The new platform brings agentic AI to operational cross-media workflows, combining media intelligence and process automation, all while safeguarding organisational knowledge in a black-box AI era.
Hamburg, Germany, July 15, 2025 – smartclip, RTL Group’s adtech business, today announced the launch of Sidekicks, a new agentic AI platform designed to address practical challenges in the media industry. Developed in close collaboration with its subsidiary Realytics, the platform combines Realytics’ deep media intelligence with smartclip’s strength in process and workflow automation — delivering intelligent, secure agentic AI solutions for cross-media operations.
Amid growing industry interest in generative AI, Sidekicks addresses concrete use cases and operational challenges in digital advertising. The platform supports operational teams with a portfolio of focused AI agents — ‘sidekicks’ — that assist across the entire digital advertising value chain, all while ensuring that proprietary business knowledge stays securely within the organisation.
“While using GenAI for general purposes normally is very intuitive, it is surprisingly complex to get it to work reliably in complex business environments. Our goal is to achieve meaningful outcomes for operational teams in and outside the media industry,” said Thomas Servatius, Co-CEO at smartclip. “The Sidekicks approach is also engineered to protect what makes an organisation competitive and to keep critical knowledge inhouse.”
While initially focused on digital advertising workflows, the initiative is also being advanced in collaboration with the Bertelsmann AI Hub.
“Generative AI and agentic workflows hold enormous potential for Bertelsmann and the industries we serve,” said Rhys Nölke, Chief Data Officer at Bertelsmann. “With our AI Hub we are backing AI developments with group-wide adoption potential across key domains within Bertelsmann. Sidekicks stands out as a concrete, hands-on approach, with strong potential for cross-domain application. It’s not just relevant for the media and ad-tech industry, but for any business looking to embed smart automation into daily operations in a secure and sustainable way.”
Sidekicks will be made available to smartclip and Realytics clients, with broader access for the media industry planned. It is also currently being evaluated for pilot integration within RTL Deutschland and Ad Alliance — two key entities within RTL Group — to explore AI-driven automation in campaign management and cross-media planning.
“Our vision for Sidekicks is grounded in the day-to-day realities of media professionals,” said Guillaume Belmas, CEO of Realytics. “By embedding intelligence where it’s needed most — in the actual flow of work — we can help teams move faster, smarter, and with greater confidence in a world where complexity and fragmentation are only increasing.”
About smartclip
smartclip is the adtech business of RTL Group — Europe’s leading free-to-air broadcaster group. Our proprietary advertising technology is custom-built for the needs of European broadcasters and publishers — enabling media owners to implement smarter monetisation strategies. We are committed to delivering the most innovative ad experiences spanning
in-stream, out-stream, addressable TV, connected TV, audio, and gaming — ultimately empowering brands with true cross-screen storytelling opportunities on all devices.
Headquartered in Hamburg, smartclip has offices in Berlin, Munich, Düsseldorf, Cologne, Gütersloh, Amsterdam, and Paris.
For more information: Please visit www.smartclip.tv or get-sidekicks.ai and follow us on LinkedIn.
About Realytics
Founded in 2014, Realytics, subsidiary of smartclip, the adtech development unit of RTL Group, has been offering a wide range of solutions to brands and their agencies wishing to measure, analyse and optimise their TV campaig. In 2024, Realytics’ solution BEE (Brand Exposure & Engagement) for cross TV distribution channel measurement is Tech of the year.
Realytics helps more than 650 brands in France and abroad, whatever their size and level of maturity in TV advertising, including CDiscount, SNCF Group, Leboncoin, Nespresso, Aramis auto, The Fork, La Poste Group, Ornikar, Blablacar.
For more information, visit www.realytics.io
