Pittsburgh – July 16, 2026 – Brunner, a leading independent integrated marketing agency, today announced its acquisition of AdSkate, an AI-powered creative analytics and marketing intelligence platform that helps brands and agencies optimize advertising performance through advanced creative insights.
The acquisition marks a significant step forward in Brunner’s commitment to helping clients navigate the rapidly evolving intersection of creativity, data, media, and artificial intelligence. As marketers face increasing pressure to drive growth, maximize efficiency, and prove return on investment, the addition of AdSkate’s proprietary AI technology and talent will provide clients with deeper insights into advertising effectiveness, creative performance, and audience engagement, transforming marketing decisions into measurable business advantages.
Brunner’s client ecosystem includes national brands such as Aerie, Church’s Texas Chicken, Fred Rogers Institute, and Mitsubishi North America. AdSkate has worked with brands including Infosys, Abbott Labs, and Illinois Lottery, along with other enterprise, healthcare, consumer, and agency-led brand engagements. AdSkate technology will continue to be deployed for its existing clients, will drive enhanced performance for Brunner’s portfolio of brand customers, and will form the core of new AI-enabled offerings to be launched in the near future.
“Marketing is entering a new era where creative intelligence is becoming just as important as media intelligence,” said Kevin Amos, Partner and Chief Media and Data Officer at Brunner. “Today’s CMOs aren’t asking for more data; they’re asking for better answers. AdSkate has built an innovative platform that helps marketers understand not only what is performing, but why it is performing. By bringing AdSkate into the Brunner family, we will help clients make smarter decisions, move faster, optimize campaigns with greater confidence, and maximize the impact of every marketing dollar.”
Founded in Pittsburgh, AdSkate was created to help marketers unlock the full value of their creative assets through artificial intelligence and machine learning. Emerging from the region’s thriving innovation ecosystem, with leadership and technology roots connected to Carnegie Mellon University, the platform analyzes advertising performance across images, video, messaging, and audience segments to identify the creative elements that drive engagement, conversion, and return on ad spend. By transforming creative optimization from a subjective process into a data-driven discipline, AdSkate helps brands and agencies move beyond reporting what happened to understanding why it happened, and what actions to take next.
As part of the acquisition, AdSkate’s technology, talent, and product expertise will be integrated into Brunner’s growing suite of marketing intelligence solutions. Clients will gain access to enhanced creative testing, predictive performance modeling, audience insights, and AI-powered campaign optimization capabilities designed to improve marketing effectiveness at every stage of the customer journey.
“From the beginning, AdSkate was built around the belief that AI could help marketers make better decisions and create more impactful work,” said Akaash Ramakrishnan, Co-Founder and CEO at AdSkate. “Brunner shares that vision. This partnership allows us to scale our technology, accelerate innovation, and bring powerful new capabilities to brands looking to compete in an increasingly complex marketplace. Together, we can help marketers move faster, learn faster, and achieve stronger business results.”
“AdSkate’s ability to break down ad performance and attributes is truly empowering,” said Albert Thompson, Managing Digital Director, Walton Isaacson. “It provides insights that simply are not available at scale.”
Ramakrishnan will become Senior Director, AI and Innovation at Brunner. Shreyas Venugopalan, Co-Founder and CTO at AdSkate, will join as AI and Technology Consultant at Brunner. Max Rosen, Creative Technology Specialist at AdSkate, will become Creative Technologist at Brunner.
The acquisition brings together two Pittsburgh success stories: Brunner’s more than four decades of marketing leadership and AdSkate’s next-generation AI innovation. Together, the organizations will help brands better understand consumer behavior, optimize creative performance, and improve marketing outcomes through a combination of human expertise and machine intelligence.
Clients will benefit from enhanced capabilities including:
- AI-powered creative intelligence and performance analysis
- Predictive marketing insights and campaign optimization
- Audience engagement and behavioral analytics
- Faster creative testing and decision-making
- Improved marketing efficiency and return on investment
- Deeper visibility into the drivers behind campaign performance
The acquisition reinforces Brunner’s continued investment in innovation while strengthening Pittsburgh’s position as a growing hub for both marketing and artificial intelligence. As integration moves forward, the AdSkate team will continue supporting existing clients while collaborating closely with Brunner to accelerate innovation, expand the platform’s capabilities, and deliver next-generation solutions across media, creative, analytics, and technology.
Together, Brunner and AdSkate are creating a more connected marketing ecosystem—one that helps brands understand what drives performance, optimize investments with greater confidence, and turn intelligence into growth.
