AUDIENCES and Pets at Home Win Gold at the Performance Marketing Awards 2026
Recognition For Privacy-First Innovation In First-Party Data Activation
This Tuesday, 12th May, AUDIENCES alongside Pets at Home has won GOLD at the Performance Marketing Awards in the category of Best Use of Data & Audiences. The ceremony, hosted on Tuesday 12th May, brought together
The award recognises how Pets at Home is using AUDIENCES’ cloud-native activation technology to unlock greater value from its first-party data whilst maintaining ownership, governance and control within its own cloud environment.
By deploying AUDIENCES directly within its cloud infrastructure, Pets at Home has been able to activate customer insight in a privacy-first, real-time way across digital media channels helping improve audience understanding, reduce wasted media spend and drive more relevant customer engagement across search, social, programmatic and CTV.
The win marks a major milestone for both teams, particularly following a Silver award in the same category last year. Achieving Gold during the PMW’s 20th anniversary year, and in what organisers described as a record-breaking year for entries, makes the recognition especially significant.
The work delivered strong performance improvements across the year, including increased efficiency, improved audience targeting and stronger returns from first-party activation strategies. Most importantly, this award is a testament to the incredible team at Pets at Home, who work tirelessly to put their customers at the heart of their advertising and customer experience strategy every single day.
Molly Peake, head of Customer Success & Partnerships of AUDIENCES, said: “We’re incredibly proud to receive this recognition alongside Pets at Home. This award reflects not only a fantastic client relationship, but also the growing importance of privacy-first first-party activation across the industry. Brands are under increasing pressure to drive better performance from their customer data whilst maintaining trust and control. We believe the future of advertising is built around helping brands activate their data more intelligently within their own cloud environments, and it’s fantastic to see this work recognised on such a significant stage.”
The evening itself was a fantastic celebration of the performance marketing industry, bringing together leading brands, agencies and technology companies from across the sector. The AUDIENCES team hosted a table alongside Pets at Home, industry friends, partners and clients for what turned out to be an unforgettable night. With such a strong shortlist in the category, there were audible gasps from the table as AUDIENCES and Pets at Home were announced as the winners. Hosted by Jimmy Carr, the ceremony truly felt like the Oscars of performance marketing packed with energy and plenty of laughs throughout the evening.
A huge congratulations to all finalists and winners on the night. We had an absolute blast celebrating with the industry.
The award continues a strong period of momentum for AUDIENCES, following recent PMW Powerlist Top 100 recognition for founders Rob McLaughlin and Matt Wilkinson, continued enterprise growth, and ongoing expansion across brands, publishers and cloud partners.
And whilst we’re incredibly proud of this recognition on the brand side, the mission continues far beyond one award. From brands to publishers, the industry is waking up to the importance of activating first-party data in smarter, privacy-first and more controlled ways. That’s exactly why we built AUDIENCES and we’re more energised than ever for what comes next.
