The Marketing Agency of the Future: Powered by Unified Data, Trust and AI

We are entering a new era for marketing and advertising agencies. From evolving consumer expectations and increasingly stringent privacy regulations to the rise of AI, the landscape is shifting rapidly. To remain competitive, agencies need to reimagine how they operate. The winners will be those that adopt forward-thinking data strategies, build trust with partners and clients, and leverage AI to deliver real-time insights and personalized campaigns.

In this challenging era, agencies have the opportunity to play a crucial role in how brands navigate a changing consumer landscape. Historically, agencies have always been the trusted advisers for culture, relevance and consumer behaviors — shaping a brand’s IP while also focusing on growing the bottom line. 

But over the last 15 years, media-buying agencies became increasingly separated from creative teams in order to address a complex and fragmented media ecosystem. Art and science within agencies were often separated. Now, more than ever, the siloes of art and science need to be realigned. Data and technology (yes, AI) can now deeply impact the relevance of advertising creative, but that data needs to be secured and democratized across all levels and all departments within the agency landscape. A “full-service agency model,” with a democratized data foundation focused on interoperation with its brands’ consumer data, will be a nonnegotiable for the agency of the future.

Not only are data and AI the critical foundation agencies need to keep up in the new era — they're also a catalyst for new opportunities and the evolution of agencies' core business models. 

These technologies also open the door for agencies to become "tech" partners for brands (such as Power Digital) and evolve from traditional service models to technology-driven business models. Agencies today can build or adopt platforms to deliver data-driven marketing strategies to brands. The right data platform can be the centerpiece of that transformation because it allows agencies not only to act as the foundation for data operations and own their data strategies, but also to collaborate in a privacy-conscious manner to offer services in campaign attribution, personalization and predictive analytics. The last part, when combined with AI and ML, opens the door for agencies to create scalable, repeatable solutions, such as analytics apps and audience segmentation tools, that they can deploy across clients.This is only possible with a unified data foundation, the right set of data-sharing and collaboration capabilities and, of course, native AI built into that data strategy.

Building a data strategy and choosing a data infrastructure requires careful planning for future growth. While agencies shift their talent and technology investments to areas such as retail media, creative economy and new video channels, they must also prioritize consumer data privacy and security, interoperation and data collaboration and transparency. More clients are asking about the security and governance of their customer data. How do their agencies manage new privacy regulations — both globally and in the U.S.? How can they get access to more transparency into where and why their marketing dollars are being spent (to reduce fraud, saturation and leverage for higher-level internal measurement practices, among other reasons)? Now, the question at hand for agencies is, How are you protecting IP/customer data with AI?   

We don’t claim to have all the answers. But we do have some useful recommendations for how agencies can approach and prepare for success in this rapidly changing environment.

4 keys to success for the agency of the future

A unified data platform to break down silos

The challenge is that disconnected data across campaigns, platforms, regions and clients impedes collaboration and efficiency. The future state will require that agencies work with a single, accessible platform that integrates data from all sources, allowing for real-time collaboration and faster decision-making. By eliminating silos with a unified data platform, agencies will have access to improved customer insights that in turn lead to better campaign results. Teams will also be able to work more efficiently when they can access all relevant data in one place.

Privacy and trust as a competitive advantage

In an increasingly strict regulatory environment (for example, with GDPR or the California Consumer Privacy Act), and one in which consumers are demanding more control over their data, marketing agencies must adopt privacy-first strategies. The core differentiator for a successful strategy is modern consent management. To be successful in the future, agencies need to build trust through transparent, privacy-preserving data practices that protect sensitive information and foster secure collaboration with clients and partners. Technologies such as data clean rooms can enable agencies to collaborate on data without compromising privacy, unlocking new insights securely. And privacy isn’t just a matter of legal compliance; it’s about building trust and strengthening client relationships. 

Native AI capabilities for agility and personalization

An agency’s ability to make real-time, data-driven decisions is increasingly critical for campaign and business success. AI and machine learning are no longer optional — they’re essential tools for optimizing media buys and personalizing campaigns at scale. And they will be even more essential in the future as data may also begin to inform the creative part of campaigns — a new way to reunite science and art. Agencies should embrace native AI capabilities, which don’t require them to move and copy data in order to process it. With these capabilities, agencies can leverage predictive analytics, automate insights and enhance decision-making throughout the campaign lifecycle. In the future, faster insights will allow agencies to be more agile in making campaign adjustments, and AI-driven personalization can improve customer engagement and boost ROI.

Modern, privacy-conscious data collaboration 

Modernizing agency operations requires seamless collaboration across the agency’s full ecosystem — clients, martech/adtech partners and publishers — all from a single source of truth. In the past, effective collaboration was hindered by siloed data and a reliance on duplicative, manual processes to share insights or analyze performance. Data clean rooms now make it possible for agencies to securely collaborate across multiple clients simultaneously, accessing and analyzing shared data sets without moving or copying data, and without exposing sensitive information. This transforms workflows by eliminating time-consuming data transfers, ensuring consistency and enabling real-time insights that were previously unattainable. For example, agencies could work with a publisher and multiple clients in parallel to measure campaign effectiveness or refine audience targeting, all while adhering to increasingly strict privacy standards. By breaking down silos and streamlining workflows, agencies can operate more efficiently, deliver better results and unlock new revenue opportunities for themselves, and for their clients, through deeper partnerships across their ecosystem.

How Snowflake helps agencies succeed

Snowflake offers agencies a platform they need to transform and thrive in this new reality — enabling innovation, fostering secure collaboration and unlocking better business outcomes. Here’s how Snowflake provides agencies with the foundational tools to thrive in today’s complex, data-rich environment.

It’s easy. Snowflake is a single, easy-to-use cloud data and AI platform. It consolidates data across channels, systems and teams, enabling seamless collaboration and real-time analytics, so agencies no longer need to manage multiple systems or reconcile fragmented data sources. With native AI capabilities — able to handle both structured and unstructured data such as videos and images — integrated into that single platform, agencies can deploy predictive models with ease, optimizing media buys and delivering hyperpersonalized campaigns without the need for complex infrastructure. With a unified data and AI platform, agencies can accelerate time to insight and campaign performance, increase operational efficiency by reducing complexity and be future-ready.

It’s trusted. Snowflake provides built-in governance and privacy features. Snowflake Data Clean Rooms enable privacy-preserving data collaboration so that agencies can collaborate securely with clients, media publishers and partners without exposing personally identifiable information (PII). But data clean rooms alone do not equate to privacy. Snowflake’s platform also supports third-party native consent management tools that can help customers ensure that consumer preferences are honored and data is used in compliance with privacy regulations such as GDPR and CCPA. And Snowflake offers scalable infrastructure. The platform is built to scale with agencies as they grow, without forcing them into vendor lock-in, allowing agencies to adopt the best tools for their own, and their clients’, evolving needs. With these capabilities, agencies can build trust through transparent, privacy-first collaboration and better position themselves as trusted partners for clients and consumers alike.

It’s open and interoperable. Snowflake’s platform offers a robust ecosystem for collaboration that integrates seamlessly with partners, media publishers, martech tools and analytics solutions, unlocking frictionless collaboration across the entire ecosystem. Whether working with a brand’s preferred CRM or analytics tool, Snowflake enables smooth interoperability. Snowflake also supports open table formats, making it easy for agencies to share data and collaborate across multiple environments. This commitment to openness allows agencies to use their data wherever and however they need, without being locked into proprietary formats. Snowflake’s open ecosystem and support for interoperable APIs provide the cross-cloud and future-ready flexibility that agencies need to innovate freely, so they can adapt to meet new demands from clients and changes to the industry. This open, interoperable environment frees agencies from rigid data ecosystems and vendor lock-in and allows agencies to work with the tools and technologies that suit their unique needs.

Agencies that leverage Snowflake to lead the market

“Access to live, real-time data through Snowflake has been essential for us to QA campaigns and launches. Snowflake has saved us so much time and effort that we can now focus our attention on things that matter for our clients — not just wrangling with a UI." 

— Mike McCarver, Senior Vice President, Data Solutions and Programmatic, Horizon Media

Read the Horizon Media case study.

"With Snowflake as our data foundation, we’ve eliminated silos across the organization, improving collaboration and accelerating decision-making."

 — John Saunders, VP of Product, Power Digital

The agency of the future will be defined by a commitment to data-driven insights, privacy-first collaboration and AI-powered innovation. Agencies that adopt these practices today will gain a competitive edge, delivering better outcomes for their clients and building stronger, trust-based relationships.

Ready to learn more? Attend the webinar with experts from Snowflake and Power Digital to discover essential tools, data and infrastructure needed to build the client-focused, digitally native agency of the future.