Crossmedia vs Publicis Media

Measuring What Matters at The Drum Live 2026

At The Drum Live 2026, Crossmedia shared insights on modern media measurement, emphasizing that increased data and AI tools cannot compensate for a lack of foundational clarity. Samara Gerard, Managing Director Planning & Buying, highlighted the necessity of aligning business and media objectives before tracking performance. The agency advocated for balancing brand building with performance marketing and investing in robust data governance.

• Samara Gerard, Managing Director Planning & Buying at Crossmedia, shared takeaways from The Drum Live 2026.
• The commentary emphasizes that AI and dashboards cannot fix unclear business and media objectives, warning that AI merely accelerates wrong conclusions from bad data.
• Crossmedia advises balancing long-term brand building with short-term performance marketing instead of over-relying on ROAS and last-touch attribution.

Crossmedia Aligns Leadership Around the Next Era of Independent Growth

Entering its 27th year, the global independent media agency is sharpening its focus on growth, corporate strategy and operational discipline as it works to become the world's most trusted media agency.

PayPal Boosts CTV, Still Uses Linear TV

PayPal is launching a global Christmas campaign on November 2, promoting its 'Pay in 30 days' feature. The campaign spans linear TV (ARD, RTL, ProSieben) and Connected TV (RTL+, Joyn, Netflix, Amazon Prime), alongside digital channels like social, display, audio, and retail media. Media duties have moved from WPP's Mindshare to Publicis-owned Zenith, following a pitch. PayPal's DACH marketing lead, Michele Hermann, emphasizes an increased digital and CTV focus compared to 2025, while maintaining a full-funnel strategy. The campaign also targets B2B audiences with themes like agentic commerce.

• PayPal launches a Christmas campaign on November 2, 2026, promoting 'Pay in 30 days'.
• The campaign uses linear TV (ARD, RTL, ProSieben) and CTV (RTL+, Joyn, Netflix, Amazon Prime).
• Media duties moved from WPP's Mindshare to Publicis-owned Zenith after a pitch.

Online Ad Summit 2026: More Agentic, More Open Web?

The Online Ad Summit 2026, a pre-Dmexco event, focused on the practical implications of agentic AI for the advertising industry. Industry leaders discussed the role of AI agents in media buying, with Sven Wegholz of Publicis Media noting that autonomy is real but scaling is the next step. Andrew Casale of Index Exchange cautioned against overhyping agents, stating they cannot replace programmatic infrastructure. Daniel Knapp of IAB Europe emphasized the need for unified, measurable bundles combining creative, media, and measurement to compete with walled gardens. The event also highlighted the OVK's claim of 32 million activatable identities in Germany, though adoption remains a challenge. Overall, the summit underscored that while agents can streamline workflows, the fundamental issues of the open web, such as reach, frequency control, and measurement, persist.

• The Online Ad Summit 2026 took place one day before Dmexco, with 360 industry professionals attending.
• Publicis Media's Sven Wegholz stated that agent autonomy is real, but scaling is the next step in agentic media buying.
• Index Exchange CEO Andrew Casale said agents cannot handle 20 million requests per second and will not replace programmatic infrastructure.