As digital advertising becomes increasingly AI-driven, how do you see AI transforming the way brands identify audiences, understand context, and optimise media investments?
AI is changing the question brands ask. For years it was ‘who is this person?’ Now it’s ‘what is this person watching, and what frame of mind are they in?’ That’s a much richer signal. AI can understand a video the way a viewer does: the visuals, what’s being said, the tone. It no longer depends on a title or a few keywords. So a brand can reach a cricket fan because they’re watching match analysis right now, not because of a cookie trail.
On optimisation, the big change is speed. You don’t have to wait for a post-campaign report. You can see mid-flight which content is working and move money there. One caution, though. AI is also flooding feeds with low-quality, auto-generated content. So using AI to find audiences isn’t enough. You need it to tell good content from bad. Distinguish, don’t just detect.
Brand safety is evolving into brand suitability, where advertisers are not just avoiding harmful content but actively seeking the right environments for their message. How should brands rethink this shift?
Brand safety was built on fear: keep me away from anything that could hurt me. That’s necessary, but it’s the floor, not the ceiling. The problem is that most brands built long blocklists and ended up avoiding a lot of perfectly good content. News is the classic example. Block every news video and you walk away from some of the most engaged, trusted audiences there are. Suitability flips the question. Instead of asking what to avoid, you ask where your message actually belongs. A safe placement won’t get you into trouble. A suitable one actively builds your brand.
One needs to now start with what you want to sit next to, not just what you’re scared of. Be precise, not panicked. And think about inclusion too, because broad blocking often shuts out diverse creators and the audiences who love them.
With consumers engaging across YouTube, Meta, CTV, and other platforms, what will it take for brands to deliver a consistent and contextually relevant advertising experience across these fragmented ecosystems?
Consistency starts with accepting that every platform behaves differently. Someone scrolling Reels is in a different frame of mind from a family watching YouTube on the living-room TV. So consistency doesn’t mean running the same ad everywhere. It means applying the same standards everywhere. A brand needs one clear definition of what’s right for it, used across YouTube, Meta, CTV and whatever comes next. Today, many brands have tight rules on one platform and almost none on another, and that’s where the cracks show.
The second piece is measurement. If every platform reports its own version of success, you can’t compare them. You need one common lens.
And third, remember that YouTube is TV now. A lot of viewing has moved to the big screen, so contextual thinking has to follow it there.
As privacy regulations and the decline of third-party cookies reshape digital advertising, how can contextual intelligence help brands achieve precision and performance without relying heavily on personal data?
Contextual is actually one of the oldest ideas in advertising. A car ad in an auto magazine worked because the reader was already interested. What’s new is that AI lets us do this precisely and at scale, in video. We don’t need to know who you are. We need to know what you’re watching and why. Someone watching a skincare routine tells you far more in that moment than a browsing history from three weeks ago. And that signal doesn’t break when cookies disappear or regulations tighten, because it never relied on personal data in the first place.
There’s a trust benefit too. People are more aware of how their data is used, and ads that feel relevant without feeling intrusive simply land better. Precision and privacy don’t have to be a trade-off. Context gives you both.
Looking specifically at Asia, what major shifts do you foresee in consumer behaviour and digital media consumption, and how should brands adapt their advertising strategies to capture attention in this rapidly evolving market?
The first thing to respect is that Asia isn’t one market. It has dozens of languages and cultures, and Southeast Asia alone contains many distinct audiences. A few shifts stand out. Viewing is moving to the big screen, with families watching YouTube together on connected TVs. Short-form keeps growing, and much of it is now watched on TV too. And local-language creators are pulling audiences that rival traditional media. So brands should stop treating digital as a side line on the TV plan, because that’s where the attention is. They also need tools that understand local languages and cultural nuance, not just English keywords. Otherwise they’ll block good content and miss real audiences. Finally, measure what matters. The question isn’t just how cheap an impression was. It’s whether it ran somewhere suitable and actually got noticed.
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