In a bid to unify creative and media workflows, along with performance data to boost campaign performance in real time, Horizon Media Holdings has formed a strategic partnership with Kartel, a startup artificial intelligence (AI) content engine. 

Kartel was founded in 2024 by Luke Petersen and Ben Kusin and is now helmed by Kevin Reilly the long time TV executive who ran the entertainment divisions of NBC and Fox as well as HBO Max, TBS, TNT and TruTV. He joined Beverly Hills, CA-based Kartel as CEO in November of 2025. 

The partnership integrates the Kartel platform into HorizonOS, Horizon’s open tech platform designed to help brands plan, execute and measure creative and media campaigns simultaneously. 

The companies say that with Kartel's input Horizon clients will get faster and more distinctive creative development and better performance data. And it allows both companies to improve creative work based on real-time campaign results.  

“Kartel was built in direct response to the commoditization happening across AI creative,” said Roberto Alcazar, executive vice president, managing partner of Horizon creative agency One Horizon. “Too many systems optimize speed and output, which often leads to work that feels interchangeable.” 

Kartel's approach, he asserted, allows teams to "move more fluidly from insight to idea to production to optimization while keeping work grounded in real campaign needs.” 

According to Reilly, Horizon is Kartel's first major agency partnership. On the brand side, he added, the firm is working with Newell and several of its Outdoor And Rec brands: Contigo, Coleman And Bubba.  

"The conversation has moved beyond simply using AI to generate content,” says O’Reilly. “What matters now is building creative systems that become more informed and effective over time.” 

According to John Koenigsberg, executive vice president, head of platform partnerships at Horizon, the companies first started talking about a potential partnership late last year, “with an intention to launch a focused client pilot to both validate the technology in real workflows and better assess the HorizonOS integration potential.” 

He added that before the deal was signed the firms “tested structured, hypothesis-driven experimentation in real workflows with accountable success criteria.”  

 Those efforts, he said, “evaluated both the creative quality and the workflow efficiency realized via embracing Kartel technology into the operating model.” Satisfied with the results, the firms moved forward with the partnership.  

Over the next year, Koenigsberg said, the focus will be on “deepening integration with Blu intelligence and launching more engagements with an expanded group of clients.” 

he company declined to comment on whether Horizon has taken an equity stake in the startup.