Loading...

How AI is reshaping identity and marketing: Insights from Cannes Lions 2025

Published: October 29, 2025 by Experian Marketing Services

At A Glance

Marketers are using AI to better understand audiences, improve efficiency, and build privacy-first identity solutions. At Cannes Lions 2025, leaders shared how AI and structured data help deliver relevant messages, adapt to consumer needs, and build trust. Experian supports this through ethical efforts and innovative solutions.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming a bigger part of modern advertising, changing how brands connect with people. At Experian, we believe this technology should make marketing more human, not less. We use AI to help marketers understand consumer behavior, respect privacy, and deliver messages that matter.

As part of our latest Cannes Content Studio series, we spoke with leaders from AdRoll, MiQ, OpenX, Optable, PMG, PubMatic, and Yieldmo. Their insights show a clear path forward; one where technology supports human strategy to create more meaningful connections.

1. How does AI help you see audiences more clearly?

How does AI help you see audiences more clearly?

AI decodes complex behavioral signals to reveal the values and mindsets behind decisions, and increasingly, it predicts what audiences will care about next. This allows marketers to deliver timely, relevant messages that resonate with audiences. At Experian, we help brands use these insights to connect more meaningfully and ethically.

Takeaway: Experian’s tools help brands uncover audience insights, enabling more meaningful and ethical connections.

2. Where does AI actually save time, and improve results?

Where does AI actually save time, and improve results?

Running campaigns is time-consuming. Solutions like Agentic AI now orchestrate end-to-end campaign workflows, audience building, trafficking, QA, pacing, and routine optimizations, so teams focus on strategy and creativity. Many leaders (94%) are investing broadly in AI to drive efficiency and impact, and 49% of marketers use it daily for image and video generation, shifting repetitive tasks from people to tools. By quickly combining past and current performance data, AI can pre-optimize before launch and refine mid-flight, while marketers steer the message and experience.

“AI uses past campaign data to optimize performance before launch, continues learning during the campaign, and refines strategies based on the insights it generates, driving better results over time.”

PubMaticHoward Luks

Takeaway: Experian’s solutions streamline campaign workflows, allowing marketers to focus on creativity and strategy while improving results.

3. How do AI and human strategy work together in real time?

How do AI and human strategy work together in real time?

AI handles real-time data analysis and optimization, freeing marketers to focus on strategy, messaging, and creativity. By defining audiences once and activating them across platforms, teams can adapt quickly and confidently. At Experian, we combine machine intelligence with human insight to deliver smarter, more agile campaigns.

“AI analyzes data, pulls insights, and automates optimizations, allowing marketers to focus on strategy, messaging, and creativity instead of spending time digging through numbers and data.”

AdRollLizzie Chapman

Takeaway: Experian solutions empower marketers to adapt quickly and confidently, combining human strategy with insights.

4. What does privacy-first look like now?

What does privacy-first identity look like now?

Relying on simple, static data points is no longer enough. A modern approach to identity blends deterministic data (like known identifiers) with modeled components, ensuring data remains de-identified where possible. Clear, transparent guardrails, permitted-use policies, retention limits, sensitive-category blocks, and audit trails, help brands balance personalization with privacy, build trust, and respect user choice.

“A new blend of identity systems combines deterministic data, known identifiers, and model driven components, creating fresh ways to address identity and activate campaigns with precision.”

OptableVlad Stesin

Takeaway: Experian’s privacy-first identity solutions help brands balance personalization with safety, ensuring trust and compliance.

5. Which new data signals matter, and why?

Which new data signals matter, and why?

AI is unlocking a new generation of data signals, like content context, sentiment, emotional tone, suitability, attention, and commerce intent, that go beyond legacy identifiers like cookies and demographics. These signals can help brand messages appear in the most relevant environments and by high-value audiences. Used well, they improve relevance, avoid placements near unsuitable or off-brand content, and drive stronger campaign outcomes.

“Unlocking new data sets (like emotion, sentiment, and context), AI is creating innovative ways to connect client content with advertising opportunities and rethink how we approach the market.”

PMGSam Bloom

Takeaway: Experian’s solutions use advanced data signals to help marketers create more effective and innovative campaigns.

Why Experian for human-centered AI?

Why Experian for human‑centered AI

We deliver on the promise of AI-powered marketing through five pillars:

  1. See audiences clearly across households, individuals, and devices.
  2. Recommend next‑best audiences and automate setup for faster execution.
  3. Adapt in real‑time to keep relevance high.
  4. Innovate responsibly with strong governance and transparency.
  5. Plan, activate, and measure campaigns on one unified platform.

The future of intelligent marketing

The future of intelligent marketing

AI will keep accelerating, but the goal stands: make marketing more human. Teams that blend privacy‑first identity, predictive insight, AI‑powered simplicity, and real‑time intelligence will earn trust and drive outcomes. Experian helps you bring those pieces together so every campaign moves from assumptions to clarity, and from activity to measurable results.

Talk to Experian about building human-centered AI into your marketing strategy

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.


FAQs

How does AI help marketers understand audiences better?

AI analyzes complex signals, behaviors, values, and mindsets to provide a clearer picture of what matters to audiences. That clarity makes messaging feel personal and relevant. Learn more about Experian’s Digital Graph and how it can help marketers understand audiences better. 

Where is AI improving campaign efficiency today?  

Automation reduces manual setup and reporting, so teams focus on strategy and creative. Nearly half of marketers (49%) use AI daily for image and video generation, reflecting this shift. 

What does “smarter activation across platforms” mean?

Smarter activation across platforms means defining audiences once, then carrying them across channels with live feedback, so relevance and suitability stay high. See how Experian enables smarter activation with our data and identity solutions. 

How is AI changing identity? 

Privacy‑first identity blends deterministic and modeled components, keeping data de‑identified where possible. Experian’s solutions balance personalization with safety. Learn about Experian’s identity solutions is changing identity. 

Why is structured data important for AI‑driven marketing?  

AI systems rely heavily on brand‑managed sources. 86% of citations come from websites, listings, and reviews, so clean, accurate, structured data makes your answers and your brand more discoverable. Discover how Experian supports structured data for AI-driven marketing. 


Latest posts

Loading…
Introducing the top 10 audiences you should be targeting in Q4

At Experian, we understand the importance of audience targeting when it comes to crafting a successful marketing campaign. That's why we've invested in developing 2,400+ syndicated audiences, which span across multiple verticals and categories, including demographic, and lifestyle and interest data. We are excited to share a curated list of audience recommendations to support your campaign planning so you can confidently connect with your audience. What separates Experian’s syndicated audiences Experian’s 2,400+ syndicated audiences are available directly on over 30 leading television, social, programmatic advertising platforms, and directly within Audigent for activation within private marketplaces (PMPs).   Reach consumers based on who they are, where they live, and their household makeup. Experian ranked #1 in accuracy by Truthset for key demographic attributes. Access to unique audiences through Experian’s Partner Audiences available on Experian’s data marketplace, within Audigent for activation in PMPs and directly on platforms like DirectTV, Dish, Magnite, OpenAP, and The Trade Desk. New audience segments to consider for Q4 campaign planning These new audiences, recently released on major platforms, offer unique opportunities to align your campaign planning with the latest consumer trends and behaviors. Here are four new Experian audiences to include in your Q4 campaign planning:  Holiday Shoppers: Black Friday Holiday Travel – Budget Savvy Airline Geo-Indexed Audiences – Hybrid Vehicle 24-Month Future Car Buyers Seasonal audiences for Q4 Political audiences As the 2024 election approaches, moving beyond broad categorizations like “Democrat,” “Republican,” or “Independent” is crucial. Voters want candidates who align with their beliefs and values and Experian’s political personas offer a nuanced understanding of American voters to craft tailored engagement strategies. Experian has created 10 political personas to help better understand the American voter so you can reach consumers based on their viewpoints on key political issues. Additionally, over 200 politically relevant Experian audiences are available for activation on-the-shelf of the leading TV, demand, and supply platforms. Learn more here Holiday audiences This upcoming holiday season serves as the perfect opportunity to drive sales and build customer relationships. Experian has recently introduced 19 new audiences that can help you reach relevant shoppers across major ad platforms including TV and programmatic. By using Experian’s audiences in your holiday advertising campaigns, you can reach last-minute shoppers, discount-seeking shoppers, gift-givers, and holiday travelers. Just as shoppers seek the perfect gifts, your holiday advertising campaigns can capture the right shoppers this holiday season with the right strategy. Read our holiday audience guide now Our top 10 audience recommendations for Q4 Based on the top Experian audiences activated in Q4 of 2023, our top 10 list is designed to help agencies and media buyers plan data-driven advertising campaigns.   Household income level 1) $100,000+: This segment contains consumers who are likely to have an estimated household income of $100,000+. 2) $75,000+: This segment contains consumers who are likely to have an estimated household income of $75,000+. Demographics 3) Ages: 25-54: This segment contains consumers who are likely to be aged 25-54. 4) Ages: 30-39: This segment contains consumers who are likely to be aged 30-39. 5) Ages: 35-39: This segment contains consumers who are likely to be aged 35-39. 6) Ages: 40-49: This segment contains consumers who are likely to be aged 40-49. Homeowners 7) Homeowner: This segment contains consumers who are likely to be homeowners. Military 8) Inactive: This segment contains consumers who are likely to be inactive military. Automotive 9) In-market for a small, mid-size SUV: This segment contains consumers who are likely to be in the market to buy a mid-size SUV in the next 180 days.  10) In-market for a full-size SUV: This segment contains consumers who are likely to be in the market to buy a full-size SUV in the next 180 days. You can find the complete audience segment name in the appendix. Activate the right audiences with Experian When you choose Experian’s syndicated audiences, you gain access to over 2,400 audiences that span across 15 verticals and categories. These audiences are directly available for activation on over 30 platforms and can be sent to over 200 media platforms. Experian is ranked #1 for data accuracy (as validated by Truthset), and Experian Marketing Data is the foundation for successful targeting, enrichment, and activation. For a full list of Experian’s syndicated audiences and activation destinations, download our syndicated audiences guide. Need a custom audience? Reach out to our audience team and we can help you build and activate an Experian audience on the platform of your choice. Connect with our audience team Appendix Here are the complete audience segment names (taxonomy paths) for all audience segments discussed in this blog post. New audiences Autos, Cars and Trucks > Near Market > 24-Month Future Car Buyers Retail Shoppers: Purchase Based > Seasonal > Holiday Shoppers: Black Friday Autos, Cars and Trucks > Ownership – Geo-Indexed > Geo-Indexed Audiences –Hybrid Vehicle Retail Shoppers: Purchase Based > Seasonal > Holiday Budget Savvy Airline Travelers Household income level Demographics > Household Income (HHI) > $100,000+ Demographics > Household Income (HHI) > $75,000+ Demographics: Ages Demographics > Ages > 25-54 Demographics > Ages > 30-39 Demographics > Ages > 35-39 Demographics > Ages > 40-49 Homeowners Demographics > Homeowners/Renters > Homeowner Military Lifestyle and Interests (Affinity) > Occupation > Military – Inactive Automotive Autos, Cars and Trucks > In Market-Body Styles > Small Mid-Size SUV Autos, Cars and Trucks > In Market-Body Styles > Full-Size SUVs Latest posts

Sep 24,2024 by Lucy Simmonds, Content Marketing Specialist

Announcing Experian’s Digital Graph and Marketing Attributes joint solution

Experian, the leader in powering data-driven advertising through connectivity, is thrilled to unveil our latest solution, Digital Graph and Marketing Attributes. This joint solution supplies marketers and platforms with the insights and connectivity needed to understand who their customers are and reach them across digital channels. The uncertainty around third-party cookies in Chrome and the overall decline in signal complicates the industry’s ability to reach the right consumer. Omnichannel media consumption results in scattered data, making it harder for marketers and platforms to understand consumer behavior and reach them across channels. These challenges call for a comprehensive solution. Our Digital Graph and Marketing Attributes solution addresses these challenges by providing identifiers for seamless cross-channel engagement. By adding Marketing Attributes, like demographic and behavioral data, marketers and platforms also gain a better understanding of their customers. This solution uses Experian’s Living Unit ID (LUID) to combine offline and digital data, giving customers deeper insights into consumer behavior, greater audience reach, and improved cross-channel visibility.   Benefits of Digital Graph and Marketing Attributes Both our Digital Graph and Marketing Attributes provide value to clients as standalone products. When clients license our Digital Graph and Marketing Attributes joint solution, they have more data at their fingertips, unlocking: Consumer connectivity: When clients license Experian’s Digital Graph, they get access to digital identifiers like mobile ad IDs (MAIDs), connected TV (CTV) IDs, hashed emails (HEMs), and universal IDs so they can target the right consumers with the relevant messages across all digital media channels. Consumer insights: Experian’s 5,000 Marketing Attributes provide our clients with detailed consumer information and insights, such as age, gender, purchase behaviors, and content consumption habits. Marketing Attributes help clients create more relevant messaging and informed audience segmentation. Client examples How OpenX offers richer targeting and more connectivity with Experian OpenX is an independent omni-channel supply-side platform (SSP) and a global leader in audience, data, and identity-targeting. With industry-leading technology, exceptional client service, and extensive scalability across all formats, including CTV, app, mobile web, and desktop, OpenX has a legacy of innovating products that enhance buyer outcomes and publisher revenue while addressing complex challenges in programmatic. In recent years, OpenX has licensed Experian’s Digital Graph with identifiers, contributing to the SSP’s largest independent supply-side identity graph, which offers advanced audiences to buyers and improved data resolution to content owners.  More recently, OpenX licensed Experian’s Marketing Attributes to enrich its supply-side identity graph, which includes IPs, MAIDs, and client IDs, with a variety of attributes. This strategic move has helped OpenX’s clients benefit from enhanced consumer insights and addressability, in turn delivering greater reach to the demand side and higher revenue for publishers, despite industry signal loss.   "We built on our long-term partnership with Experian to enrich our digital IDs with Experian’s Marketing Attributes, which help provide buyers better insights to audiences, thereby helping our publishers monetize their inventory. With partners like Experian, OpenX effectively facilitates the value exchange between demand and supply, ensuring our partners are able to drive results for their business in the era of signal loss"Craig Golaszewski, Sr. Director of Strategic Partnerships, OpenX How StackAdapt licenses our product bundle to address three different use cases StackAdapt is the multi-channel programmatic advertising platform trusted by marketers to deliver exceptional campaigns. They drive superior results through a variety of solutions, like contextual and first-party targeting, brand lift measurement, and optimization through insights. StackAdapt licensed a similar yet unique product combination, our Digital Graph and our Audiences. StackAdapt uses the Digital Graph to allow clients to onboard their first-party data in a seamless, self-serve manner that allows them to further segment their data using Experian Audiences.  “StackAdapt has been recognized as the most trusted programmatic platform by marketers, and with the integration of Experian’s Digital Graph and Audiences, we are strengthening our leadership in the space. This partnership improves our ability to deliver precise cross-channel segmentation, reach, and measurement, helping advertisers run more successful campaigns. Our collaboration with Experian allows us to offer a differentiated solution in the market and ensure our clients can deliver the most precise and impactful ads to their audiences.”Denis Loboda, Senior Director of Data, StackAdapt We recently announced a new partnership with StackAdapt. This collaboration brings the power of Experian's identity graph, syndicated and custom audiences directly to the StackAdapt platform. Read the full details in our press release here. Four ways to use Digital Graph and Marketing Attributes When these two products come together, our clients have a 360-degree view of their consumers, which helps them power four critical use cases:  Analytics and insights: Learn more about your consumers by connecting our Marketing Attributes with our Digital Graph's identifiers. For example, a retailer can discover that their recent customers over-index as pickleball fans and players, leading the retailer to sponsor a professional pickleball event.  Inventory monetization: When supply-side partners know their audience better, they can attract advertisers in search of that audience. For example, a publisher might find out that their audience is full of pickleball fans, leading them to reach out to brands that want to reach this audience.  Activation: Companies with access to more digital identifiers from our Digital Graph can reach more people, while controlling frequency across channels. A company might know that they want to reach pickleball fans. Now, they have the digital identifiers needed to reach pickleball fans across all digital channels where they consume content, leading to increased reach. Measurement and attribution: Use the Digital Graph’s support for various digital identifiers to understand all consumer touchpoints, from media impressions to conversions. Then, lean on our Marketing Attributes to determine who your messaging resonated with. For example, a company uses our Digital Graph to know if it was the same individual who was exposed to an ad on CTV and converted via e-commerce. On top of that, the company can use our Marketing Attributes data to find out that the people who purchased were overwhelmingly pickleball fans. Connect with us to learn more about how our Digital Graph and Marketing Attributes joint solution can provide the data and insights you need to create, activate, and measure cross-channel media campaigns.  Get in touch with us Latest posts

Sep 23,2024 by Dylan Rothenberg, Product Marketing Manager

Experian and Snowflake: Creating more connectivity in programmatic advertising

After a six-month beta period, collaboration in Snowflake Data Clean Rooms using Experian's offline or digital graph is now generally available for all clients. As part of this, Experian is excited to announce that Experian's identity graph will be integrated into Snowflake's Data Clean Rooms. With the growing importance of data privacy and marketing efficiency, this partnership builds off of Experian's previously-announced integration into Snowflake's AI Data Cloud for Media. Adding Experian's identity graph to Snowflake Data Clean Rooms helps advertisers, advertising platforms, and measurement partners work more effectively. Built upon Experian’s rich offline and digital identity foundation, with support for various identifiers across platforms, collaboration in Snowflake Data Clean Rooms helps clients maximize the value of their data and meet the diverse needs of modern business: Collaborate with partners for richer data insights Achieve higher match rates Improve audience building Produce more accurate and complete reports Ensure data privacy Seamless integration of AdTech and MarTech platforms Regardless of the identifier type you are looking to collaborate on, Experian has the identity data in Snowflake Data Clean Rooms to support you and your partner. This leads to higher match rates and more resolved data for you to use to benefit your media initiatives. "Integrating Experian's identity graph into Snowflake Data Clean Rooms marks a transformative leap for digital marketing. This collaboration empowers advertisers, programmatic platforms, and measurement partners with unparalleled accuracy, privacy, and efficiency. Together, we are excited to provide innovative solutions to meet the evolving needs of our clients."Kamakshi Sivaramakrishnan, Head of Data Clean Rooms at Snowflake The Experian and Snowflake partnership showcases how collaboration can enhance scalability and cost-efficiency. Data clean rooms provide a secure environment where multiple parties can share, join, and analyze their data assets without leaving the clean room or exposing the underlying data. By integrating Experian's identity graph within Snowflake's secure platform businesses of all sizes can receive advanced data collaboration and identity tools without the high costs usually involved. The integration prioritizes consumer privacy and data security. Backed by Experian’s Global Data Principles, Experian's deep roots in data protection and security provide customers with the most trusted way to share data and protect consumer privacy. With Experian's graph in Snowflake Data Clean Rooms, customers will get a solution that respects customer consent, safeguards sensitive data, and ensures that processing occurs with the utmost respect for user confidentiality and preferences.   Further, Snowflake Data Clean Rooms uses advanced methods to preserve privacy, such as differential privacy and secure computations on encrypted data, enabling data security and integrity. Together, these methods prevent unauthorized access by keeping sensitive data within the secure confines of the cleanroom on a strict, collaboration-to-collaboration basis. The collaboration between Experian and Snowflake significantly enhances data matching and identity resolution within the Snowflake Data Cleanroom. Experian’s identity solution uses digital identifiers like hashed emails, MAIDs, and CTV IDs and offline identifiers like name and address. This allows advertisers to reach more consumers and enrich their data. Marketers can easily use their first-party data in the cleanroom, and with Experian's Graph, they get higher match rates for more accurate targeting and campaign measurement. The continued partnership between Snowflake and Experian provide advertisers, platforms, and measurement providers a secure and effective way to collaborate. This sets the stage for continued innovation in programmatic advertising, ensuring that our solutions evolve in step with our clients' needs.   If you're not utilizing clean rooms for collaboration but have advanced identity needs, you can license our Graph and seamlessly integrate it into your Snowflake account.  Reach out to our team to learn more Latest posts

Sep 18,2024 by Experian Marketing Services

Subscribe to our newsletter

Enter your name and email for the latest updates

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

About Experian Marketing Services

At Experian Marketing Services, we use data and insights to help brands have more meaningful interactions with people. As leaders in the evolution of the advertising landscape, Experian Marketing Services can help you identify your customers and the right potential customers, uncover the most appropriate communication channels, develop messages that resonate, and measure the effectiveness of marketing activities and campaigns.

Visit our website

Subscribe to our newsletter

Stay up to date on the latest industry news and receive expert tips from our marketing experts.
Subscribe now!