CANNES – At a time when identity-based targeting faces mounting challenges, Ogury is betting on a fundamentally different approach: targeting personas rather than people.
“Our methodology is based on effectively finding audiences that have the right mindset, the right characteristics, without effectively encroaching on their privacy,” Thomas Bernal, SVP of Go-to-Market at Ogury, told Beet.TV contributor David Kaplan at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.
This persona-based approach represents Ogury’s response to what Bernal describes as a fragmented landscape where identity has become “more and more challenged over the past few years.”
Redefining addressability
The traditional definition of addressable advertising — finding specific individuals — no longer fits the current media reality, according to Bernal.
“Addressability, at least for me, used to mean being able to find someone effectively having information on this particular impression opportunity,” he explained. “The way I would describe it, is that today, it’s not necessarily tied to the person itself, but effectively having enough information to make an educated decision as to whether or not you want to buy this impression.”
This shift matters as the industry grapples with challenges across environments. “The open web has its challenges or new environments like CTV where effectively the identity is more of a challenge,” Bernal noted. “But that’s how I would describe [addressability] in 2025.”
Privacy by design
Rather than treating privacy as a constraint layered onto existing targeting models, Ogury built privacy into its core algorithm from the start. The company’s approach relies on what Bernal calls “zero-party data,” which is information users voluntarily provide through surveys.
“The choice we’ve made was to invest in what we call zero-party data. So effectively self-declared, survey-based information that users will effectively give us,” he said. “What this helps us do is it effectively helps us do better on a number of things, whether it’s opinions, attitudes, mindsets—the types of things that you wouldn’t necessarily find in first or third-party data elsewhere.”
Beyond purchase data
Bernal argues that traditional data sources, while valuable, have limitations when it comes to understanding consumer mindsets and intentions.
“I always like to say you wouldn’t try to guess the next winner of an election by looking at your Walmart point of purchase data,” Bernal said. “That data is super valuable in and of itself, but there’s a number of things that brands are looking for today that they just can’t get anywhere else.”
This limitation becomes particularly apparent when brands need to understand attitudes, opinions, and future intentions rather than past behaviors.
AI powers persona modeling
Artificial intelligence has been central to Ogury’s approach “for years now,” enabling both predictive targeting and the construction of persona models themselves. The company employs data scientists and specialists from the survey and panel world to process vast amounts of information.
“Just processing that amount of data at scale and being able to effectively mesh survey data with any sort of third-party data or any sort of open source data—that isn’t necessarily something that we’d be able to scale manually,” Bernal explained.
The AI investment serves dual purposes: improving model accuracy and driving operational efficiency. It’s an area where Ogury plans continued investment in the coming years.
The future of targeting
As the advertising industry continues wrestling with the performance-privacy balance, Ogury’s persona-based approach offers an alternative path. Rather than trying to identify individuals, the company focuses on finding groups with the right characteristics and mindsets.
“By design, our methodology is based on effectively finding audiences that have the right mindset, the right characteristics, without effectively encroaching on their privacy,” Bernal said.
You’re watching “Dispatches from Cannes Lions 2025: Interviews on Innovation”, a Beet.TV Leadership Series at Cannes Lions 2025, presented by DirectTV, EXTE, Fandom, Future USA, Jivox, Kroger, New Tradition, Ogury, Pentaleap, Perion, Topsort, VuePlanner, and Walmart Connect. For more videos from this series, visit this page. You can find all of our coverage from Cannes Lions 2025 here.
