For Digitas North America’s Megan Jones, contextual AI is unlocking a new era in which brands can engage audiences with unprecedented relevance.
Context has always been a key consideration for advertisers. But, whilst context used to be somewhat up to interpretation, AI is now supercharging marketers’ ability to understand it.
“It’s a pretty empowering moment in terms of context now being tech-enabled and really allowing our strategic folks to have that at their fingertips to start to think about what to do with all of that context, how to make better decisions about where to put messaging, where to invest media dollars,” says Jones, Chief Media Officer at Digitas North America, in this video interview with Beet.TV.
AI Brings Context to Life
Jones thinks AI is making context available “in real-time”. Whereas previously, two people reading the same text may have interpreted its context differently, machines can now crunch vast datasets. “Now you can use AI to bring really relevant data sets together and personalize that to the individual,” Jones says.
Despite its power, Jones thinks AI’s application of context is all about consumer permission. “It is all about what consumers are willing to share,” she says. “So to me, it’s permission-based. It’s very much based on loyal customers in many instances with information that they’ve already built into a profile that a brand might know.
“I think that there are ways to do it in very compliant, privacy-friendly manners. And I think actually that’s the tipping point of this whole world of personalization where it’s all about what a consumer has given what they’re willing to share to get better intelligence back.”
Fueling Creativity
Whilst many people have been talking about using AI for efficiency and workflow, Jones is excited about how the technology can inform creativity.
“What excites me is just figuring out how brands are going to apply all of this talk of AI,” she says. “(It) starts to bring in, I think, a more robust, less finite set of data signals.
“It’s almost like you’re giving AI a heart, not just a brain. To me, that’s really exciting, and that’s the piece that I think all of us had been skeptical about, maybe a little bit scared about, but now I think it’s unlocking just new potential in terms of how brands, agencies, how consumers are actually going to think about AI.”
You’re watching The Power of Context: Driving Attention to Intention in a Privacy-First Era, a Beet.TV Leadership Series, presented by Seedtag. For more videos from this series, please visit this page.
