The Lotame Acquisition Is a Smart Move for Publicis, But Not a Cure-All for Marketers

In a world where AI decisioning and autonomous agents are reshaping the advertising landscape, data and identity have never been more important. After all, how can you market to someone if you can’t find them?

But the rise of AI-driven platforms like Google’s Performance Max (PMax) and Meta’s Advantage+ has fundamentally altered how advertising operates. These systems now rely more on high-quality first-party data signals and less on manual human optimization—a shift that’s expanding beyond paid media into lifecycle marketing and digital experiences. This has put enormous pressure on the big holding companies to innovate both their tech capabilities and their services offerings. 

Against this backdrop, Publicis’ acquisition of Lotame is a smart strategic move, reinforcing their identity and activation capabilities in an increasingly cookieless world. But I’m not sure it creates a durable advantage.

The future I see unfolding at big brands is founded on first-party data, so this acquisition begs the question: Should brands really be outsourcing identity resolution—or should they be taking control of it?

The answer depends on where you sit in the market. For mid-market brands, CPG advertisers, and those lacking rich first-party datasets, third-party identity solutions like Lotame’s Panorama ID and Data Marketplace can still play a role. But for large enterprises with millions of logged-in users, loyalty memberships, purchase transactions, and real-time behavioral data, external identity providers can still offer value in certain areas. However, overreliance on them can be unnecessary, costly, and increase the risk of vendor lock-in.

The future of advertising isn’t just about buying identity graphs—it’s about building and activating a strong first-party identity foundation while strategically supplementing with partner data where it adds value.

Why Publicis is making this move

There’s a bigger story behind this acquisition. The reality is that holding companies are under pressure as AI-driven ad platforms automate more of the traditional services they provide. 

PMax and Advantage+ have already changed the game. While agencies and trading desks still play a role in creative strategy and audience segmentation, these platforms have reduced the need for manual campaign optimization by autonomously testing and optimizing against first-party data signals. AI is placing similar burdens on agencies and challenging the FTE model, forcing them to find new revenue sources and explore alternate business models.

Retailers are monetizing their own first-party data through retail media networks, reducing (but not eliminating) dependence on traditional intermediaries. Due to privacy laws and other factors, first-party data for activation on retail media and other channels will almost certainly come from brand-owned sources and not agency-owned tech.

CTV platforms are increasingly building and using their own identity graphs, which can reduce reliance on external ID providers in certain cases. As CTV matures as a channel, we expect advertiser and publisher first-party data to play a bigger role in terms of providing signals for audience building, attribution, and measurement.

In-housing of martech, adtech, and measurement by brands, not to mention the trend of brands going paper-direct with platforms, is challenging the agency’s traditional role. For this reason, many agencies and holdcos are building their own tech or making flashy acquisitions like this one, though it is debatable whether these moves will benefit clients or are simply being made to win or retain business.

For Publicis, buying Lotame is a logical play—a way to own more of the identity ecosystem rather than ceding control to ad platforms and media networks. After all, interoperability across platforms, publishers, and ad ecosystems remains a challenge for many advertisers. Publicis’ move is a response to this, promising a more unified identity solution that helps its clients improve addressability and stay connected across a fragmented ecosystem.

But here’s the real question for enterprise advertisers: If the companies that actually own the data—retailers, publishers, and platforms—are moving toward first-party identity, why shouldn’t you?

Build your own first-party identity spine first

For large enterprises, the strongest competitive advantage isn’t purchasing an identity graph—it’s maximizing the value of the first-party data they already have and activating it across the customer journey.

The challenge is that many companies have fragmented data spread across different teams, tools, and platforms—loyalty databases, CRM systems, ecommerce transactions, website behavior, and offline interactions.

Many brands find that they can make significant improvements on their own, simply by breaking down data silos and bringing disparate datasets together to create holistic identities. For example, tying credit card transaction data to a loyalty membership profile can quickly improve addressability and measurement on in-store purchase data.

That’s why, rather than outsourcing identity resolution from day one, brands like PetSmart, WeightWatchers, and Accor Hotels are investing in technology that unifies their first-party data into a persistent, privacy-compliant identity graph in their data warehouse.

• Retailers are linking customer transactions, app behavior, and loyalty memberships to build persistent identity profiles for better marketing and measurement.
• Subscription brands and publishers are connecting logins, engagement history, and customer service interactions to create real-time identity graphs.
• Financial services and travel brands are resolving identity across multiple channels, ensuring accurate personalization even when users aren’t logged in.

This first-party identity spine becomes the foundation for every marketing and advertising decision. Instead of relying on an external provider to tell you who your customers are, you control your identity strategy internally.

Selectively supplement with third-party identity—without vendor lock-in

Once a strong first-party identity graph is in place, third-party identity solutions can still provide value—but as a complement, not the foundation. They can still serve as valuable enhancements, helping to extend reach, fill identity gaps, and improve match rates in specific use cases where first-party data alone isn’t enough.

Third-party identity can drive value in many ways:

• Scaling audience reach beyond your first-party footprint (e.g., a retailer extending its loyalty data for offsite media campaigns).
• Bridging identity gaps in fragmented ecosystems (e.g., CTV campaigns where cross-device matching is difficult or relies on datasets you do not capture, like household IP addresses).
• Improving match rates for data clean rooms and measurement solutions (e.g., resolving gaps between your data and a publisher or partner).

Instead of centering their identity strategy around third-party identity vendors, brands should choose a configurable approach that allows them to own and activate on their first-party identity spine and supplement identity only where it makes sense:

• Retailers can use their first-party identity spine for personalization and lifecycle marketing—but tap into The Trade Desk’s Unified ID for offsite advertising. 
• Enterprise advertisers can integrate directly with Google, Meta, and Amazon to improve first-party match rates—without depending on external identity graphs. This can unlock easy use cases such as audience suppression and look-alike modeling.
• Brands can retain flexibility to choose the right partner for each specific use case—whether for CTV, measurement, or cross-publisher targeting.

This modularity enables enterprises to minimize costs by only supplementing with third-party data where they need it, and minimizes risk by enabling them to quickly swap out identity providers if their needs change or regulatory changes demand it.

The winning strategy: first-party-first

Publicis’ Lotame acquisition makes sense in the short term—it strengthens their data assets, gives them an identity moat for cookieless environments, and allows them to remain competitive against tech platforms that own more of the ad supply chain. But for enterprise advertisers, the smarter long-term play isn’t to buy into someone else’s identity solution—it’s to own their own.

The brands that take control of their identity strategy today won’t have to rely on external vendor solutions tomorrow. They’ll be in the driver’s seat—with full flexibility, cost efficiency, and independence in an AI-first world.