Performance, Speed, and Trust - Imagine the Possibilities

There were a record 7,500 people at Possible this year and the energy was incredible. Possible is now a true player in the ad-tech event lineup and an important prelude to Cannes.

So before it’s too far in the rear view mirror, we want to highlight the themes that are on brands minds, because it’s incredibly relevant for what’s to come for the rest of the year. And we’re truly excited about where marketing is headed.

The New Marketing Pillars: Performance, Speed, and Trust

We had dozens of conversations with brands and agencies at Possible, and got a real sense of where brands are focused and how their teams are setting their advertising strategies.

We see the signs: marketing is moving into a new phase, where efficiency alone isn’t enough.

The pillars are:

• Performance
• Speed
• Trust

Marketers still want performance. This isn’t changing. The concept of “outcomes” was everywhere in the past year, and it is still a core pillar for marketers. This means they want to work with partners who not only help them hit or exceed their goals, but can prove it.

They also expect speed. Agentic AI has made its mark as a major driver of efficiency. Speed can come in several ways. Marketers expect more automation to drive faster workflows, less time on manual setup and more seamless delivery. They also expect more agility across channels, better real-time optimization, and faster insights.

And finally, marketers need to have trust. Partners are focused on proven metrics, higher quality signals, better inventory, and more effective interactions with audiences. All of this requires trusted partners that are truly aligned with marketers.

How the Three Pillars of Marketing Play Out This Year

Some of the shiny objects of 2025 including agentic AI, creative generation, and outcomes are now being embedded into practical strategies that need to support the key pillars of performance, speed, and trust. Brands and agencies aren’t just asking, “What’s new?” They want to know how it helps them reach their goals. They are asking, “What can it do for me?”

Here were the top takeaways:

• AI has to perform. The question is no longer whether to use it, it’s whether it’s actually driving business results. The brands seeing value aren’t using AI as a replacement for strategy or creative thinking, they’re using it to move faster, test more, and make better decisions. But that only works when it’s grounded in strong data and real workflows.
• The bar for creative has changed. We heard this described as “ideas that travel,” creative that works across channels without losing what makes it effective. A strong idea today isn’t confined to one format. It needs to translate across streaming, social, display, and beyond.
• New capabilities need to scale. Brands are faced with more channels, more formats, and more moments to show up. That’s where teams are feeling pressure, and where AI is starting to play a role, especially in helping produce and test more efficiently.
• Marketers want to know what actually works. Many brands called out that measurement is still imperfect, and no single platform has a full view of performance. As a result, teams are putting more emphasis on testing, incrementality, and learning quickly, rather than relying on any one metric.
  

Brands aren’t thinking about these possibilities in the future, their timelines are contracting. What used to take weeks now happens in days, and teams that can’t move quickly are falling behind. Brands expect their partners to be ready to go now.

Taken together, the pattern is clear. The brands moving fastest right now are:

• Using AI to improve how they work, not just to produce more
• Focusing on creative that connects across channels
• Prioritizing trust and attention, not just impressions
• Testing and learning quickly instead of waiting for perfect answers
  

The good news is this doesn’t require a full reset. The most effective approach we’re seeing is starting with focused tests, whether that’s improving production efficiency or getting clearer insight into performance, and building from there.

Achieve Your New Goals With Kargo

Kargo is built for this exact moment in time.

The pillars brands laid out at Possible aren't new priorities for us. They're what we've been building toward.

Performance - Kargo's innovative tech, premium inventory, and high-impact creative formats are engineered to drive real outcomes. Our AI platform drove a 7x increase in purchase intent for Hershey’s and an 82% live on CTV attention.

Speed - “Ideas that travel” need agile infrastructure. Project KERA, our agentic media buying platform that unifies creative, targeting, and premium supply using our proprietary Creative Science®, moves at the pace brands now expect. Faster workflows, smarter optimization, and creative that scales across channels.

Trust - Kargo has direct integrations with 500+ publishers including the top CTV media companies and is 100% MFA-free, verified by Jounce Media. Brands also have a wide variety of measurement options to get the proof they need to scale.

Ready to put all three pillars to work? Let's talk.