GWI

Consumer signals reshape retail planning with AI

Sponsored by Board and published on July 20, 2026, the article argues that traditional season-based retail planning is increasingly insufficient as consumer demand fragments across channels and accelerates via social media. Matt Hopkins of Board explains retailers need unified planning platforms that combine internal data (inventory, sales history, supplier lead times) with external signals (social trends, economic indicators, competitor pricing). The piece highlights that AI — including agentic approaches — can analyze connected datasets to detect risks, model downstream impacts across assortment, pricing and inventory, and recommend actions. The article references GWI and the Business of Fashion/McKinsey research on the growing influence of social media and TikTok-driven trend volatility.

Givsly Launches AI Synthetic-Audience Values Targeting Tool

Givsly has launched an AI-powered audience discovery and activation tool that uses synthetic audiences to drive values-based targeting. The platform models audiences from shared values, inferred motivations and behavioral signals to augment traditional demographic targeting, and is claimed to be the first advertising solution to apply synthetic audiences to media activation at scale. Built at the US zip-code level, it profiles communities across more than 150 values and cultural signals and allows brands and agencies to layer their own data. The capability debuted in Cannes and is being tested with agency and brand partners. Givsly cites joint research with GWI showing 86% of consumers say shared values matter when choosing brands, underscoring the tool’s focus on values-driven media relevance.

WPP Media Tests Charity-Based Synthetic Audiences

WPP Media has partnered with data startup Givsly to test synthetic audiences built in part from charity donation data for programmatic media buys in the U.S. Givsly’s system — built using the Claude LLM and layered with national census, election results and nonprofit donation signals — generates audience segments that WPP enriched with its own first- and second-party data. Early PMP tests across four beauty and fashion campaigns (running on CTV and online video) produced a reported 2% lift in video completion rates. WPP says the approach helps target audiences by social values as well as demographics. Forrester and other industry observers cautioned that results depend on the quality of input data and matching capabilities (InfoSum was named as a matching capability referenced). WPP plans to roll the solution out to U.S. clients following initial tests.