Publicis Groupe’s planned acquisition of LiveRamp has renewed attention on a broader shift underway across advertising, with agencies increasingly attempting to exert greater control over the infrastructure, identity layers, and orchestration systems underpinning how digital advertising works, not just buy media more efficiently.
The intended deal is just the latest development in an industry-wide shift taking place well beyond identity and data collaboration, with Digiday sources theorizing that developments in early 2026 represent a redesign of the industry’s programmatic middle layer.
For years, the architecture of digital advertising relied on relatively distinct layers: publishers worked with supply-side platforms, advertisers bought media through demand-side platforms, and agencies sat in the middle, stitching the pipes together.
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