Infosum partners Dstillery on privacy-first audience targeting

InfoSum has partnered with Dstillery, linking InfoSum's data collaboration system with Dstillery's audience targeting technology.

The arrangement is designed to help brands and agencies build and activate audience segments from first-party data without moving or exposing that data.

Under the deal, Dstillery will use outputs from InfoSum's decentralised data collaboration infrastructure in its predictive modelling framework. Audience segments can then be refreshed within 24 hours and sent automatically to approved activation destinations.

The partnership addresses a growing challenge for advertisers and agencies as they try to use first-party data amid tighter controls on how consumer information is handled. By keeping data in place rather than centralising it, the model is intended to support targeting without sharing raw records between parties.

Dstillery will provide predictive modelling and daily device-level scoring to keep audience intelligence current as user behaviour changes. InfoSum will provide the collaboration layer and automated delivery of updated segments for campaign activation.

The process is intended to let advertisers adjust campaigns during their lifecycle as new signals emerge. It also offers a way to update targeting more frequently without transferring sensitive datasets between systems.

InfoSum, part of WPP, focuses on data collaboration tools for marketers. Dstillery operates in the advertising technology market and specialises in AI-based audience targeting for programmatic campaigns.

The partnership reflects broader pressure in digital advertising to balance campaign performance with privacy requirements. Marketers have been looking for ways to preserve the value of first-party data as third-party identifiers become less dependable and scrutiny of data use increases.

Another feature of the arrangement is the 24-hour refresh cycle for audience updates. In practice, predictive segments can be revised daily to reflect more recent intent and behavioural indicators, rather than relying on static audience definitions that may lose relevance over time.

Updated segments are delivered automatically to approved activation destinations, creating a workflow in which modelling, refresh and delivery require less manual intervention from campaign teams.

Nick Henthorn, SVP, UK & EMEA, InfoSum, said: "We are delighted to be partnering with Dstillery. Leveraging their rich and diverse audience data through the power of InfoSum's secure data collaboration technology, we empower our clients to gain a much deeper, more nuanced understanding of their customers, uncovering insights that were previously out of reach. This enriched customer intelligence will directly translate into more strategic planning, highly precise and personalized targeting across campaigns, and ultimately, a significant uplift in their return on ad spend (ROAS)."

Dstillery described the partnership as a response to a long-running trade-off in programmatic advertising between targeting accuracy and protection of underlying user data. Its scoring system updates audience assessments daily, while the integration with InfoSum is intended to ensure those assessments can be used without exposing raw data.

Taejin In, Chief Product Officer, Dstillery, said: "The combination of Dstillery's audience targeting technology with InfoSum's data collaboration technology solves a fundamental programmatic challenge: how do you maintain both targeting precision and data privacy? Our 24-hour user scoring continuously adapts to user behavior, while InfoSum's infrastructure ensures that intelligence can be activated without exposing raw data. It's the scalability and performance advertisers need, with the privacy guarantees the industry demands."

The deal adds to a wave of partnerships across the advertising and marketing technology sector aimed at making first-party data more usable in media buying while limiting direct data sharing. The emphasis on automated activation and regular audience refreshes also points to a shift towards more continuous campaign optimisation, rather than periodic audience rebuilding.

For agencies and brands, the practical test will be whether daily updates and privacy-focused collaboration can improve media efficiency without adding operational complexity. For the two companies, the immediate proposition is a combined workflow built around first-party data, predictive modelling and 24-hour audience refreshes.