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?

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?

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?

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?

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?

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?

We deliver on the promise of AI-powered marketing through five pillars:
- See audiences clearly across households, individuals, and devices.
- Recommend next‑best audiences and automate setup for faster execution.
- Adapt in real‑time to keep relevance high.
- Innovate responsibly with strong governance and transparency.
- Plan, activate, and measure campaigns on one unified platform.
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
FAQs
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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Marketers Using Centro’s DSP Basis Can Leverage Tapad’s Technology for Extended Cross-device Reach Chicago – May 15, 2018 – Centro, a provider of enterprise-class software for digital advertising, today announced that its Basis programmatic ad platform has licensed cross-device marketing technology from Tapad, a part of Experian, the company reinventing personalization for the modern marketer. Media professionals using Basis can now drive better performance by identifying a person across the different devices he or she uses, serving ads in the most optimum environment, then analyzing performance to see what ad worked best based on creative, device, location and time of day. Today’s digital media ecosystem is fragmented. People consume content on their multiple devices from multiple locations. According to digital analytics firm GlobalWebIndex, a typical consumer owns three digital devices and has seven digital ID’s active in the last 60 days. Advertising technology that treats every device as a single user would not be able to guide customers down the marketing funnel according to how users jump from one device to the next. Furthermore, they wouldn’t see when conversions occur on a device different from that in which the ad was first shown to the user. The Tapad Graph identifies the point of conversion across all screens – smartphones, tablets, home computers, and smart TVs – so that marketers can better gauge the efficiency and return on ad spend. “Our technology helps brands gain a deeper level of understanding of their customer, enabling marketers to better deliver services and products users want,” said Chris Feo, SVP of Global Data Licensing and Strategic Partnerships, Tapad. “With our technology as part of Basis, Centro is providing robust, accessible tools for marketers that want to advance their knowledge of the consumers they want to reach.” Centro’s Basis enables advertisers to plan, buy and analyze real-time bidding (RTB), direct, search and social campaigns in a single platform. It is the only platform that combines all of these elements with cross-device conversion attribution and advanced reporting features in a DSP. With the Tapad Graph integrated into Basis, marketers can now identify consumers across all of their devices during any point of the consumer journey. This can help marketers determine ad spend effectiveness for optimizing campaigns in real-time or for the future. Other cross-device marketing capabilities for Basis users include: Frequency Capping: Apply frequency caps at a unique person-level rather than at a device-level to prevent saturating users with ads and showing them more impressions than desired. Audience extension: Expand the reach of a campaign by learning what other devices a single user may have, then deliver ads to single users’ other devices. Reporting insights: Learn how users interact with ads across their devices. Gain insight about how consumers respond on devices to improve targeting parameters. Conversion attribution: Record conversions on devices different from that in which the ad was displayed to learn the true effectiveness of advertising efforts. “Cross-device analytics and optimization aligns with our vision that converging the different parts of digital media to create a holistic view of campaigns will drive performance,” said Katie Risch, EVP of customer experience, Centro. “Having Tapad’s powerful capability of personalized marketing gives our advertisers high-quality data to cultivate relationships with customers, wherever they are in digital channels.” About Tapad Tapad Inc. is the marketing technology company reinventing personalization for the modern marketer through its identity-driven solutions. The company's signature Tapad Graph connects millions of consumers across billions of devices. The world's largest brands and most effective marketers entrust Tapad to provide an accurate, privacy-conscious and unified approach to connecting with consumers across screens. In 2018, Tapad introduced its Tapad Customer Data Platform (CDP), purpose-built to offer marketers a highly personalized and privacy-safe platform to convert first and third-party data into actionable, results-driven campaigns. Tapad is based in New York and has offices in Chicago, London, Oslo, Singapore and Tokyo. Tapad's numerous awards include: Forbes' Most Promising Companies, Deloitte's Technology Fast 500, Crain's Fast 50, TMCnet Tech Culture Award and Global Startup Award's "Startup Founder of the Year." Tapad was acquired by the Telenor Group in 2016. Telenor Group is one of the world's largest mobile operators. About Centro Centro is a provider of enterprise-class software for digital advertising organizations. Its technology platform, Basis, is the first of its kind SaaS advertising solution unifying programmatic and direct media buying, along with workflow automation, cross-channel campaign planning, universal reporting and business intelligence. It boosts media, team and business performance by enabling advertisers to plan, buy and analyze real-time bidding (RTB), direct, search and social campaigns in a single platform. Contact us today

The concept of identity resolution has emerged over the years as a strategic imperative among marketers and technology vendors. A report by Forrester contends that accurately establishing and maintaining customer identity is one of the most perplexing challenges facing marketers today. Customers have footprints in the offline and online worlds and tend to seamlessly transition across various channels and devices – presenting a unique challenge to truly understand who they are. But the ability to stitch these disparate components of information together means marketers can make better decisions and have more meaningful interactions with their customers. And for customers, this means an experience with personalized advertising content more likely to resonate with them. Why should marketers prioritize identity? The ability to accurately identify customers is the most basic prerequisite for marketing analytics, orchestration and execution. As such, it is becoming increasingly important for brands and marketers planning to link together disparate systems of audience insights and engagement to foster a more seamless and personalized omnichannel customer experience. For example, if an advertiser can identify a customer’s interests, as well as how that person prefers to consume information, then the advertiser can create and deliver messaging that will resonate with the customer. However, like most competitive differentiators, the mission critical components to accurately determine an identity reside within the suite of identity management tools at the marketers’ disposal and the expertise required for proper execution – a struggle for most marketers. But when properly implemented, a comprehensive customer identity strategy can be among a brand or marketer’s most valuable and proprietary assets. Where to begin with identity resolution? With the convergence of CRM platform data, cross-channel online touchpoints, offline record linkage management, probabilistic cross-device graphs, and data onboarding—evolving from point solutions to unified platforms—marketers are faced with an increasingly complex set of challenges in addressing and solving for customer identity management. To properly implement from the get go, and to avoid having to bolt on disparate technologies down the road, emerging industry trends and success stories suggest marketers need a neutral technology service provider that can provide each of these solutions via a single, unified platform. A vendor that can build a solid identity management foundation comprised of omni-channel targeting and attribution, cross-device resolution, online-offline linkage management, and data onboarding form the nexus of a cohesive identity strategy, built to last. Experian helps connect consumer identity As a trusted name in data and information services for more than 40 years, we are committed to privacy by design and the responsible usage and security of data. Whether you’re a brand, agency, or publisher, Experian has the wide-ranging toolset to help you put people at the heart of your business and make better marketing decisions. By harnessing the power of the sum of these parts, fusing both offline and online identifiers and attributes, Experian has established a leadership position in identity management. If you're ready to begin building your identity foundation, contact us and get started today! Learn more about why identity matters to marketers and consumers, here! Contact us today

Partnership Yields Increased Match and Connectivity Rate Through Tapad Graph, acquired by Experian March 27, 2018 — New York, N.Y. — Tapad, part of Experian, is reinventing personalization for the modern marketer and today announced the impactful results of its strategic partnership with Flashtalking, the leading global independent platform for ad delivery, unification and insights. Flashtalking is one of Tapad's most engaged partners, using the Tapad Graph to unify cross-device engagement and identity-driven consumer behaviors for attribution modeling. The company leverages a unique identifier that, in conjunction with Tapad's Graph, provides robust multi-touch attribution solution for its clients. This partnership has resulted in above-industry match and bridge rates for Flashtalking and its customers. Overall, the Tapad Graph yielded a 71 percent match rate with 41 percent of converters engaging on multiple devices, highlighting the importance of cross-device measurement. Tapad’s identity solutions provide Flashtalking with a more holistic view of global engagement. Flashtalking marries ad server log file data with the Tapad Graph to connect all interactions in the consumer journey. This enables Flashtalking to provide more accurate and impactful cross-device attribution, which ultimately enables better optimization. These achievements have led to recognition of Tapad and Flashtalking’s work by the I-COM Global Forum for Marketing, Data and Measurement. “Tapad allows us to understand user engagement across devices and platforms at both the household or individual user level, which is extremely beneficial when providing marketers with true path to conversion and attribution,” said Steve Latham, global head of analytics at Flashtalking. “Since our relationship began, we’ve successfully leveraged Tapad data to provide more accurate, actionable insights that have helped numerous brands achieve substantial gains in media effectiveness.” Flashtalking client Michael Lamontagne, SVP of analytics and CRM at 22squared says “We are big believers in using cross-device insights to improve our campaigns. Flashtalking has been a strategic partner in the pursuit of that goal. By incorporating the Tapad Graph, Flashtalking delivers powerful insights into user engagement and media attribution across browsers and devices. Of equal importance, their bundled solution makes it easy and efficient, saving our team countless hours of busy work.” “Our ongoing work with Flashtalking has had a significant impact on the accomplishments we’ve achieved,” said Chris Feo, SVP, strategy & global partnerships at Tapad. “Being able to grow with a dedicated partner that leverages our proprietary technology in unique ways has helped us uncover the global impact our services can have on a business. We’re proud to drive success for Flashtalking’s clients on a global scale.” Contact us today