Canela Media’s Data Science Team Takes Home Digiday Technology Award

Canela Media, a leading technology and innovation multicultural media company, announced that its Data Science Team has been recognized in the category of Best Data Team in the 2025 Digiday Technology Awards. The Digiday Technology Awards reflect the rapid evolution of digital marketing, where AI-powered personalization, omnichannel programmatic strategies and privacy-first approaches are driving innovation.

The data team is led by Vice President, Data Science and Analytics Suyash Gandhi, a seasoned leader, product manager and technologist with over 10 years of experience in media, marketing technology, customer data platforms, data products, analytics, and e-commerce customer lifecycle reporting to Peter Gonzalez, Canela Media’s Chief Technology Officer. By integrating AI, scalable data pipelines, and automation, Canela Media’s Data Science team has set a new standard for data-driven decision-making in media and entertainment. What was once an untapped asset, data, has become a growth engine that powers smarter advertising, efficient content investments, and highly optimized marketing strategies.

“Canela Media’s Data Science is an invaluable company center of excellence, proving that data is a critical element to shaping the future of digital media,” said Isabel Rafferty Zavala, Co-Founder and CEO of Canela Media. “As an innovation tech-driven data media company, Canela Media is poised to establish itself as a market leader through its best-in-class and robust end-to-end data solutions offering unparalleled access to first-party based deterministic data products and benchmarking capabilities.”

Key Initiatives & Achievements include:

• Canela Audience Segments (CAS) – Canela Media’s exclusive and unique proprietary OTT-first party based deterministic data product delivers advanced audience targeting with more scale, more accuracy, and, ultimately, more precision to help brands effectively connect with U.S. Hispanic audiences across both English and Spanish-language OTT platforms. Launched in May 2024, CAS offers unparalleled scale, reaching 76 million unique devices that generate 20 million Canela IDs and proprietary audience solutions
• Real-time Campaign Optimization – Canela Media developed an AI-based anomaly detection model that continuously tracks key advertising KPIs, automatically flagging performance anomalies. This has empowered Ad Tech and Ad Ops teams to take a proactive approach, resolving issues within minutes instead of hours or days, ensuring optimal campaign performance and minimal ad spend inefficiencies.
• Content Acquisition Profitability Engine – Canela Media built a content acquisition profitability engine that predicts the likelihood of generating profit and increasing user engagement before acquiring new content. This tool has transformed Canela Media’s content strategy, enabling our team to make smarter investments, optimize programming, and maximize viewer retention.
• User Acquisition Optimization Modeling – The Canela Media team helped develop an advanced marketing KPI models to optimize user acquisition efforts,, fine-tune audience cohort segmentation, and maximize user value and ROI. These models provide actionable insights that drive smarter, more efficient growth and monetization strategies.

Through AI-driven insights, automation, and predictive analytics, Canela Media’s Data Science team has built innovative solutions and models that empower decision-making and maximize effectiveness across the business.