Three Lessons on Differentiation: In The Know with Horizon Media’s Evanne Abneri

In the Know is a series that spotlights industry leaders sharing the ideas, strategies, and real-world insights driving meaningful impact in market. InMarket CMO Natalie Bastian sat down with Evanne Abneri, Director of Programmatic Partnerships & Product Development at Horizon Media, at POSSIBLE 2026 to talk programmatic strategy, culture, and what it really takes to stand out in a crowded landscape. These key themes stood out:

Differentiation is the new competitive edge.

In a landscape where sounding like everyone else risks turning you into a commodity, Evanne is clear about where a real competitive edge comes from: partners who bring something unique to the table, and, even better, who stay open enough to co-build with Horizon rather than handing over a fixed playbook. As she puts it: “We’re looking for a competitive edge [in] where our partners are differentiated, where they’re bringing something unique to the table — ideally exclusive — where they have an open architecture where we can work with them to co-build something together.”

Outcomes, not vanity metrics.

One way Horizon puts differentiation into practice is through blu., the company’s AI-powered connected marketing platform. Specifically within programmatic, Evanne’s team uses it to analyze signals in the bid stream and custom-curate solutions for clients — signals more closely tied to outcomes than to vanity media metrics. That means partnering with companies to get log-level data and build custom bidding algorithms Horizon can run inside its DSPs to drive better outcomes for clients, rather than just impressions and clicks.

It’s one thing to build the technology — it’s another to put it to work for a client. When asked for an example of this in action, Evanne pointed straight at Horizon’s partnership with InMarket, which allowed Horizon to proactively build a custom taxonomy directly into a healthcare client’s unique DSP. This gave Horizon the ability to build every audience segment the client might need and ensure they were already in place before the client needed them.

See the person, not the data point.

That same partnership work is what drives Horizon to dig into its audience rather than settle for a specific demographic. Evanne noted the importance of “understanding a user in its full capacity — not just one plucked-out data point — but [rather] who that person is throughout their entire day, throughout their entire week, month, year, and the journey that they’re on.” Doing so allows Horizon to gain more insight into reaching users in “organic and native ways that feel not intrusive, but seamless.” Advertising that blends effortlessly into users’ everyday lives feels less disruptive, and “natively fitting into user experience” can ultimately move the needle. 

Culture is the key to relevancy.

Asked what insight leaders need to act on right now, Evanne’s answer was culture — not as an internal hiring philosophy, but as a lens on audiences. She credits Horizon’s multicultural team with helping the agency understand “a user and the complexities of them as a person,” rather than reducing people to a single demographic or data point. “Remember that users and your audience and your target are humans, that are complex and layered, and they deserve that type of nuanced thought about who they are.” As Natalie Bastian noted, “relevancy is key, and understanding who the user is and what their journey is like is absolutely fundamental,” not only in ensuring each ad is effective, but in the ultimate goal — driving outcomes. 

How that shows up in the work

For Horizon Media, that same instinct — build for outcomes, with real partners in the room, for people, instead of data points — is central to how the agency works with InMarket. That’s exactly what InMarket’s Outcome Intelligence is built for: proving what media actually drives, not just what ran, so that every dollar can be tied back to a real business result.

Connect with our team to see how InMarket can help you build custom, outcome-driven solutions for your brand. Get in touch at InMarket.com/Contact.