In the second of three videos on strategy, DAC and Pelmorex dive into how brands can harness data-driven personalization while still maintaining consumer trust. From first-party data to location intel, the conversation explores what responsible targeting looks like in an age of AI.

As digital media continues to evolve, the balance between personalized marketing and consumer trust has never been more crucial. In a recent conversation hosted by Alexandra White, Melis Ciner, AVP of paid media at DAC, and Simon Jennings, chief revenue officer at Pelmorex, explored how brands can unlock the power of data while still respecting privacy.

The evolution of data-driven marketing is being accelerated by powerful technologies, says Jennings, and that’s raising different questions. “The most recent parts of the evolution have been around machine learning and AI,” he explains. “That’s what we’ve been dealing with. And what that means is we’ve had to change our conversation from what can we do to maybe what should we do.”

That ethical shift – asking not just what’s possible but what’s appropriate – has become essential in a fragmented and privacy-conscious environment. “Privacy being very important to our users, to all of our users… has just introduced a very meaningful conversation about not getting in the areas of risk, and providing great value for consumers and advertisers,” Jennings explained. He pointed to Pelmorex’s hyperlocal weather forecasts as an example of positive value exchange: consumers share location data in return for precise, trusted weather alerts.

For brands, legal and ethical standards are the starting point. Once that foundation is in place, personalization can become a powerful tool across the full marketing funnel. “There is tremendous potential in terms of launching full funnel campaigns and making sure that we’re using them to move the consumer from the upper funnel awareness to the lower funnel conversion,” Ciner explains. “DAC can obviously help with this… we have an operating system called IRIS that’s essentially a guided system to help us with media planning and execution.”

Location data emerged as a key theme in the discussion – an often underused yet critical signal for understanding behaviour. “Location data is a huge part of our behaviour,” Ciner said. “DAC has clients for which we are managing 18,000 individual campaigns that are all location-targeted.” She added that the trick is balancing enterprise and local needs – serving national brands and local stores alike without going so narrow that campaigns lose effective scale.

The takeaway? Data-driven personalization isn’t just a technical challenge – it’s a trust-building opportunity. And for brands that get it right, it’s a way to deliver real value at scale – without crossing the line. 

“Simplicity and honesty seem to be working the best,” Jennings summarized. “That relationship we don’t mess with.”

Watch to learn more.