Tunnl Replaces the Fragmented Marketing Stacks With a Single Platform

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July 7, 2026

On July 7, 2026

Tunnl, the AI-powered audience intelligence platform used by brands including Moderna, today called out what its CEO describes as the operational reality inside most modern marketing teams: too many tools, too many sources of truth, and no clear picture of what’s actually working.

The framing is supported by recent industry data. According to Gartner’s latest Marketing Technology Survey, the average enterprise marketing organization now operates 91 distinct tools, even after years of consolidation efforts. Martech stack utilization sits at 49%, meaning marketers use less than half the capabilities they’re paying for. Only 15% of organizations qualify as high performers delivering positive ROI on their martech investments.

The Operator’s Reality

“Marketers have at least six dashboards open and none of them agree,” said Brent Seaborn, Co-founder of Tunnl. “That’s not an exaggeration. It’s what we see from the brands we’re talking to every week. Research is in one system. Audience targeting is in another. Media planning and activation is somewhere else. Measurement is a quarterly deck. Nothing connects.”

Seaborn says the problem isn’t a lack of tools. It’s the absence of a foundation that connects them.

Why the Stack Got This Way

Most martech stacks weren’t designed. They accumulated. Brands bought a research vendor, then a media planning platform, then a measurement tool, now they’re layering AI on top of all of it. Each tool solved a specific problem in isolation, but the connective tissue between them was never built.

The result, Seaborn says, is the operator pain that Gartner’s data captures: teams running dozens of tools, using a fraction of their capabilities, and unable to prove what any of it is doing.

“Adding more tools doesn’t solve the problem. It is the problem,” he said. “Our clients don’t come to us because they need another dashboard. They come because they need to stop arguing about which dashboard is right.”

How Connected Research Works in Practice

Moderna is among the enterprise brands using Tunnl. Brands across categories are turning to Tunnl now for connected research, the discipline of tying survey insight directly to addressable audiences and measurable outcomes inside a single platform.

For major brands operating across sectors like pharmaceuticals, financial services, and technology where audience precision affects business outcomes, the value isn’t a new dashboard. It’s the ability to keep research, targeting, and measurement inside one connected system, rather than handing off between disconnected vendors at every stage of a campaign.

“When you’re operating at scale in complex, sometimes highly regulated industries, you can’t afford a stack that moves you farther and farther from the audience you’re trying to know,” Seaborn said. “Every handoff is a place where the audience picture gets blurrier.”

What This Means for Marketing Teams

Seaborn says the broader shift Tunnl is seeing inside major brands is a move away from tool-counting and toward outcome-counting. Strategists are increasingly asking a simpler question: did the campaign actually move the audience we said we’d move?

“That question doesn’t get answered by a stack,” he said. “It gets answered by a system.”

About Tunnl

Tunnl is an AI-powered audience intelligence platform that connects survey research, audience targeting, insights, activation, and campaign measurement all in one closed loop experience. Founded in 2021 by data and political strategy veterans Sara Fagen, Brent Seaborn, and Alex Lundry, Tunnl serves Fortune 500 brands, media agencies, trade associations, and advocacy organizations navigating high-stakes communications environments. The company is headquartered in Arlington, VA.

For more information, visit:

Website: www.tunnldata.com

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/tunnldata