Dentsu has unveiled Merkury for Media, a new end-to-end data and identity platform that enables addressable media experiences, AI-powered media allocations and optimizations that drive more cost-effective outcomes in a single integrated platform for Dentsu’s media clients across Carat, Dentsu X and iProspect. 

The platform is an enhanced and rebranded version of M1 and launches in the U.S. It will be rolled out to other markets in the coming months.  

Dentsu said it is the only live platform where every dollar of media placed is using first-party data. 

"As the industry looks for scalable solutions to cookie deprecation and cost-efficient media addressability, we could not be more excited to bring this solution to market,” said Sean Reardon, CEO, Americas Media Practice.  

With this launch, Dentsu said it will become the first agency holding company to utilize a combination of Freewheel’s Beeswax platform and custom bidding tools and identity-matching technologies to access its direct connections to premium ad inventory. 

"Dentsu and FreeWheel are both leaders in the area of data-driven, addressable audience buying and planning, and we're extremely proud to partner with them on this latest innovation," said Mark McKee, General Manager, FreeWheel.  "The use of first-party data is becoming increasingly important for advertisers as identity solutions of the past begin to unravel. 

The offering’s audience building capability has access to 168 million anonymized adult identities and 144 million households.  

"Merkury for Media's AI-based predictive engine will dynamically learn and react to create performance predictions that account for more internal client and outside environmental factors to plan for what will happen, not just based on what has happened in the past. This is a game-changer as we look for new intelligent ways to make our clients' data work harder for them," added Shirli Zelcer, global chief data and technology officer, Dentsu.