Hightouch Partners with Narrative I/O to Power Multi-Vendor Identity Resolution and Activation

Today’s marketers and brands need unfettered control over their data. They want to own and access it quickly and securely. To power that thirst for agency and extensibility, they need more consented ID backing them up. 

But getting there requires a cost-conscious solution that utilizes the most trusted connections across multiple providers – without the friction of any duplication.

Now, Hightouch, a composable CDP and AI Decisioning platform, has launched a new composable identity partnership with Narrative I/O that shows real potential for combining the best in data, technology, and governance.

Hightouch continues to push the innovation boundaries with its customer data solutions. The company has been deploying new features regularly, including AI-powered adaptive identity resolution capabilities. By leveraging Narrative I/O’s data collaboration features, they’re now enabling marketers and media networks to assemble identity graphs by combining first-party data with over 30 third-party identity providers – directly and seamlessly in Snowflake's AI-powered Data Cloud.

With this connection, brands and teams can activate audiences at scale across a massive cache of over 250 marketing channels, all while maintaining strict data governance controls.

“Our customers consistently asked for more control over their identity data and activation strategies,” said Kashish Gupta, Co-Founder and Co-CEO at Hightouch. “Our Composable Identity partnership with Narrative and Snowflake answers that call – enterprises own their data, control their identity graph, and can activate audiences how they choose while maintaining strong governance over data use. It's about giving power back to the customer.”

Composable strategies are still raging, particularly in the age of agentic AI. This is reflected in the MACH Alliance’s positioning, crystallizing how organizations are relying on composable, cloud-native solutions to drive AI transformation and enable greater control over data and activation. The Narrative I/O partnership also reinforces what Hightouch sees as a shift in adtech and martech away from single-vendor lock-in and dependency.

There’s an important distinction with the Hightouch/Narrative I/O partnership that's worth pointing out. With most traditional identity providers, customer data is treated as a proprietary asset. But this unified solution is challenging the status quo with a deep emphasis on transparency, flexibility, and control – giving enterprises true ownership over their most valuable asset: customer data.

Powering data collaboration with identity graphs

We’ve talked about identity graphs in previous articles. But it’s worth a quicker refresher given their relevant value to CDPs, data warehouses, and the goal of enhancing 360° views of customers. 

Identity graphs are handy tools that offer a unified picture of customers and prospects based on their interactions with a product or website across a set of devices and identifiers. They’re designed for scale, and commonly used for targeting real-time personalization and advertising across millions of users. 

Identity graphs are another critical resource in the pursuit of understanding the customer journey. By linking multiple types of identifiers, graphs can shape a complete view of the customer, store profile data, and easily connect new consumer identifiers to profiles. They can also be used to build CDP solutions with an emphasis on data privacy regulation and other forms of compliance. 

As a forward-thinking data collaboration platform, Narrative I/O enables enterprises to build, own, and control custom identity graphs using multiple best-in-class providers directly in their data warehouse – and they do it for leading brands like Afterpay/Block and Fanatics. Now, by partnering with Hightouch to deliver a composable identity solution, they’re enabling enterprises with more freedom and domain via multi-vendor identity resolution and activation.  

"The enterprise identity market has been broken by vendors who want to own your data and limit how you use it," said Tim Mahlman, CEO of Narrative I/O. “We built Composable Identity because enterprises should control their identity graphs in their own infrastructure. But ownership without activation is just expensive data storage. Our partnership with Hightouch gives you a transparent identity graph combined with sophisticated orchestration capabilities to actually put that data to work across your entire marketing and advertising stack.”

Key capabilities of a composable identity solution

There are a few big benefits with the Hightouch/Narrative I/O partnership, starting with the core ability to create third-party identity graphs with multiple vendors. Using combined resources, enterprises will be able to deploy their own composable identity graph by combining first-party data with a wide range of purpose-built solutions through cost-optimized enrichment, accessing credit card tokens, demographic data, and specialized global providers.

At the data warehouse level, enterprises will also be capable of building and controlling custom identity graphs directly in their cloud data platform with full transparency into matching logic, data quality, freshness, and match rates – all with no vendor lock-in or proprietary systems. This complete ownership in Snowflake provides further confidence at a foundational level. 

As mentioned, there are over 250 channels where enterprises can activate identity-enhanced audiences across web, mobile, email, and paid media platforms using Hightouch’s visual audience builder and extensive integrations. This offers comprehensive activation and scale that can meet the growing demands of marketing and media networks.

Finally, to tackle data misuse and enhance global compliance, this composable identity partnership will provide automated governance at every layer with built-in compliance guardrails – leveraging Narrative's automated data usage controls, Snowflake's built-in data governance, and Hightouch's consent management.

“Whether we are talking about marketers or media networks, privacy legislation and signal loss are impacting the ability to activate at scale across channels and attribute disparate impressions to outcomes to validate investment," said David Wells, Industry Principal, Advertising and Marketing Technology at Snowflake. “The future of owned and paid media is a federation of data and identity; consented linkages that are stitched together and packaged with an intuitive audience builder that allows optimal performance as well as ownership of one's own graph.”

The verdict

Hightouch has already been challenging the definition of the CDP space with its unique approach to AI decisioning and 1:1 AI agent model for lifecycle marketing. Its foundational modularity is providing a good deal of flexibility to composable enterprise stacks, and its continued concentration on yielding value at the data warehouse layer is a key consideration for enterprises looking to enrich their customer data strategies.

The benefits of having an identity graph solution are evident. Leading brands are motivated to own their data assets, and having a partnership with Narrative I/O that enables this at scale across multiple vendors and channels is a win-win. Further, the emphasis on security, governance, and compliance reinforces the value play for global organizations with a variety of data privacy and regulatory concerns. 

If you’re evaluating CDPs, composability and interoperability should be primary considerations, as well as the flexibility and extensibility afforded by a clear agent-driven strategy. But the real proof is in the customer pudding and how the investment is translating into value. If you’re looking for examples of how Hightouch is unlocking this, I’ve previously mentioned their case study for PetSmart, which powers the personalization story and pays it off with double-digit growth. 

From a pricing perspective, Hightouch offers a composable, usage-based approach that challenges the legacy MTU model and user-seat dependency. As usage grows, your costs go down – so they’re delivering value at scale over the long haul. 

Overall, Hightouch continues to set a high bar. Whether you’re interested in leveraging their AI Decisioning or Composable CDP, it’s worth a demo and some homework around your current infrastructure and your long-term goals. 

Looking for guidance on Hightouch? Talk to an expert.

Upcoming Events

Storyblok JoyConf 2025

October 14-15, 2025 – Amsterdam, Netherlands
November 4, 2025 – New York, NY
November 6, 2025 – Los Angeles, CA

Join us at JoyConf 2025, where the future of content meets the people shaping it. Built for developers, marketers, and digital innovators, this free conference goes way beyond product updates or yet another strategy playbook. It’s where you’ll get inspired, get real, and get connected – to ideas, to the community, and to what’s possible when you build joyfully. Whether you're building lightning-fast frontends or launching cross-channel campaigns, this is where content becomes connection and collaboration becomes second nature. Come for the talks. Stay for the community. Leave with joy. Save your spot.

Sitecore Symposium 2025

November 3-5, 2025 – Orlando, FL

At Sitecore Symposium, you’ll learn how to meet your customers where they are – across channels, moments, and touchpoints that didn’t exist a year ago. You’ll hear how the boldest brands in the world are transforming content into outcomes and creating experiences that are fast, relevant, and human. Join 1,500 marketers, digital leaders, and technologists in Orlando to see what’s possible when personalization scales, AI accelerates creativity, and trust becomes your competitive edge. This is the Third Wave of the Internet. And this is your moment to lead in it. Get your tickets today.

CMS Kickoff 2026

January 13-14, 2026 – St. Petersburg, FL

Meet industry leaders at our fourth annual CMS Kickoff – the industry's premier global CMS event. Similar to a traditional kickoff, we reflect on recent trends and share stories from the frontlines. Additionally, we will delve into the current happenings and shed light on the future. Prepare for an unparalleled in-person CMS conference experience that will equip you to move things forward. This is an exclusive event – space is limited, so secure your tickets today.