New Digital Age NDA in Cannes '25: Brian O'Kelley, CEO of Scope3 discusses the "post-web world"
Rethinking Advertising Post-Web
- The digital advertising technologies invented in a web-first world are outdated for today's post-web, AI-driven environment.
- We need to unlearn past assumptions and rethink advertising with a beginner's mind for the future landscape.
AI Is Revolutionizing Brand Safety and Targeting in Advertising
Brian O'Kelley explains how AI is transforming brand safety and targeting by understanding content context and matching ads much more effectively than traditional methods. He describes an "aha moment" where AI could analyze webpages and determine the most suitable advertisers, outperforming the entire $120 billion programmatic ad industry.
This AI-driven approach, called "vibe targeting," uses natural language prompts to find audiences based on inferred behaviors and needs rather than rigid data categories, making targeting more precise and sustainable. O'Kelley envisions this as a shift where humans empower AI through prompts, moving beyond complex, outdated programmatic systems to a simpler, more effective paradigm.
He demonstrated a public prototype that lets users type prompts and find matching content, highlighting how AI can significantly reduce wasted ad impressions, cut carbon emissions, and create better connections between brands and consumers.
AI Improves Brand Safety
- Brian tested AI's ability to do brand safety by combining insurance company brand values with webpage content.
- AI produced nuanced brand safety assessments far better than keyword approaches, showing potential to improve ad targeting.