Coverage of the ANA Masters of Data Conference

At the 2026 ANA Masters of Data Conference presented by TikTok, Dean de la Pena of Resonate explained why marketing has become less effective — and less human. De la Pena outlined how predictive, person-level intelligence can restore understanding and enable more relevant, measurable growth.

At the 2026 ANA Masters of Data Conference, Target's Samantha Schumacher shared how the company uses first-party data, machine learning, and generative AI (gen AI) to operationalize personalization across marketing touchpoints while designing for speed, scale, and privacy.

Kimberly-Clark is using artificial intelligence-driven audience models inside clean rooms to deliver return-on-ad-spend improvements two to five times over prior benchmarks. Head of Strategy Ali Kefali argues that privacy-safe data collaboration with retailers may reshape how CPG brands find and act on demand signals.

TikTok and NielsenIQ are challenging how brands model media, arguing that paid, organic, and creator signals must be measured together. Outdated media mix modeling inputs — not methodology — may be limiting the ROI decisions brands are making at scale.

Two U.S. Army analytics leaders reveal how reframing forecast uncertainty as a risk tolerance question transforms leadership decision-making. Their interval-based approach may offer commercial marketers a more honest and more actionable model for communicating data-driven recommendations.

USPS is recasting its postal network as a first-party geospatial data asset that may sharpen artificial intelligence-driven targeting and logistics planning. Eddie Alvarran shows how occupancy and mobility signals connect to CRM systems and direct mail at scale.

Mars is moving away from dashboard-heavy reporting toward a decision-first measurement system that uses artificial intelligence to surface causal patterns and guide investment choices. The framework from Sam Chang could reshape how marketers connect data infrastructure to business outcomes.

SAS is dismantling its lead-based measurement model as artificial intelligence search reshapes how B2B buyers discover vendors before ever contacting sales. Michele Eggers details how new upstream metrics and buyer-group tracking could redefine pipeline accountability for B2B marketers.

Agentic AI is moving from experimentation to production, and marketers may be unprepared for what that means for brand governance. JoAnn Stonier, former chief data officer at Mastercard, outlines how agent design, data readiness, and human oversight could define competitive advantage.

McDonald's and Aquila are tackling one of marketing's most stubborn problems: fragmented measurement across media platforms. A new industry tool could help marketers reclaim roughly 10 percent of media spend by eliminating duplicated audiences.

Only 46 percent of adults hold a favorable opinion of artificial intelligence and OpenAI is using audience intelligence firm Tunnl to find out why. The closed-loop measurement approach may reshape how brands track sentiment and design education campaigns.

Mastercard's Fabien Thiaucourt argues that AI's biggest limitation is not the technology but the data it is training on. His medallion framework could reshape how marketers structure data for speed, trust, and AI readiness.

Prudential Financial's head of marketing effectiveness reveals how pairing holdout experiments with marketing mix modeling could transform how finance teams view marketing. Jadon Wellman's framework may help marketers move from directional insight to defensible, decision-ready performance.

Modern marketing teams collect data across a universe of platforms, programs, and models. Over time, that data accumulates. Definitions drift. Gaps appear. Samples thin out. Teams are left with sophisticated dashboards but limited confidence in the decisions they support. This session reframes the challenge. The issue is not data volume. It is decision readiness.

Legacy click-based attribution is leaving ad budgets exposed as AI reshapes how consumers discover and buy. Meta's Josh Newman argues that an incrementality-first measurement strategy may be the clearest path to capturing true ad value.

In this session at the 2026 ANA Masters of Data Conference, Shane Coker, head of marketing at Osano, challenged the idea that privacy is only legal's concern. Using recent examples of data mismanagement and current enforcement trends, he argued that privacy is where marketing risk emerges — and where trust can be built.

During the 2026 ANA Masters of Data Conference, Lily Herron, marketing analytics manager on the performance analytics team at ADT, argued that analytics teams can create faster business value by planning and delivering small, modular data projects instead of waiting to complete large initiatives. She outlined why small projects reduce operational friction, how component-based planning makes pivots survivable, and a four-step framework to connect technical work (such as MTA and MMM) to real marketing operations goals.

Christopher Oswald, group EVP and head of law, ethics, and government relations at ANA, provided a brief update of what is happening on the data privacy regulation front on both the federal and state level in the U.S.

Kellanova’s Lu Cotterill unpacked how to build a foundation for artificial intelligence (AI) adoption that is rooted in data and business outcomes, sharing three hard truths all marketers need to understand as they implement a data-driven AI strategy.

ETS shared its vision for preparing 100 million people for the future of work by 2035, emphasizing the importance of measuring human capability. The organization is advancing the science of measurement to empower individuals and organizations to thrive in an AI-driven world.