At A Glance
AI can make marketing more human when it understands people in context. Experian’s technology interprets real-time contextual signals—from temporal to situational intent—to align every message with the moment. By connecting identity and context, marketers can create timely, relevant, and responsible engagement that builds trust and drives meaningful outcomes.Personalization without context misses the moment
Marketers have spent years perfecting personalization — but personalization alone often misses the mark. We’ve all seen it. You shop for a weekend getaway, then get served travel ads weeks later when you’re already home. The data was right. The timing wasn’t.
Personalization based only on identity and behavior knows who you are but not when or why you’re ready to act.
At Experian, we believe AI should make marketing feel more human. That means understanding people in context, recognizing their environment, mindset, and the moment, to create relevance that feels timely, not intrusive.
The context gap: Why identity and behavior aren’t enough
Identity and behavioral data can reveal the kind of consumer someone is and the kind of products they may want to buy. But they don’t explain what’s happening right now.
The missing layer is context: the dynamic, real-time signal that shows why this moment matters. Context bridges the gap between knowing something about a consumer and understanding their intent.
In an era of fragmented signals and stricter privacy rules, context is one of the most reliable ways to stay relevant without over-reliance on personal identifiers. It helps marketers adapt to shifting needs while keeping privacy intact.
How Experian interprets context in real-time
By context, we mean all the subtle, in-the-moment signals, like time of day, location, or what someone’s watching, that shape what people care about in real-time. At Experian, our technology interprets these in real-time:
Temporal signals
Time-based patterns such as daypart (morning vs. evening), recency (how fresh a signal is), seasonality (holidays, life events), and micro-moments (split-second intent-driven actions).
Environmental signals
The media or content environment; what type of program, article, or channel someone is engaging with when they see your ad.
Situational intent
Signals like browsing behavior or purchase patterns that hint at a person’s stage in the buying journey, from early research to final decision.
By layering these signals over verified identity and behavioral data, Experian’s AI-powered technology helps marketers predict not just who will act, but when they’re ready to act.
Experian’s approach: Turning context into relevance
Consumer behavior changes by the minute, and marketers need to adapt just as quickly. Our technology interprets live bidstream data, device activity, content, and timing to optimize in the moment, ensuring your campaigns deliver meaningful relevance, not just broader reach.
Our process combines:
Input
Clean, accurate identity and audience data anchored in our privacy-first framework.
Enrichment
Our models fuse household, device, and publisher context to reveal moment-based intent.
Activation
We’re investing in agentic workflows that help marketers plan and execute performance campaigns at scale, activated via our real-time technology that dynamically adjusts deals and surfaces contextually aligned opportunities.
Governance
Every signal and recommendation follows Experian’s principles of transparency, consent, and ethical oversight.
We call this AI-powered simplicity tools that help marketers work more efficiently, with intelligence that feels intuitive and human-centered.
How context changes the game for marketers
AI without real-time context can only react based on what it already knows. AI-powered by in-the-moment contextual data points enables marketers to anticipate, not just react.
A travel brand can shift creative from “dreaming” to “booking” mode when AI detects signals of active planning.
A retailer can align promotions with trending content or regional weather shifts in real time.
A CPG brand can trigger different product messages based on the context of recipes or household occasions.
Adjustments based on contextual signals compound into meaningful gains — higher engagement, better efficiency, and a consumer experience that feels natural rather than intrusive.
Context makes AI more human
Context introduces empathy into automation. It’s what keeps AI from overstepping, ensuring the message fits the moment. When marketers respect timing, environment, and intent, ads feel like service, not surveillance. Context transforms relevance into respect.
At Experian, our vision is to make every signal serve people, not profiles. Because the more our technology (including our AI tools and capabilities) understands context, the more human marketing becomes.
At Experian, responsible intelligence is built in
Every contextual model we deploy adheres to our standards for transparent and responsible innovation. We validate inputs, monitor model drift, and ensure no context-based variable introduces bias or privacy risk. This is what responsible automation looks like in practice: intelligent, explainable, and ethical.
From who to when: Context is the future of AI-driven marketing
Identity tells us who someone is. Context tells us when it matters.
The next wave of AI-driven marketing will unite privacy-first identity with contextual intelligence to deliver real-time relevance, responsibly. At Experian, we’re building that future now. Our AI-driven capabilities bring identity, insight, and generative intelligence together so brands, agencies, and platforms can reach the right people, at the right moment, with relevance and respect.
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About the author
Matthew Griffiths
SVP of Technology, Audigent, a part of Experian
Matthew Griffiths is a seasoned technology entrepreneur and a driving force in advertising technology, data technology, and AI. As the Co-Founder and former CTO (now SVP of Technology) at Audigent, a part of Experian, he plays a pivotal role in shaping the company’s cutting-edge solutions for data activation, curation, and identity management.
With years of executive experience across the U.S., Africa, and the U.K., Matthew has a proven track record of leadership in steering the adoption and use of cutting-edge technologies to drive business outcomes. His expertise spans from collaborating with top global corporations and governments to spearheading award-winning technology projects that deliver life-changing impacts in some of the world’s most underserved communities.
Matthew’s dynamic approach to solving complex business and technology challenges makes him a visionary leader in the AdTech space, consistently driving innovation and performance through technology.
FAQs
Context makes AI-driven marketing more effective because it helps marketers understand people in context, recognizing their environment, mindset, and the moment, to create relevance that feels timely, not intrusive. Context helps marketers understand not just who a person is, but when and why they’re ready to act. Experian’s AI-powered technology layers contextual signals over verified identity data to deliver relevance that feels intuitive, not invasive. This approach connects recognition with understanding, making every campaign more effective and more human.
Identity and behavioral data can reveal the kind of consumer someone is and the kind of products they may want to buy. But they don’t explain what’s happening right now. That’s the context gap—the missing link between knowing something about a consumer and understanding their intent. Context closes this gap by analyzing environmental, temporal, and situational signals that reveal intent—without using invasive identifiers.
Yes, at Experian, our technology interprets contextual signals, including temporal, environmental, and situational, in real-time. By layering these signals over Experian’s verified identity and behavioral data graph, marketers can predict when consumers are most receptive, turning data into real-time opportunity.
At Experian, every contextual model we deploy adheres to our standards for transparent and responsible innovation. We validate inputs, monitor model drift, and ensure no context-based variable introduces bias or privacy risk.
– Privacy-first clarity: We unify household, individual, device, demographic, behavioral, publisher first-party signals, and contextual data points to build a reliable view of consumers, even when certain signals are missing. This clarity helps marketers personalize, target, activate, and measure with confidence.
– Predictive insight: Our models go beyond describing the past. They forecast behaviors, fill gaps with inferred attributes, create lookalikes, and recommend next-best audiences so clients can anticipate opportunity.
– AI-powered simplicity: We’re investing in generative AI and exploring emerging agentic workflows to reimagine how marketers work. Our vision is to move beyond basic audience recommendations toward intelligent audience discovery and automated setup, helping teams uncover opportunities they may not have considered, while spending less time on manual work and more time on strategy and outcomes.
– Real-time intelligence: Consumer journeys never stand still. Our AI-powered technology interprets live bidstream data, device activity, content, and timing to optimize in the moment, ensuring campaigns deliver meaningful relevance, not just broader reach.
– Transparent and responsible innovation: We drive safe, modular experimentation, from generative applications to agentic workflows, always balancing bold ideas with ethical guardrails. We stay at the forefront of evolving legislation and regulation, ensuring our innovations protect consumers, brands, and the broader ecosystem while moving the industry forward responsibly.
Latest posts
Today, Experian announced a suite of next-generation solutions that will help marketers navigate the challenges of cookie deprecation. Powered by the Experian Graph, these solutions will enable marketers to maintain behavioral targeting at scale. In partnership with Audigent, Experian announced the early-stage limited availability of Experian Audiences inside the Privacy Sandbox through the Protected Audiences API. Experian has also co-developed, with Audigent, an AI-driven contextual targeting solution layered with Experian’s rich Experian Marketing Data to continue delivering marketers scale and performance from their campaigns. Finally, Experian continues to evolve its signal-agnostic Graph, including coverage for industry-leading universal IDs, and plans to support IPv6 and phone-based UID2s. With these solutions, marketers can confidently deliver behavioral targeting after cookie deprecation and benefit from the power of Experian Marketing Data in their contextually targeted campaigns. As the industry prepares for ongoing signal loss and tightened privacy regulations, these solutions and further investments in Experian's identity Graph ensure Experian continues to power data-driven advertising and achieves the needs of modern marketers: addressable advertising, cross-device targeting, and measurement. Experian’s Graph allows marketers to target audiences in Privacy Sandbox via Audigent Building off Audigent’s work with Privacy Sandbox, Experian and Audigent tested the scale of Experian audience data in Privacy Sandbox and found that over 15 days, they were able to match audiences to over 150M Chrome browsers in the US. This solution – now in alpha – is powered by Experian’s Graph, leveraging an array of identifiers, including hashed emails and Hadron IDs. While the scale of targetable users and ad opportunities is still growing with the adoption of Privacy Sandbox by publishers and SSPs, the results are strong and provide a real-life illustration of how advertisers will be able to reach audiences in this new environment. “As the industry’s leader in building Interest Group segments in PAAPI, Audigent is thrilled to see world-class data partners like Experian work with us to build innovative solutions that deliver value now and will be absolutely critical as third-party cookies are deprecated in 2025.”DREW STEIN, FOUNDER AND CEO, AUDIGENT Data-driven contextual targeting is available through partnerships with Audigent and Peer39 As marketers prepare for cookie deprecation, they are turning to tried and true methods of targeting, like contextual, as they offer targeting strategies based on content and behavior instead of user identity. Experian is co-developing ID-less solutions that upgrade contextual targeting by intelligently indexing and infusing Experian’s rich Experian Marketing Data against contextual signals. By using these products, advertisers gain the ability to reach their audiences with a new and improved solution that delivers scale, performance, and value. We have beta launched a unique solution with Audigent that indexes Experian syndicated audiences against contextual signals through the power of the Experian Graph and Audigent’s Hadron ID to create PMPs that can be activated on any DSP. As part of the beta, a leading national advertiser ran a test via Audigent to see if this fully cookieless solution could deliver results at parity or better than today's ID-based options. The scaled 15-day flight not only met existing campaign delivery targets but also exceeded CTR goals by 25%. Experian has also partnered with Peer39 to make our geo-indexed syndicated audiences (e.g., Purchase Affinity and Demographic data) available through Peer39's contextual integrations. This allows marketers to confidently reach the right audiences in their digital marketing campaigns without third-party cookies. Experian's Graph now includes leading Universal IDs With the ever-changing nature of signal and identity, we’re continuing steps to be interoperable, and Experian's signal-agnostic Graph now supports the leading universal IDs: UID2s, ID5 IDs, and Hadron IDs. This is in addition to hashed e-mails, mobile ad IDs, and Connected TV IDs. Our strong coverage against cookieless identifiers means marketers will maintain addressable advertising as the Graph continues resolving data back to consumers and households in a privacy-centric way. In addition to providing greater breadth and depth of signals to reach US consumers, Experian's Graph is rebuilt weekly, which means our connections are highly accurate, refreshed, and addressable. “Experian is a valued partner in Nexxen's unified identity graph powering the Nexxen data platforms, which bring us the ability to seamlessly onboard client data, activate campaigns, and measure performance while maximizing biddable opportunities for our advertisers. They help ensure our clients can continue reaching audiences at scale and successfully execute campaigns.”Chance Johnson, Chief Commercial Officer, Nexxen Investments planned over the next year continue to ensure a Graph resilient to signal loss As connected TV (CTV) viewing continues to dominate, the importance of being able to match to IPv6 increases. Later this year, we’ll add support for IPv6 in our Graph as well as phone-based UID2s. This is in addition to our current coverage of IPv4 and email-based UID2s. As a result, all IP signals and UID2s will be resolved back to Experian’s household and individual profiles and their associated devices, which means marketers and platforms can better understand the full customer journey and reach people across their devices. Experian’s toolkit of cookieless solutions maintains addressability and ensures marketers can continue to do privacy-safe behavioral targeting at scale As the industry braces for the challenges posed by signal loss and evolving regulation, the unparalleled breadth, depth, and stability of Experian’s Graph empowers our partners across the ad tech ecosystem to confidently achieve their objectives and navigate uncertainty. What are you waiting for? Fill out the form to begin testing one of these cookieless solutions. Get started About the author Budi Tanzi, VP of Product and Solution Engineering, Experian Marketing Services Budi Tanzi is the Vice President of Product at Experian Marketing Services, overseeing all Identity Products. Prior to joining Experian, Budi worked at various stakeholders of the ad-tech ecosystem, such as Tapad, Sizmek and StrikeAd. During his career, he held leadership roles in both Product Management and Solution Engineering. Budi has been living in New York for almost 11 years and enjoys being outdoors as well as sailing around NYC whenever possible. Latest posts
At Experian, we power data-driven advertising through connectivity. Today, we're excited to introduce our newest offering, which drives that connectivity: Experian Third-Party Onboarding. This new capability empowers third-party data providers by streamlining the monetization of their audiences through Experian’s expansive network of over 20 programmatic, social, and TV platforms. Data onboarding typically presents challenges, including complicated integration processes, limited ID matching capabilities, and opaque pricing structures, all compounded by less-than-ideal customer service. Experian Third-Party Onboarding eliminates the common barriers in the onboarding process and leaves users with a simple yet powerful solution for data providers to increase the adoption of their audiences and maximize their revenue. A leap forward in data connectivity Experian Third-Party Onboarding builds upon the investment and infrastructure used to distribute Experian's own audience segments. Notably, in 2020, we began the transformation of moving away from third-party partners to using our own direct connections for audience distribution. Compared to the competition, Experian’s Third-Party Onboarding capabilities offers data providers: Enhanced programmatic addressability: 50% increase in programmatic addressability compared to the competition. Superior CTV addressability: As a top identity partner in TV, we provide a 73% increase in CTV addressability as compared to the competition. Vast digital reach: Approximately 3.8B digital IDs that are active and addressable on a weekly basis. The first data providers to use Experian’s third-party onboarding capabilities are Adentro, Kontext, L2, and Webbula. "Moving beyond cookie-only third-party onboarding solutions is critical for our users in the age of cookie deprecation, and Experian's identity capabilities do that. Experian's match rates and speed to turn around audiences to a large number of platforms is critical for our political buyers during this very busy campaign season."Paul Westcott, EVP, L2 Benefits to Experian Third-Party Onboarding Experian’s unique onboarding process enhances current capabilities and sets new benchmarks in the industry. The comprehensive benefits of Experian’s Third-Party Onboarding include: Future-proof your addressability: With Experian's advanced digital and offline identity capabilities embedded within this new onboarding solution, user audiences will automatically be expanded to a deep set of identifiers (e.g., CTV IDs, MAIDs, IPs, UID2s, ID5s, and more) to ensure scale and maximum addressability. Seize the CTV opportunity: Tap into the explosive growth of connected TV (CTV), the fastest-growing major ad channel in the U.S., with connectivity to more than ten TV destinations. Simple pricing structure: Straightforward revenue-share pricing structure free of hidden costs, ensuring clarity and trust in all financial dealings. Streamlined reporting: Gain valuable insights with self-service reporting available within days of receiving data from the platform. Drive growth and adoption with faster reporting, allowing you to track usage by segment, advertiser, or destination effortlessly. Efficiency and support: A self-service, user-friendly interface gives you control over taxonomy field names, CPMs, and destinations. It is complemented by a dedicated account team, which reduces the burden on user resources and guarantees a seamless experience from onboarding to activation to reporting. Support for syndicated and custom audiences: Seamlessly onboard bulk syndicated audience taxonomies and custom audiences to programmatic, social, and TV platforms through our existing integrations. “Both activation platforms and data providers familiar with our world-class identity capabilities and top-notch service have proactively asked Experian to provide third-party onboarding services. After listening carefully to how we can improve upon their current setup, we are excited to bring a solution to the market that directly addresses their needs.”Scott Kozub, VP, Product Management, Experian Stay ahead of the curve Maintaining a competitive edge with your data is no longer optional; it's imperative. Experian Third-Party Onboarding arms users with advanced connectivity, unparalleled data expertise, and thorough support, positioning them at the forefront of industry innovations. Reach out to our team today to learn more about Experian Third-Party Onboarding and how it can make your data go further. Go further now Read the AdExchanger press release about Third-Party Onboarding Learn more Latest posts
Retail media networks (RMNs) rank among the fastest-growing media channels. According to eMarketer, retail media spend is forecasted to account for more than a fifth of overall digital spending in 2025, and retail media spend will grow by 21.8%. For RMNs, the path to realizing this opportunity is marked by navigating through a series of critical stages, each with its own set of challenges and solutions. Retail media strategies Simply put, RMNs need to know who their customers are, where they are, and how to reach them to succeed. But we know nothing is that simple. This blog post reviews the three pivotal stages of RMN success, offering a roadmap for networks aiming to optimize their operations and claim their share of the rapidly growing category. Stage 1: Develop a data foundation In a world where traditional tracking methods are fading, first-party data has become essential for targeted advertising. Retailers have a wealth of this valuable data due to their direct consumer relationships. The initial step in establishing an RMN is to organize and utilize this data effectively. Steps to develop a data foundation: Organize data: Bring together fragmented shopper data, loyalty program information, and other customer data into a unified location. Clean and deduplicate this data to create consistent customer profiles. Enhance profiles: Gain insights into your customers and your brand’s customers so you can learn who your best, lapsed, and non-customers are. Append additional attributes to your shopper data, including media consumption habits, lifestyle preferences, demographic information, and more. Use identity graphs: Identity providers, like Experian, enable you to learn about the anonymous – and known – visitors on your platform and organize disparate customer data points into households. This will allow RMNs to connect addressable identifiers to the household, making it easier to reach customers across channels. Create audience segments: With a solid data foundation, RMNs can build audience segments beyond basic shopper data. These segments will make your data more attractive and actionable for media buyers. For example, consider a retailer that knows its shoppers are primarily young professionals, but a CPG brand wants to target not only these shoppers but also young professionals who are parents. By partnering with an identity solution provider like Experian, the retailer can append additional data to identify and target the young parents within their existing customer base, enabling the CPG brand to reach both audience segments effectively. “Retail media networks thrive on clean, accurate, and actionable data. Simply put, it's crucial to know who your customers are, when they're most engaged, and where to reach them to drive effective marketing strategies and maximize ROI.”anne passon, sr. director, sales, retail Stage 2: Become a publisher for optimal retail media growth The next step for RMNs is to transition from building a data foundation to helping marketers reach their target audience, essentially becoming a publisher. This involves two main processes: organizing advertising inventory and connecting it to demand. Steps to become a publisher: Audit and organize inventory: Conduct a thorough review of all existing ad spaces, including websites, apps, and in-store placements. Identify gaps and consider creating new advertising opportunities, such as website and app features, interactive digital experiences, or expanded in-store touchpoints. Connect inventory to demand: Integrate the organized inventory with platforms, allowing advertisers to access it easily. This often involves using supply-side platforms (SSPs) and demand-side platforms (DSPs). Continuing with our example, the CPG brand can work with its DSP or SSP partners and easily access your ad inventory, and effectively target the young professional and young parent audience segments. Stage 3: Scale inventory for retail media growth As RMNs progress to the final stage of their success journey, they may face the challenge of limited inventory within their owned and operated (O&O) channels. To meet marketers' expansive reach requirements and to continue to drive growth and profitability for their organizations, RMNs must expand their inventory beyond O&O. Steps to scale inventory: Utilize data collaboration tools: Clean rooms allow secure merging and enrichment of data from various sources, creating richer audience profiles while maintaining privacy. Resolve identity and enhance addressability: Identity graphs help resolve known customer identifiers (e.g. emails) into addressable IDs (e.g. mobile IDs and connected TV IDs), which can be used to reach customers across all the platforms they consume media. Expand audience reach: Onboarders, like Experian, help extend data and audiences to programmatic destinations beyond a retailer's O&O inventory. By mapping audiences to digital identifiers maintained by identity partners, RMNs can significantly widen their reach, meeting advertisers' needs for engaging with broader and more diverse audience segments. The CPG brand can now reach young professionals and young parents on the retailer’s platform and in all the other places where they consume media, like watching their favorite shows on connected TV (CTV) or browsing the web on their phones. Measurement across stages for retail media growth Measurement is crucial and must be conducted during and after a campaign to understand and validate performance. Here are two types of measurement to consider: Cross-device campaign measurement: Measure performance by connecting an ad exposure in one environment (e.g. CTV) to an action in another (e.g. mobile purchase). This holistic, cross-device approach requires a partner for identity resolution as it will ensure that the impact of a campaign is fully understood. Aggregate performance analysis: Understand performance in aggregate across several campaign studies. Receive independent third-party measurement validation that you can promote to advertisers to drive increased spend. For our CPG brand, these measurement reports ensure that they can track the performance of their campaigns from the initial exposure on a CTV to the final purchase made on a mobile device, providing comprehensive insights and validation of their advertising strategy. The retailer can aggregate these studies and promote their network’s effectiveness to prospective advertisers. Accelerate retail media growth with strategic partnerships The journey through the stages of RMN success is riddled with deep technical challenges that are often beyond the institutional capabilities of non-media businesses. The intricacies of data management, audience insights, identity resolution, precise cross-device targeting, and measurement require specialized expertise and technologies that may not be readily available in-house. RMNs stand to benefit from forging strategic partnerships with companies that possess not only the necessary technological tools but also a profound understanding of the media landscape. The steps outlined here will accelerate your growth and ensure you capitalize on the opportunity in front of you. Connect with a member of our team to learn how we can support your journey toward RMN success. Contact us to enhance your retail media strategies Latest posts