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Why context is key to making AI successful in marketing

Published: November 24, 2025 by Matthew Griffiths, SVP of Technology, Audigent, a part of Experian

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.

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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:

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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).

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Environmental signals

The media or content environment; what type of program, article, or channel someone is engaging with when they see your ad.

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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:

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Input

Clean, accurate identity and audience data anchored in our privacy-first framework.

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Enrichment

Our models fuse household, device, and publisher context to reveal moment-based intent.

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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.

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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.

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A travel brand can shift creative from “dreaming” to “booking” mode when AI detects signals of active planning.

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A retailer can align promotions with trending content or regional weather shifts in real time.

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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

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

How does context make AI-driven marketing more effective?

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.

What is the context gap in AI-driven marketing?

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.

Does Experian interpret contextual signals in real-time?

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.

What does responsible intelligence look like in practice?

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.

What does Experian’s foundation in responsible automation look like?

– 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.


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Interactivity hinges on data to deliver the right message and creative for engagement. Insights are gained through pre-campaign research, analyzing audience attributes to grasp their interests and behaviors. Flexibility relies on real-time campaign data, a unique advantage in digital marketing. In an era where audiences are available readily on most major activation platforms, advertisers need to understand how audiences are built to be privacy conscious and consistent in a cookieless environment. Experian’s political personas Digital marketing in political campaigns is crucial to reach and influence voters online. Integrating Experian's political personas into your political campaign strategy can help you grasp the complexities of today's American voter landscape and craft tailored engagement strategies. These personas offer invaluable insights into voter viewpoints on key political issues, enriching digital marketing efforts and empowering campaigns to connect with constituents more effectively. Experian has created 10 political personas to help you better understand today’s American voter so you can reach consumers based on their viewpoints into key political issues.  Our political personas group voters along the political spectrum from most “committed” on the ends of the spectrum. Let’s walk through how we define each persona starting from the most “committed” personas on the ends of the spectrum. Committed Democrats This audience contains consumers who are likely to have a "very liberal” outlook on political issues. They have strong liberal opinions on various topics including key issues and the economy and are very involved in their communities. Committed Republicans This audience contains consumers who are likely to have a "very conservative” outlook on political issues. They are well-informed, community-minded individuals with strong opinions that reflect their conservatism. They have very conservative attitudes regarding key social issues. Moderate Democrats This audience contains consumers who are likely to have a “somewhat liberal” outlook on political issues. Moderate Republicans This audience contains consumers who are likely to have a “somewhat conservative” outlook on political issues. Political Leaning Liberals This audience contains consumers who are likely to have strong opinions on key issues that may not align with the traditional Democrat point of view. Political Leaning Conservatives This audience contains consumers who are likely on-the-fence on traditional Republican points of view on key issues. Liberal Leaning Independents This audience contains consumers who are registered independents and who are likely to have a “middle of the road” outlook on political issues while tending to lean more liberal. Conservative Leaning Independents This audience contains consumers who are likely registered independents and likely have a "middle-of-the-road” outlook on political issues while tending to lean more conservative. Political Unregistered Liberal Leaning This audience contains consumers who are not likely to have aligned with a specific party, but have a more liberal attitude. They are well-informed and are aware of important political issues. They frequently align with but are not necessarily completely aligned with liberal points of view. Political Unregistered Conservative Leaning This audience contains consumers who are not likely to have aligned with a specific party, but have a more conservative attitude. They are well-informed and are aware of important political issues. They frequently align with but are not necessarily completely aligned with conservative points of view.    These 10 personas can help you better understand who the American voter is, but when combined with our 200 politically relevant audiences, such as watches political TV, donations to charitable causes, engagement channel preferences, hobbies, and more, the ability to study and improve engagement for each persona is considerably magnified. How to combine our political personas with other audiences If you're a political candidate looking to reach an important population, Experian audiences are available on-the-shelf of major platforms. For example, if you want to reach unregistered voters and independent voters to influence green initiatives within your community, you can focus on unregistered and moderate personas in the area and combine that with audiences interested in green initiatives, like our GreenAware segments – which predict a consumer’s attitude and point of view on environmental issues. You can use our "Political Unregistered Liberal Leaning", "Liberal Leaning Independents," and GreenAware “Think Greens” audience segments to reach constituents who are likely to be most interested in your message. To reach voters based on their regional voting patterns, you can use our new battleground counties and district audiences: Affiliation Switcher Counties   Battleground Counties  House Battleground Districts  Democrat Counties Republican Counties Independent Counties Add Experian’s audiences to your 2024 election strategy Political advertising spend is projected to surpass $12 billlion in the 2024 election cycle, generating the largest amount of voter outreach in the history of American elections. Experian’s audiences are available on major activation platforms allowing you to strategically reach constituents who would be most impacted and interested in your initiatives. As we approach a cookieless future, Experian’s political personas are cookie resilient. Our data is rooted in both offline and online data that doesn’t rely on third-party cookies. The personas do not rely on an individual’s browsing behavior. Experian can help our partners understand and engage with these political audiences. Over 200 politically relevant Experian audiences are available for activation on-the-shelf of the leading TV, demand, and supply platforms. Here are the platforms where you can find our political audiences: ArcSpan Audigent Cadent Eyeota Magnite Microsoft Nexxen Pandora Permutive Samsung Ads The Trade Desk Verizon Media Viant Videoamp Yieldmo Can’t find the audience you’re looking for or need a custom audience? Connect with our audience team for more information. Connect with our audience team Contact us Latest posts

Apr 23,2024 by Experian Marketing Services

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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.

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