What Brand Builders Need Most Right Now? Smarter Data, Real-Time Personalization, and AI That Actually Works | AdWeek 2025 Recap

AWNY 2025

Every October, thousands of marketers, advertisers, and technology leaders converge in New York City for one of the industry’s biggest events: Advertising Week. This year marked the 21st edition of the event, and true to form, the week was packed with energy, insights, and a few surprise appearances.

This year, Twilio was a sponsor for the Data and Decisioning Track where we participated in three insightful panes alongside our partners from Snowflake, TikTok, The Trade Desk, Amplitude, and LinkedIn to unpack the challenges facing advertisers in 2025—and the real solutions that are working right now.

From rebuilding media strategies in an AI-first world to using customer data to power instant personalization, one theme was consistent: brands that win in 2026 will be the ones investing in the right data foundation today.

What we discussed and learned

Our first session explored how data is reshaping the media landscape and enabling next-gen capabilities across audience targeting, content optimization, measurement, and automation. We heard from fellow industry leaders Jaime Nash, Director of Product Marketing at The Trade Desk; David Wells Industry Principal, Media, Entertainment & Advertising at Snowflake; and Robin Shore, Global Product Partnership Lead, Data & Measurement at TikTok. 

For our second session–co-led by Ted Sfikas, Field CTO, at Amplitude–we took a look at how first-party data strategies unlock the full potential of GenAI, enabling hyper-personalized experiences powered by unified customer profiles across apps, websites, and platforms. 

Last but not least, our third session featured Twilio RVP, Segment Advisory Services, Seth Familian and LinkedIn Director of Product Marketing, Kristen Gillespie, who explored the benefits of LinkedIn’s Conversions APIs, and how they’re part of a winning solution for advertisers when paired with Twilio Segment CDP. 

Key takeaways for advertisers

Across all three sessions, a few themes came through loud and clear:

• Data collaboration is non-negotiable. Whether you’re building a customer journey or a personalization engine, siloed data slows you down. Twilio Segment CDP can help unify your stack, fast.
  

• AI isn’t magic, it’s a multiplier. GenAI can amplify creativity and performance, but only if it’s powered by high-quality, real-time data.
  

• Brand teams need more than inspiration. They need infrastructure—systems that enable agility, accountability, and connection across every customer interaction.
  
  

Looking ahead to 2026

AWNY25 reminded me just how fast this space continues to move, and how vital it is for brands to stay grounded in the fundamentals that never change: know your customer, earn their trust, and show up with value.

Huge thanks again to our partners from Snowflake, The Trade Desk, TikTok, Amplitude, and LinkedIn for sharing their expertise and bold ideas.

If you missed us at Advertising Week, you can catch more insights October 22nd during our next episode of Dollars and Sense, Twilio’s webinar series exploring common challenges faced by digital advertisers. 

Along with partners Amplitude and McGaw.io, we’ll discuss the correlation between a strong attribution and customer data strategy for higher ROAS, heading into 2026.  Hope to see you there.

– Adam Morgan
VP of Brand, Twilio