Strategies for Connecting With Consumers in a Fragmented Media Landscape

This post was created in partnership with Nielsen

Instead of chasing consumers and their fragmented viewing habits, marketers need to adapt how they measure, target, and capture audiences as lines blur between platforms.

In a live group chat at Adweek House at CES 2025 in Las Vegas, presented in partnership with Nielsen, industry leaders shared strategies to make that happen―and connect with consumers whose media patterns are harder than ever to pin down.

“We are trying to take what we do to another level with more advanced audience data,” said Alison Gensheimer, head of global marketing at Nielsen. “It’s beyond foundational information like age and gender to things like race and ethnicity, so you can see the audiences that matter. The era we’re entering will bring the ability to find the audiences that are most relevant to you, across platforms.”

While demographics used to drive decisions about media buying, behavior has emerged as a key to understanding what moves audiences, said Aulden Kaye, head of advertising partnerships for streaming service Philo.

“The old gold standard was demographic data―‘Who is my main customer, what is their persona?’ And I’ll just go wherever those people are,” he said. “But it not only requires being very nuanced about the demographic, but also about behavioral data that splits those demographics into different segments. And you also need a good understanding of past performance around buys. How do the flow and behavior change?”

But a focus on data shouldn’t come at the expense of creativity, said Laura Simpson, chief intelligence officer & president of McCann Worldgroup Truth Central.

“How can we better bridge the gap between creative audience needs and media audience needs?” she asked the audience. “We use the word ‘precision’, but we should also talk about ‘possibilities’. Are we creating the right data stack that gives us a deeply human view of our audience? Because from the creative point of view, it’s not just about where people are, but who are they on a human level. And when we understand that, how do we inspire creativity? Audience insights can feel demographic-driven and obvious. But creative strategists tell me they want the ‘weird’. That’s what’s going to inspire the creative idea. And that’s getting lost in translation between the two sides.”

Deeper connections with consumers will come from the alchemy of data, technology, and creativity, agreed Emily Kennedy, evp and head of partnerships at dentsu Media US.

“We need to keep the consumer in mind. What’s resonating in the content they’re consuming, which will not be what they’re consuming in six months? With these massive amounts of data, we can predict everyone’s going to watch the Super Bowl. But what’s the thing after that we can’t anticipate, that we need to capitalize on in a different way?” she told the gathering.

“How do we bring all these things together? How do we better use the data, trends, and cultural moments to really connect with consumers in a deeper way? If we keep dividing things in buckets, we lose sight of what’s resonating with consumers, and for the actions our brands need them to do,” Kennedy said. “The danger is that if we just start to devalue creativity in the long term, we’ve lost something really magical, which is the connection with consumers.”