• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, June 10, 2024

Hearst Magazines has debuted an AI-enabled targeting tool to help advertisers make predictive decisions about which ads to serve.  

The new offering, AURA, tracks contextual, behavioral and commerce signals along with hundreds of millions of purchase actions from 145 million monthly visitors to Hearst’s 25 U.S. brands, the company says. 

AURA will be deployed globally across Hearst’s 50 brands and 300 million users in late 2024, it adds. 

"At Hearst, we’re not waiting to be told that cookies are obsolete,” says Lisa Ryan Howard, global chief revenue officer at Hearst Magazines. AURA is a “next-generation targeting capability at the axis of privacy and performance,” Howard adds. 

AURA is built from “first-party data and AI-enabled proprietary content taxonomies, enhanced with purchase signals derived from thousands of product-specific clicks made across our sites each day,” Howard continues. It “takes into consideration billions of signals from our readers — each of whom has many layers around their interests and shopping intentions.” 

In beta testing, AURA generated a double-digit increase in click-through rates, outpacing third-party cookie-based tools, the company claims. 

How does it work?  

AURA leverages “rich first-party data from our trusted fashion and luxury, lifestyle, autos, enthusiast and wellness brands” to provide a nuance understanding of the consumer.  

“For example, through contextual and behavioral signals, we can derive that a pet food shopper visiting one of our sites also happens to be a trail runner and family vacation planner.” 

One thing is clear: the audience reach is as important as the technology.