Azerion launches AI-powered audience platform
European digital advertising platform Azerion has announced a major upgrade to its proprietary Data Management Platform (DMP), introducing Personas, a Generative AI-powered audience intelligence tool that builds a more accurate, human picture of consumers based on how they actually behave, not how marketers assume they do.
Today, the digital advertising industry often relies on outdated, fragmented, or manually assembled audience profiles, snapshots of consumers that fail to capture how their interests, needs, and intent evolve in real time. Personas addresses this by continuously refreshing audience profiles based on real behavioural signals drawn from across the open web, building a more truthful, dynamic, and bias-free representation of consumers at any given moment.
Azerion’s enhanced DMP integrates over a billion real-time behavioural signals across the open web, every day. The new Personas are ID-agnostic, privacy-first, and immediately activatable across the full spectrum of digital channels. With support for more than 50 languages, the platform enables brands to deploy consistent, locally relevant audience strategies across international markets, meeting consumers where they are, in the context that matters to them.
Operating entirely on anonymous and aggregated behavioural signals, Azerion’s Personas are designed to deliver performance without compromise in an environment of growing consumer privacy expectations.
HuffPost UK selects DeeperDive from Taboola
Taboola (Nasdaq: TBLA), announced that HuffPost UK has selected DeeperDive, an industry-first Gen AI answer engine that lives directly on publisher websites and leverages their own content.
DeeperDive brings the power of GenAI search engines directly onto publisher websites, tapping into years of proprietary, real-time, high-quality content created by journalists and editors across the open web. Readers can ask questions about topics they’re interested in, and have AI provide answers instantly, sourced from the journalists and the brand they trust.
DeeperDive prompts questions that may be of interest to readers, delivers direct responses, and surfaces additional context and stories from the same publisher site. By meeting users with intuitive, conversational interfaces and instant, relevant answers, HuffPost UK hopes to stay competitive in a rapidly shifting digital landscape and reinforce their brand as a trusted, forward-thinking destination.
Privacy-led UX is becoming a prerequisite for AI adoption, finds study
A new report by MIT Technology Review Insights finds that organizations must rethink how they approach data consent, shifting from one-time compliance interactions to ongoing, trust-based relationships with users to succeed in the AI era.
The report, “Building trust in the AI era with privacy-led UX”, is produced in partnership with Usercentrics, a global leader in data privacy technology, and is based on in-depth interviews with industry experts and practitioners whose work sits at the intersection of privacy technology, digital marketing, consumer analytics, and trust. Interviewees included experts from organizations such as Forrester, DWC Consult, MeasureU, and Usercentrics.
Rather than asking users for broad permissions up front, leading organizations are introducing data-sharing decisions gradually, matching the depth of the ask to the stage of the customer relationship.
The study also found that the consumer data that organizations gather is rapidly becoming a core foundation upon which AI-powered personalization is built. Organizations that establish clear, enforceable privacy and data transparency policies now are better positioned to deploy AI responsibly and at scale in the future.
“Organizations can no longer treat privacy as a compliance checkpoint at the edge of the user experience,” says Laurel Ruma, global director of custom content for MIT Technology Review Insights. “Our research shows that privacy-led UX is becoming foundational to how companies build trust, collect meaningful data, and ultimately scale AI systems responsibly.”
Amagi launches Intelligent Advertising and stream event management system to maximize FAST revenue
Amagi, an agentic industry cloud platform for unified broadcast, streaming, and monetization, has launched AdFlow Orchestrator, a Placement Opportunity Information Service (POIS)-based tool.
As broadcasters scale their presence on Free Ad-supported Streaming TV (FAST), a structural mismatch between traditional broadcast and streaming requirements is preventing them from reaching their full monetization potential in FAST. While linear TV feeds routinely carry 4–8 minute ad pods, FAST platforms often reject these “long-form” breaks, leading to chronic ad server timeouts and low fill rates. Amagi’s AdFlow Orchestrator bridges this gap.
Built on the SCTE 130-5 Placement Opportunity Information Service (POIS) standard—the established industry framework for applying business logic to ad placement signals—AdFlow Orchestrator sits adjacent to the video supply chain to automatically condition and restructure SCTE-35 ad markers for each distribution partner. By aligning broadcast signals with streaming platform requirements, AdFlow Orchestrator ensures that every ad opportunity is valid, reachable, and optimized for maximum yield.
AdFlow Orchestrator is available now and is designed for wide interoperability with leading transcoding, packaging, and CDN infrastructure. It can be deployed as a standalone solution or integrated into existing Amagi workflows.
New “Point of Social” study reveals research shows OOH primes social media effectiveness
A major new study has found that social media advertising delivers 11% lower attention and engagement during the day, when consumers are most active out of the home. The findings, published today in The Point of Social report, highlight a clear opportunity for advertisers to get the most from their social campaigns and position out of home (OOH) as a channel to prime and amplify social media campaigns.
Commissioned by Bauer Media Outdoor UK, Global, JCDecaux, Ocean Outdoor and Posterscope, the study builds on 2023’s The Point of Search research and provides one of the most comprehensive examinations of social media behaviour out of the home to date.
According to the mobile diary research, social media behaviour differs significantly out of the home compared to at home. At home usage is more passive, often instigated through habit or passing the time, while out of the home behaviour is more active, varied and driven by context. Social media out of the home is more likely to be used to explore products and services or get inspiration for things to do or places to go (47% vs 36%), share content (31% vs 17%) and capture moments through photos or videos (18% vs 9%). The study also indicates that social media use is triggered by a wider range of factors when people are out of the home, particularly things seen or conversations had.
The report identifies that OOH advertising is very well positioned to address this attention gap and improve the performance of social media campaigns throughout the day.
OOH delivers exceptional ROI for luxury brands
Out-of-home (OOH) gives luxury brands a far greater return-on-investment (ROI) than any other advertising channel, according to new data from econometrics agency Independent Marketing Sciences (IMS).
Data analysed from over 270 IMS campaigns utilising 24 different advertising channels over the last decade shows that OOH delivers, an average ROI of 12.8x for luxury brands – meaning every £1 spent directly translates into £12.80 in revenue. Across all 24 channels, luxury’s average advertising ROI was 4.7x.
According to ad spend analysis by Vivvix, investment by luxury brands into OOH nearly doubled between 2019 and 2023. Meanwhile, JCDecaux showed that 86% of audiences who see a luxury apparel OOH advert engaged with that brand, including by visiting its website or social media channels.
After OOH, the channels delivering the highest ROI for luxury were consumer retargeting (8.6x ROI) and Google Ads’ Performance Max (8.2x ROI). The channels delivering the lowest ROI for luxury included content syndication (0.7x ROI), brochures (1.2x ROI) and video on demand (1.5x ROI).
BackLite UK unveils The Knightsbridge as newest addition to Landmark Series
Premium DOOH operator BackLite UK has expanded its deluxe large-format outdoor advertising portfolio with the launch of The Knightsbridge, a revamped flagship installation located on the busy tunnel connecting London’s most affluent areas.
The Piccadilly Underpass site, which sits alongside Hyde Park Corner, incorporates two new 2.8m x 14.4m screens, which between them generate more than 3 million fortnightly impacts. Positioned on the eastbound and westbound approaches, the displays are visible to both vehicle and foot traffic moving around the high-end shopping and leisure destinations of Knightsbridge, Belgravia and Mayfair.
The site’s upgrade was aimed at enabling BackLite UK to incorporate The Knightsbridge, which is surrounded by renowned retail outlets such as Harrods and Harvey Nichols, into its most exclusive collection, the Landmark Series. Designed to appeal to upscale advertisers, this range also includes the iconic The Cube @ Flannels, the Shoreditch Stack and the Wandsworth Roundabout.
While BackLite UK now handles all media sales for the site, the assets are owned by Wildstone. The latter, the world’s largest owner of outdoor advertising infrastructure, secured a long-term licence for the underpass in a competitive tender process run by Westminster Council last year.
Ocean Outdoor enters third year of Pinwheel partnership
The impact of funds generated by Ocean Outdoor’s environmental partnership with UK advertising agencies and Pinwheel is being felt across the globe, paying for the protection of natural habitats, marine wildlife and coral ecosystems, plastic waste removal and scientific carbon capture research.
In just 24 months, direct investment has reached 16 countries on three continents. So far more than 43,000 kilograms of plastic waste has been recovered and recycled with funds being distributed to verified waste collectors in 12 locations, from India to Tanzania;
All four projects have been carefully vetted by the sustainability platform Pinwheel and were selected in a vote which invited clients and agencies to decide which of the projects to put a portion of their advertising spend towards.
Based on the successful outcomes of each programme last year, Ocean will to continue to roll out the Pinwheel programme in 2026, working with the same four beneficiaries to meet long term carbon sequestration targets while significantly supporting biodiversity and social co-benefit programmes.
The Impact Report is here.
Independent Media completes landmark partnership with The Standard
Independent Media today announces it has completed a landmark long-term deal to run the digital operations of The Standard, which will also see the group manage all print advertising.
The partnership brings together one of the world’s most successful digital media pioneers with an almost 200-year-old London title that is globally renowned and a trusted guide to life in the greatest city on earth.
The new Standard Digital operation includes digital journalism, commercial solutions, ad tech and data management, along with Standard Studio, which will develop IP across podcasts, social video channels and newsletters. This follows the launch of Independent Studio a year ago, as the home of The Independent’s talent-led media, including the acclaimed politics podcast In The Room and award-winning YouTube football channel ACFC.
While Independent Media will also manage print advertising as part of the deal, The Standard’s print editorial will continue to be operated by Evening Standard Limited, which remains a separate company.
Independent Media’s brands – The Independent, The Standard, Bulletin, HuffPost UK, BuzzFeed UK, Tasty UK, IndyBest, indy100 and Seasoned – now reach more than 500 million users globally.
