AUDIENCES Wins MarTech Innovation at the 2026 Performance Marketing World Awards

Pioneering a new approach to first-party data activation. Now award-winning.

We're incredibly proud to announce that AUDIENCES has won the MarTech Innovation award at the 2026 Performance Marketing World Awards, marking a major milestone for our business and the technology we've pioneered. This is more than an industry accolade. It's powerful recognition of a fundamentally different approach to first-party data activation, one built on independence and the belief that brands should be able to unlock the full value of their data without compromising either.

Our co-founders, Rob McLaughlin and Matt Wilkinson, attended the awards ceremony to celebrate alongside some of the industry's leading innovators, bringing home an award that means an enormous amount to the entire AUDIENCES team.

From day one, AUDIENCES has challenged the conventional approach to activating first-party data. For too long, brands have faced unnecessary complexity, costly technology dependencies and an expectation that customer data must be moved, copied or processed through third-party systems before it can be put to work. We believed there was a better way so we built an independent, in-cloud activation platform that enables brands to activate their first-party data directly from their existing cloud environments, without moving or duplicating it, while maintaining control over their data, governance and technology choices.

Our approach removes unnecessary complexity and consumption-based data costs, giving brands greater freedom to activate their data across the advertising and media ecosystem. Independence isn't simply a feature of our technology. It's fundamental to how we've designed it, why we built it and the value we deliver.

Winning MarTech Innovation is significant recognition of that philosophy, and reinforces the growing importance of independent technology in an increasingly complex and interconnected advertising ecosystem.

A huge win for our product and technology teams

Behind every innovation is a team with the ambition, expertise and determination to make it happen. This award is a particularly proud moment for our brilliant product and technology teams, who have worked tirelessly to turn our vision into a platform that's changing how brands activate their data. Building technology that challenges established industry models isn't easy. It requires deep technical expertise, creative problem-solving and a relentless focus on delivering something genuinely better for customers. From developing our in-cloud architecture to continuously expanding our platform's capabilities, integrations and performance, our teams have been central to everything AUDIENCES has achieved. This award is a testament to their talent, commitment and belief in what we're building and It's also recognition of the wider AUDIENCES team, our customers and our partners, whose collaboration and trust have helped turn innovation into real-world value.

Thank you to the PMW team

A huge thank you to the entire Performance Marketing World team, led by Robin, for organising such a fantastic evening, and to the judging panel for recognising the innovation behind AUDIENCES. Congratulations to all the winners and finalists. It was a brilliant night celebrating the businesses and people moving our industry forward and, most importantly, thank you to everyone at AUDIENCES, particularly our outstanding product and technology teams. This recognition belongs to all of you!

We're incredibly proud of what we've achieved, but even more excited about what comes next!

Independent by design. Innovative by nature. And we're only getting started.

View the Performance Marketing World Awards results

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