LiveRamp, which has for years helped brands, publishers, and platforms connect and activate customer data, is launching its first brand campaign on connected TV. The message, one of trust and flexibility, arrives amid a pending Publicis takeover that has the ad industry questioning whether the platform can remain neutral. 

The adtech company will air 15- and 30-second ads for its services on Netflix for the next five months, targeting executives with a promise to help marketers connect data sources seamlessly and “deliver experiences customers want, maximize marketing returns, and drive more revenue.” 

The core message: Marketers can rely on LiveRamp in the era of AI. “AI is only as valuable as the data that it sits upon, and only LiveRamp has the foundation in data ethics, identity, cleanroom technologies, along with our broad network, which together enable marketers to scale AI-powered workflows and business performance in a way that’s durable and defensible and secure,” the company’s chief marketer Jessica Shapiro said. 

Trust is likely to be a valuable differentiator in light of increasing automation in the industry. When marketers start handing the keys over to autonomous systems to handle campaign planning, audience creation, measurement, and optimization, quality and governance of the underlying datasets will only become more important. 

The promise, right now, is also an opportunistic one for LiveRamp. The company’s claims of neutrality are under heightened scrutiny after French advertising giant Publicis in May announced plans to acquire the platform for $2.2 billion. Since then, some ad industry leaders have not just expressed concern about giving a competitor access to their identity and data infrastructure, but have said outright that they will drop the platform. Among them are Omnicom CEO John Wren. Meanwhile, former Dentsu exec Doug Ray told ADWEEK recently that, as with IPG’s 2018 takeover of Acxiom, there will be a “slow erosion” of clients off LiveRamp.

The new campaign could help do damage control on the perception of LiveRamp’s neutrality and trustworthiness in the market. But the campaign is not a direct answer to concerns about Publicis’ takeover of the platform; it was in the works before news of the acquisition broke and is designed first and foremost, Shapiro said, as a “response to the acceleration of AI.” She added: “It’s, in general, the message people need to hear, and it reinforces what we stand for in terms of neutrality,” Shapiro said. “Being trustworthy and making sure that the data is secure is something that is in the roots of our company.”

Asked whether LiveRamp expects to see Publicis competitors like WPP, Omnicom, and Dentsu using its platform in a few years’ time, Shapiro said: “We maintain that we will be neutral, and we have always been neutral and worked with companies and agencies across the board. And we’re not expecting a change on that front.”

Publicis did not comment by press time.

The decision to position LiveRamp as a trusted platform for activating data in AI workflows builds on the company’s strategic shift. It no longer wants to be seen as just an identity and cleanroom provider; it wants to be seen as a trusted data and governance layer that can undergird a variety of AI marketing tasks. It aligns with recent moves by the company, which last month launched a program to bring more external, partner-run AI agents onto its network and also established an arrangement with OpenAI that lets marketers assess the performance of their ChatGPT ads using LiveRamp’s Conversions API. 

Rooting its CTV campaign in a message of trust, Shapiro suggested, could drive the point home. Marketing decision-makers, she said, need to “make tough choices about which AI solutions to invest in, and so we need to keep reinforcing why LiveRamp is the right solution and drives the right outcome.”

LiveRamp developed the new campaign with Archetype, an agency owned by London-based Next 15 Group that counts Airbnb, Pizza Hut, and Nvidia as clients. The ads debut on Netflix, one of LiveRamp’s top advertising partners, with additional activation on YouTube and across social media. The adtech company is hoping that the push will generate positive engagement, increase the brand’s share of voice in the market, and help it win new business.

FIFA World Cup activations are getting a reboot.

Today, at the Round of 16 match at New York/New Jersey Stadium between Brazil and Norway, Hyundai Motor Company created the World Cup’s first robotics-powered halftime activation. During the stunt, Atlas, an advanced humanoid robot developed by Boston Dynamics, delivered the match ball and performed signature goal celebrations from stars such as Brazil’s Matheus Cunha and Norway’s Erling Haaland.

The activation serves as the first public demonstration of the real-world movement capabilities of Atlas, according to Hyundai, and the first integration of a humanoid robot into a live FIFA World Cup match environment.

“Rather than talking about innovation, we wanted to demonstrate it at the biggest scale possible,” Sungwon Jee, evp and global chief marketing officer, Hyundai Motor Company, told ADWEEK. “The World Cup gave us that stage. Atlas delivering the match ball wasn’t just a moment. It was the strategy made visible.”

Heading into this year’s tournament, Hyundai and its advanced robotics division, Boston Dynamics, were FIFA’s Official Robotics Partner for the 2026 World Cup, which meant finding a way to bring robotics into the experience.

According to Jee, the company didn’t want to just show up. It wanted to make a statement.

“We’re not just competing with other sponsors on that pitch. We’re competing with every reel, every short-form, every piece of content flooding people’s screens every second of every day,” Jee said. “In that context, incremental creativity isn’t enough. You need a moment so undeniably real, so present, that it breaks through.”

Focusing on future goals

The activation builds on Hyundai Motor’s global “Next Starts Now” campaign, where the company is showcasing innovation and the future of soccer/football through elements such as its “School of Football” content series featuring Atlas, several immersive fan experiences, youth football programs, and its fan engagement program, the “Be There With Hyundai” initiative.

“The World Cup, more than any other stage, is where the next generation of football steps up, and where the next ideas first appear,” Jee said. “That made it the natural home for ‘Next Starts Now,’ not just as a campaign platform, but as a live demonstration of what that future actually looks like.”

With the idea of creating a live demonstration, the activation featured several of Atlas’ real-world capabilities, including retargeting technology, which allows Atlas to translate and adapt human movements, such as soccer celebrations; reinforcement learning, utilizing thousands of simulations to train and refine movement; and whole body control, which coordinates movements of the robot’s body.

According to Jee, Atlas had pre-training, testing, and rehearsal for the moment. Though an operator sends commands to initiate the robot’s actions, Atlas’s balance, movement, and recovery are driven entirely by its own capabilities.

Following the match, behind-the-scenes content and additional storytelling will continue in the weeks ahead.

“The ball delivery isn’t a standalone moment. It’s the climax of everything we’ve been building and the point where the narrative becomes a live, real-world experience that fans around the world can see and feel,” Jee said. “From there, the story continues across broadcast, digital, and social, extending the conversation well beyond the final whistle.”

Making its robotics pitch

Beyond the halftime performance, Hyundai also brought its robotics to the 2026 World Cup’s security operations, utilizing its dog-inspired Spot robots to ensure security and asset protection at select venues, according to Boston Dynamics.

“Atlas brings the vision. Delivering the match ball at the World Cup is an emotional moment, but it’s also a statement about where humanoid robotics is heading,” Jee said. “Spot brings the function. Deployed for autonomous patrols across venues, Spot is actively enhancing safety and operational efficiency throughout the tournament.”

Jee said that the World Cup demonstrates how Hyundai is moving beyond the label of an automotive company, instead showing up on the global stage as a future-focused mobility company. Meanwhile, Atlas and Spot are the latest examples of how its robotics are making an impact with real-world applications.

“Robotics isn’t just for highlight reels. It’s already part of the infrastructure. Quietly, reliably, meaningfully running in the background of the world’s biggest sporting event,” Jee said. “The message is simple: They’re not coming. They’re already here.”

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Twelve-time NBA All-Star Chris Paul retired earlier in 2026 after a 21-season career as one of basketball’s most accomplished players. However, the athlete’s influence has long extended beyond the court, and he’s not finished yet.

Over the last two decades, he’s forged longstanding partnerships with Nike’s Jordan Brand and State Farm, where his alter ego “Cliff Paul” became an advertising fixture. In 2022, Paul launched plant-based snack brand Good Eat’n.

He then opened the doors to his media production company Ohh Dip!!! Entertainment (ODEP) alongside his brother CJ Paul in May 2025. The business specializes in non-scripted and scripted television, digital, documentaries, commercials, and films, creating work like The Game Changers on Netflix.

In conversation with ADWEEK CEO Will Lee at ADWEEK House Cannes Lions, Paul discussed how he’s built a legacy that lives beyond the final buzzer and offered brands advice on getting the best out of their athlete partnerships.

Brands shouldn’t just hand athletes a script

When asked what marketers are still getting wrong about working with athletes, Paul said communication was key.

Reflecting on his own experience, he said: “I’ve done everything you could possibly do. I’ve walked in before, and [had a brand say], ‘Here’s your script, go stand in front of the camera and smile.’ [They] don’t realize that some of these people are actually creatives themselves.”

He continued: “That’s how I approached it with State Farm. I’m a consumer, I watch a lot of TV and commercials, TV shows. I never took an acting class, but I knew what I wanted to see of myself.”

His main takeaway for brands? “Over-communicate with the people who are part of the team, because what you think might be funny or cool might not be the way that one person wants to show up. It’s about communication, back-and-forth. If you meet somewhere [in the middle], everybody will be proud of the final product.”

Athletes are (rightfully) more selective about partnerships now

Building on his point, when Paul first started out in the NBA as a young player, brands would “pay a couple of $100,000” for a picture of a player smiling and holding their product.

“Once upon a time that’s how it was. It was like, ‘Give me my money, no matter the leadership behind [a brand],’” he said. But as social media and consumer savvy have evolved, athletes have gotten more selective about their partners to avoid “tarnishing” their own image.

He’s chosen his own deals wisely, including an established deal with Jordan and Nike, and State Farm—which took his profile to “a whole other level.”

“The reach that [State Farm] had, and the commercials themselves, just gave me a chance to show personality,” he said. The team also encouraged him to bring on board fellow talent like Kevin Garnett and John Stockton. “It was cool to bring people along and have them be a part of these campaigns.”

He’s still figuring out his work-life balance

The multihyphenate was candid that, even after a 21-year NBA career, he’s still figuring out how to juggle family, business and life beyond basketball.

“There’s really no such thing as work-life balance,” he said. “I think it just depends on what day it is.”

For most of his career, he revealed, he’s not been fully present outside the court, even at family dinners, because his mind was already racing ahead to training and recovery routines.

Now, in what he calls his “newfound life,” he’s trying to be intentional about whatever he’s committed to in a given day, whether that’s a meeting in Cannes or sitting in the stands at his kids’ games.

This post was created in partnership with Lyft Ads

When Liz Kneebone, vp of community programs and development at ADWEEK, left for Cannes this week, she almost didn’t make it. A World Cup match had gridlocked New York City traffic, her Lyft rerouted her to the PATH train, and a United flight out of Newark held its doors just long enough for her to board with a minute to spare. 

It was, as she told an audience at Cannes Lions aboard the IRCODE yacht at Cannes Lions, a perfect demonstration of how consumers engage with brands through journeys.

“My trip to Cannes would not have happened without the seamless experience of how [these two brands] work together,” Kneebone said.

“That’s such a real use case,” said Shane Dwyer, vp of advertiser solutions at Lyft Ads, who co-hosted the panel with Julia Fedor, director of brand marketing operations at United Airlines. “We all use rideshare, so we all understand it.”

The session, part of ADWEEK House Cannes Lions’ Yacht Row programming, centered on a simple premise: The moments people spend in transit—in a rideshare or on a plane—represent an underutilized media channel. Both Lyft and United are betting heavily on that premise, and increasingly, together.

A partnership built on shared data and shared users

The Lyft-United relationship predates the two companies’ ad businesses working together. United’s MileagePlus members have been able to earn United miles on Lyft rides for several years, but the two companies recently announced what Dwyer called version “2.0” of the partnership that now allows travelers to redeem United miles directly to pay for Lyft rides.

“We’re starting to look at the…interoperability between the currency of…membership loyalty programs,” Dwyer said. “About 20% of our rides layer into travel-based rides. The travel angle of rideshare is so important.”

For United, the partnership makes strategic sense at scale. Fedor told the audience that United became the world’s largest airline a few years ago, flying 175 million customers across nearly 5,000 daily flights to more than 380 destinations last year. That volume generates substantial first-party data, making United an attractive media partner.

“To get through an airport and onboard a plane, you have to have a government ID, your passport, your Real ID,” Fedor said. “So we know that our data is solid. We have over 100 different attributes and demographic information about our customers.”

The rideshare moment

At the center of Lyfts’ pitch to marketers is what Dwyer describes as a uniquely receptive consumer. Lyft users spend an average of about 24 minutes in the app per ride. This is the window the company has built an advertising product around.

“Everyone knows that rideshare moment where you leave kind of a chaotic household and you get in your car and you’re like, oh my gosh, this is awesome,” Dwyer said. “There are no expectations of me right now, right? And in that moment, we’ve built a really unique advertising product when people are hyper receptive, when people are going out, when people have those kinds of dopamine and serotonin spikes that are happening.”

For United, that window has proved measurable. The airline has been running in-app advertising within Lyft targeting travelers already in a travel mindset, serving carousel ads highlighting routes, lounges, and loyalty perks to riders on their way to the airport.

“We’ve seen great view rates, clickthrough rates, people following through to go to United.com and maybe even start searching for their next flight,” Fedor said.

Building a new category

Both Fedor and Dwyer were candid that mobility media doesn’t yet have a fixed place in most brands’ budgets. Therefore, establishing it as a recognized investment category is part of the work.

“This is not a social media category that’s been planted in the ground for 15 years,” Dwyer said. “It’s not search. It is travel media. It is mobility media.” Dwyer’s goal is that when brands are planning for next year, there is already a mobility media line item in the budget, along with  production and creative strategies built around how to talk to people when they’re on the move.

Getting there, he said, required years of listening. “The first couple of years we were literally just talking to as many partners as we could and saying, ‘What do you need us to do? How do you need to measure? What tech do you need us to utilize?’”

That process is now shifting toward building. Fedor hinted at a product in development, focused specifically on the New York market, designed to help United make the case for Newark as a preferred departure point for Manhattan-based travelers.

Newark is an hour closer than JFK for New Yorkers who live on the West Side, Dwyer said. “That market insight can change consumer behavior. Once you realize that and you do it once, that’s all it takes.”

Looking ahead

United is celebrating its 100th year of operation this year as well as embarking on an ambitious product roadmap. That roadmap includes a full fleet rollout of Starlink Wi-Fi, which Fedor described as a potential inflection point for the brand.

“Through a lot of consumer research, we found that one of the most motivating factors for people when they’re flying is they want reliable, fast Wi-Fi,” she said. United was the first major airline to partner with Starlink, and expects half its fleet to be equipped by the end of this year. The full rollout is expected to be completed by the end of 2027.

For Lyft, the company’s upcoming initiatives include geographic expansion. The company recently acquired Free Now, a taxi app operating across 180 European cities, and Get UK, extending its footprint into London. Lyft is also expanding with autonomous vehicles through partnerships with Waymo and Baidu, and moving into more upmarket territory with the acquisition of luxury chauffeur service TBR.

“Very excited for smooth travel home through both of your fantastic organizations,” Kneebone said, in closing. “And maybe next year the boat moves.”

On Monday, The Trade Desk announced Nate Olmstead will be the company’s chief financial officer. Olmstead is the company’s fourth finance chief in roughly a year. The company said Olmstead will join the The Trade Desk on July 9 and report to CEO Jeff Green.

Olmstead’s hire comes as the adtech company looks to steady its leadership ranks during a period of heightened scrutiny from investors and agency partners.

“The Trade Desk has built a remarkably strong and differentiated business over the past decade, and I admire the commitment to helping shape a better, more open internet,” Olmstead said in a statement.

Several high-level employees have left the organization in recent months, including three CFOs, an exodus of several senior executives, and four board members.

Olmstead most recently served as CFO of Penguin Solutions, an AI company. Prior to that, he was CFO at Logitech and spent more than 16 years in senior finance roles at Hewlett-Packard and Hewlett Packard Enterprise.

“From our earliest days, The Trade Desk has focused on building for the long term — for our clients, our partners and the broader open internet,” Green said in a statement. “Nate deeply understands that mission and brings the experience, rigor and leadership to help guide our next phase of growth. I look forward to having him on our leadership team.”

The appointment follows the “termination” of former CFO Alex Kayyal earlier this year. Kayyal joined The Trade Desk in 2025 but exited roughly six months into the role, a move that drew attention from investors given the short tenure.

In the interim, chief accounting officer Tahnil Davis stepped in to oversee finance. Davis, an 11-year veteran of the company, will continue in her role as chief accounting officer and report to Olmstead.

Olmstead joins The Trade Desk at a consequential stretch for the company with its stock  down about 70% over the past year.

In recent months, the company has also faced growing pressure from agency partners while contending with rising competition from Amazon and Google. Amazon’s demand-side platform has gained traction among advertisers, partly driven by fee as low as 1%, and at a time when buyers are consolidating spending across retail media and streaming inventory, adding pressure on established adtech players.

Olmstead’s appointment gives Green a veteran finance executive heading into the second half of the year, while Wall Street looks for steadier footing from the company.