At A Glance
Advertisers are embracing CTV, data collaboration, and AI to deliver more personalized, efficient, and impactful campaigns, transforming living rooms into interactive hubs, utilizing creator-led programming, and streamlining workflows. At Cannes Lions 2025, industry leaders highlighted how privacy-first data practices, supply path optimization, and AI-powered tools are reshaping the advertising ecosystem - areas where Experian plays a key role in enabling trusted, measurable, and innovative outcomes.As artificial intelligence (AI), connected TV (CTV), and data collaboration continue to advance, advertisers are discovering new ways to meet audiences where they are; on their terms and in their spaces. These innovations are creating opportunities to deliver more personalized, impactful campaigns that were unimaginable just a few years ago. At Cannes Lions 2025, we sat down with industry leaders from Butler Till, Comcast Advertising, Index Exchange, IQVIA Digital, Optable, PMG, Samsung Ads, and Sports Innovation Lab.
From reimagining the living room experience to using AI in practice for better outcomes, here’s what we learned about the trends driving advertising forward.
1. CTV turns living rooms into active spaces
CTV has turned the living room into a hub of interaction, discovery, and commerce. Younger audiences are using their TVs like mobile devices; streaming, learning, and even controlling their homes. This shift is creating new opportunities for advertisers to deliver relevant, personalized experiences where audiences are already engaged. With premium content and interactive tools, the living room is no longer just a passive space, it’s where attention meets action, and where brands can connect with audiences in meaningful ways.
How Experian helps
With Experian, advertisers can connect first-party data with CTV IDs, ensuring accurate and measurable targeting while maintaining a privacy-first approach. That means brands reach viewers with messages that feel personal, without losing trust.
“We surveyed 1,000 smart TV owners and found that younger audiences are using their TVs like mobile devices. Two-thirds use them for social media, 40% for self-improvement like Coursera or TED Talks, and 25% for interactivity; controlling appliances or home temperatures. Interactivity with connected TVs is skyrocketing.”
Samsung Ads Justin Evans
2. Creators build stronger connections with audiences
Creators are no longer limited to social media; they are now a driving force in CTV. Creator led programming is capturing attention and driving post view actions, offering advertisers a unique way to connect with passionate, engaged audiences. By thinking of creators as “micro networks” with built in communities, advertisers can meet fans where they already gather and deliver authentic, impactful messages that resonate.
How Experian helps
Experian helps advertisers tap into the creator economy by identifying topical audiences that align with influencer niches—like food, travel, gaming and entertainment—and activating them across the open web. Through Audigent’s integration with DV360, brands can pair Experian’s expansive audience targeting capabilities with Audigent’s Curated Deals to reach engaged viewers in creator-led environments. This approach ensures ads appear where audiences are most receptive, enhancing relevance and performance.
“The creator economy is moving into TV. It’s incredible to see social influencers, once dominant on platforms, now creating high quality content for streaming, networks, and more.”
Butler/TillGina Whelehan
3. Data collaboration that drives better results
Advertisers rely on data to reach the right audiences, but privacy concerns are reshaping how it’s collected, shared, and used. Data collaboration enables brands to combine multiple data sets (like first-party data and syndicated audiences) to improve planning, activation, and measurement. While privacy remains a priority, the focus is on creating actionable insights that drive better results and build trust with consumers. By focusing on consented, privacy safe identity solutions, advertisers can achieve better outcomes while respecting consumer privacy; a win-win for brands and audiences alike.
How Experian helps
Experian’s privacy-first approach ensures that all data activation occurs with compliance and consent. By maintaining high match rates, offering flexible collaboration options (including clean rooms, first-party data onboarding, and syndicated audiences) and adhering to transparent methodologies, Experian facilitates seamless collaboration between brands, publishers, and platforms. This helps build trust and strengthen long-term connections with audiences.
“The area we’re most excited about is identity resolution on the publisher side. Publishers can reinsert signal and create better results for advertisers. This wasn’t always well-articulated, but today we have case studies proving publishers can help improve outcomes.”
OptableVlad Stesin
4. Optimizing supply paths for better outcomes
Supply path optimization (SPO) helps advertisers improve campaign efficiency by increasing viewability and reducing waste. Supply-side decisioning builds on this by identifying the audiences advertisers want to reach, the content those audiences consume, and the publishers with the most relevant inventory. Together, these strategies create a more intelligent and efficient ecosystem, ensuring ads are delivered in the right context, to the right people, on the right platforms.
How Experian helps
Experian’s data solutions, including both Experian’s and Audigent’s contextual and identity capabilities, are available across sell-side (SSPs) and buy-side (DSPs) platforms, enabling smarter decision-making throughout the media supply chain. Audigent’s direct integrations with publishers provide an unfiltered view into available inventory, offering deeper insights that inform campaign optimization. These insights can be activated in real time and transacted within advertisers’ existing buying platforms.
By powering real-time intelligence across the ecosystem, from advertisers to DSPs, SSPs, and publishers, Experian and Audigent help drive better outcomes, more efficient media spend, and greater value for all participants.
“Sell-side decisioning activates the intelligence of the exchange, along with partners like Experian, to optimize auctions in real time. This helps pre-decision buys that flow to the DSPs, making the buying process smarter, more efficient, and ultimately driving better value for marketers and publishers.”
Index ExchangeMike McNeeley
5. AI that streamlines agency workflows
AI is a practical tool that agencies are using to streamline workflows and deliver better results. From planning and pacing to creative iteration, AI is helping teams move faster and smarter. In fact, 67% of global marketing and communications professionals now use AI for content creation frequently or all the time, underscoring its role in modern workflows. The key is to think of AI as a navigator, not a replacement. It handles repetitive tasks, freeing up teams to focus on strategy and creativity, while enabling faster tests, fewer dead ends, and better client clarity.
How Experian helps
Experian uses AI and machine learning to deliver highly personalized marketing solutions. In our Digital Graph, advanced clustering algorithms analyze household and individual device connections, improving targeting and measurement accuracy. We also use AI powered audience recommendations to create tailored audience solutions for clients. Our contextual data models, powered by Audigent’s contextual engine, further improve this process by analyzing bidstream traffic in real time, ensuring audiences are aligned with the most relevant inventory.
“We’ve extended our platform with Marketplace, which lets us integrate third-party partners, new tech, and data seamlessly into activation. Clients are asking for this level of innovation, especially with the speed at which AI is evolving and transforming what’s possible in marketing.”
PMGSam Bloom
Connecting the dots: Data, creativity, and outcomes
The common thread across these insights is how we connect with audiences, collaborate on data, and create meaningful outcomes. By reimagining the living room experience and utilizing AI and creator-led programming, brands are embracing innovation.
How Experian helps
Experian helps you build privacy-first identity foundations, collaborate seamlessly, optimize supply paths, streamline with AI, and connect through creators.
Let’s start a conversation
FAQs
CTV brings premium, interactive streaming to the largest screen at home, allowing brands to reach engaged viewers with measurable, personalized experiences.
It’s the consented, secure use of first-party and partner data (often via clean rooms) to improve planning, activation, and measurement without exposing raw consumer data.
SPO streamlines the path from advertiser to publisher, reducing waste and improving quality. Sell-side decisioning adds real-time intelligence to the exchange, delivering the proper context and audience more efficiently.
Creator-led programming functions like “micro networks” with built-in communities, helping brands show up where fans are already engaged and ready to act.
Viewers use TVs like mobile devices, discovering content, learning, shopping, and interacting; advertisers can meet their intent and drive post-view actions.
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NEW YORK, June 1, 2016 /PRNewswire/ — Are Traasdahl, CEO and founder of Tapad, the leader in cross-device marketing technology and now a part of Experian, has been named Founder of the Year by the Nordic Startup Awards. The Nordic Startup Awards' Founder of the Year Award recognizes an individual that has shown exceptional achievements in fundraising, customer growth, financial savvy, and/or leadership throughout the past year. The Nordic Startup Awards evaluates hundreds of players in the startup ecosystem, ranging from investors and founders, to developers and journalists in Denmark, Sweden, Iceland, Norway and Finland. Taking place in two stages, each country selects its nominees for consideration for the regional awards which were held in Iceland on May 31, 2016. Traasdahl is recognized for his continuous investment in Tapad as a whole, as well as his dedication to growing and developing Tapad since founding the company in 2010. He has led Tapad from startup through a steady period of growth resulting in an acquisition by the Telenor Group for $360 million in February 2016. "I am truly honored to be named Founder of the Year by the Nordic Startup Awards, among so many other remarkable leaders in the space," said Traasdahl. "That said, this has always been a team effort. We started Tapad with the goal of giving employees unprecedented growth opportunities while developing breakthrough solutions for our clients. This is a win for everyone at Tapad who has committed themselves to these principles over the past four-and-a-half years." Tapad is reinforcing its commitment to fostering entrepreneurship with the launch of their new Propeller Program. Through Propeller, Tapad will host five early-stage companies at Tapad's New York headquarters for a year to set them up for global expansion. In its inaugural year, the first participants will come from Traasdahl's native Norway. For more information on the Nordic Startup Awards, please visit: http://www.nordicstartupawards.com. Contact us today
NEW YORK, May 4, 2016 /PRNewswire/ – Tapad, the leader in cross-device marketing technology and now a part of Experian, has been honored with two iMedia ASPY Awards. Announced on May 3rd at the iMedia Summit in Lost Pines, TX, Tapad's 2016 ASPY Awards include "Best Customer Service" and "Best Mobile Partner." In 2015, Tapad's proprietary technology, Tapad Device Graph™, was named "Best New Media Innovation" and Tapad employee Chris Martin was awarded the "Rising Star Award." The iMedia ASPY Awards – determined exclusively by agency votes – recognize the industry's top marketing technology, media companies and publishers for outstanding service to agencies. The award for "Best Customer Service" recognizes Tapad's client services team and their dedication to helping agencies fully understand their consumers' behavior and achieve the best cross-screen campaign ROI through Tapad's Campaign Pulse and TV Pulse analytics reporting. The "Best Mobile Partner" win recognizes the abilities of the Tapad Device Graph™ to deliver unified cross-screen solutions for the company's partners. "We are privileged to have a talented and dynamic group of people on our client services team, and we are honored to be recognized by iMedia Connection and our agency partners," said Tapad Founder and CEO, Are Traasdahl. "We have always strived to provide the best solutions and the best customer support, so it's extremely gratifying to be rewarded for our efforts. If our clients and partners are happy, we are happy." For more information on the iMedia ASPY Awards please visit: http://aspyawards.com. Read the full press release here. Contact us today
Cross-screen marketing tech firm, Tapad, drove unified campaign; partnered with Statiq to measure cross-screen impact on in-store visits LONDON, March 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ – Carat North completed the UK's most comprehensive digital campaign with Tapad, the leader in cross-device marketing technology and now a part of Experian. Coupled with location-based audience data from Statiq, this marks the first time a UK-company has measured the impact of unified, cross-screen campaign on in-store visits. Carat North served display and video ads to grocery shoppers for the leading retailer ASDA from August through October. During the campaign, Tapad utilized Statiq's audience data to measure which users visited a store after being exposed* to the campaign's ad on multiple devices. The digital campaign demonstrated a lift of 59% for in-store visits when users were exposed to ads on three devices over people who were shown an ad only on onescreen. Those who engaged with the ad were also 411% more likely to visit an ASDA store. Of those who were exposed to an ad, 248% were more likely to visit a store. Impressions served to mobile devices saw the highest success rate with an in-store visit lift of 67%. The campaign leveraged Tapad's proprietary technology, The Device Graph™, which Nielsen confirmed Tapad's cross device accuracy to be 91.2%, to serve ads sequentially on connected devices belonging to the same user. CARAT NORTH: "The ability to know which devices belong to our customer, coupled with the ability to deliver the right ad, and right message, wherever they are and on whatever device they're using, has been something this industry has long needed," said Steve Thornton, Digital Account Manager, Carat North. "We're impressed with the results that have come from the work with Tapad and Statiq for this media-first, and look forward to continuing to offer these solutions to clients like ASDA. Matching unified cross-device capabilities with real insights on campaign performance is an invaluable advantage in the marketing world." TAPAD: "This campaign is a perfect example of the capabilities of cross-device advertising," said Are Traasdahl, Founder and CEO, Tapad. "In addition to reaching users across devices, we're able to analyze campaign results and determine how different combinations of ad exposure, creative type or view frequency affected their decision to visit a location." STATIQ: "As a location data specialist, Tapad is our ideal partner – they are an industry leader and by working with them we are able to determine the impact unified messaging has on real world consumer behaviours," said Dean Cussell, Co-Founder of Statiq. "We believe this type of analysis will significantly aid brands in optimising future ad spend." About Carat North Carat North is a leading independent media planning & buying specialist in digital and non-traditional media solutions. Owned by global media group Dentsu Aegis Network, the Carat network is more than 6,700 people in 130 countries worldwide across 170 cities. Carat defined the sector when established as the world's first media independent in 1968 and is now Europe's largest media network, a position held for more than 15 years. For more information visit www.carat.co.uk About Tapad Tapad Inc. is a marketing technology firm renowned for its breakthrough, unified, cross-device solutions. With 91.2% data accuracy confirmed by Nielsen, the company offers the largest in-market opportunity for marketers and technologies to address the ever-evolving reality of media consumption on smartphones, tablets, home computers and smart TVs. Deployed by agency trading desks, publishers and numerous Fortune 500 brands, Tapad provides an accurate, unified approach to connecting with consumers across screens. In 2015, Tapad began aggressively licensing its identity management solution, the Tapad Device Graph™, and swiftly became the established gold-standard throughout the ad tech ecosystem. Tapad is based in New York and has offices in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Detroit,Frankfurt, London, Los Angeles, Miami, Minneapolis, San Francisco and Toronto. TechCrunch called the powerhouse Tapad team "a hell of a list of entrepreneurs who created some of the most valuable online advertising companies of the last decade." Among Tapad's numerous awards: EY Entrepreneur of The Year (East Coast) 2014, among Forbes' Most Promising Companies two year's running, Deloitte's Technology Fast 500, Crain's Fast 50, Entrepreneur 360, Digiday Signal Award, iMedia ASPY Award, and a MarCom Gold Award. Read the full release here. *Tapad utilized Statiq's audience data to measure which users visited a store during, or within one month of, being exposed to the campaign's ad on multiple devices. Contact us today