NIQ and MRI-Simmons Announce Expansion of Relationship with Cadent to Power Advanced Audience Targeting
Chicago, June 16, 2026 – NIQ (NYSE: NIQ), MRI‑Simmons, and Cadent today announced an expansion of their relationship to help advertisers plan and activate precise, insight-driven audiences through the Cadent Platform.
The collaboration 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.
As advertisers navigate fragmented media environments, many are looking for more reliable ways to connect what consumers buy, how they behave, and where they can be reached. But inconsistent audience definitions and disconnected activation workflows often make it difficult to turn insight into measurable campaign performance.
As part of the expanded relationship, 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 with greater confidence 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, VP, Data Partnerships, Cadent. “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.”
With these audiences available in Cadent’s unified, predictive platform, advertisers gain more consistent audience definitions for improved campaign planning, activation, and performance evaluation.
This approach helps marketers better understand which audiences, media partners, and environments drive results, enabling smarter optimization and more accountable, performance‑driven advertising strategies.
“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, NIQ and MRI‑Simmons. “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 relationship reinforces a shared commitment among all three companies to privacy, transparency, and data protection. All audiences are developed and deployed in accordance with applicable data protection standards, ensuring that data‑driven marketing remains both effective and responsible.
Frequently Asked Questions
- What does the NIQ, MRI‑Simmons, and Cadent relationship enable for advertisers?
This relationship helps advertisers better understand what consumers buy (NIQ) and why they buy (MRI‑Simmons’ research‑driven insights), then activate audiences through the Cadent Platform. Together, these capabilities provide a more complete and actionable view of consumers, enabling marketers to plan, activate, and optimize campaigns across linear and digital TV.
- How are audiences developed, and what differentiates them?
Audiences are developed using NIQ’s omnichannel purchase insights alongside modeled audience segments derived from MRI‑Simmons’ nationally representative consumer research. This approach brings together behavioral purchase signals and attitudinal and contextual insights, helping advertisers identify and reach higher‑value audiences with greater confidence.
- What role does Cadent play in this relationship?
Cadent serves as the activation and execution layer, making these audiences available through its platform. Advertisers can activate campaigns across linear TV, digital, and streaming environments, using aligned audience definitions from planning through performance measurement.
- How does the relationship support improved campaign performance?
-More precise targeting: Align purchase signals with research‑driven insights
-Greater audience consistency: Aligned audience definitions across planning, activation, and measurement
-Enhanced optimization: Improved understanding of which audiences and environments drive results
-Reduced fragmentation: A more unified approach across linear and digital ecosystems
- Are these audiences based on real consumer data?
Yes. NIQ audiences are informed by consent‑based purchase insights, while MRI‑Simmons provides survey‑based research used to develop modeled audience segments. These modeled audiences support planning and can be activated through partner platforms such as Cadent.
- Does this approach support privacy‑safe advertising?
Yes. All audiences are developed and activated using privacy‑forward methodologies. MRI‑Simmons’ insights are derived from survey‑based research and used to inform modeled audiences, while NIQ’s data is handled in accordance with applicable data protection standards. Cadent enables responsible activation across its platform, maintaining transparency and compliance.
- How does Cadent curate inventory for these audiences?
Cadent curates inventory across a broad ecosystem of linear TV, streaming, and digital publishers, applying quality, scale, and relevance criteria. This ensures advertisers can effectively reach defined audiences in premium, brand‑suitable environments across screens.
- What does inventory curation mean for campaign outcomes?
Inventory curation helps align audience targeting with high‑quality media placements, which can drive:
-Improved reach against target audiences
-Greater media efficiency through more precise delivery
-Stronger performance insights in consistent, measurable environments
-Increased control and transparency across linear and digital campaigns
About NIQ
NIQ (NYSE: NIQ) is a leading consumer intelligence company, delivering the most complete and trusted understanding of consumer buying behavior and revealing new pathways to growth. By combining an unmatched global data footprint and granular consumer and retail measurement with decades of AI modeling expertise, NIQ builds decision systems that help companies turn complex data into confident action.
With operations in more than 90 countries, NIQ covers approximately 82% of the world’s population and more than $7.4 trillion in global consumer spend. Through cloud-based platforms, advanced analytics and AI-driven insights, NIQ delivers The Full View™—helping brands and retailers understand what consumers buy, why they buy it, and what to do next.
For more information, please visit www.niq.com.
About MRI‑Simmons
MRI‑Simmons, a joint venture majority‑owned by NIQ (NYSE: NIQ), is the leading provider of insights on the American consumer. A leader in consumer insights for over 60 years, MRI‑Simmons possesses one of the few data sets widely used across the media ecosystem for consumer profiling, media planning, audience research, and insight‑driven audience development. Powered by address‑based probabilistic sampling, MRI‑Simmons measures real people, chosen at random, to represent the U.S. population in all its diversity—resulting in the most accurate view of the American consumer.
To learn more, visit www.mrisimmons.com.
About Cadent
Every day, Cadent ignites 200 billion connections between brands, publishers, and consumers through our predictive advertising platform. With 22,000 AI-driven models, we orchestrate outcomes on all platforms consumers are on, across all media they consume, and at all stages of their journey. With a transparent, unified platform, we connect directly with hundreds of premium partners to drive measurable advertising outcomes across all screens. Learn more at www.cadent.com.
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