Epsilon partners with Comscore for contextual ad program

Dive Brief:

Martech company Epsilon will use Comscore’s Proximic contextual targeting tools to create performance-based, personalized digital media campaigns, the companies announced.
Using Proximic’s natural language processing and artificial intelligence-powered contextual categorization, Epsilon’s ad-tech platform will draw insights from a wide set of data points from content platforms across connected TV (CTV), audio, desktop and mobile for programmatic campaigns.
To address concerns about brand safety, Proximic’s content touchpoints will focus on brand sustainability and inventory quality, as well as categorizations shared by the Interactive Advertising Bureau and Global Alliance for Responsible Media.

Dive Insight:

As the ad world prepares for a cookieless future, contextual advertising is emerging as a potential replacement. Thanks in large part to the concurrent rise in AI marketing tools, the ability to scan millions of websites quickly is becoming simpler. That, in turn, could help streamline the process for placing ads relevant to the context of what appears on websites. The Epsilon-Comscore news underscores how, more broadly, marketers are leaning on AI to help address signal loss.

“As the industry moves towards an alternative signal-based future, rich contextual data is more vital than ever before as marketers seek to maximize the value of inventory available to them in biddable environments,” said Kathryn Roganti, senior vice president, commercial at Proximic by Comscore, in a statement.

Interest in contextual advertising has continued to swell as advertisers search for a way to reach interested consumers without access to the same tracking data they once had. While not as personalized as cookie-driven advertising, contextual advertising tries to capture consumer interest in a topic, service or product that is featured on the site being visited. Among marketers, 78% plan to maintain or increase their use of contextual data this year, according to recent Proximic research.

Proximic promises to boost programmatic campaigns by drawing insights across a wide range of media, including audio and CTV, as well as desktop and mobile web. Other platforms have been experimenting with their contextual solutions. Disney, for instance, earlier this year teased a new Magic Words product that analyzes scenes and visuals across its library to tie mood and emotion to advertising messages.