News

Created in partnership with NBCUniversal, FreeWheel and Newton, first custom-built client agent launches with a Client in the Luxury Retail Space 

NEW YORK, NY — Oct 6, 2026 — Carat, FreeWheel, NBCUniversal and Newton today announced the launch of a programmatic agentic media solution built to optimize upfront investment, enabling advertisers to balance brand analytics and automated reporting across NBCUniversal buys, including premium video and audience-first activations. Built in partnership with Newton, the solution provides bespoke, custom-built agents for clients. It will debut with a Carat client in the Luxury Retail space as the first advertiser to deploy an agent built specifically for its needs as part of an upfront investment, and is interoperable with a major media network. 

The capability brings together AI-powered intelligence and audience insights from dentsu, audiences and NBCUniversal’s ID graph, unified through the FreeWheel Identity Network, and combines them with performance signals and market context to efficiently optimize media activation, helping advertisers maximize the value of upfront investments across all inventoryby balancing performance without sacrificing high attention, premium brand opportunities. By surfacing actionable recommendations informed by campaign performance, search lift, trends and competitive signals, the custom buying agent enables faster, smarter decision-making while keeping human expertise at the center of strategy and activation. 

"We are relentlessly pushing the boundaries of what's possible to help our clients make their media investments work smarter and harder," said Carrie Drinkwater, Chief Investment Officer, Carat. "What we've built with NBCUniversal and FreeWheel is a powerful example of that commitment. By combining the craft, strategic expertise, and relationships that have always defined our approach with AI-powered intelligence, real-time market insights, contextual data, and channel signals, we're creating new bespoke opportunities for clients to unlock greater value, drive stronger outcomes, and maximize the impact of every investment." 

"As agentic AI moves from experimentation to real-world application, success will depend on an open ecosystem where intelligence can move seamlessly across partners and platforms," said Ryan McConville, EVP & Chief Product Officer, NBCUniversal Advertising & Partnerships. "By combining NBCUniversal's premium inventory, audience intelligence, and identity foundation with dentsu's buying expertise and Newton's technology, we're helping build a more connected marketplace that empowers advertisers to get more value from their media investments." 

Built on FreeWheel Buyer Cloud, dentsu’s secure environment , incorporates Newton's technology directly into dentsu's operating framework. This embedded approach enables teams to seamlessly access insights, optimization recommendations and contextual intelligence within existing workflows, accelerating activation and unlocking a more sophisticated approach to upfront optimization across NBCUniversal inventory. 

This launch underscores Carat's commitment to delivering AI-powered growth through solutions that are client-first, innovative and built for today's dynamic marketplace. By combining the agility of advanced technology with the strategic intelligence of its people, Carat continues to create first-to-market capabilities that drive stronger outcomes, accelerate decision-making and unlock new value for clients. Carat is already building custom-buying agents matched to specific client KPIs, which is now live, with plans to expand into more brands, video networks, and verticals soon. The offering will ultimately be available to dentsu clients and prospects across its media agency brands.  

"For years, the industry has talked about making premium video buying more automated and efficient, but the complexity has often stood in the way," said David Dworin, Chief Product Officer, FreeWheel. "Together, NBCUniversal, Carat, Newton and FreeWheel are helping move the industry forward by applying agentic AI within the ad-serving infrastructure where media is activated. That direct connection creates a more seamless path from planning and optimization to execution, reducing friction while keeping buyers and sellers in control.” 

###

About Carat
Carat is the world’s first media agency and is privileged to work with some of today’s most storied and innovative brands. Designing for people, Carat pioneers in media to build modern businesses by getting brands closer to the people who matter. Most recently named a leader amongst global media agencies by Forrester, Carat is consistently ranked the #1 media agency in the world. With more than 12,000 experts in more than 100 countries, Carat is a dentsu company that delivers an unparalleled capability to unlock real human understanding and connect people and brands through powerful, engaging media experiences. We define media as the new frontier of modern business that combines the speed of technology with the art of empathy.  

About NBCUniversal
NBCUniversal is one of the world’s leading media and entertainment companies. We create world-class content, which we distribute across our portfolio of film, television, and streaming, and bring to life through our global theme park destinations, consumer products, and experiences. We own and operate leading entertainment and news brands, including NBC, NBC News, NBC Sports, Telemundo, NBC Local Stations, Bravo, and Peacock, our premium ad-supported streaming service. We produce and distribute premier filmed entertainment and programming through our powerhouse film and television studios, including Universal Pictures, DreamWorks Animation, and Focus Features, and the four global television studios under the Universal Studio Group banner, and operate industry-leading theme parks and experiences around the world through Universal Destinations & Experiences, including Universal Orlando Resort, home to Universal Epic Universe, and Universal Studios Hollywood. NBCUniversal is a subsidiary of Comcast Corporation. Visit www.nbcuniversal.com for more information. 

About Newton Research 
Newton Research is the system of action for marketing. Its agentic, self-learning platform helps brands and agencies turn measurement into intelligent, governed media decisions across platforms, and teams can be up and running in days, not months. With analytics at its core, Newton connects performance insights, experimentation, causal modeling, planning and campaign execution in one system. It automates the manual work that slows media teams down, so they can focus on driving better business outcomes. Built for media from day one, Newton runs directly on a company's own data warehouse in a single-tenant, enterprise-grade environment. It was founded by a team of successful media analytics entrepreneurs. 

About FreeWheel 
FreeWheel empowers all segments of streaming advertising ecosystem. We are structured to provide the full breadth of solutions the advertising industry needs to achieve their goals. We provide the technology, data enablement and convergent marketplaces required to ensure buyers and sellers can transact across all screens, across all data types, and all sales channels, in order to ensure the ultimate goal – results for marketers. With offices in New York, Chicago, London, Paris, and across the globe, FreeWheel, A Comcast Company, stands to advocate for the entire industry through the FreeWheel Council for Premium Video. For more information, please visit freewheel.com, and follow us on X and LinkedIn.