Last week, I had the honor of moderating a session at the IAB Connected Commerce Summit called “How to Supercharge Your Creative Strategy with AI.” Joining me on stage were Mike Brunick, SVP, Head of Commerce Media at Yahoo; Devrie DeMarco, Managing Director at MediaLink/UTA; and Wendi Dunlap, EVP, Business Intelligence and Audience Science at Mediahub Worldwide.

Together, we dove into how AI is reshaping creative strategies and, most importantly, how it’s knitting together the online and offline worlds to build seamless customer experiences.

One of the most compelling moments came from DeMarco, who reminded us that it’s not just about optimizing workflows, it’s about crafting journeys that resonate across every touchpoint. She said it powerfully: “If AI can free people from manual tasks, imagine the potential of a better in-store experience.”That struck a chord. We’re not just using AI for efficiency’s sake; we’re using it to enrich the entire shopping experience, connecting the digital and physical realms.

Brunick emphasized that personalization needs to go beyond immediate transactions. It’s about fostering long-term relationships. Picture a customer’s journey as a continuous thread weaving through both online and in-store experiences. AI helps us analyze behaviors, build meaningful touchpoints, and drive engagement that resonates across channels. But it’s most effective when it amplifies our ability to connect on a human level. We can’t let data and automation drown out the personal touch.

Dunlap added another layer, urging us not to overlook the ethical implications of AI in creative strategies. While AI can enhance creativity, without vigilance, we risk introducing bias into the strategies we create to connect with diverse audiences. “Bias” and “inclusivity” must be at the forefront of any AI-driven approach, Dunlap explained. The technology is only as good as the data it’s fed. Without human insight, we can easily miss the mark in reflecting our diverse audiences and their varied consumer experiences.  This isn’t just about algorithms; it’s about responsibility.

AI Strategy in Three Key Points

Our panel boiled down AI strategy to three essential takeaways:

1. Bridge the Online and In-Store Experience: It’s not about separate channels; it’s about guiding customers through a unified journey.
2. Enhance Creativity, Don’t Replace It: AI should augment the human touch, but always keep a sharp eye on data-driven biases.
3. Start Small: Test a few use cases, learn, and then scale up thoughtfully. Don’t try to boil the ocean.

The Power of Experience

After my panel, I attended several discussions that expanded on these ideas. But the last session of the day — “Unlock the Power of Innovation through Creativity in Commerce” — truly drove everything home for me. Featuring Michael Olaye, EVP, Managing Director at Hero Digital, and Lauren Chesley, Head of Industry, Retail + Restaurants at SiriusXM Media, and moderated by Pam Zucker, Chief Strategy Officer at IAB<, this session wrapped up many of the themes we’d explored throughout the day.

They picked up right where our panel left off and closed the loop on what Walter T. Geer III touched upon earlier in the day during his fireside chat: We need to be creating experiences. It’s not just about selling products; it’s about crafting a journey that resonates on multiple sensory levels and stays with the consumer long after.

Olaye framed it perfectly: “Creativity stays the same, but the canvas changes.” We’ve moved from TV and print to automation and digital platforms, and it’s about using technology to drive human thinking. His words encapsulated what we’d been circling all day — AI isn’t here to replace creativity; it’s here to enhance it, giving us new canvases to paint on.

Chesley illustrated this idea deeper, painting a vivid picture of a European hotel where every detail was designed to engage the senses. The scent in the lobby, the jazz music playing softly, the warm towel handed to guests, and the champagne toast at check-in. “The more senses you activate, the more connected you are to someone,” she explained. It clicked. The same principles apply to retail. She argued that audio is a powerful yet often underused channel, creating emotional connections in a world saturated with visuals. When was the last time you thought about a brand’s sonic identity?

Olaye also introduced the idea of Zero UI — a world that moves beyond screens and traditional interfaces. Imagine stores where sensors, AI, and connected devices know your preferences without you having to input anything. Zero UI is about blending the physical and digital worlds in seamless ways. This dovetailed perfectly with what we discussed during the session I moderated: AI is a tool to build customer journeys that speak to how people want to interact with brands, online or offline.

Key Takeaways from the IAB Connected Commerce Summit

1. Phygital Experiences Are Key: Rose Ferraro of Rockbot emphasized that consistency between online and in-store environments is crucial. Unified media across audio, signage, and other touchpoints strengthens the brand narrative and keeps consumers engaged.
2. In-Store Digitization as a Business Enabler: Nick Ashley of Tesco Media nailed it when he said that digitization isn’t just about media revenue; it’s about enhancing the overall business. Elevating the look and feel of stores fosters long-term customer loyalty.
3. Retail Data Drives Better Impact: Elizabeth Cotogno of Kroger Precision Marketing noted that incorporating retail data earlier in media planning can boost business impact by 50%. But the real challenge? Moving beyond outdated metrics like CPMs and focusing on real-world outcomes.
4. Creativity and Technology Must Work Hand-in-Hand: Walter T. Geer III reminded us that while AI and automation provide incredible tools, it’s the human element — our stories, ethics, and passion — that ultimately drives compelling campaigns.
5. Personalization, but Not at the Expense of Privacy: The summit repeatedly highlighted that AI should personalize and enhance consumer experiences while keeping privacy and ethics at the forefront of every interaction.

Creating the Connected Experience

If there’s one major lesson I walked away from the IAB Connected Commerce Summit with, it’s this: AI is an enabler, not the end goal. Whether we’re streamlining creative processes or building phygital retail environments, the focus should always be on crafting meaningful, holistic experiences.

AI can free us from mundane tasks, drive deeper insights, and open up new possibilities. But at its core, it’s the human touch that keeps the heartbeat of creative strategy alive. It’s about understanding what truly resonates with people and using technology to amplify those connections.

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Brands know how crucial it is to differentiate themselves and ensure brand safety, and with a new partnership on the table between AI Digital and Sightly, both are easily attainable. This new collaboration brings together each company’s buy-side tools and strengths to provide endless outcomes.

One big benefit from this partnership is that it addresses brand safety, allowing AI Digital to discern which news and content fit a marketer’s campaign best, keeping responsible journalism in mind, and resonating better with audiences. This elevates better consumer experiences and drives consumer actions.

By combining AI Digital’s programmatic expertise with Sightly’s Brand Mentality® platform-driven moments intelligence, advertisers gain access to valuable insights about consumer behavior, enabling real-time responses to emerging trends and cultural conversations.

Learn more about this collaboration from our discussion with Stephen Magli, CEO and founder of AI Digital.

Yakira Young: How does partnering with Sightly help AI Digital enhance its performance when it comes to increased data management and audience targeting?

Stephen Magli: Our interest in partnering and investing in Sightly is in the spirit of improving their Brand Mentality® platform. 

With the intelligence Sightly already provides, AI Digital can now identify more opportunities for brands to differentiate themselves in the marketplace and gain market share authentically vs. their competitors. 

To that point, we’re addressing a big brand safety element with this partnership. Many brands and clients are still operating under the assumption that all news is not brand safe. However, it’s much more nuanced than that, and Brand Mentality allows us to identify where we can resonate with audiences and the types of news that promote responsible journalism.

YY: How does the collaboration between AI Digital and Sightly benefit brands and agencies looking to optimize their programmatic campaigns?

SM: This collaboration of AI Digital and Sightly is an opportune time for brands, agencies, and marketers. Programmatic is at an inflection point where extracting value through programmatic technology has become invaluable for those who want to derive the most out of their advertising spend. 

We always seek to leverage additional insights to improve optimizations and ensure they drive client value toward their KPIs. As we head into the 2024 election and our current post-COVID reality, we can leverage Brand Mentality’s insight to coincide with cultural changes and how groups of people react to certain events and societal changes. In doing so, we can help brands optimize campaigns at today’s speed of change.

YY: Could you explain how AI Digital’s programmatic expertise and Sightly’s Brand Mentality® platform-driven moments intelligence work together to enhance advertising outcomes?

SM: Moments intelligence provides a window to dive deeper into a moment’s lifecycle and changes to consumer behavior that will inform campaign optimizations. It can provide insights into a brand’s extensive mentality profile and constant stream of news and social data to supply actionable signals for AI Digital’s programmatic experts to anticipate and respond in real-time to risks and opportunities in emerging trends and cultural conversations. Ultimately, this will lead to more relevant messaging to audiences in near real-time and improved brand and business outcomes.

YY: What advantages does Sightly’s recently patented technology bring to AI Digital as an Enterprise licensee of Brand Mentality?

SM: Acquiring an Enterprise license for Brand Mentality® was another integral factor in this investment and partnership, as its technology is unique. 

The technology within the Brand Mentality® platform codifies a brand’s DNA to respond instantly and authentically to breaking news and viral trends and ensure our clients can take advantage of emerging media moments. 

Let’s examine the current media landscape, especially with the actors’ strike and political cycle. How can brands, agencies, and marketers quickly acclimate to fast-paced changes in today’s culture that may cause audiences to shift their attention to new media or channels? 

That’s where the Brand Mentality® platform and its codified technology come into play. With that kind of marketing intelligence at our fingertips, brands, and agencies can combine speed and values without sacrificing ROI.

YY: How does the partnership between AI Digital and Sightly contribute to delivering real-time brand insights for dynamic media campaigns and strategy?

SM: Let’s use the political season as an example. During political campaigns, people can react quickly to specific events. For instance, following a speech delivered by a candidate, consumers may shift their perspective on a certain topic. Brands need to take note of such situations, as they are powerful for driving consumer sentiment and behavior. Sightly’s platform allows AI Digital to better view these changing consumer insights and adjust campaign strategies accordingly.

YY: Can you provide more information about AI Digital’s role as a programmatic consultancy and its approach to audience strategy and campaign optimization?

We’ve built AI Digital to be the leading client-centric global programmatic consultancy underpinned by the marriage of AI-driven advanced analytics and human intelligence. We believe clients deserve guidance in the programmatic space and much of the data and technology that has been designed up until this point, doesn’t serve their best interests or allow them to maximize output of their spend. In that spirit, it’s why we launched our proprietary platform, ELEVATE, earlier this year.

We designed a client-centric solution because the programmatic market needs to improve its ability to address marketer challenges and deliver real business outcomes, not media proxies. That’s why with ELEVATE, every in-campaign optimization and recommendation is in the client’s best interest. 

There is an immediate need for an optimization and measurement solution that empowers advertisers and marketers to get the most out of their digital advertising dollars in a constantly evolving programmatic marketplace. ELEVATE provides that with accountability and insights into the metrics that are most important to our client’s business.

Following that ethos of helping marketers realize the full potential of programmatic, we set out to shift the programmatic definition of success away from traditional metrics of impressions, reach, and clicks to more meaningful outcomes such as brand equity and lower funnel actions. 

Programmatic was promised to be a marketing utopia for CFOs and corporate C-suite, with greater accountability to sales/business metrics, precision audience targeting, and real-time optimization. We’re creating new ways and a higher programmatic standard for everyone to realize programmatic’s full potential and value. 

The post AI Digital and Sightly’s Strategic Partnership Unleashes the Key to Brand Safety appeared first on AdMonsters.

For more information on The AdMonsters Awards, visit www.admonsters.com/admonstersawards2015

The AdMonsters Awards are open to ad operations and technology individuals and teams at publishing companies, brands and agencies. Vendors and technology suppliers are also able to make nominations, but nominations can only be made for individuals and teams from publishing companies, brands and agencies.

Finalists will be honored in December in team, individual and campaign categories. These finalists will display creativity, knowledge of the digital advertising industry, innovative uses of technology and advancements of ad operations and technology.

“AdMonsters was born in the early days of online media, and we’ve been focused from the start on supporting the development of ad operations,” says AdMonsters Publisher, Rob Beeler. “We’ve been part of the progression of ad ops from boiler room to board room, and we’ve recognized many ad ops leaders over the past few years with our Digital Media Leadership Awards. The expanded AdMonsters Awards program gives us the opportunity to recognize a broader array of ad ops innovators, up-and-comers, and team players for their efforts. No discredit to the creatives and all of their awards, but it’s time for ad ops to get some public credit for all of their hard work.”

To enter for free online, visit www.admonsters.com/admonstersawards2015

For questions about The AdMonsters Awards, contact marketing manager Rachel Feldman at rfeldman@accessintel.com. For sponsorship opportunities, contact Jesse Poppick at jpoppick@admonsters.com or Justin Loresco at jloresco@admonsters.com.

About AdMonsters: Founded in 1999, AdMonsters offers unparalleled in-person experiences and unique, high quality online content focused on media operations, monetization, technology, strategy, platforms and trends. AdMonsters creates meeting places for members of the dynamic digital technology community to connect and develop best practices. Learn more about AdMonsters services and content at www.admonsters.com.

Contact:
Rachel Feldman
Marketing Manager
rfeldman@admonsters.com

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