AUDIENCES Founders Named in PMW Powerlist 2026 Top 100

There are moments in a company’s journey that genuinely stop you in your tracks. For everyone at AUDIENCES, this is one of them. We are incredibly proud to share that our Founder & CEO, Rob McLaughlin, and Co-Founder & CCO, Matt Wilkinson, have both been named in the 2026 PMW Powerlist Top 100, with the Top 20 revealed on Tuesday by Performance Marketing World.

And yes… we may actually print and frame this one. The recognition is particularly meaningful because it reflects something we have believed from day one: the way brands activate first-party data needs to fundamentally change. In its feature on Rob and Matt, PMW described AUDIENCES as: “A quintessential standout in the performance marketing landscape by solving the ‘activation gap’ that has plagued enterprise brands for a decade.”

That challenge sits at the heart of why AUDIENCES was founded. Despite billions being invested in customer data infrastructure, the vast majority of first-party data still never informs media activation. Too often, brands are forced into outdated models that require data duplication, movement and unnecessary compromise around control and governance. AUDIENCES was built to change that.

Drawing on his experience leading data and analytics initiatives at Sky and Barclays, Rob developed a fundamentally different approach: enabling brands to activate customer data directly from within their own cloud environments, without moving or handing over the underlying data itself. PMW described this as a “cloud-native revolution”, highlighting AUDIENCES’ role in pioneering a new category of “signal distribution infrastructure” that allows brands to securely activate audiences across channels including CTV, social and search while retaining full ownership and governance of their data.

One PMW judge praised Rob for: “Solving a genuine structural problem - keeping first-party data inside the brand's own cloud rather than handing it off.”

Another added: “Rather than focusing on how to improve the existing model, Rob was thinking more fundamentally about how it should be redesigned. He is returning control to the organisations that generate data in the first place.”

But visionary architecture alone does not build a business. That is where Matt’s leadership has been transformational. PMW recognised Matt as the commercial force that operationalised AUDIENCES’ in-cloud activation model, translating complex data infrastructure into measurable business outcomes for enterprise brands. As the article noted: “While many in the adtech space focus purely on the ‘plumbing’, Matt’s superpower is commercial empathy.”

That ability to bridge technology and commercial value has been critical to AUDIENCES’ growth, helping brands such as Pets at Home and Saga turn customer signals into measurable performance outcomes while maintaining a privacy-first approach. PMW also highlighted AUDIENCES’ 100% client retention rate over the last three years, alongside recent recognition at the Performance Marketing Awards, as proof that better activation is not just a technical improvement , it delivers tangible commercial impact. One testimonial captured it perfectly: “Better data activation is not just a technical improvement, but a commercial one.”

As proud as we are of this recognition, what excites us most is what it represents. The industry is changing. Brands and publishers are demanding greater control, greater transparency and better ways to activate first-party data without compromising privacy or governance. That is the future AUDIENCES was built for. To see Rob and Matt recognised by PMW in this way is not only a huge personal achievement, but also an important moment for the wider movement towards privacy-first, in-cloud activation.

Thank you to our team, clients, partners and supporters who continue to believe in what we are building. There is huge momentum behind this next chapter and we are incredibly excited for what comes next.

‍