NIQ Partners with Cadent and Unlimitail

Consumer intelligence company NIQ and MRI-Simmons have expanded their partnership with Cadent to help advertisers plan and activate precise, insight driven audiences through the Cadent Platform. The company also partnered with Unlimitail, a retail media network, to help companies unlock retail media accountability through advanced measurement, consumer insights, interoperable data infrastructure, and AI-powered analytics.

The collaboration with Cadent distributes audiences informed by NIQ's omnichannel purchase-based insights alongside audiences derived from MRI-Simmons' consumer research through the Cadent Platform to support more effective audience targeting across channels, platforms, and devices. Audiences informed by NIQ's omnichannel shopping and digital purchase insights will be made available for distribution and activation through the Cadent Platform, alongside an expanded taxonomy of audiences based on MRI-Simmons research driven insights. These complementary audiences will help advertisers better understand consumer behavior, identify high-value segments, and execute campaigns across today’s fragmented media landscape.

"Marketers are challenged with an increasingly disjointed and complex media landscape, making it harder to unify ad activation and measurement across disparate channels," said Jason Attanasio, vice president of data partnerships at Cadent, in a statement. "MRI-Simmons' robust data sets, combined with NIQ's insight into consumer spending habits, unlocks new insights. When activated on the Cadent Platform, fueled by our predictive intelligence, advertisers can amplify precision, performance, and scale across every channel."

"By expanding our relationship with Cadent, we're helping advertisers bring NIQ's basket level insights across key verticals into their audience strategies in a more actionable way," said Josh Pisano, general manager of global media at NIQ and MRI-Simmons., in a statement. "Combined with a full taxonomy of audience definitions informed by MRI-Simmons' research, advertisers gain a more complete view of consumers, supporting more effective planning and activation across screens."

The collaboration with Unlimitail will combine Unlimitail's extensive retail media network, which spans 21 countries, 35 retailers, more than 120 retailer websites, and more than 250 million loyalty cardholders, with NIQ's measurement, analytics, and consumer intelligence capabilities. Together, the companies will help advertisers understand the true business impact of retail media investments, unlock deeper consumer and category insights, and view performance across retailers, markets, and channels.

Unlimitail will deploy NIQ's measurement capabilities as a core component of its technology ecosystem, alongside a new data clean room environment and enhanced AdTech infrastructure. Initial deployment will begin with Carrefour operations in France, Spain, and Brazil, with pilot programs expected to launch mid 2026.

Key benefits of the Unlimitail collaboration are the following:

• Help measure sales impact& by linking media exposure to verified purchases.
• Compare performance across markets and retailers to optimize global media investment.
• Activate privacy-safe collaboration through clean room environments.
• Provide greater transparency and accountability for retail media investments.
• Standardize measurement across retailer ecosystems.
• Deliver enhanced insights to ;support future AI-powered commerce and advertising applications.
• Generate richer consumer, category, and market insights to improve campaign planning and optimization.

"Retail media is becoming one of the most important growth engines for brands and retailers, but its future depends on trust, transparency, and measurable business outcomes," said Emilie Darolles, president of West Europe at NIQ, in a statement. "As commerce and media continue to converge, brands need a consistent way to understand what is driving performance across markets, retailers, and channels. Together with Unlimitail, we're helping create a more connected measurement ecosystem that enables marketers to move beyond assumptions and confidently demonstrate the impact of their investments."

"Retail media has evolved from an emerging channel into a strategic pillar of modern marketing," said Alexis Marcombe, CEO of Unlimitail, in a statement. "Our ambition is to provide brands and retailers with the tools, data, and technology they need to unlock greater value from every campaign. By integrating NIQ's trusted measurement capabilities into our ecosystem, we're enabling a new level of transparency and performance accountability that will benefit advertisers, retailers, and consumers alike."