Newly commissioned research from The Winterberry Group delves into the surge of data collaboration across companies in a post-cookie world, based on in-depth interviews across the U.S. and U.K. with more than 50 industry experts and a panel of senior brand marketers providing input.

Advertisers use data models to determine the "perfect" message to target consumers with ads at specific moments. Why can't data models built on sentiment and interests predict violence?

Racial sensitivity and brand safety were the focus of major changes in the ad industry in 2020, which will manifest in the ways consumers bond with brands in 2021.

AI and machine learning can now recommend the dominant color in an ad image based on historical ad performance. But this is just the beginning. Marketers will see advancements that enable an understanding of the contextual effect of objects, texts, and situations and will make recommendations based on the data.

Craig Dempster, global CEO, Merkle, has worked for the customer experience management company for about 15 years. How he got there seems more serendipitous than he acknowledges.

Sheri Bachstein, global head of IBM Watson Advertising and The Weather Company, believes 2021 will see more advanced technologies such as AI and AR come into play across a variety of platforms.

"California will have its own dedicated agency that enforces CPRA, which will have its own budget to go after companies that do not comply," said Heather Federman, vice president of privacy and policy at BigID.

When the theatrical release of "Trolls World Tour" failed to materialize after the COVID-19 pandemic set in and shut down movie theaters nationwide, NBCU needed another plan. Pulling a major theatrical release predicted to become one of its highest-grossing of the year wasn't an easy decision, but rather than wait for movie theaters to re-open, NBCUniversal pushed the major release out to digital services -- a bold move, given the circumstances.

Last week Killi began rolling out PayCheck, an opt-in reoccurring weekly payment system that supports data sharing. The company pays users to share location, shopping, browsing, and spending data and then sells that data, and splits profits with users, which means half.

The validity of research came into question again following the 2020 presidential election. How could research companies not predict a tighter outcome between President Elect Joe Biden and President Trump?