When the data that brands have access to is meaningful, that makes it possible to respond more quickly to real-time changes in the market and makes ads more personal. For instance, Starcom has worked with brands like Travel Lodge and Honda to change the look and feel of what consumers are seeing in real-time based on the data. “We have a creative team that produces the framework for the ads,” he explains. If ads need to be tweaked as information comes in, the creative team can do that.

“What we do in the area of real-time marketing is we fuse what consumers are doing through their behaviors online and their transactions with a brand and apply that to our advertising communications,” he says. “We go less and less generic and more and more specific.”

Petruccelli joined Starcom in the fall from OMD. The media agency has inked a number of deals to help fuel better metrics for real-time buying. We spoke with Petruccelli as part of our series titled “The Road to Cannes,” a preview of the Festival and an overview on the state and future of digital media by a range of thought leaders. The series will be published over the next four weeks.  The series is sponsored by Videology.