Audiencerate Taps AI Architect Fabbri to Lead Data Marketing Overhaul

LONDON, UK – May 21, 2026 – AdTech specialist Audiencerate has appointed seasoned technologist and entrepreneur Riccardo Fabbri as its new Chief Technology Officer, signaling a significant strategic pivot toward an AI-driven future. The move initiates a new phase for the company’s marketing platforms, aiming to embed advanced artificial intelligence and machine learning at the core of its offerings for both Italian small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and global media agencies.

The London-headquartered firm, one of only 11 globally certified Google Customer Match Upload Partners, is leveraging Fabbri's appointment to accelerate a dual expansion. This includes enhancing its integrated platform for Italian SMEs, developed in partnership with Postel and Microsoft, and evolving its data platform for agencies that plugs directly into Google's DV360. Both initiatives are now set to transition toward a model where AI natively processes first-party and third-party data, addressing the market’s twin demands for greater intelligence and stringent privacy compliance.

The Architect of Transformation

Riccardo Fabbri brings to Audiencerate a formidable track record built over two decades in software development and cloud architecture. As the co-founder of the digital consultancy Nohup in 2004, he steered the company to prominence, earning it a place on the Financial Times' list of Europe's leading firms for two consecutive years in 2021 and 2022. The company's success culminated in its acquisition by the Havas Group in August 2021, which integrated Nohup's team of 30 specialists into its Havas CX division.

Fabbri's career is defined by a commitment to engineering rigor and a deep-seated understanding of privacy protocols and media workflows—a background seen as indispensable in the current European regulatory climate shaped by GDPR and the newly ratified EU AI Act. His experience moving from a founder to a leader within a major international media agency gives him a unique perspective on the industry's technological and commercial pressures.

"Riccardo's entry is the missing piece," said Gianluca Leotta, President of Audiencerate. "A technologist-entrepreneur who took Nohup to a European exit, lived inside the international media agency world, and knows the technical grammar of our trajectory exactly. It is a long-term choice, consistent with the patrimonial and industrial vision we have always had for this project."

Democratizing Advanced Marketing for SMEs

A central pillar of Audiencerate’s new strategy is the democratization of sophisticated marketing intelligence for the SME sector, a market historically underserved by high-end AdTech solutions. Under Fabbri's technical leadership, the company will accelerate its platform designed specifically for Italian SMEs, a venture powered by a strategic alliance with Postel (of the Poste Italiane Group) and Microsoft.

This partnership provides a crucial distribution channel through Postel’s extensive physical and digital network, making advanced technology accessible and affordable. The integration of AI is set to unlock powerful capabilities for these smaller businesses. This includes continuous model learning, which allows marketing campaigns to become smarter over time, and predictive modeling for tasks like propensity scoring (identifying customers likely to purchase), lookalike audience creation, and calculating Customer Lifetime Value (CLV). Furthermore, the platform will feature self-optimization for budget allocation and bid management, automating complex decisions to maximize return on investment. By bringing these tools to SMEs, Audiencerate aims to level the competitive playing field, allowing smaller players to harness the same data-driven power previously reserved for large enterprises.

Redefining Agency Strategy in a Privacy-First Era

In parallel, Audiencerate is sharpening its focus on the needs of media agencies and large advertisers grappling with the seismic shifts in the digital advertising landscape, most notably the deprecation of third-party cookies. Fabbri's second major task is to evolve the company's data platform, which is natively integrated with Google's DV360, to thrive in this new environment.

The new AI-driven approach will use an advertiser's first-party data—such as customer email lists or CRM data—as a "seed" for building sophisticated audience models. These models will then be enriched with privacy-compliant third-party signals to create audiences that offer both the high relevance of first-party data and the broad reach of third-party data. This fusion is designed to deliver scale without compromising privacy, a critical challenge for modern trading desks. The company's unique status as both a long-standing Google Data Provider and a certified Google Customer Match Upload Partner provides the technical foundation for this secure data activation.

"The project is both challenging and exciting," stated Riccardo Fabbri. "On one side, bringing this infrastructure to millions of Italian SMEs through Postel and Microsoft. On the other, evolving the DV360 offering by drawing on twenty years alongside media agencies: trading desks need models that intelligently fuse first-party and third-party data, while pursuing the automation and scale needed to recover margins the market no longer recognizes as it once did. This is the kind of engineering challenge that resonates with my path as a founder and entrepreneur."

Navigating a Complex Regulatory Landscape

The strategic pivot to AI is unfolding against a backdrop of tightening data privacy regulations. Fabbri's expertise in privacy-centric engineering is seen as a crucial asset for navigating the complex requirements of GDPR and the landmark EU AI Act, which was ratified in early 2024 and will be fully effective by August 2026. The AI Act introduces a risk-based framework for AI systems, imposing stringent rules on high-risk applications and demanding transparency for AI that influences consumer behavior.

For AdTech companies like Audiencerate, this means that any AI used for user profiling or targeted advertising must be designed with "privacy-by-design" principles. Fabbri’s leadership will be pivotal in ensuring that the company's machine learning models are not only effective but also transparent, fair, and fully compliant with these new legal standards. The ability to intelligently combine data sources while respecting user consent and data minimization principles will be a key differentiator. This focus on regulatory adherence and ethical AI is intended to build trust with clients and consumers alike, positioning the company's technology as a sustainable solution for the future of data-driven marketing. The firm's partnerships with Microsoft and Google, both of which are deeply invested in developing compliant AI frameworks, further strengthens its position to deliver responsible and powerful marketing tools.