CANNES – Epsilon is expanding its global reach and doubling down on predictive AI to help brands build more meaningful, measurable relationships with consumers, says Mike Ng, chief revenue officer of Publicis Groupe’s Epsilon.
Speaking with Jon Watts, managing director of the Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement, at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, Ng described how identity, data, and AI are reshaping modern marketing.
“Something that Epsilon has done pretty well over the past five-plus years is really our truth set, our identity set from a U.S. perspective,” Ng said. “The reason why Lotame was so critical for us was it was our ability to bring our version of identity to the rest of the world.”
Epsilon recently acquired Lotame, a global data solutions provider, to accelerate its ability to unify identity data across markets like EMEA, APAC and Latin America.
“It’s not just a one-size-fits-all,” Ng said. “We make sure that we kind of evaluate the data set. That was part of the due diligence, part of the M&A process evaluating how identity is done by various companies, not just Lotame.”
Power of connected identity
For Epsilon, identity is the common thread that connects paid, owned, and earned marketing, and it is central to Publicis Groupe’s broader growth strategy.
“Connected identity is kind of the two-word phrase that we use both internally at Publicis and Epsilon, but also externally with our clients,” Ng said. “It’s really the thread that you pull between all forms of marketing.”
Ng explained that understanding consumers at the individual level enables brands to engage more effectively, whether through search, programmatic display, loyalty programs, or email campaigns.
“It’s really how do you know that individual horizontally as well,” he said.
Measurement, Ng emphasized, is what sets Epsilon apart.
“For us, having that measurability at that individual level, we do think differentiates us,” he said. “We do talk about the front and the back end as well.”
One view, one vision, one voice
Epsilon’s approach centers on providing marketers with a holistic understanding of their customers and orchestrating relevant messaging across channels.
“If you’re a financial services client, you might know a very, very deep depth of what your customers spend within that sector,” Ng explained. “But you may not know all the time demographic, zip code. You also may not know what CPG items you’re buying at the supermarket.”
That broader perspective, Ng said, is critical for delivering personalized marketing based on real consumer behavior and life stage. As an example, he shared his own experience shopping for a new television.
“The minute I buy the TV, I’m not looking to buy another TV right away. My wife would kill me,” Ng said. “But I might look at loyalty, I might look at a speaker system, I might look at a warranty.”
For Ng, true marketing harmony comes when brands stitch together the customer view, their purchase journey and real-time media activation.
“Stitching that all together is really where the magic happens,” he said. “It’s the identity and knowing when and where and how to address the consumer at the right place.”
Predictive AI, not just generative AI
While much of the marketing world focuses on flashy generative AI tools, Epsilon’s strength lies in predictive AI capabilities.
“We’re not really in the generative AI space, but we are in the predictive AI space,” Ng said. “It’s really around how do you find and predict the right individual, again around identity, and the right message, and the right context of when to find that person.”
Within Publicis Groupe, generative AI may play a role in creative development, but Ng emphasized that Epsilon complements that by applying predictive AI to improve targeting and message delivery.
“We marry that up on the predictive piece to then serve that and deliver that,” he said.
AI as democratizing force
Ng argued that AI has the potential to empower small and medium-sized businesses, not just large enterprises.
“I’m a big fan of how it democratizes it,” he said, pointing to AI’s role in making identity solutions more accessible. “It’s still first-party data that they own and they operate. How do you then utilize AI? It’s really the ideas that make the most difference.”
He predicted a shift in industry dynamics where creativity becomes an even greater differentiator.
“In the next 10 years, 20 years with AI, the ideas people might actually rise because AI is helping us build things faster,” Ng said. “We may, for the first time in the industry, have a shortage of ideas, not engineers.”
Retail media and the future of the market
Looking ahead to 2030, Ng expects retail media and commerce media to continue their rapid ascent, helping marketers diversify beyond dominant walled gardens.
“It’s almost what’s old is new, just like 90s fashion,” Ng said. “Audience, media identity, data monetization, these are things that happened in the 2000s, 2010s, 2020s went out of vogue, they’re now back in vogue with a different moniker.”
Retail media, Ng believes, represents an opportunity to democratize access to high-quality data and advertising solutions.
“I do hope that retail media kind of democratizes even the ability for more people to kind of fragment or shift budgets away, where it’s not so concentrated to some of the few walled gardens,” he said.
Advice for marketers: Consolidate and interoperate
Ng closed the discussion with practical advice for marketers navigating complex technology ecosystems.
“There’s so much Frankensteining, there’s so much identity definition that’s different,” he said, warning against fragmented tech stacks that hinder interoperability. “The future next five years is interoperability of any partner that marketer would look at, because that’s how you actually measure the efficacy better.”
Otherwise, Ng cautioned, marketers risk getting lost in a sea of disconnected data points.
“There’s no unification there,” he said.
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