Nobody lost a job to an algorithm; people discovered a better wrench. AI chews through messy spreadsheets, surfaces patterns you would miss at 3 a.m., and hands you scenario sketches in seconds. That does not replace your judgment — it magnifies it, turning scattered signals into a concise set of tactical options you can actually act on.
Make AI your planning assistant by feeding it what matters: past creative performance, channel CPAs, audience cohorts, conversion windows and strategic constraints. Ask for three media mixes for conservative, moderate and aggressive budgets, two creative hooks per high-value audience, and a prioritized test calendar with success thresholds. Treat the first draft as hypothesis generation, then iterate.
Use AI to simulate trade offs: shift spend between channels, compress flighting, swap creative sizes and see projected lifts. Apply simple uplift scenarios and spend elasticity checks to understand marginal returns, then validate with a few rapid experiments. The real advantage is accelerating the learning loop so you can stop guessing and start optimizing.
Keep humans in control. Set guardrails for brand safety, frequency caps and exclusion lists, inspect explanations and interrogate odd recommendations. Your role evolves into curator, negotiator and storyteller who translates data driven outputs into persuasive briefs for teams and publishers.
Start small and be deliberate: 1. Build a prompt library and templates. 2. Automate daily reporting to free time. 3. Run weekly mini tests to validate AI ideas. 4. Debrief with creative partners to close the loop. Do that and AI stops being a threat and becomes your sharpest media planner.
The era of easy third-party tracking is over, and that's both terrifying and freeing. Advertisers who treated cookies like IOUs are waking up to the fact that targeting survives — but it evolves. Instead of dreaming about stitching strangers' behaviors across the web, successful teams are learning to be thoughtful data gardeners: plant what you own, nurture it, and harvest with permission.
Start by making first-party capture delightful. Turn checkout, newsletter pop-ups, loyalty perks, and account experiences into value exchanges, not nags. Use server-side tagging and a lightweight consent layer so data flows are reliable and respectful. Invest in a compact CDP or identity graph that links on-site behavior to hashed identifiers (email, phone) — then lock it down with privacy-safe access controls.
Don't let the loss of cookies become an excuse for bad creativity. Contextual relevance is back in fashion; pair it with real-world signals (purchase intent, site sections, time of day) for smarter placements. Measurement needs a rethink too: favor incrementality tests, modeled attribution, and cohort-level outcomes over brittle per-click windows. Clean-room partnerships let you match audiences without handing over raw PII, and they're great for cross-brand campaigns.
Practical roadmap: audit what you own, plug gaps with low-friction capture, centralize responsibly, then run quick experiments that compare old and new approaches. The point isn't to recreate cookie land; it's to be nimbler, truer to users, and better at storytelling with the signals you control. Treat privacy as a product feature and your targeting will survive — and probably outshine the old way.
Think of creators as a distributed ad network that already owns attention—and the best part is they convert because people buy from people, not banners. Instead of trying to shove a brand message into a blank template, partner with creators who can tell a quick, messy, human story in a format their audience actually expects. That authenticity short-circuits skepticism and drives action: swipe-ups, DMs, cart adds and real revenue.
Start tactical. Brief creators on the outcome, not the shot list, and use these lenses when choosing partners:
Measure like a scientist: set up tracking for attributable events, run lightweight holdouts to prove incremental lift, and treat creative as the A/B test you run every week. Track CTRs and view-throughs, sure, but also measure DMs, promo-code redemptions, and uplifts in organic search—those middle-funnel signals tell you whether stories are landing.
Finally, operationalize creator marketing: build simple playbooks, batch payments, reuse assets as UGC ads, and keep investing in relationships—long-term creator partners are cheaper and more persuasive than one-off shoutouts. Swap rigid scripts for outcomes, and you'll find creators aren't just a channel; they're your best conversion engine.
Connected TV and shoppable video are quietly rewriting the rules of the brand playbook: prime time storytelling now ends with a tap to buy. The canvas is huge, attention is deep, and the living room context makes product demos feel like friendly recommendations. That intimacy creates a big opportunity for brands that respect the viewer while simplifying the path to purchase.
Creative direction shifts from pure aura to short funnels that still feel cinematic. Think micro narratives of 10 to 20 seconds that reveal benefit instead of specs, and finish with a clear visual cue or voice prompt tied to an immediate checkout option. Design for pause, not panic: let curiosity lead, then make the tap feel inevitable.
Start small with pilot buys across targeted demos, creative approaches, and button placements. Run sequential A B tests to learn what moves both engagement and revenue, then scale the winners with longer flight plans. When creative serves emotion and utility, shoppable CTV stops feeling like a checkout interruption and becomes a channel for meaningful commerce.
Measurement is not a side quest; it is the boardroom conversation that decides whether campaigns survive. Move beyond last-click bravado and embrace methods that answer the real question: did ads change behavior? Start with clear outcomes, clean inputs, and a willingness to wait for proper signals.
Marketing Mix Modeling is the long view instrument: aggregated, seasonality aware, and ideal for strategic budget shifts across channels. Use MMM to allocate spend across TV, search, social, and promotions over quarters, not for minute-by-minute bidding. Feed it quality sales, media, and price data and treat the output as directional truth.
Incrementality is the microscope: randomized holdouts, geo tests, and controlled exposure trials tell you whether an ad caused a sale. Design tests with adequate sample size and a long enough window to capture delayed conversions. When randomization is impossible, use strong observational methods and transparent assumptions.
Quick checklist to keep measurement grounded:
Real benchmarks are internal and comparative, not lifted from a vendor deck. Track conversion lift, cost per incremental acquisition, and the trend of control vs exposed cohorts. Tie upper-funnel metrics to downstream revenue so brand work earns a seat at the ROI table.
Practical first moves: run a small geo holdout next campaign, request an MMM refresh with updated inputs, and align finance on a shared definition of incremental value. Stop optimizing for vanity wins; start optimizing for measurable effects that actually move the business needle.
27 October 2025