectively while building a continuous feedback loop between audience intelligence, creative performance, and campaign outcomes.

The partnership is already delivering measurable results. In early campaigns, Smartly delivered nearly double the creative engagement compared to standard audience approaches, while reducing cost per order by 35%.

"Audience intelligence is even more valuable when you have the ability to quickly act on it. By bringing Blu audiences directly into Smartly, we're helping brands move faster from insight to activation in real time, and turn that into stronger performance across every channel," said Laura Desmond, CEO, Smartly.

"The Blu Platform represents years of investment in understanding how people actually make decisions," said Bob Lord, President, Horizon Media. "Partnering with Smartly means that inelligence no longer stops at the insight stage, it travels all the way through to the creative and the buy. For our clients, that's the difference between knowing your audience and actually winning them."

The announcement reinforces the position of both Horizon Media and Smartly at the forefront of a fundamental shift in how advertising works, one where audience intelligence, creative, and media execution no longer operate in isolation, but as a single, connected system driving measurable business outcomes.

About Smartly
Smartly is the AI-powered advertising technology company ranked as the leader in The Forrester Wave™: Creative Advertising Technologies. Our platform unifies creative and media to produce intelligent creative, dynamic, data-driven image and video assets optimized for seamless activation across channels. Brands manage, optimize, and scale high-performance campaigns in one place, achieving PwC-validated results, including a 5.5x return on ad spend (ROAS) and 42 minutes saved every hour.

We support 800+ brands and manage over $7 billion in ad spend globally. With strategic partnerships across major media platforms, including Amazon, Google, Meta, Pinterest, Reddit, Snap, Spotify, and TikTok, we help Fortune 500 companies deliver relevant advertising at speed and scale. Backed by deep media expertise and best-in-class customer support, we empower brands to maximize performance and drive real business outcomes. Visit Smartly.io to learn more.

About Horizon Media Holdings
Horizon Media Holdings is the privately-held parent company of Horizon Media, the largest U.S. media agency and the largest independent globally, with additional portfolio companies including - Horizon Next (full-service marketing); Horizon Commerce (commerce and digital experiences); Horizon Business (consulting, media and creative); One Horizon (full-service advertising); HS&E (sports and experiential); and Blue Hour Studios (influencer agency). Horizon Media Holdings has a 50/50 partnership with Havas Media Network in the performance-driven agency network, Horizon Global. Horizon Holdings drives enterprise-level innovation, fosters collaboration across its portfolio, and explores new growth opportunities and technology solutions to help its clients navigate the shifting marketing challenges of today and tomorrow.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260622668275/en/

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