News UK has launched a new Synthetic Audiences product, Times ExplorAItion, as part of its Nucleus data platform. Rolling out across Times Media’s properties, the tool will help brands and agencies drive advertising effectiveness by testing strategies, creative & hypotheses against a synthetic audience before committing real budgets in the market.
Built as a decision-support tool for marketers and agencies, and in partnership with synthetic audience specialist Electric Twin, ExplorAItion’s Synthetic Audiences effectively create a virtual, AI-powered model of News UK’s real-world audiences, allowing advertisers to run surveys, message testing and focus groups against an audience model in seconds. This allows advertisers to explore campaign scenarios, refine targeting and pressure-test ideas before the campaign is released, as they would with a real-world campaign once it has gone live. This is achieved by using audience models grounded in valuable first-party and market-leader third-party data signals, along with market expertise.
Transparency is built into the approach, with seed audiences underpinned by industry-standard data coupled with clear visibility into data inputs, assumptions and limitations. This allows teams to interpret results with confidence. Moreover, the tool is designed for strategists, offering guidance and scenario exploration that encourages marketers to challenge assumptions rather than reinforce them.
Caroline Tredget, Commercial Director, The Times and The Sunday Times, said: “Our goal is simple: to help advertisers reduce the guesswork and improve outcomes. Synthetic audiences are not about replacing real-world research or performance data – they’re about giving advertisers the ability to test campaigns before they go live against a virtual audience that behaves just like a real one. We’re giving marketers a powerful new way to validate ideas, surface insights and enter the market with greater confidence.”
Luke Costello, Head of Media Planning & Commercial Data, News UK. “Paired with behavioural economic principles, synthetic audiences provide a bridge between the predictable, algorithmic world and human irrationality. This makes ExplorAItion ideal for testing hypotheses, allowing advertisers to understand how different audience segments, media activity and messaging strategies resonate.”
Alex Cooper, CEO and co-founder at Electric Twin, said: “News UK was one of Electric Twin’s earliest champions. So it’s been incredibly rewarding to work with their team on a new synthetic audience product. Our technology is having a real impact across the business – from shaking up the product roadmap to shaping content, advertising and marketing decisions. With synthetic audiences, News UK can now survey thousands of people faster than a traditional focus group could get seated in a room. We look forward to continuing this work with accurate audience insights, on-demand and at scale.”
News UK is a client of Bluestripe Group, the publisher of New Digital Age.
