Stagwell is building its own AI media curation marketplace

Stagwell is launching Stagwell Curate, an AI-powered platform that curates CTV, online video, display, and audio ad inventory from publishers and adtech partners into a central reservoir, aiming to reduce reliance on third-party marketplaces like The Trade Desk's OpenPath. The system uses AI agents built in Claude and data from OpenSincera to evaluate inventory quality, allowing Stagwell to create bespoke ad packages for clients while increasing transparency and lowering tech fees.

Join us on July 30 in NYC for a breakfast & panel APPLY TO ATTEND https://digiday.com/events/digiday-ai-powered-planning-strategies-jul-2026/ Stagwell is building its own AI media curation marketplace Stagwell is moving to wrest control of ad-inventory curation from DSP and SSP marketplaces and bring it in-house. The holding company is set to launch Stagwell Curate, an AI platform that pulls curated CTV, online video, display and audio ad inventory from publishers and adtech partners into its own central reservoir, Digiday has learned. According to Matt Adams, global CEO of Stagwell Media Platform, it’s an attempt to reduce the company’s reliance on “ubiquitous” marketplace solutions like The Trade Desk’s OpenPath. “This isn’t just using an off-the-shelf package provided by an SSP or within a DSP’s environment. This is about the curation of a bespoke inventory package,” said Adams. Curation refers to the practice https://digiday.com/marketing/wtf-is-curation/ of using audience, contextual and supply-chain data from the programmatic bidstream to identify underused and therefore, cheaper ad inventory for clients. Curation is ordinarily handled by ad tech partners, such as supply-side platform SSP companies or firms like Audigent and Multilocal, rather than media agencies themselves. Adams argued that Stagwell could differentiate itself in the market, and deliver better outcomes for clients, by taking back control. “This is about making sure that we have our own controls over client supply that are bespoke to them, versus just using off the shelf from an SSP,” he said. The system uses AI agents built in Claude and data pulled from The Trade Desk’s OpenSincera for a “domain health check,” a means of evaluating ad inventory held by publishers based on scores for ad quality and supply-chain quality, as well as the technical performance of a web environment. That information is then used to create bespoke packages suited to a given client’s brief via a process the agency owns rather than a third-party “black box,” said Adams. “ Clients can see our buy data; they can see how their inventory is being put together. We can walk them through that process,” he said. “We put our own quality stamp on it.” Transparency and lower tech fees are recurring themes in RFIs, noted Gartner analyst Andrew Frank. “More and more want to know exactly where their ads are running,” he said. “You want to eliminate your tech taxes and you want higher win rates from the ad server.” The CEO said this will save Stagwell media buyers time lost managing different SSP and DSP marketplaces, and reduce tech fees. In theory, he said, that should deliver a faster and cheaper service for clients and increase the “working” proportion of media budgets that end up with publishers. Concentrating spend on a “small set of preferred SSPs” would also reduce auction duplication, said Adams,. The system relies upon Magnite and Freewheel’s publisher relationships, through which Adams said Stagwell buyers will be able to access the entire programmatic marketplace. Adams said this won’t compromise Stagwell’s relationships with DSPs, which will still be used to execute bids against the curated inventory. Stagwell has a close relationship with The Trade Desk, for example; in April it began developing AI agents built with the adtech company’s Koa software https://digiday.com/media-buying/as-holdcos-sour-on-the-trade-desk-stagwell-goes-all-in/ , amid a general rush among media agencies to create AI media planning and buying tools. And bid-level decisioning would still run on DSP algorithms, said Adams. “Curate’s valuue is upstream: we control which sites and apps are eligible to send bid requests into our deals in the first place,” he said in a follow-up email. “That means the DSP is optimizing across a pre-qualified, quality-vetted pool rather than the open exchange. We are also working with supply-side partners who are able to apply custom “supply shaping” models to send us better requests in the first place.” Stagwell unveiled an AI-powered “operating system” https://digiday.com/media-buying/stagwell-enhances-its-ai-powered-tools-on-the-media-side/ developed for its media business dubbed ‘The Media Machine’ last month. Though Stagwell Curate brings processes in-house that are usually left to adtech partners, Though Stagwell Curate brings processes in-house that are usually left to adtech partners, Gartner’s Frank suggested more media agencies were primed to move in a similar direction. Indies like Butler/Till have been dragging curation upstream by using SWYM.AI’s SelfCurate platform, which gives the agency’s traders direct, self-serve control over supply before it reaches the DSP https://digiday.com/marketing/agencies-push-curation-upstream-reclaiming-control-of-the-programmatic-bidstream/ . Holding company solutions like Omnicom’s Omni https://digiday.com/media-buying/omnicom-quietly-moves-flywheel-and-omni-into-the-media-group/ , Dentsu through its Media Exchange https://digiday.com/media-buying/future-of-targeting-media-agencies-tentatively-explore-vector-based-planning/ and WPP, in the form of the latter’s Open Intelligence solution https://digiday.com/marketing/wpp-media-launches-its-manhattan-project-tech-solution-into-a-crowded-ai-market/ , fit that bill. And media planning agents that select appropriate inventory https://digiday.com/media-buying/agencies-look-to-ai-agents-for-edge-but-must-fend-off-brands-looking-to-in-house-with-the-same-tech/ , or experimental AI solutions which execute media buyers automatically https://digiday.com/media-buying/butler-tills-first-agentic-media-buying-tests-cut-media-and-supply-chain-costs/ , are also forms of curation, he noted. “It’s unusual for agencies to do their own curation… but it’s also a sign of the times,” said Frank. More in Media Buying Ad Tech Briefing: Private equity’s ad tech playbook returns https://digiday.com/media-buying/ad-tech-briefing-private-equitys-ad-tech-playbook-returns/ Plus how the IAB is seeking to modernize how digital video inventory is defined, bought and measured. ‘Future of targeting’: Media agencies tentatively explore vector-based planning https://digiday.com/media-buying/future-of-targeting-media-agencies-tentatively-explore-vector-based-planning/ Vector-based targeting is ‘very experimental’, but could offer AI-forward advertisers a better way of directing media buys. Media Buying Briefing: How Mediasense and other consultancies are girding for a busy second-half https://digiday.com/media-buying/media-buying-briefing-how-mediasense-and-other-consultancies-are-girding-for-a-busy-second-half/ If the agency world is on the verge of another mediapalooza, then advisory firms need to be at the ready, including Mediasense which has a new CEO.