Omnicom Media kicks off a series of partnerships at Cannes Lions with a first-time Netflix deal

It’s the first time Omnicom Media and Netflix have struck a partnership, and it’s already up and running in the U.S., with plans to expand the offering internationally by end of year.

The idea essentially pairs Acxiom’s audience insights with Netflix’s AI-powered creative technology (Netflix Ads Suite), so that Omnicom clients can place ads that are more personalized and aligned with viewer interests, as well as more relevant to the content they’re running in. Netflix is said to be using proprietary AI engines and LLM-enabled technology to create the custom ad experiences that blend creative with relevant Netflix shows and films. 

The mechanics behind the partnership work especially well for clients who have like hard physical surfaces, like a car, a faucet or a phone or even a spokesperson, said Alissa Hansen, CEO of Omnicom Production North America. “We produce digital twins, and the digital twin becomes the artifact (there’s AI generation in terms of how we clone that object). Then that object moves into Netflix that has an AI generator themselves, and then we basically are marrying the object within the streaming content.” 

On the back end, the two are using closed-loop first-party measurement capabilities that let clients evaluate how the ads performed across audience segments, creative variants and content environments.

For Hansen, this is about taking another step up in improving the streaming ad experience, given that repetitive ads that are irrelevant to the viewer can be terrible turn off, for which the advertiser often is blamed — an insight uncovered in the research co-generated with Joanna O’Connell, chief intelligence officer for OM North America.  

“There’s been placements in CTV streaming for quite some time, but what there hasn’t been is relevant contextual content to feed those spaces and places,” said Hansen. “We are no longer breaking the bubble. We’re keeping them engaged in the entertainment experience, and they’re now starting to digest the content as well as the advertising within sort of that same breath.”

Keagan McDonnell, head of partnership innovation and strategy with OM North America, explained that Omnicom’s Omni operating platform is able to build Acxiom audiences and customize the audience segments that teams are activating, which are then pushed via data clean rooms to Netflix, where they’re onboarded and matched. 

The partnership “really allows you to do that data-driven discovery of the right programming that you can then pass to [Hansen] and the production team to say, ‘How can we really integrate the look and feel of our brand into the look and feel of the show that we know the audiences are watching?’” McDonnell added. 

“Since launching the Netflix Ads Suite, we’ve been committed to reimagining what advertising performance looks like,” said Jon Whitticom, vp of ads product at Netflix. “We can deliver ads that are as compelling as the [Netflix] titles they surround. For Omnicom clients, this offers creative that doesn’t just capture attention — it drives outcomes. That’s the power of bringing creativity, media, data, and AI together on one service.”

One client that’s already signed on is Bimbo Bakeries, whose U.S. vp of marketing transformation and services, Catherine Berger, likes what she’s seen so far. “What stood out for us is the ability to align creative with the content environment in a way that feels natural and personalized, while still maintaining speed to market and brand consistency at scale,” she explained.

“We very much nailed this process, which is not easy to do, of really understanding a consumer and market problem, and then building an innovation with partners to address it,” said Megan Pagliuca, chief product officer for OM North America, who believes having Acxiom data to help identify the audiences with Netflix has been a real difference maker.