Zeta Global Holdings Corp. (ZETA) 2026 Q1 法說會逐字稿

Greetings, and welcome to the Zeta Q1 '26 earnings call. (Operator Instructions) As a reminder, this conference is being recorded.

各位好，歡迎參加 Zeta 2026 年第一季（Q1 '26）財報電話會議。（接線員指示）提醒各位，本次會議將被錄音。

I would now like to turn the conference over to your host, Matt Pfau. You may begin.

現在我想把會議交給主持人 Matt Pfau。您可以開始了。

Thank you, operator. Hello, everyone, and thank you for joining us for Zeta's first-quarter 2026 conference call. Today's presentation and earnings release are available on Zeta's Investor Relations website at investors.zetaglobal.com, where you will also find links to our SEC filings, along with other information about Zeta. Joining me on the call today are David Steinberg, Zeta's Co-Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer; and Chris Greiner, Zeta's Chief Financial Officer.

謝謝，接線員。各位好，感謝各位參加 Zeta 2026 年第一季電話會議。今天的簡報與財報新聞稿可於 Zeta 投資人關係網站 investors.zetaglobal.com 取得；您也可在該網站找到我們向 SEC 提交的文件連結，以及其他關於 Zeta 的資訊。今天與我一同參與電話會議的有：Zeta 共同創辦人、董事長兼執行長 David Steinberg，以及 Zeta 財務長 Chris Greiner。

Before we begin, I'd like to remind everyone that statements made on this call as well as in the presentation and earnings release contain forward-looking statements regarding our financial outlook, business plans and objectives and other future events and developments, including statements about the market potential of our products, potential competition, revenues of our products and our goals and strategies. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those projected. These risks and uncertainties include those described in the company's earnings release and other filings with the SEC and speak only as of today's date.

在開始之前，我想提醒各位，本次電話會議以及簡報與財報新聞稿中的陳述包含前瞻性陳述，涉及我們的財務展望、業務計畫與目標，以及其他未來事件與發展，包括關於我們產品的市場潛力、潛在競爭、產品營收以及我們的目標與策略等陳述。這些陳述受風險與不確定性影響，可能導致實際結果與預期有重大差異。這些風險與不確定性包括公司財報新聞稿及其他向 SEC 提交文件中所述者，且僅以今日日期為準。

In addition, our discussion today will include references to certain supplemental non-GAAP financial measures, which should be considered in addition to, and not as a substitute for, our GAAP results. We use these non-GAAP measures in managing our business and believe they provide useful information for our investors. Reconciliations of the non-GAAP measures to the corresponding GAAP measures, where appropriate, can be found in the earnings presentation available on our website as well as our earnings release and our other filings with the SEC.

此外，我們今天的討論將提及若干補充性的非 GAAP 財務衡量指標，這些指標應與我們的 GAAP 結果一併考量，而非用以取代 GAAP 結果。我們在經營管理中使用這些非 GAAP 指標，並相信它們能為投資人提供有用資訊。非 GAAP 指標與相對應 GAAP 指標之間的調節（如適用）可於我們網站上的財報簡報中，以及財報新聞稿與其他向 SEC 提交的文件中查閱。

With that, I will now turn the call over to David.

接下來，我把電話會議交給 David。

Thank you, Matt. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. We delivered our 19th consecutive beat and raise quarter. This consistency is not driven by a single product cycle or a short-term tailwind. It is the result of a structural shift in the market. AI is no longer a feature. It is driving a replacement cycle where enterprises are demanding fewer systems, measurable results and applied intelligence that works today.

謝謝你，Matt。各位下午好，感謝各位今天加入。我們連續第 19 季達成「超預期並上調指引」。這種一致性並非由單一產品週期或短期順風所驅動，而是市場結構性轉變的結果。AI 不再只是功能；它正在推動一波汰換週期，企業要求更少的系統、可衡量的成果，以及能在今天就發揮作用的應用型智慧。

We are winning in this environment because of the system we have built, proprietary data that improves with every interaction, intelligence that compounds with every decision and a platform with AI at its core that allows customers to consolidate vendors into a single unified operating system.

我們之所以能在此環境中勝出，源於我們所打造的系統：專有資料會隨每次互動而提升；智慧會隨每次決策而累積增強；以及以 AI 為核心的平台，讓客戶能將多家供應商整併為單一、統一的作業系統。

This differentiated approach has been recognized by Forrester, where Zeta was once again named a leader and also reflected in our customer advocacy with an NPS score in line with market leaders, up 23% from our assessment in the prior year. Both come on the heels of Forrester study showing Zeta returns an average of 600% on marketing spend for its customers.

這種差異化方法已獲 Forrester 肯定，Zeta 再次被評為領導者；同時也反映在客戶倡議上，我們的 NPS 分數與市場領導者一致，較前一年評估提升 23%。此外，這兩項成果也緊接著 Forrester 的研究，該研究顯示 Zeta 能為客戶帶來平均 600% 的行銷支出報酬。

Athena by Zeta is an accelerant. It is the user interface that brings AI directly into marketing workflows and removes the barriers to enterprise-wide adoption and impact. Signs of this were evident in Q1 with beta customers plus strong early adoption of Athena contributing to the revenue beat. Our first quarter performance, once again, shows we are the disruptor in the AI-driven marketing ecosystem.

Zeta 的 Athena 是一個加速器。它是將 AI 直接帶入行銷工作流程的使用者介面，並移除企業全面採用與產生影響的障礙。第一季已可見端倪：beta 客戶加上 Athena 的強勁早期採用，促成了營收超預期。我們第一季的表現再次顯示，我們是 AI 驅動行銷生態系中的顛覆者。

First quarter revenue of $396 million, representing year-over-year growth of 50% and up 29% year-over-year ex-Marigold, our fourth straight quarter of revenue growth acceleration, excluding acquisitions and political candidate revenue. And adjusted EBITDA was $66 million, up 42% year-over-year.

第一季營收為 3.96 億美元，年增 50%；若排除 Marigold，年增 29%。在排除併購與政治候選人營收後，這是我們連續第四季營收成長加速。調整後 EBITDA 為 6,600 萬美元，年增 42%。

19 consecutive beat and raise quarters combined with a four-year revenue CAGR of 30% reflect more than just consistency. They are evidence of sustained demand in a market consolidating around platforms that can deliver measurable outcomes at scale. And that visibility is reflected in our outlook.

連續 19 季「超預期並上調指引」，再加上四年營收複合年成長率（CAGR）30%，反映的不僅是穩定性，更是市場正朝向能以規模交付可衡量成果的平台進行整併所帶來的持續需求。而這樣的能見度也反映在我們的展望之中。

After raising the midpoint of our range for 2026 revenue guidance last quarter by $25 million, we are again raising it by $30 million, representing growth of 37%. These market share gains are evidence of a shift in the competitive landscape as AI moves from feature to a new way of doing business.

在上季將 2026 年營收指引區間中點上調 2,500 萬美元之後，我們這次再上調 3,000 萬美元，對應成長 37%。這些市占率提升顯示競爭格局正在轉變，因為 AI 正從「功能」轉變為一種全新的經營方式。

Athena is designed to accelerate our share gains by bringing intelligence directly into workflows, turning answers into actions and ultimately changing how marketing is planned, executed and optimized. Athena is currently available to all of our enterprise customers, and its impact is already evident in sales pursuits and results. The number of Athena demos to potential new clients increased dramatically throughout the quarter. The promise of Athena is influencing decision-makers and helping Zeta win deals as customers want to invest in applied AI, not road map AI.

Athena 的設計旨在透過將智慧直接帶入工作流程來加速我們的市占提升，把答案轉化為行動，最終改變行銷的規劃、執行與最佳化方式。Athena 目前已提供給我們所有企業客戶，其影響已在銷售推進與成果中顯現。整個季度中，向潛在新客戶進行 Athena 示範的次數大幅增加。Athena 的承諾正在影響決策者並協助 Zeta 贏得交易，因為客戶希望投資的是「可落地的 AI」，而不是「路線圖上的 AI」。

One new customer we closed in the quarter commented, leapfrogging to the future requires thinking differently today and committing to execution. Interacting with Athena made it clear that Zeta has already made this leap, bringing its vision to life and positioning us to accelerate into a fully agentic marketing future.

我們在本季成交的一位新客戶表示：要躍升到未來，就必須在今天以不同方式思考並承諾落實執行。與 Athena 的互動讓他們清楚看到，Zeta 已經完成這一躍升，將願景化為現實，並使我們具備加速邁向全面代理式（agentic）行銷未來的定位。

Athena was a driver in one of the largest deals we have ever closed. The customer is a leading global apparel retailer operating across multiple brands, each with unique customers and over 3,000 locations worldwide. Zeta's platform was purpose-built to handle the complexity required by the largest enterprise companies, and this customer was able to consolidate down from 4 vendors to 1, Zeta. As the legacy Marketing Cloud replacement cycle begins to accelerate, this particular client was a marquee win.

Athena 也是我們史上最大筆交易之一的關鍵推動因素。該客戶為全球領先的服飾零售商，跨多個品牌營運，各品牌擁有不同客群，並在全球擁有超過 3,000 個據點。Zeta 平台專為滿足大型企業所需的複雜度而打造，該客戶得以將供應商從 4 家整併為 1 家，也就是 Zeta。隨著傳統 Marketing Cloud 的替換週期開始加速，這位客戶是一個具代表性的重大勝利。

We are also seeing rapid adoption among existing customers. Early feedback and usage shows that customers view Athena not as incremental functionality, but as transformational technology. As adoption increases, Athena learns from more data, outcomes improve and usage deepens, driving ARPU expansion and ultimately reinforcing the same flywheel that has powered our growth. That flywheel is powered by more than just Zeta's AI models. It's driven by the data and infrastructure behind them.

我們也看到既有客戶的快速採用。早期回饋與使用情況顯示，客戶將 Athena 視為非增量功能，而是具變革性的技術。隨著採用增加，Athena 會從更多資料中學習、成果改善、使用更深入，帶動每用戶平均收入（ARPU）擴張，並最終強化推動我們成長的同一個飛輪。這個飛輪不僅由 Zeta 的 AI 模型驅動，更由其背後的資料與基礎設施所驅動。

Zeta SuperGraph, our proprietary identity and intelligence graph, unifies data across the enterprise and enables a complete deterministic view of the consumer that we believe is difficult to replicate at scale. This is translating directly into wins where access to our data is a key driver for customer decisions.

Zeta SuperGraph 是我們的專有身分與智慧圖譜，可在企業內部整合資料，並提供我們認為在規模化情境下難以複製的、完整且確定性的消費者視圖。這正直接轉化為勝利案例：在這些交易中，取得我們資料的能力是客戶決策的關鍵驅動因素。

For example, our SuperGraph was instrumental in a win with a leading online retailer of pet products in the United States that serves millions of active customers with a highly personalized e-commerce experience, a broad assortment of over 100,000 products and a rapidly expanding ecosystem that includes autoship subscriptions, pharmacy services and pet health offerings.

例如，我們的 SuperGraph 在與美國一家領先的寵物用品線上零售商的勝出中扮演關鍵角色。該公司以高度個人化的電商體驗服務數百萬活躍客戶，提供超過 100,000 種商品的廣泛品項，並擁有快速擴張的生態系，包括定期配送（autoship）訂閱、藥局服務與寵物健康產品與服務。

In addition, our proprietary data and the intelligence it generates was a key component in the expansion of a Fortune 100 telco client, expected to drive an 18 times increase in spend with Zeta in 2026 versus 2025. As Athena brings that intelligence to our customers in real time, the impact of this data advantage only grows.

此外，我們的專有資料及其所產生的智慧，也是某家《財富》100 大電信客戶擴張合作的關鍵組成，預期將帶動該客戶在 2026 年相較 2025 年對 Zeta 的支出增加 18 倍。隨著 Athena 將這些智慧即時帶給客戶，我們的資料優勢影響力只會持續擴大。

This foundation of data plus AI continues to power One Zeta. We are consistently seeing that the land, expand, extend model takes hold as customers begin with a single-use case and scale across the platform over time. That expansion is driven by the modern CMO mandate, do more with fewer partners, improve ROI and simplify execution across the organization. The result is larger commitments, deeper adoption and a growing role for Zeta as the marketing operating system and core infrastructure.

這個「資料 + AI」的基礎持續驅動 One Zeta。我們一再看到「落地、擴張、延伸」（land, expand, extend）模式成形：客戶從單一使用情境開始，並隨時間在平台上擴大規模。這種擴張由現代 CMO 的使命所驅動：用更少的合作夥伴做更多事、提升 ROI，並在整個組織中簡化執行。結果是更大的承諾、更深的採用，以及 Zeta 作為行銷作業系統與核心基礎設施的角色日益提升。

That momentum is showing up in the data. Super-scaled customer ARPU was up 21% year-over-year, well ahead of our target range. Net retention rate remained above our target range of 110% to 115%. And the number of super-scaled customers using more than one use case was up over 50% year-over-year at scale. It also creates a reinforcing cycle. Consolidation drives adoption, adoption drives results and results drive further expansion. This is the One Zeta model, and it continues to be a powerful driver of durable growth.

這股動能也反映在數據上。超大規模客戶的 ARPU 年增 21%，明顯高於我們的目標區間。淨留存率仍高於我們 110% 至 115% 的目標區間。而在規模化層面，使用超過一種使用情境的超大規模客戶數量年增超過 50%。這也形成一個相互強化的循環：整併帶動採用，採用帶動成果，成果再推動進一步擴張。這就是 One Zeta 模式，並持續成為推動長期穩健成長的強大引擎。

What stands out for me this quarter is the strength we are building across every part of the business. At the center of this is Athena, which is already beginning to change how our customers operate and how we compete. Together, our data, our platform and our leadership in AI are positioning Zeta not just to participate in this shift but to define it.

本季最讓我印象深刻的是，我們正在業務各個環節建立的強勁動能。其核心是 Athena，它已開始改變我們客戶的營運方式，以及我們的競爭方式。結合我們的數據、平台與在 AI 領域的領導地位，正使 Zeta 不僅能參與這場轉變，更能定義它。

As always, I want to sincerely thank our customers, our partners and our shareholders for your continued support of our vision. And to team Zeta, thank you for everything you do. It was an honor to be recognized as a Great Place to Work for the third year in a row. This is a reflection of your hard work and collaboration.

一如既往，我想由衷感謝我們的客戶、合作夥伴與股東持續支持我們的願景。也對 Zeta 團隊的各位，感謝你們所做的一切。我們連續第三年獲評為「Great Place to Work」，深感榮幸。這反映了你們的辛勤付出與協作精神。

Now let me turn it over to Chris to discuss our results in greater detail. Chris?

接下來我把時間交給 Chris，請他更詳細地說明我們的業績表現。Chris？

Thank you, David, and good afternoon, everyone. Our results, once again, demonstrated the durability, predictability and profitability of Zeta's growth. Revenue growth, excluding acquisitions and political candidate revenue accelerated for the fourth consecutive quarter to 29% in Q1, further cementing the durability of our growth and market share gains. Broad-based strength across the business is resulting in improved visibility, leading us to, once again, raise our 2026 outlook, underscoring the predictability of our growth. Even in doing so, we're maintaining our typical conservatism.

謝謝你，David，各位下午好。我們的業績再次展現了 Zeta 成長的韌性、可預測性與獲利能力。剔除併購與政治候選人收入後，營收成長在第一季加速至 29%，已連續第四個季度加速，進一步鞏固了我們成長的持久性與市占提升。全業務面向的廣泛強勁表現提升了能見度，使我們再次上調 2026 年展望，凸顯我們成長的可預測性。即便如此，我們仍維持一貫的保守態度。

And we also saw free cash flow conversion improved to 63%, generating $42 million in free cash flow, demonstrating the increasing profitability of our growth. These results surpassed even our internal stretch goals, coming in $26 million or 7 points above the midpoint of our revenue guidance for the quarter.

我們也看到自由現金流轉換率提升至 63%，產生 4,200 萬美元自由現金流，顯示我們成長的獲利能力持續提升。這些結果甚至超越我們內部的挑戰性目標，較本季營收指引中位數高出 2,600 萬美元或 7 個百分點。

As I analyzed the strength of our quarter, what stood out was how balanced the upside contribution was. It was not one or two isolated benefits. Instead, in baseball parlance, it was a lot of singles and doubles, which in my opinion, is healthier. Here are some examples. In terms of revenue growth, excluding Marigold's contribution, approximately 14 points of growth came from existing customers and 15 points from new customers.

在我分析本季的強勁表現時，最突出的點在於上行貢獻相當均衡。並非來自一兩項孤立的利多。相反地，用棒球術語來說，是許多一壘安打與二壘安打，我認為這樣更健康。以下是一些例子。就營收成長而言，剔除 Marigold 的貢獻後，約有 14 個百分點的成長來自既有客戶，15 個百分點來自新客戶。

From an industry lens, 9 out of our top 10 industries grew faster than 20%, with more discretionary industries continuing to be at the upper end, demonstrating why in tougher macro times, data-driven, lower marketing funnel, high ROI attributable marketing is paramount. And finally, as it relates to how customers use our platform, e-mail, connected TV, mobile and social all grew double digits, all while each use case, acquire, grow and retain also grew double digits.

從產業角度來看，我們前十大產業中有 9 個產業的成長率高於 20%，其中較具可選消費屬性的產業仍位於較高端，這也說明在更艱難的總體環境下，以數據驅動、偏向行銷漏斗下層、具高 ROI 且可歸因的行銷至關重要。最後，就客戶使用我們平台的方式而言，電子郵件、連網電視（CTV）、行動與社群皆呈現雙位數成長，同時各使用情境——獲客（acquire）、成長（grow）與留存（retain）——也都呈現雙位數成長。

Now let me dive deeper into our KPIs, income statement and balance sheet. Total super-scaled customer count grew to 189, up 19% year-over-year and an addition of 5 customers sequentially. This exceeds our Zeta 2028 model of 4% to 8% super-scaled customer count growth. Super-scaled customer additions were especially strong in advertising, marketing, travel and hospitality. Super-scaled customer ARPU was $1.7 million, up 21% year-over-year.

接下來我將更深入說明我們的 KPI、損益表與資產負債表。超大規模（super-scaled）客戶總數成長至 189 家，年增 19%，較前一季增加 5 家。這高於我們 Zeta 2028 模型所預期的超大規模客戶數 4% 至 8% 的成長。超大規模客戶新增在廣告、行銷、旅遊與餐旅領域特別強勁。超大規模客戶 ARPU 為 170 萬美元，年增 21%。

This also exceeded our Zeta 2028 model of 12% to 16% ARPU growth. Strong ARPU growth in the quarter was driven by an increase in the number of customers using multiple use cases, which was up over 50% year-over-year, as well as customers using more than three channels, which increased 40% year-over-year. Both are great examples of the One Zeta sales motion working and how Athena can unlock more of the platform's capabilities for our customers to use.

這也超越我們 Zeta 2028 模型所預期的 12% 至 16% ARPU 成長。本季 ARPU 的強勁成長，主要來自使用多個使用情境的客戶數增加（年增超過 50%），以及使用超過三個渠道的客戶數增加（年增 40%）。這兩者都是「One Zeta」銷售動能奏效的絕佳例證，也顯示 Athena 如何為客戶解鎖更多平台能力以供使用。

The forward-looking sales pipeline is also robust, going into a season when Athena will be front and center at multiple industry conferences. In fact, Athena demos were a crucial differentiator versus incumbents and RFP competitors in each of our marquee enterprise and agency wins in Q1.

前瞻性的銷售管線同樣強勁，接下來進入 Athena 將在多個產業會議上成為焦點的季節。事實上，在第一季我們每一筆具代表性的企業與代理商重大勝利中，Athena 的展示（demo）都是相較既有供應商與 RFP 競爭對手的關鍵差異化因素。

And we expect Athena to play an even bigger role in adding to the sales pipeline, which is already up 40% year-over-year with a subset of discretionary industries up even more, those like retail, advertising, travel, restaurants, furniture and resorts to name a few. This outsized sales pipeline growth in discretionary industries is consistent with what we've seen in previous periods of macro volatility and is another proof point that in times of uncertainty, customers consolidate onto fewer platforms that can drive measurable ROI with AI-driven efficiency.

我們也預期 Athena 將在擴大銷售管線方面扮演更重要的角色；目前銷售管線已年增 40%，其中部分可選消費產業的增幅更高，例如零售、廣告、旅遊、餐飲、家具與度假村等。可選消費產業銷售管線的超額成長，與我們在過去總體波動期間所見一致，也再次證明在不確定時期，客戶會整合到更少的平台上，選擇能以 AI 驅動效率帶來可衡量 ROI 的平台。

Now moving on to revenue mix. Direct revenue in the first quarter was 75%, above the 73% last year and in line with our target of 70% to 75%. Our GAAP cost of revenue in the quarter was 41%, a 190 basis point increase year-over-year and 50 basis points sequentially. The increase in cost of revenue was driven by new agency wins, driving a higher initial mix of social as a channel. This is consistent with the pattern of business we've seen and spoken to previously when new agencies platform on to Zeta.

接著談營收組合。第一季直接營收占比為 75%，高於去年同期的 73%，並符合我們 70% 至 75% 的目標區間。本季 GAAP 營收成本為 41%，年增 190 個基點，較前一季增加 50 個基點。營收成本上升主要由新的代理商贏單所致，使社群作為渠道的初期占比提高。這與我們先前在新代理商導入 Zeta 平台時所觀察並討論過的業務模式一致。

This is because we offer a substantially more efficient and effective solution for social and has become the first of many channels adopted by new agencies as they migrate. As new agencies scale over time, not only does their aggregate spend increase, but they do so by adding Zeta-owned channels like e-mail, display, video, mobile, CTV and others.

原因在於，我們為社群提供顯著更高效率且更有效的解決方案，因此社群已成為新代理商遷移時採用的眾多渠道中的第一個。隨著新代理商隨時間擴張，其整體支出不僅增加，且會透過新增 Zeta 自有渠道（如電子郵件、展示型廣告、影音、行動、CTV 等）來擴大投入。

It also bears repeating, while social has a higher cost of revenue, it is still accretive to both adjusted EBITDA and free cash flow margins. Further, social drives high customer stickiness as well. In the first quarter, adjusted EBITDA was $66.1 million at a margin of 16.7%, 100 basis points lower year-over-year and $5 million better than the midpoint of our guidance. Marigold integration is progressing rapidly and tracking ahead of our expectations. We took aggressive steps in the quarter to execute operating synergies, which should begin to benefit our adjusted EBITDA margin in Q2 and into the back half of the year.

也值得再次強調，雖然社群的營收成本較高，但對調整後 EBITDA 與自由現金流利潤率仍具增益（accretive）。此外，社群也帶來高度的客戶黏著度。第一季調整後 EBITDA 為 6,610 萬美元，利潤率 16.7%，較去年同期低 100 個基點，但較我們指引中位數好 500 萬美元。Marigold 整合進展迅速，且進度超前於我們預期。我們在本季採取積極措施以落實營運綜效，預期將自第二季起並延續至下半年，開始改善我們的調整後 EBITDA 利潤率。

At the same time, Marigold's revenue came in better than we anticipated, and we're seeing encouraging traction from the One Zeta approach of cross-selling Marigold's loyalty product along with Zeta's grow-and-acquire use cases to the combined customer base.

同時，Marigold 的營收表現優於我們預期；我們也看到「One Zeta」策略帶來令人鼓舞的進展——將 Marigold 的忠誠度產品與 Zeta 的成長與獲客使用情境一併交叉銷售給合併後的客戶群。

Another area we spoke about last quarter was becoming GAAP net income and EPS positive for the full year of 2026, specifically generating between $0.02 and $0.04 of GAAP earnings per share. Our first quarter results have us pacing towards the high end of that range.

我們上季也提到，目標是在 2026 全年達成 GAAP 淨利與 EPS 轉正，具體而言為每股 GAAP 盈餘介於 0.02 至 0.04 美元。我們第一季的結果顯示，進度正朝該區間的高端推進。

In Q1, our GAAP net loss was $13.2 million, an improvement from a net loss of $21.6 million in the first quarter of last year. GAAP loss per share was $0.06, coming in ahead of our expectations for the quarter with forecasted costs related to the integration of Marigold being the primary driver and not seen as recurring over the rest of the year. First quarter net cash provided by operating activities was $49.7 million, up 43% year-over-year, with free cash flow of $41.7 million, up 48% year-over-year and representing a margin of 10.5%.

第一季 GAAP 淨損為 1,320 萬美元，較去年第一季的 2,160 萬美元淨損改善。GAAP 每股虧損為 0.06 美元，優於我們對本季的預期；主要原因是與 Marigold 整合相關的預估成本所致，且我們不認為該成本在今年其餘期間會重複發生。第一季營運活動提供的淨現金為 4,970 萬美元，年增 43%；自由現金流為 4,170 萬美元，年增 48%，自由現金流利潤率為 10.5%。

This represents a free cash flow conversion of 63%, a 270 basis point improvement from the first quarter of 2025. This also includes a roughly 13-point working capital headwind driven by longer agency payment cycles standard for their industry.

這代表自由現金流轉換率為 63%，較 2025 年第一季提升 270 個基點。其中也包含約 13 個百分點的營運資金逆風，主要由代理商較長的付款週期（其產業標準）所致。

During the first quarter, we repurchased 1.5 million shares for $25.7 million and have approximately $138 million remaining on our share repurchase authorization. We expect to remain active buyers of our stock, especially at these price levels, subject to market conditions and other priorities. And we continue to make significant progress in reducing dilution and stock-based compensation expense. Excluding Marigold, our dilution in the first quarter was 0.1%, and we remain on track to achieve our normal course net dilution target of 3% to 4% in 2026.

第一季期間，我們以 2,570 萬美元回購 150 萬股股票，且在股票回購授權項下仍剩約 1.38 億美元。我們預期將持續積極回購自家股票，尤其在目前的價格水準下，但仍須視市場狀況與其他優先事項而定。我們也持續在降低稀釋與以股票為基礎的薪酬費用方面取得顯著進展。剔除 Marigold 後，我們第一季稀釋率為 0.1%，並仍按計畫在 2026 年達成我們常態的淨稀釋目標 3% 至 4%。

Relatedly, with most of management's previously issued equity now fully vested post-IPO, Zeta's Board of Directors and Compensation Committee, in consultation with an independent compensation consultant, approved a new long-term equity incentive plan for management.

此外，隨著管理層先前發行的大部分股權在 IPO 後現已完全歸屬，Zeta 董事會與薪酬委員會在諮詢獨立薪酬顧問後，核准了一項新的管理層長期股權激勵計畫。

This performance-based plan secures continuity of Zeta's named executive officers and management for six years and incentivizes management to achieve its long-term revenue and adjusted EBITDA margin objectives while adhering to its principles of lowering dilution, reducing stock-based compensation as a percentage of revenue and achieving GAAP positive earnings. Furthermore, named executive officers who received these incentives will not be rewarded any further equity for the next six years.

此一以績效為基礎的計畫可確保 Zeta 具名高階主管與管理層在未來六年的延續性，並激勵管理層在遵循降低稀釋、將以股票為基礎的薪酬占營收比重降低，以及達成 GAAP 正向獲利等原則下，實現其長期營收與調整後 EBITDA 利潤率目標。此外，獲得這些激勵的具名高階主管在未來六年內將不再獲得任何額外股權獎勵。

Now on to our increased guidance. For the full year 2026, we're increasing the midpoint of our revenue guidance by $30 million to $1.785 billion, representing a 37% growth rate or 22% year-over-year growth when excluding Marigold and political candidate revenue. None of our guidance increase is related to political candidate revenue, which we continue to assume will be $15 million in 2026 with $7 million in the third quarter and $8 million in the fourth quarter.

接著談我們上調的財測。就 2026 全年而言，我們將營收指引的中位數上調 3,000 萬美元至 17.85 億美元，代表 37% 的成長率；若排除 Marigold 與政治候選人營收，則為 22% 的年增率。我們此次上調指引與政治候選人營收無關；我們仍假設 2026 年政治候選人營收為 1,500 萬美元，其中第三季 700 萬美元、第四季 800 萬美元。

Additionally, we continue to take a conservative view of Marigold, contributing $47.5 million per quarter to 2026 revenue for the remainder of the year. Our revenue guidance also includes minimal contribution from Athena. And as shared earlier, we have taken into account our typical conservatism of 2% to 5% in setting our outlook.

此外，我們對 Marigold 仍維持保守看法，於 2026 年剩餘期間每季對營收貢獻 4,750 萬美元。我們的營收指引亦僅納入 Athena 的極少量貢獻。並且如先前所分享，我們在設定展望時也已納入一貫 2% 至 5% 的保守假設。

For the second quarter, we now expect revenue of $420 million at the midpoint, $4 million higher than our previous guidance and representing year-over-year growth of 36% or 21% when excluding political candidate and Marigold revenue. For adjusted EBITDA, we're increasing the midpoint of our 2026 guidance to $397 million, up $6 million from our prior guidance and representing a year-over-year increase of 43% at a margin of 22.3%, an improvement of 90 basis points over 2025.

就第二季而言，我們目前預期營收中位數為 4.20 億美元，較先前指引高出 400 萬美元，年增 36%；若排除政治候選人與 Marigold 營收，則年增 21%。在調整後 EBITDA 方面，我們將 2026 年指引中位數上調至 3.97 億美元，較先前指引增加 600 萬美元，代表年增 43%，利潤率為 22.3%，較 2025 年改善 90 個基點。

For the second quarter of 2026, we now expect adjusted EBITDA of $86.6 million at the midpoint, up from our previous expectation of $84.9 million and representing growth of 47% and a margin of 20.6%, up 155 basis points year-to-year. We are also increasing our 2026 free cash flow guidance to $235 million at the midpoint, up from $231 million, representing year-over-year growth of 43% and a conversion of 59% of adjusted EBITDA, which likely has upside.

就 2026 年第二季而言，我們目前預期調整後 EBITDA 中位數為 8,660 萬美元，高於先前預期的 8,490 萬美元，代表成長 47%，利潤率為 20.6%，年對年提升 155 個基點。我們也將 2026 年自由現金流指引中位數上調至 2.35 億美元，高於 2.31 億美元，代表年增 43%，並相當於調整後 EBITDA 的 59% 轉換率，這部分可能仍有上行空間。

And here's the broader point. A 19-quarter beat-and-raise track record is obviously something we're proud of and continues to demonstrate our consistency and strong execution. We also recognize the times we're in, specifically the need to underwrite investments in companies with strong free cash flow generation, durable revenue growth and share gains and demonstratable moats. Q1 was an excellent jumping off point for these emerging investor frameworks. Not only did free cash flow set a record in the first quarter, but we are also tracking to the high end of our 2026 GAAP EPS range of $0.02 to $0.04 and long-term 2028 targets.

而更重要的是：連續 19 季「超預期並上調指引」的紀錄，顯然是我們引以為傲的，也持續展現我們的一致性與強勁執行力。我們也理解當前的環境，特別是投資人需要以能強勁產生自由現金流、具備持久的營收成長與市占提升、且護城河可被驗證的公司作為投資標的。第一季是這些新興投資框架的絕佳起點：不僅第一季自由現金流創下新高，我們也正朝向 2026 年 GAAP EPS 0.02 至 0.04 美元區間的高端，以及長期 2028 年目標邁進。

As it relates to durable growth, this was the fourth quarter in a row we accelerated revenue growth, excluding acquisitions and political candidate revenue. And in terms of exhibiting our moats, our marquee wins with enterprises and agencies this quarter came at the expense of legacy marketing clouds and legacy DSPs, where Zeta's proprietary data and Athena operating system were capabilities our competition could not match.

就持久成長而言，這是我們連續第四季在排除併購與政治候選人營收後加速營收成長。至於展現護城河方面，本季我們在企業與代理商的旗艦級勝案，是以傳統行銷雲與傳統 DSP 的份額為代價取得；Zeta 的專有數據與 Athena 作業系統是競爭對手無法匹敵的能力。

With that, I'll hand the call over to the operator for David and me to take your questions. Operator?

接下來，我把電話交給接線員，讓 David 和我回答各位的提問。接線員？

(Operator Instructions)

（接線員指示）

DJ Hynes, Canaccord Genuity.

DJ Hynes，Canaccord Genuity。

Hey, guys. Congrats on a fantastic quarter. Nice start to the year. David, I want to ask you a competitive question. So obviously, there's been more public backlash against the Trade Desk and the agency ecosystem. But I think for those living in the marketing and ad tech world, like that's been going on for a while now, right?

嗨，各位。恭喜這一季表現非常出色，年度開局很漂亮。David，我想問一個競爭面的問題。很明顯，外界對 Trade Desk 以及代理商生態系的反彈聲浪變多了。但我想對於身處行銷與廣告科技圈的人來說，這其實已經持續一段時間了，對吧？

So two related questions here. Number one, like how much do you think Zeta has benefited from that dynamic? And then second, if the Trade Desk figures out how to get pricing right or at least make it more transparent, does this rebalance competitive dynamics at all? Or is the horse already out of the barn there?

所以這裡有兩個相關問題。第一，你認為 Zeta 從這種態勢中受益有多少？第二，如果 Trade Desk 找到正確的定價方式，或至少讓定價更透明，這會重新平衡競爭態勢嗎？還是說那匹馬早就跑出馬廄了？

Well, let's -- I mean, first of all, DJ, thank you. We appreciate it. Could not be happier with this quarter. And I think it really speaks to kicking off the year right and Athena really was a massive driver here. I want to separate the conversation about the agency and other technological platforms like the Trade Desk that are out there and struggling a bit because the agencies continue to thrive and they're not really having any issues from our vantage point.

嗯，我們先——我的意思是，首先 DJ，謝謝你，我們很感激。我們對這一季再滿意不過了。我認為這確實反映了我們把年度開局打得很正，而 Athena 在這裡是非常重要的驅動因素。我想把關於代理商的討論，和像 Trade Desk 這類在外面、目前有點掙扎的其他技術平台分開來看，因為從我們的角度，代理商仍然蓬勃發展，並沒有真正遇到任何問題。

And I just got back from 3 days at the POSSIBLE Conference, where I did 54 meetings in 3 days, hosted 4 dinners and 3 cocktail parties, which is why I'm losing my voice going into this. I think that -- and I don't want to speak to any particular platform, but I think the horse is out of the barn.

而且我剛從 POSSIBLE 大會回來，三天內做了 54 場會議、主辦了 4 場晚宴和 3 場雞尾酒會，這也是為什麼我在這通電話裡聲音有點沙啞。我認為——我不想針對任何特定平台發言，但我覺得那匹馬已經跑出馬廄了。

I think that organizations that have built workflow management tools that do not have proprietary data, they do not have proprietary native artificial intelligence are going to really struggle in this next evolution of where sort of marketing is going as it relates to intelligence. Because if you're not creating intelligence in today's world, you're not winning. And I think that we are a direct reason that a number of our competitors are either growing slower or shrinking as we take meaningful market share.

我認為，那些打造了工作流程管理工具、但沒有專有數據、也沒有專有原生人工智慧的組織，在下一階段、也就是行銷朝向「智慧化」演進的過程中，將會非常吃力。因為在今天的世界裡，如果你沒有在創造智慧，你就無法勝出。我也認為，我們正是導致多家競爭對手成長放緩或萎縮的直接原因，因為我們正在取得可觀的市占。

Chris, in his prepared remarks, was very clear about the fact that we had a number of meaningful agency wins in the quarter that will continue to run out through the rest of this year and into future years that are starting with social. We're starting to see those move over to programmatic and connected TV as well. So I think if you separate the agencies, which are doing well and thriving from the technological platforms that have based their business on workflow management, I think they are going to struggle, and we are going to continue to beat them handily in the marketplace.

Chris 在事先準備的發言中非常清楚地提到，我們本季拿下了多個重要的代理商勝案，這些案子會在今年剩餘時間並延續到未來年度，且一開始是從社群（social）切入。我們也開始看到這些案子轉向程式化（programmatic）與連網電視（connected TV）。因此，我認為如果把表現良好、持續成長的代理商，與那些以工作流程管理為核心建立商業模式的技術平台區分開來看，我認為後者將會面臨更大挑戰，而我們也會在市場上持續大幅領先他們。

Yeah. Perfect and helpful color. Chris, I want to follow up with you. So David gave a bunch of great anecdotal data points around Athena and the early success there. The product is not explicitly monetized, right? So what are the signs that we all, as investors, should be paying attention to from a financial perspective that will signal to us that Athena is moving the needle for Zeta?

是的，很好，也很有幫助的補充。Chris，我想接著問你。David 提到很多關於 Athena 的軼事與早期成功案例。這個產品並沒有被明確地變現，對吧？那麼，從財務角度來看，我們這些投資人應該關注哪些訊號，才能判斷 Athena 正在為 Zeta 帶來實質影響？

Great question, DJ. I'm glad you asked. There's a couple of leading indicator data points that I think you can already begin to look at. So as part of the press release, one of the data points that was called out was a 7x increase, and this is just in the first week of Athena's general availability. We saw a 7x increase in the type of -- in the amount of agentic interactions on the platform, coupled by 60% of the AI usage on our platform being driven by Athena. How that should ultimately translate to the usage part of our revenue can be seen through ARPU expansion, some of which you already started to see.

很好的問題，DJ。我很高興你問到。這裡有幾個領先指標，我認為你現在就可以開始觀察。作為新聞稿的一部分，其中一個被點出的數據是 7 倍成長，而且這只是 Athena 正式全面可用（general availability）的第一週。我們看到平台上的代理式（agentic）互動量增加了 7 倍，同時平台上 60% 的 AI 使用量是由 Athena 所驅動。這最終應該如何反映到我們營收的使用量（usage）部分，可以透過 ARPU 擴張來觀察，其中有一部分你已經開始看到了。

So if you look at ARPU in the quarter for super-scaled customers, it was $1.7 million. It was up 21% year-over-year. But if you look underneath that, what drove it are exactly the dynamics that Athena was engineered to be able to do, which is to make more of the platform available and visible for the customers to be able to exploit. If you look at multiple use case customers, it was up over 50% year-over-year. If you look at the customers that are using four or more channels, that's up over 40% year-over-year, which again are not just great examples of Athena as an unlock, but also Zeta working well.

因此，如果你看本季超大型客戶（super-scaled customers）的 ARPU，是 170 萬美元，年增 21%。但如果你再往下拆解，推動它的正是 Athena 被設計要做到的那些動態，也就是讓客戶能夠使用並看見更多平台能力，進而加以運用。若看多使用情境（multiple use case）客戶，年增超過 50%。若看使用四個或以上渠道的客戶，年增超過 40%。這些不僅是 Athena 作為解鎖器（unlock）的絕佳例子，也顯示 Zeta 的運作良好。

And by the way, she's just getting started, DJ.

順帶一提，她才剛剛開始而已，DJ。

Yeah, totally. Awesome. Congrats, guys. Thank you.

對，完全同意。太棒了。恭喜各位。謝謝。

Gabriela Borges, Goldman Sachs.

Gabriela Borges，高盛。

Hi, good afternoon. Thank you. David, I want to ask you about the people and process part of Athena, meaning the technology you've demoed, it clearly is able to do a huge amount of knowledge work. My question for you is, how do you then change the end user behavior? What does the training and enablement look like? How do you encourage more people to use it once your customers have already decided to adopt it?

嗨，下午好。謝謝你。David，我想問你關於 Athena 的「人員與流程」這一塊，也就是你展示的技術，顯然能做大量的知識型工作。我想問的是，那你要如何改變終端使用者的行為？訓練與賦能會是什麼樣子？當你的客戶已經決定採用之後，你要如何鼓勵更多人去使用它？

First of all, Gabriela, what a great question. First, let me say that we were incredibly proud that we were able to make the product not just generally available on time, but available to 100% of our enterprise clients, which was not a small task. At the same time, to your exact point, we have a learning and development group that is literally purpose-built to train our clients and get them up and running on this new product. And they've already done. Our top 30 clients have been onboarded through that group, and we're going to be adding all the other clients as we continue to expand out.

首先，Gabriela，這個問題問得非常好。第一，我想先說，我們非常自豪能夠讓產品不只是如期正式上線（generally available），而且能提供給我們 100% 的企業客戶使用，這並不是一件容易的事。同時，正如你所說，我們有一個學習與發展團隊，這個團隊就是專門為了訓練我們的客戶、協助他們在這個新產品上線並順利運作而打造的。而且他們已經在做了。我們前 30 大客戶已經透過該團隊完成導入（onboarded），接下來我們會在持續擴展的同時，把其他所有客戶也逐步加入。

The other thing that's really important is we're doing a weekly leaders -- I'm sorry, a weekly learning and training program to all of our clients that's virtual, recorded and they're able to then watch it at their convenience inside of the platform when they want to. But we're doing sort of a ask Athena question of the week. Every week, a new question that you could ask Athena goes out to all of our customers so that they can begin they process of using her.

另外一個非常重要的是，我們每週都會對所有客戶進行一次領導者——抱歉，是每週的學習與訓練計畫，採線上形式、會錄影，客戶之後也可以在平台內依自己的時間方便觀看。我們也會做一個「本週向 Athena 提問」的活動。每週都會發送一個你可以問 Athena 的新問題給所有客戶，讓他們開始使用她的流程。

And I know I'm sure you've seen the demo, you know how incredibly intuitive she is to use. So what I would say is we're really focusing on it from a relationship management, learning, development, both in-person, virtually and weekly follow-ups.

而且我知道你一定看過示範，你也知道她用起來有多直覺。所以我會說，我們真的從客戶關係管理、學習與發展著手，包含面對面、線上，以及每週的追蹤。

But the intuitive nature of her is, I think, one of the reasons you saw her so powerful. Just in the first week she was live, Athena drove 60% of all AI utilization across our platform. That is off the charts for a new product from an adoption perspective.

但她的直覺性，我認為是你看到她如此強大的原因之一。她上線的第一週，Athena 就帶動了我們平台上 60% 的所有 AI 使用量。以新產品的採用角度來看，這個數字非常驚人。

Very good. And Chris, the follow-up for you on inference cost. So Athena has pieces of Zeta proprietary technology. And then I believe you have some third-party technology in there, too. How do you think about managing those inference costs or optimizing those inference costs?

很好。Chris，我想追問你關於推論成本（inference cost）。Athena 有一些 Zeta 的專有技術組件，然後我相信你們也有一些第三方技術在裡面。你們如何看待管理或最佳化這些推論成本？

And then same question for your R&D team, your engineering team. We're at the stage where we've been through more token usage is generally better, but also can sort of outrun budgets very quickly. How do you think about managing that internally?

同樣的問題也想問你們的研發團隊、工程團隊。我們現在處在一個階段：更多的 token 使用量通常更好，但也可能很快就把預算跑爆。你們內部是怎麼管理的？

So Gabriela, I'm going to take that one. Sorry, Chris. First and foremost, as the world moves from large language models to inference-based AI, our platform is purpose-built for that as the operating system and infrastructure for our clients. The vast majority of our queries, Gabriela, are done on our own platforms, on our own data. So we are not buying tokens as we roll this out to our customers.

Gabriela，這題我來回答。抱歉，Chris。首先，當世界從大型語言模型轉向以推論為主的 AI 時，我們的平台就是為此而打造，作為客戶的作業系統與基礎設施。Gabriela，我們絕大多數的查詢都是在我們自己的平台、我們自己的資料上完成的。所以當我們把這個功能推向客戶時，我們並不需要去購買 tokens。

It's fully embedded, which is one of the reasons I think you're seeing us project substantially higher growth to profits and cash flow than we are even to revenue. We have put ourselves as sort of the perfect spot as the market moves to inference-based AI.

它是完全內嵌的，這也是為什麼我認為你看到我們對獲利與現金流的成長預期，顯著高於對營收的成長預期。當市場走向以推論為主的 AI 時，我們把自己放在一個幾乎是最理想的位置。

As it relates to our internal consumption, we have built a platform called Spade. Don't ask me what it stands for. It is an acronym. But the reality is that Spade is a tool that we custom built inside of Zeta and is being utilized by a very large percentage of our engineering team, where effectively, an engineer would go into Spade, they would create the construct for the code they are trying to develop. Spade would then automatically choose the most efficient and best large language model to do the coding itself.

至於我們內部的使用，我們打造了一個叫 Spade 的平台。不要問我它代表什麼，它是一個縮寫。但實際上，Spade 是我們在 Zeta 內部客製打造的工具，工程團隊中有很大比例的人都在使用。基本上，工程師會進到 Spade，建立他們要開發的程式碼架構（construct）。接著 Spade 會自動選擇最有效率、最合適的大型語言模型來完成寫程式這件事。

So if it's security-based, we might choose Claude. If it's general coding based, Spade might choose ChatGPT. If it's complex publishing, Spade might choose Gemini. Now of course, Cursor is sort of at the center of this as we think about where that's expanding.

如果是偏資安的，我們可能會選 Claude；如果是一般程式開發，Spade 可能會選 ChatGPT；如果是複雜的出版（publishing），Spade 可能會選 Gemini。當然，Cursor 在我們思考其擴展方向時，也算是在這個流程的核心。

The code is then auto generated by the LLM, which is the only time we utilize tokens. Everything else is sitting on our own platform, our own cloud. The LLM creates the code. It then goes to a program called Zippi because obviously, we have great nomenclature capabilities. And Zippi automatically QAs the code on our platform once again. Once it's done, it sends it to one of our senior architects. They review the code one more time, and they can make it generally available.

程式碼會由 LLM 自動生成，而這也是我們唯一會使用 tokens 的時候。其他所有內容都在我們自己的平台、我們自己的雲端上。LLM 產生程式碼後，會送到一個叫 Zippi 的程式，因為很顯然我們在命名上很有能力。Zippi 會在我們的平台上再次自動對程式碼做 QA。完成後，它會送給我們的一位資深架構師，他們會再審一次程式碼，然後就可以讓它正式上線（generally available）。

To put it in perspective, Gabriela, at the end of the first quarter, Zeta was already driving 75% automated new code creation. I believe that puts us even above Google as it relates to that. And the pods working on Athena today, I know for a fact are up from a productivity perspective between 400% and 600% year-over-year from an output and productivity perspective, all the while, the vast, vast majority of the compute and of the tokenization is on our own platform.

Gabriela，給你一個量化的概念：在第一季末，Zeta 已經能做到 75% 的新程式碼建立是自動化的。我相信就這點而言，我們甚至高於 Google。而目前在做 Athena 的那些小組（pods），我很確定從產出與生產力角度來看，年對年提升在 400% 到 600% 之間；同時，絕大多數的運算與 tokenization 都是在我們自己的平台上完成。

So as you look at our growth, we will not experience some of the constriction of margin or additional CapEx. We've already allowed for everything in the projections that we've got, and we're very, very comfortable with where we are externally and from an engineering perspective.

所以當你看我們的成長時，我們不會遇到一些公司可能會面臨的毛利被壓縮或額外 CapEx 增加的情況。我們已經在目前的預測中把所有因素都納入考量，無論是對外還是工程面，我們對現況都非常、非常有信心。

Helpful details. Thank you.

細節很有幫助。謝謝。

Arjun Bhatia, William Blair.

Arjun Bhatia，William Blair。

Thank you so much and congrats guys on a very strong quarter here. David, I have two questions, maybe I'll just do them one at a time. The first on awareness. It seems like the customers that are using it are getting great value out of it. It's early, but for this to have a material impact, for the company as a whole, you have a fairly large revenue base. Like how do you roll this out to all your large customers? Where is it right now in terms of customers having awareness and knowing what Athena can do? And how do you sort of plan to progress that?

非常感謝，也恭喜各位本季表現非常強勁。David，我有兩個問題，或許我一次問一個。第一個是關於認知度（awareness）。看起來正在使用的客戶都獲得很大的價值。雖然還早，但若要對整體公司產生實質影響，你們的營收基礎相當大。你們要如何把它推廣到所有大型客戶？目前在客戶端的認知度如何，他們是否知道 Athena 能做什麼？你們打算如何推進？

Yes. So great question, Arjun. First of all, from an awareness perspective, I would say that our marketing team today is doing the greatest job it's ever done in the history of our company. I just came back from the POSSIBLE Conference where you couldn't walk 5 feet without seeing the brand Athena and without seeing Buy Zeta. And it was really exciting.

是的。這個問題很好，Arjun。首先，就認知度而言，我會說我們的行銷團隊現在做得比公司史上任何時候都好。我剛從 POSSIBLE Conference 回來，你走不到 5 英尺就會看到 Athena 的品牌、也會看到 Buy Zeta。那真的很令人振奮。

We did an Athena Suite. We did a Zeta Cafe Powered by Athena. And we're starting to see that we're moving to that next evolution of our brand where it's sort of moved to it's getting the must-have Zeta in our industry. And I didn't think I would say that this early.

我們做了 Athena Suite，也做了由 Athena 驅動的 Zeta Cafe。我們開始看到品牌進入下一個演進階段——某種程度上，我們正走向在產業裡成為「必備的 Zeta」。我沒想到這麼早就會這麼說。

As it relates to internal awareness, we have built an internal learning and development team, which is doing nothing but training and onboarding our clients. One of the things we're going to be rolling out in the next few months, which I'm super excited about, is an Athena certification. We're going to certify the individuals who work for our clients on Athena utilization. They'll get a full certification that they can put into their resume, and we're very excited about how that's going to be rolling out. So we're also doing sort of a hint of the week, tip of the week, question of the week.

至於內部認知，我們建立了一個內部學習與發展團隊，專注在訓練與導入我們的客戶。接下來幾個月我們會推出一件我非常期待的事：Athena 認證。我們會針對客戶端使用 Athena 的人員做 Athena 使用認證。他們會拿到完整的證書，可以放進履歷裡，我們對這個推行方式非常期待。我們也會做類似「本週提示、每週小技巧、本週問題」這樣的內容。

It's going out to all of our clients. I would tell you, in all of the years I've run this company, which is a long time now, I have never seen a faster uptake of a technological product that we've rolled out, and it's really been exciting, Arjun.

這些都會發送給我們所有客戶。我可以告訴你，在我經營這家公司這麼多年（現在已經很久了）以來，我從未見過我們推出的任何科技產品有這麼快的採用速度，這真的很令人興奮，Arjun。

Awesome. That's great to hear. And then maybe switching gears from Athena for a second. Marigold, that also looks like it was off to a strong start. I think you beat your sort of Q1 target on that front. But where are we on the cross-sell there? And what's the early traction you're seeing on, I guess, the two-sided cross-sell, both into your base and into Marigold's base?

太棒了。很高興聽到這個消息。接著我們先從 Athena 轉換一下話題。Marigold 看起來也有一個很強勁的開局。我認為你們在這方面超過了原先的 Q1 目標。不過目前交叉銷售進展到哪裡了？以及你們看到的早期動能是什麼——我想是指雙向的交叉銷售，既賣進你們既有客戶群，也賣進 Marigold 的客戶群？

Arjun, I'll take that, and David will wrap it up also. So a couple of places where you can see where it's evident that the cross-selling is working. So we talked about the number of multi-use cases. It's nicely contributing to the growth that we've seen across the base of super-scaled customers. But I think more broadly, if you look at the areas that we talked about being purposely conservative around Marigold, it was around the potential for their SMB and mid-market customers that were on the enterprise platform we anticipated churn.

Arjun，我來回答這題，David 也會做個總結。所以有幾個地方可以看出交叉銷售確實在發揮作用。我們談過多使用情境（multi-use cases）的客戶數量；它對我們在超大型（super-scaled）客戶基礎上看到的成長有很好的貢獻。但更廣泛來看，如果你回頭看我們先前對 Marigold 採取刻意保守的部分，主要是針對他們那些使用企業平台的 SMB 與中型市場客戶，我們原本預期會有流失（churn）。

We're not seeing as much as we thought, which is good. There were products that -- and geographies that we thought we would have less growth on and would also see churn. That hasn't happened yet. And then just more broad normal churn at the enterprise level, and it stayed healthy. And by the way, a lot of that is being driven by Zeta's interactions with those customers and partnering with Marigold's people.

我們看到的流失沒有原先想得那麼多，這是好事。有些產品——以及一些地理區域——我們原本以為成長會比較弱、也會看到流失，但目前還沒有發生。再來就是企業層級較一般、正常的流失情況，也維持在健康水準。順帶一提，其中很大一部分是由 Zeta 與這些客戶的互動、以及與 Marigold 團隊的合作所帶動的。

So it's been really interesting, Arjun. We've seen a meaningful uptick from existing Marigold clients with us integrating the data cloud into the platform. So the first thing we did and we had it done within 90 days was a full data cloud integration into their platforms, which allowed clients to begin to access data sets that they've never had access to before. So we've seen meaningful growth there.

所以這真的很有意思，Arjun。隨著我們把資料雲（Data Cloud）整合進平台，我們看到既有 Marigold 客戶出現顯著的提升。第一件事是——我們在 90 天內就完成——把資料雲完整整合到他們的平台中，讓客戶開始能存取以前從未能存取的資料集。因此我們在那裡看到相當有意義的成長。

As it relates to cross-selling, we're really -- we're making progress, but not a lot of that is in the numbers yet. These products are complicated, and they're very big. I think you'll see more of that as the year progresses. But I think -- I mean, to say we're very excited about how well we're performing with the asset would be an understatement. And a lot of that today is a result of the data cloud integration.

就交叉銷售而言，我們確實——正在取得進展，但這些成果目前還沒有大量反映在數字上。這些產品很複雜、規模也很大。我想隨著今年進展，你會看到更多。但我認為——如果說我們對這項資產目前的表現感到非常興奮，那其實還算保守。今天很大一部分成果都來自資料雲的整合。

Now whether you want to consider that a cross-sell because we're bundling the Data Cloud in to drive additional utilization or not, that's up to you. But to us, as we're rolling out loyalty to all of our global clients, and we're starting to take sell-through and roll it out to the LiveIntent clients and all of the different things we're doing, that's in the early stages, and I think will drive meaningful growth in the future.

至於你要不要把這視為交叉銷售——因為我們把 Data Cloud 打包進去以帶動更多使用量——那就看你怎麼定義。但對我們而言，當我們把忠誠度（loyalty）推向所有全球客戶、並開始把 sell-through 推廣到 LiveIntent 客戶，以及我們正在做的各種事情，這些都還在早期階段，我認為未來會帶來顯著的成長。

Very helpful. Thank you, both.

非常有幫助。謝謝你們兩位。

Jack Nichols, KeyBanc Capital Markets.

Jack Nichols，KeyBanc Capital Markets。

Hey, guys. Thanks for taking the question. Maybe pivoting back to Athena. I was wondering if you could walk us through the early adoption trends among the enterprise customer base, specifically around how they're deepening engagement with the platform and then existing use cases today? And then I've got a quick follow-up.

嗨，各位。謝謝讓我提問。也許把話題轉回 Athena。我想請你們談談企業客戶群的早期採用趨勢，特別是他們如何加深與平台的互動，以及目前既有的使用情境。然後我還有一個簡短的追問。

Well, first of all, welcome, Jack. It's great to have you on coverage. We really appreciate you. Second, we have been really blown away by the early adoption of Athena. We made it generally available to 100% of our enterprise clients, and we saw a 7x increase in agentic interactions from our clients in the first week of Athena alone.

首先，歡迎你，Jack。很高興你加入覆蓋（coverage）。我們非常感謝你。第二，我們對 Athena 的早期採用真的非常驚艷。我們已經讓 Athena 對 100% 的企業客戶全面可用，而僅在 Athena 上線的第一週，我們就看到客戶的代理式（agentic）互動增加了 7 倍。

So we think of that as pretty good. 7x is always something we aspire to. But our long-term goal is for Athena to be the operating system of our clients' businesses, and we're just getting started on that. But early adoption has been very, very exciting.

所以我們認為這表現相當不錯。7 倍一直是我們追求的目標。但我們的長期目標，是讓 Athena 成為客戶企業的作業系統，而我們才剛開始。不過早期採用確實非常、非常令人振奮。

That makes sense. And then pivoting quickly to Marigold and thinking about the recurring revenue mix, as those customers adopt the Zeta platform, should we expect that mix to trend down or up over time or kind of remain in line with the 2025 60% expectation disclosure?

了解。那再快速轉到 Marigold，從經常性收入（recurring revenue）組合來看，隨著這些客戶採用 Zeta 平台，我們應該預期這個組合會隨時間下降、上升，還是大致維持在你們揭露的 2025 年 60% 期待值附近？

Jack, it's Chris. I'll take this. And as David said, welcome. It should go up is the short answer. And I think a really interesting proof point that you'll see in the queue tomorrow is just how substantially RPOs went up quarter-to-quarter.

Jack，我是 Chris。我來回答。也如 David 所說，歡迎你。簡短答案是：應該會上升。我想你明天在 Q&A（queue）裡會看到一個很有意思的佐證，就是 RPO（剩餘履約義務）季對季大幅上升。

They went up $66 million just from fourth quarter to the first quarter. Obviously, part of that is Marigold, which then helps with visibility. But I think an interesting thing for the audience here to understand is another large piece of that was not only these marquee wins that we talked about with the apparel retailer and the e-commerce pet retailer, but it was also agencies beginning to now also sign long-term committed contracts.

光是從第四季到第一季就增加了 6,600 萬美元。當然，其中一部分來自 Marigold，這也有助於提升可見度。但我認為觀眾需要理解的一點是，另一個很大部分不僅是我們提到的那些標誌性（marquee）勝利——例如服飾零售商與電商寵物零售商——同時也包括代理商現在也開始簽署長期的承諾型合約。

That is an exciting proof point for us. It adds to the recurring revenue, which then obviously adds to visibility, which both of those came into our confidence to be able to raise the guidance that we did on the top line by $30 million while continuing to keep to our 2% to 5% conservatism.

這對我們而言是一個令人振奮的驗證點。它增加了經常性收入，進而顯然也提升了可見度；這兩者都強化了我們的信心，使我們能把營收指引上調 3,000 萬美元，同時仍維持我們 2% 到 5% 的保守性。

Wonderful. Thank you, guys.

太好了。謝謝各位。

Clark Wright, DA Davidson.

Clark Wright，DA Davidson。

Awesome. Thank you. I wanted to maybe quickly touch on the consolidation story. You noted on one of the marquee wins this quarter that you consolidated four. And I recognize over the course of the last few quarters, you mentioned consolidation being a key piece. Can you talk about the use cases that beta continues to solve for and how you see that expanding over time?

太棒了，謝謝。我想快速觸及一下整合（consolidation）的故事。你們提到本季其中一個標誌性勝利，你們整合了四個。我也注意到過去幾季你們一直提到整合是關鍵的一環。你能談談 Zeta 持續在解決哪些使用情境，以及你們如何看待這些情境隨時間擴展嗎？

Yeah. Thank you, Clark. Listen, when John and I founded this company, I don't know, 18, 19 years ago at this point, our vision was to put everything a marketer needed into one user interface with one reporting infrastructure. And I would tell you that because of Athena, I think we are finally there. And our ability to consolidate anywhere from 8 to 12 different vendors into one user interface and one reporting infrastructure has never been stronger.

好的。謝謝你，Clark。聽著，當 John 和我創立這家公司——我不知道，現在大概 18、19 年前——我們的願景是把行銷人員所需的一切都放進同一個使用者介面，並搭配同一套報表基礎架構。我會告訴你，因為 Athena，我認為我們終於做到了。而我們把 8 到 12 家不同供應商整合到同一個使用者介面與同一套報表基礎架構的能力，從未像現在這麼強。

In the case of this global company because it's a retailer and a manufacturer of their clothing, we displaced what I think many people think to be certainly the longest serving of the marketing clouds. They made, I think, their acquisition first in the space as they built their marketing cloud. And in fact, this particular client used that company for everything. They consider themselves a you know what shop, so to speak. So decoupling their marketing cloud from everything else they were doing, I think, was a very difficult decision.

以這家全球公司為例，因為它同時是零售商也是服飾製造商，我們取代了我想很多人認為——可以說是行銷雲領域服務最久的那一家。他們我想是最早在這個領域做併購、建立行銷雲的公司。事實上，這位特定客戶過去所有事情都用那家公司。他們自認是某某（you know what）全套使用者（shop），可以這麼說。所以要把他們的行銷雲從其他所有作業中解耦，我認為是一個非常艱難的決定。

We also displaced another competitor of ours who tends to be more focused on mobile. They tend to be a little easier to displace because they're so singularly focused on mobile. And neither of those companies brought any data or any activation capabilities to task.

我們也取代了另一個競爭對手，他們通常更專注在行動端。因為他們過於單一聚焦在行動端，所以相對更容易被取代。而這兩家公司都沒有帶來任何資料或任何啟用（activation）能力來完成任務。

When you're working with one of the large marketing clouds and you displace them, you're almost always also displacing a professional service provider, who they have to then spend millions of dollars on to customize their platform versus our platform is pretty much ready to go from a cloud perspective. So that would be a really good example of a -- and we see this as one of the most important wins in our company's history, and it goes back to not just our ability to consolidate other vendors, but to do everything that each one of those point solution does better than they do while simultaneously putting everything into one place.

當你與大型行銷雲合作、並取代他們時，你幾乎總是也同時取代了一家專業服務供應商；客戶必須再花數百萬美元去客製化他們的平台，相較之下，我們的平台從雲端角度來看幾乎是開箱即用。所以這會是一個很好的例子——而我們把這視為公司史上最重要的勝利之一；這不僅回到我們整合其他供應商的能力，也回到我們能把每一個點狀解決方案（point solution）做得比他們更好，同時把所有東西放在同一個地方。

Got it. That's helpful. And then if I could just add one more. Over the long term, you talked about increasing wallet share with customers. Do you think AI accelerates the rate of share capture, increases the total wallet share or both?

了解，這很有幫助。那如果我再加問一題。長期來看，你們談到要提高客戶錢包份額（wallet share）。你認為 AI 會加速份額擷取的速度、提高總錢包份額，還是兩者都會？

I think both. I mean, remember, the single greatest way, Clark, to get market share is drive meaningful return on investment to your clients. The Forrester study that came out that said we have a 600% return on marketing spend, we're seeing early adopters of Athena at a materially higher return on investment than even that. The higher we drive return on investment, the more wallet share we're naturally going to get. And as you know, our existing global super-scaled customers will spend well over $100 billion to $110 billion on marketing this year.

我認為兩者都會。我的意思是，記住，Clark，取得市占率最重要的方法，就是為客戶帶來有意義的投資報酬率（ROI）。Forrester 的研究指出我們的行銷支出回報（return on marketing spend）達到 600%，而我們看到 Athena 的早期採用者，其投資報酬率甚至顯著高於那個水準。我們帶動的投資報酬率越高，自然就會取得越多錢包份額。而如你所知，我們現有的全球超大型客戶今年在行銷上的支出將遠超過 1,000 億到 1,100 億美元。

And at the middle of our range, we'll have, call it, 150 to 170 basis points of wallet share. I believe we can get that to 700% to 1,000% of their wallet share in the years to come. The key will be driving better return on investment. Artificial intelligence, specifically Athena, plus our data as a moat into our business is going to drive return on marketing spend up meaningfully, which we think will then drive wallet share.

而在我們區間的中段，我們的錢包份額大概會是 150 到 170 個基點。我相信在未來幾年，我們可以把這提升到他們錢包份額的 700% 到 1,000%。關鍵在於推動更好的投資報酬率。人工智慧，特別是 Athena，再加上我們的數據作為我們業務的護城河，將會顯著提升行銷支出的回報，我們認為這接著就會帶動錢包份額。

Got it. Thank you.

了解。謝謝。

Jason Kreyer, Craig-Hallum.

Jason Kreyer，Craig-Hallum。

Thanks, guys. Great job. So I wanted to stick with the point on wallet share because you announced some major wins and you've announced some major wins over recent quarters. But I'm curious, when you look at the aggregate data representing somewhere less than 2% of wallet share, how big of deals are you winning today? And how big a deal do you think you can win over time just in terms of the wallet share of those customers?

謝謝各位。做得很棒。所以我想延續錢包份額這個點，因為你們宣布了一些重大勝利，而且在最近幾個季度也宣布了幾個重大勝利。但我好奇的是，當你看整體數據顯示錢包份額不到 2% 時，你們今天贏下的案子規模有多大？以及隨著時間推移，就這些客戶的錢包份額而言，你們認為能贏下多大的案子？

It's interesting, Jason. I would say the last few wins we've had have been at a comparable wallet share to our current wallet share, but the clients are spending 4 or 5 times as much per year on marketing and CRM. So they represent some of the largest deals we've ever done right out of the gate. Does that make sense just mathematically?

很有意思，Jason。我會說我們最近幾個贏下的案子，在錢包份額上與我們目前的錢包份額相當，但這些客戶每年在行銷和 CRM 上的支出是 4 到 5 倍。所以從一開始就代表了我們做過的一些最大案子。就數學上來說，這樣講有道理嗎？

At the same time, what we're starting to see is some of our clients who have been on the platform for two, three, four, five years are getting to that 7% to 10% of wallet share and higher. And we're using that as a road map for how do we take new clients there. So the wins are much bigger than they've ever been, but I'm not sure they're much bigger wallet share only because the companies are so big that we're winning. Now that will give us meaningful upside as they're on the platform, and Chris does a much better job than I do, talking about how ARPU grows the longer a client is with us, and these clients are starting at probably the highest ARPU we've ever seen clients starting.

同時，我們開始看到一些在平台上已經兩年、三年、四年、五年的客戶，錢包份額提升到 7% 到 10% 甚至更高。我們把這當作路線圖，思考如何把新客戶帶到那裡。所以這些贏單的規模比以往大得多，但我不確定在錢包份額上是否大很多，因為我們贏下的公司本身就非常大。當他們在平台上運行後，這會帶來可觀的上行空間；而 Chris 在說明客戶與我們合作時間越長 ARPU 如何成長方面，比我更擅長。這些客戶的起始 ARPU 可能是我們見過最高的。

That also drives, Jason, with our sales pipeline. So we talked about its growth. But if you look at deal sizes and particularly the annual contract value of deals are up pretty substantially year-over-year.

Jason，這也反映在我們的銷售管線上。我們談到管線的成長；但如果你看交易規模，特別是交易的年度合約價值（ACV），年對年大幅提升。

Perfect. Maybe one quick follow-up, David. You've been doing AI for a long time, but it seems like the release of Athena has certainly put you in a different conversation within the AI industry. I'm curious, how has that translated to conversations with customers? And like do you feel like Zeta is becoming more of an AI thought leader in the marketing ecosystem and that's driving that engagement?

很好。David，或許再追問一個。你們做 AI 很久了，但 Athena 的發布似乎確實讓你們在 AI 產業的對話中進入了不同層級。我好奇，這如何轉化為與客戶的對話？你是否覺得 Zeta 正在成為行銷生態系中的 AI 思想領袖，並且帶動了這種互動？

It's interesting, Jason. In some ways, being a native AI company has been complex for us over the last few years because everybody is rolling out shiny new products, most of which are not real, but most of the people are rolling them out. And we've always been seen as sort of like AI is under the engine.

很有意思，Jason。某種程度上，作為一家原生 AI 公司，過去幾年對我們來說其實更複雜，因為每個人都在推出一些光鮮亮麗的新產品，其中大多數其實不是真的，但大家仍然在推出。而我們一直被視為那種「AI 在引擎底下」的公司。

Athena is the hood ornament to what we're doing as a company. She is now us announcing ourselves with authority that we are not just an AI company, we are the leader and the disruptor in the AI space. And with the launch of Athena as a marquee product, it has changed the game for the way people are seeing us.

Athena 就是我們公司正在做的事情的「引擎蓋飾」。她讓我們能以權威姿態宣告：我們不只是 AI 公司，我們是 AI 領域的領導者與顛覆者。隨著 Athena 作為旗艦產品的推出，人們看待我們的方式已經改變了遊戲規則。

And I will tell you, the two client wins we talked about in the prepared remarks, there is 0 chance we would have been in the room if we had not launched Athena or started talking about her at Zeta Live. And there's -- I don't think a chance we would have won these accounts without Athena showing that we are the leader in artificial intelligence as it relates to marketing.

我可以告訴你，我們在事先準備的講稿中提到的兩個客戶贏單，如果我們沒有推出 Athena，或沒有在 Zeta Live 開始談論她，我們進入會議室的機會是 0。而且——我不認為如果沒有 Athena 展示我們在與行銷相關的人工智慧領域是領導者，我們有機會贏下這些客戶。

From an internal perspective, we're also one of the best users of AI. I mean back to what I was saying around the Spade internal platform we've built. If you had told me a year ago, we'd be auto generating 75% of our own code while simultaneously driving the type of quality products we're driving, I would have said that's just not possible. Spade has made that possible. And it's really been very interesting how we've done that in an environment where we're still using a very de minimis percentage of tokens versus what many of our competitors are doing, which is going to allow us to continue expanding our operating margin as we've done over the years.

從內部角度來看，我們也是 AI 的最佳使用者之一。回到我剛才提到我們打造的 Spade 內部平台——如果你一年前告訴我，我們能自動生成 75% 的自家程式碼，同時還能推出我們現在這種品質的產品，我會說那根本不可能。Spade 讓這成為可能。而且很有意思的是，我們是在一個仍然只使用極低比例 tokens 的環境下做到的，相較之下許多競爭對手用得多得多；這將讓我們能像過去幾年一樣，持續擴大營業利益率。

Thank you.

謝謝。

Matt Swanson, RBC.

Matt Swanson，RBC。

Yeah. Great. Thank you guys for taking my questions. And my congratulations for the quarter. I think the metric that really jumped out to me was the increase in multi-use case. And I know that's something we had kind of talked about with Athena and its ability to kind of create this organic expansion motion. Given that, that 50% increase was for the full quarter, like is Athena a real part of that? Is there other parts of your go-to-market driving that? If you could just kind of touch a little more there.

是的。很好。謝謝你們回答我的問題，也恭喜本季表現。我覺得最讓我注意到的指標是多使用案例（multi-use case）的提升。我知道這也是我們之前談過的，Athena 能夠創造這種有機擴張的動能。基於此，那 50% 的增幅是整個季度的數字——其中 Athena 是重要因素嗎？還是你們的 go-to-market 還有其他部分在推動？如果可以的話，請再多談一點。

The great news is Athena is just getting started. So we had a great trajectory going into our launch. Now I will tell you, every client that was on the beta became multi-use case. So it was -- but that was not a lot of clients, right? So as she rolled out to generally available, we saw an uptick there.

好消息是 Athena 才剛開始。所以在我們發布之前就已經有很好的成長軌跡。現在我可以告訴你，所有參與 beta 的客戶都變成了多使用案例——但那不是很多客戶，對吧？所以當她全面正式上線（generally available）後，我們看到那裡出現了上升。

But I think that's continued upside to growth in multi-use case. And the One Zeta team continues to just do an exceptional job. I'll remind you, Matt, we really started on the One Zeta mission just 18 months ago. So you've got a massive tailwind coming out of the work we've been doing there. And then I think Athena is going to supercharge that.

但我認為多使用案例的成長還有持續的上行空間。而 One Zeta 團隊也持續做得非常出色。提醒你一下，Matt，我們真正開始推動 One Zeta 使命也才 18 個月前。所以你會看到我們在那方面工作的成果帶來很強的順風；接著我認為 Athena 會讓它加速。

And Matt, I think the reason why you picked up on it, but for others, empirically, what we know is that when customers use more than one use case, their ARPU is 3 to 5 times greater. So I think you're right on that being an exciting data point.

Matt，我想你之所以注意到這點——也給其他人一個背景——我們從實證數據知道，當客戶使用超過一個使用案例時，他們的 ARPU 會高出 3 到 5 倍。所以我認為你說得對，這是一個令人興奮的數據點。

Yeah. No, I appreciate that. And we'll make sure to take note that 100% of Athena users will become multiuse case. That's what I heard.

是的。我很感謝這些說明。我們也會記下：100% 的 Athena 使用者都會變成多使用案例。這是我聽到的。

Yeah. I wouldn't go quite there. I mean we -- obviously, that's the goal, Matt, but we certainly didn't say that just yet.

是的。我不會講到那一步。我的意思是——顯然那是目標，Matt，但我們當然還沒有那樣說。

Yeah. The other one I want to talk about is the independent agencies. I know you called out advertising as a key vertical for you guys. I think your willingness to kind of share the credit with agencies and allow them to white label some of your technology has been part of the reason you've been so successful there. I guess with Athena, how much more can that help you in those deal environments as a lot of these independent agencies are trying to compete with the big holdcos and so on?

是的。另一個我想談的是獨立代理商。我知道你們提到廣告是你們的一個關鍵垂直領域。我認為你們願意與代理商分享成果、並允許他們以白標（white label）方式使用你們部分技術，是你們在那裡成功的原因之一。我想問的是，有了 Athena 之後，在這些交易情境中能多大程度幫助你們？因為很多獨立代理商正試圖與大型控股集團（holdcos）等競爭。

One of the key wins we had, Matt, in the quarter was with a large independent. If you look at business done a year ago with them was 0. Business done within this quarter was eight figures with Athena being, again, something that was visible to them as something they could also exploit for their benefit.

Matt，我們本季的一個關鍵贏單就是來自一家大型獨立代理商。如果你看一年前與他們的業務量是 0；而在本季完成的業務量是八位數，其中 Athena 再次成為他們可見、也能為其自身利益加以運用的東西。

The same was true with a very large new agency that began piloting Zeta in 2025. The spend was material, call it, a little less than $2 million, but that new agreement that was signed is more than 10x that size. So both the independent as well as the large agency continues to have a lot of runway. In fact, amongst the five large holdcos, the number of brands we're working with year-over-year grew by 50%.

同樣的情況也發生在一家非常大型的新代理商身上，他們在 2025 年開始試點（pilot）Zeta。當時的支出相當可觀，大概略低於 200 萬美元，但這次簽署的新協議規模是那個的 10 倍以上。所以無論是獨立代理商還是大型代理商，都還有很長的成長跑道。事實上，在五大 holdcos 之中，我們合作的品牌數量年對年成長了 50%。

And I just want to say, Matt, we're actually big fans of the agencies. They provide incredible services to their clients. And we've had clients approach us to go direct. And we always try to bring the agency back into it because we think it's a very healthy relationship when it's the three of us.

我也想說，Matt，我們其實非常支持代理商。他們為客戶提供了非常出色的服務。我們也曾有客戶找我們想要直接合作，而我們總是嘗試把代理商再拉回來，因為我們認為當我們三方一起合作時，這是一種非常健康的關係。

And listen, we're good if the agencies make their money because they're providing meaningful services. But as it relates to our business, I'll remind you, none of the agencies really focus on the retain, which, as of last quarter, is about 60% of our business. So we have real greenfield opportunity there as it relates to the activation, which sort of create customers, monetize customers.

而且你聽我說，只要代理商是因為提供有意義的服務而賺到錢，我們都沒問題。但就我們的業務而言，我要提醒你，沒有任何一家代理商真正聚焦在留存（retain）上；截至上季，留存約占我們業務的 60%。因此，在啟動（activation）方面我們有真正的綠地機會——啟動某種程度上是創造客戶、將客戶變現。

We're very, very happy to partner and give the credit to the agencies because they've built incredible businesses, and we're very excited now to be working with pretty much all of the large holdcos. I think now it's all. And well, certainly the biggest ones. And then to be partnering with a select number of independent agencies. There's a lot of them out there, but we want to work with only the best.

我們非常、非常樂意合作，並把功勞歸於代理商，因為他們建立了令人驚嘆的事業；而我們也非常興奮，現在幾乎與所有大型控股公司（holdcos）合作。我想現在是全部了——至少肯定是最大的那些。然後也與少數精選的獨立代理商合作。外面有很多家，但我們只想和最好的合作。

Thank you.

謝謝。

Naved Khan, B Riley.

Naved Khan，B Riley。

Hi. This is Ethan Widell calling in for Naved. Thanks for taking my questions. To start, can we talk about the ideal customer profile for Athena. I'd imagine there are two kind of distinct value propositions there, A, where Athena can drive efficiency gains for your larger enterprises that already have sophisticated marketing teams and whatnot; B, more small and mid-market players where Athena creates access to capabilities that these customers don't necessarily have in-house.

嗨。我是 Ethan Widell，代替 Naved 來提問。謝謝你們回答我的問題。首先，我們能談談 Athena 的理想客戶輪廓嗎？我想那裡大概有兩種相當不同的價值主張：A，對於已經擁有成熟行銷團隊等的大型企業，Athena 可以帶來效率提升；B，對於中小型市場玩家，Athena 則能讓他們取得一些客戶本來不一定有內部能力的功能。

So like which of these is management really seeing more of early traction-wise? And what's kind of the ideal customer size that you're leaning into with your early sales motion?

那麼，就早期牽引力而言，管理層實際上看到比較多的是哪一種？以及在早期銷售推進上，你們傾向的理想客戶規模大概是多大？

Well, it's interesting you put it that way. I mean, today, to be honest, Ethan, we don't focus on midsize. We're really just focused on very large enterprise, although Athena opens up the midsized market to us at some point because you're very intuitive to understand that the cost of layering Athena out to midsized companies is so de minimis to us that would allow us to move into those -- that vertical -- or I'm sorry, into that sort of category without having to meaningfully hire people to do it. But today, we focus solely on very large enterprise.

你這樣切入很有意思。老實說，Ethan，就目前而言我們不聚焦在中型市場。我們真的只專注在非常大型的企業，雖然 Athena 在某個時間點會為我們打開中型市場，因為你很直覺地理解到，把 Athena 部署到中型公司對我們而言成本非常微不足道（de minimis），這會讓我們能進入那些——那個垂直領域——抱歉，是進入那一類別，而不需要為此大幅增聘人力。但今天，我們只專注在非常大型企業。

So I would tell you the two things very large enterprises have really focused on is, a, and you're totally right, efficiency. What they're finding is it takes 70% less labor to manage the Zeta marketing platform with Athena than it did with hands-on keyboard. So you're effectively able to take 70% of your marketing workforce and retask them into other functions where they can be more valuable to your organization.

所以我會告訴你，非常大型企業真正聚焦的兩件事是：第一，你完全說對了——效率。他們發現，用 Athena 來管理 Zeta 行銷平台所需的人力，比起手動操作鍵盤（hands-on keyboard）少了 70%。也就是說，你基本上可以把 70% 的行銷人力重新分派到其他職能，在那裡他們能為組織創造更高價值。

We're also seeing that because -- and this is something I talk about a lot, Ethan, but when you buy software, whether it's us or it's Bloomberg or somebody else, you're buying a stealth fighter, right? We're all spending to build a Stealth fighter of a platform. And most of our clients know how to fly Cessna with -- I mean think about a Bloomberg terminal, the vast majority of their customers only use 5% to 10% of the capabilities.

我們也看到，因為——這也是我常跟你談的，Ethan——當你買軟體時，不管是買我們的、Bloomberg 的或其他人的，你買的是一架匿蹤戰機，對吧？我們都在投入資源打造一個匿蹤戰機等級的平台。但我們大多數客戶只會開塞斯納（Cessna）——我的意思是想想 Bloomberg 終端機，絕大多數客戶只使用其中 5% 到 10% 的功能。

As you look at our platform, being able to fly that Cessna, we're still delivering a 600% return on marketing spend. As clients are able to use Athena as their copilot, they can get right into the cockpit of that stealth fighter, and they can then fly the entire platform, which is driving meaningfully higher return on marketing spend than even that 600%.

以我們的平台來看，即使只是能把那架塞斯納開好，我們仍然能帶來 600% 的行銷支出回報（return on marketing spend）。當客戶能把 Athena 當作副駕駛，他們就能直接坐進那架匿蹤戰機的駕駛艙，然後把整個平台都飛起來，這會帶來顯著更高的行銷支出回報，甚至高於那 600%。

Got it. That makes a lot of sense. Thank you. And then coming out of first quarter, I think you mentioned 9 out of 10 top industries grew more than 20%. I know you spoke to some customer consolidation being a benefit there. But are there any verticals that you see showing any signs of softening, particularly anything sensitive to the macro and geopolitical risk going on right now on the discretionary?

了解。這很有道理，謝謝。接著，第一季結束後，我想你提到前十大產業中有 9 個成長超過 20%。我知道你談到一些客戶整併帶來的好處。但是否有任何垂直領域出現走弱跡象，特別是那些對當前總體與地緣政治風險較敏感、屬於可選消費（discretionary）的領域？

Yeah. Short answer, no, Ethan. The 9 out of the 10 were effectively say 9 out of 10 that ended last year. The 1 out of 10 that wasn't growing over 20% is 4% of revenue. So it really gives you a sense for the vast, vast majority of revenues on all of the verticals we support are performing in a very healthy way.

是的。簡短回答：沒有，Ethan。那個 9/10 基本上是指去年年底的 10 個裡面有 9 個。那個沒有超過 20% 成長的 1/10 只占營收的 4%。所以這真的讓你感受到，我們所支援的各個垂直領域中，絕大、絕大多數的營收表現都非常健康。

Got it. That's really helpful. Thank you.

了解。這非常有幫助，謝謝。

Terry Tillman with Truist.

Truist 的 Terry Tillman。

Yeah. Hey, thanks for fitting mein. I'll just keep it to one question because I know we're running over time. And maybe I'm getting too far ahead of myself, but I like hearing about 40% increase -- 40%-plus increase in the sales pipeline. And I think you said your discretionary markets where you have a lot of activity is even higher. Is it too early to start to say because of the emphasis on agentic in AI in general that's in the market, plus you have Athena that's now credibly in the market and in production, could it start to tip the scales and move in some of this funnel activity faster and you actually close new deals quicker? Or is it just too early or I'm just way too optimistic?

是的。嘿，謝謝讓我插進來。我就問一個問題，因為我知道我們超時了。也許我想得太超前，但我很喜歡聽到銷售管線增加 40%——超過 40%。而且我想你說在你們活動很多的可選市場（discretionary markets）增幅更高。現在就開始說會不會太早：因為市場上整體對 AI 的 agentic（代理式）強調，再加上 Athena 現在已經可信地在市場上、也在正式環境中運行，是否可能開始改變局勢，讓漏斗中的一些活動推進更快、你們實際上更快成交新案？還是說現在太早，或是我太樂觀了？

I don't think you're too optimistic. But I do think it's -- from an expectation setting perspective and frankly, from a data-driven perspective, and this is a multi-quarter statement I'm about to make. Our deal cycles in good times and in less good times have stayed consistent. What we're seeing is more opportunities in RFPs, many more at-bats than we were given a year ago and certainly two years ago. Those by nature take longer.

我不覺得你太樂觀。但我也認為——從設定預期的角度，坦白說也從數據驅動的角度——我接下來要說的是一個跨多個季度的觀察：我們的成交週期在景氣好與不那麼好的時候都保持一致。我們看到的是更多 RFP 的機會，比一年前、當然也比兩年前多了很多上場打擊（at-bats）的機會。而那些本質上就需要更長時間。

But again, our strategy many times is to work around those processes through pilots and proof of concepts. Those deals are getting bigger, as David said. So yesterday's $100,000 pilot is today is $1 million. But I wouldn't say right now, it's an accelerant, but it's in addition to the pipeline.

但同樣地，我們的策略很多時候是透過試點（pilots）與概念驗證（proof of concepts）來繞開那些流程。正如 David 所說，那些案子正在變大。所以昨天的 10 萬美元試點，今天變成 100 萬美元。但我不會說現在它是一個加速器（accelerant），而是對管線的額外增量。

And I would concur. But I do want to be clear, Terry, we're getting at bats that we would have never gotten a few years ago. So it's sort of -- it's working really, really well.

我同意。不過我想講清楚，Terry，我們正在獲得幾年前根本不可能拿到的上場機會。所以這有點——運作得非常、非常好。

That's great to hear. Thank you.

很高興聽到。謝謝。

Thank you. This concludes the Q&A session and our call. You may disconnect your lines at this time, and have a wonderful day.

謝謝。問答環節與本次電話會議到此結束。您現在可以掛斷電話線，祝您有美好的一天。