LONDON — Advertisers have faced the perennial issue of balancing identity-focused ad targeting with the need to respect these same consumers’ demand for privacy. The promises of agentic AI seem to grow on a daily basis, but the still-emerging tech just may be the one to solve this targeting dilemma for marketers and media buyers.
“The problem from an advertiser perspective is that there is a lot of fragmented data out there and historically we’ve really seen data really be just synonymous with targeting,” Silvia Sparry, global chief transformation officer at WPP Media, told Beet.TV contributor Robert Andrews at the Beet.TV and WPP Media Leadership Summit. “What we will see going forward is a shift towards intelligence from this very identity focused approach.”
Rather than building holistic identifier databases for micro-targeting, advertisers should surface data in their own environments, generate trend analysis, and activate advertising across channels based on those insights.
Organizational fragmentation blocks data access
Chief marketing officers often lack easy access to critical data like stock levels because information lives in separate departments, sometimes geographically dispersed, requiring consultancy-style internal conversations.
“The problem that we often run into with these conversations is that advertiser organizations are often quite fragmented,” Sparry said. “It’s almost like a consultancy job to help advertisers have the right conversations internally in order to get the right signals surfaced.”
Companies with substantial e-commerce operations possess the most mature data capabilities because digital selling provides rich information pools, though brand advertising requires drawing on broader enterprise-level sources.
E-commerce overtakes traditional TV
E-commerce data connects brand storytelling to sales impact without requiring data to leave retail environments, using agentic AI to analyze trends for measurement purposes.
“E-commerce will overtake overall spending in traditional TV advertising,” Sparry predicted. “That just underpins the importance of it as not just a delivery mechanism, but also a mechanism to measure impactful brands.”
This shift elevates e-commerce from transaction channel to brand measurement tool that validates marketing effectiveness.
Imperfect data promotes “test-and-learn”
No digital marketing database achieves perfection, making it essential for advertisers to begin activating with available first-party data while using test-and-learn frameworks to measure impact and identify high-performing signals.
“I don’t think that any digital marketing database is perfect,” Sparry said. “I would advise an advertiser to start with the data that they have, even if that’s relatively sparse data.”
Data stores evolve continuously through augmentation with internal sources, publisher data, creative strategy feedback, and marketing activation results, creating ongoing feedback loops.
AI bridges separate disciplines
Artificial intelligence’s primary strength lies in connecting previously separate creative strategy, planning, and activation disciplines through shared data language, outcome planning, and taxonomies, Sparry noted.
“Creative strategy, planning, activation, all of these disciplines need to speak the same data language. They do need to plan for the same types of outcomes,” she said. “We are going to see a convergence of these types of skill sets all bridged by this intelligence layer.”
Generative engines reshape brand visibility
Most searches already qualify as non-click searches, requiring brands to influence societal narrative and understand consumer cultural shifts in detail rather than just tracking behavioral patterns.
“Through a brand influencing this kind of overall societal narrative, understanding it and trying to influence it, they can ensure that they remain relevant in faster evolving space of generative AI,” Sparry said.
Measurement evolves from last-click attributed sales toward incremental sales lift using sophisticated AB testing frameworks established before creative development or impression serving.
“Through [media mix modelling] and causal linkage, we’re able to give a level of intelligence that essentially gives the true incremental sales rather than just the attributed sales,” Sparry said.
You’re watching coverage from Beet.TV’s Global Leadership Summit with WPP Media, filmed in London, presented by Criteo, Index Exchange, Seedtag & The Trade Desk. For more videos from this series, please visit this page.
