Sharethrough and Horizon Media partnered to prove sustainability and performance can go hand in hand, earning a nomination for Best Sustainable Platform. In May 2024, Horizon transitioned all programmatic deals to Sharethrough’s GreenPMPs, becoming the first agency to do so at scale. The shift reduced carbon emissions by over 50% across display and video campaigns while improving key performance metrics, like viewability and click-through rate. With nearly 80 campaigns and over 300 million impressions delivered, the effort resulted in the reduction of 34 metric tons of CO2e and compensated for 88 additional tons. The results cemented both companies as sustainability leaders in the media industry.

Contentful helped Ruggable transform its digital storefront by enabling real-time personalization and seamless content delivery. By tailoring web experiences to reflect campaign messaging — such as aligning dog-themed ads with pet-focused landing pages — Ruggable saw click-through rates increase sevenfold. With Contentful’s platform, the brand accelerated campaign creation from days to minutes, enabling faster, more relevant content rollouts. The collaboration created a model for how personalization can deepen customer engagement and drive performance across digital channels, earning Contentful a finalist spot for Best Personalization and A/B Testing Platform.

Yahoo DSP’s advanced AI engine, Yahoo Blueprint Performance, helped Georgia-Pacific boost campaign efficiency and reach without sacrificing quality. By processing 10 times more data and accelerating its feedback loop by 90%, the tool optimized bids and delivered clearer, faster insights, securing Yahoo a nomination for Best AI Tool. As a result, Georgia-Pacific improved eCPMs across display, video and audio, while achieving an 81% video completion rate and 86% viewability. The campaign delivered outcomes equivalent to $4 million in added media value, highlighting Yahoo’s ability to drive performance through transparent and scalable AI solutions in an increasingly complex ad landscape.

Overall, the judges’ 2025 selections demonstrate that tech companies are enabling advertisers and publishers to deliver more strategic partnerships and integrations, embrace sophisticated data unification, enhance marketing efforts with AI-driven personalization and adopt omnichannel strategies for more effective campaigns.

Best AI Tool
NinjaCat & BRKTHRU Boost Marketing Efficiency with AI Agents
Halftime Shows & Hidden Billions: What Videocites Uncovered
NBCUniversal & Huge – OLI
Digital Culture Group – Launch of AI-Powered Platform, ARI
Yahoo Blueprint Performance boosts Georgia-Pacific outcomes
Sports Engine: AI Creativity at the Speed of Sport

Best Attribution Tool
Digital Remedy
Harvest™, Good Apple

Best Automation Tools and/or Platform
Agentio scales Bombas’ YouTube creator partnership program
Celtra’s Creative Automation
Flight Control + Copilot; Your Fleet of Expert Agents
Sports Engine: AI Creativity at the Speed of Sport
Crio Bru & Shirofune – Amazon Ads Optimization
Zeta Global + Pep Boys

Best Buy-Side Programmatic Platform
Epsilon Digital—Data-Driven, Human-Centered
BlockBoard’s DSP Solves CVT’s Fraud & Waste Issues
MediaGo- A Leading Deep Learning-Based DSP on the Open Web
“Ethical Optimiser” by Mediahub
Nexxen – Powering Measurable Brand Growth

Best Content Creation Platform
HeroVideo Produces 200 Videos Daily for ICTV Facts
Celtra’s Creative Automation

Best Content Management System
Labrador CMS
An Agile, Enterprise-Grade CMS — T-Mobile x Lastmile Retail
Merlin Connect & Bridge – Seamless Music Integration
Orangetheory’s web transformation with Webflow
LG Brings The Joy of a New TV for 5 Years With webOS Re:New

Best Content Marketing Platform
Pushly + Future: Future looks brighter with Pushly
eWizard–Powering Compliant Email Marketing in Life Sciences

Best Cookieless Identification Technology
Intent IQ: Empowering Buy-Side & Sell-Side Simultaneously
How Utiq Pioneered Authentic Privacy-First Addressability
myGaru telecom-driven cookieless identity solution
Hearst Magazines: AURA – Best Cookieless Technology
Nexxen Discovery – Smarter Signals, Cookieless Future
Cookieless Precision powered by Awesome Intelligence

Best Customer Data Platform
The Post and Courier & BlueConic
Amperity Wins Digiday Best CDP for AI-Driven Innovation
Grammarly & Hightouch – Personalization at Scale
Maximus – Florida KidCare Parent Portal

Best Data Lead
Digiday Best Data Lead – Erin Davison

Best Data Management Platform
OneAD & OneDATA – Webb Retail Data Management Platform
Transcend & GoCardless – Future-proofing Privacy
Freestar Unlocks Revenue for Publishers With Curation
Optable & Triton Digital: Driving Audio Publisher Revenue
Nexxen Data Platform – Smarter Planning at Scale
Audience First: ArcSpan AMS + Newsweek Take Top Honors

Best Data Team
Canela Media’s Data Science Team
Demandbase Helps Palo Alto Network Transform Lead Management
Best Data Team – fusepoint, Power Digital Marketing
Hearst Magazines: Best Data Team

Best Event Platform – NEW
USC uses Cvent to keep its students engaged & connected

Best In-Store Technology
NCR Voyix helps TXB with Self-Checkout Platform
Perfect Corp. & Starboard Group’s AI-Powered SkInsight Tool
Retail Media for All – In-Store Connect by Quad

Best Location Data Platform
Azira & Epsilon – Renew Your View Campaign
TransparenSEE by DAC
Locala – Driving Luxury Boutique Visits for IWC

Best Marketing Analytics Platform
A Breakthrough Synthetic Data Marketing Analytics Platform

Best Marketing Automation Platform
AdRoll
How Known Built an “Iron Man Suit” for Its Clients
MailMax powered by JAM CRM for Bell Canada
Pushly + Future: Future looks brighter with Pushly
CBS Grows Engagement with Admiral’s VRM Marketing Automation
MINT.ai ARM Platform – powered by AI

Best Measurement Solution
Nothbeam’s C+Ve Attribution Model Redefining Measurement
Adjust AI powered European shopping app’s incremental growth
From Data to Dollars: Attain Delivers for Pilot Flying J
Halftime Shows & Hidden Billions: What Videocites Uncovered
Measured and Media Measurement Client Dermalogica
Prescient AI MMM

Best Mobile Marketing Platform
Attentive & Marleylilly – AI-Driven Mobile Marketing Success
TrueDialog Business Texting Solution
Adjust AI powered European shopping app’s incremental growth
Hugo Boss – Hugo Boss XP

Best Monetization Platform for Publishers
EX․CO’s Online Video Platform for Advance Local
Primis
Hearst Magazines: AURA – Best Monetization Platform
Pubcircle by Axis
Nitro’s premium ad tech powers 170% CPM boost for Liquipedia
ArcSpan + Dexerto: Gaming Data, Contextual Revenue, Big ROI

Best Native Advertising Platform
Dianomi – Driving powerful results for leading brands
AdAdapted + Gopuff: Native Ads Convert Impulse into Purchase
Simpli.fi & Mighty Media Shop Drive Resort Bookings
SmartNews Makes Native Work Harder & Smarter for FinanceBuzz
MediaGo- A Leading Deep Learning-Based DSP on the Open Web
Smartly & The Times – Creative Automation for Subscriptions

Best Partner Clean Room
myGaru telecom-driven data clean room
LiveRamp & Hershey’s – Transforming Marketing Measurement
With Optable, The Globe and Mail Proves Clean Rooms Work

Best Sell-Side Programmatic Platform
MC Sonae launches retail media with Kevel, driving 487% ROAS
Kargo Delivers CTV Outcomes for Global Brands
EX․CO’s Online Video Platform for The Autopian
The Walt Disney Company – Building DRAX-Direct
TeqBlaze – Modular SSP+Exchange with AI & Curation
FreeWheel SSP: Streaming the Future of Programmatic TV

Best SEO Platform – NEW
Lily AI & A.L.C. – AI-powered Product Content Optimization
Chatmeter

Technology Founder of the Year
Amol Waishampayan Leads First-Party AdTech Innovations
Tech Founder of the Year: Scott Horowitz
Spaceback’s Joe Hall Invents New Advertising Category
Harshit Jain MD nudges the future of healthcare forward
Nils Lind, Founder of the 100% bootstrapped, Assertive Yield
Karan Walia, Cofounder and CEO, Cluep

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