Publicis Closes LiveRamp Deal, and Liquid Death Says It's Leaving
An agency group now owns a data platform its rivals and some brands used, and not everyone is staying.
Publicis Groupe closed its $2.2 billion purchase of LiveRamp on Monday, November 2. And Liquid Death’s media chief says the brand is leaving the data platform.
If your customer data runs through LiveRamp, or through an agency that uses it, you’ve got a new landlord.
What Publicis bought
LiveRamp sells data-collaboration tools, including clean rooms where brands combine their data with partners’. Publicis calls it an enterprise-grade platform.
Publicis is selling the deal as its AI play. Its press release, as Marketing Dive reports, pairs LiveRamp’s tech with Epsilon’s data and identity offering.
So what do clients get? Per Publicis:
- Your first-party data enriched with LiveRamp’s RampID and Epsilon’s Identity, which Publicis says adds thousands of attributes
- Reach across LiveRamp’s network, which B&T lists as 25,000 publishers, 500 tech and data partners, retail networks, walled gardens and LLM integrations
- Publicis’s own media network, now on that list
- Partner deals already “pre-wired”, so you skip some legal and integration work
Marketing Dive says the LLM integrations include OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
In a launch video, CEO Arthur Sadoun said clients were stuck between two bad options. Walled gardens give you scale but take control.
Consultants build custom pipes. That costs time and a lot of money.
Both companies say you keep full ownership and control of your data. They also say you won’t be locked into specific technology partners.
Who is walking away
Some aren’t buying it.
Benoit Vatere, Liquid Death’s chief media and digital commerce officer, posted on LinkedIn after the news: “Yes we will leave. I am first in line.”
His comments filled up with people pitching LiveRamp alternatives.
Who’s pulling back so far?
- Liquid Death, whose representative confirmed to Marketing Dive that the brand plans to move away from LiveRamp
- WPP and Omnicom, Publicis’s direct agency rivals, which have signaled for months that they’re winding down their use of it
The deal closed after last month’s FTC consent order, which is meant to keep LiveRamp neutral.
Meanwhile, Publicis didn’t immediately answer Marketing Dive’s question about brands leaving LiveRamp after the deal, so we don’t yet know how it plans to keep the ones that are wavering.
Why it matters
Most of you won’t buy LiveRamp directly. Still, if you run ads through a big agency or a retail media network, your customer list may already pass through it.
So who owns the pipe your data runs through?
I’d check three things this month:
- Ask your agency and ad platforms if they use LiveRamp, and what changes now
- Read your contract for how you’d export your matched data and audiences
- Keep your first-party list clean and in a tool you control, so moving is cheap
My read: the FTC order and the “no lock-in” promise are on paper. Trust like this gets earned in practice.
The first test is simple.
Do brands that stay see any change in how their data is handled, now that an agency group that competes with their other agencies owns the platform their data runs through?
Liquid Death is a loud brand. But a representative confirmed the plan, so it’s more than a hot take.
That counts.
It’s the same worry behind Apple’s Safari block pushing ad tech server-side, where WPP pitched InfoSum, its own data platform.
Could you leave if you wanted to? Ask now.
Common Questions
Did Publicis complete its acquisition of LiveRamp?
Yes. Publicis Groupe closed the $2.2 billion deal on Monday, November 2, 2026, according to its press release, after agreeing to an FTC consent order meant to keep LiveRamp neutral.
Which companies are moving away from LiveRamp after the Publicis deal?
Liquid Death confirmed to Marketing Dive that it plans to leave LiveRamp. Rival agency groups WPP and Omnicom have signaled for months that they are winding down their use of the platform.
Will LiveRamp customers keep control of their data under Publicis?
Publicis and LiveRamp say clients keep full ownership and control of their data and won’t be locked into specific technology partners. Critics such as Liquid Death’s media chief don’t trust that promise.
