Q&A: Leveraging Resonance AI in adtech with digital culture group’s Crystal Foote
Digital Culture Group, an independent adtech company, introduced the Audience Resonance Index (ARI), which it calls “the first AI-platform engineered to predict not just who will engage—but why” in a press release. Instead of relying on performance data, ARI decodes “subconscious motivators and emotional intent” before ad spending starts to help brands do better targeting at scale.
ARI functions using Resonance AI, which is centred on helping brands reach the right audience with the right message at the right time. ARI’s AI-based Predictive Resonance Engine “[s]cores campaigns against cultural, emotional and behavioral alignment showing which messages will connect with specific audiences.” ARI also identifies “high-conversion segments and content adjacencies” to help brands get ahead of market trends, maps “cultural timing to launch campaigns when audiences are most receptive,” and analyzes “anonymised purchase patterns to creative intent signals, guiding smarter spend allocation.”
In this Q&A with Crystal Foote, founder and head of partnerships at Digital Culture Group, Foote discusses why ARI benefits from AI, what ARI measures, what brands ARI is positioned to serve, how ARI safeguards privacy, and more.
Crystal Foote, Founder and Head of Partnerships, Digital Culture Group
Brandi Scardilli: How does Digital Culture Group leverage AI to provide predictive insights, and what does it make possible that you wouldn’t have been able to achieve otherwise?
Crystal Foote: At Digital Culture Group, AI isn’t just a buzzword—it’s a core infrastructure for understanding audiences and their behaviors. AI helps us predict not only who to talk to, but how to connect in a way that helps brands better engage with people. That’s where our proprietary AI-platform, Audience Resonance Index (ARI), comes in. ARI allows us to decode what traditional data often misses, decoding the emotional, cultural and behavioral signals that drive engagement. We use that intelligence to shape creative, guide media decisions, and map the cultural terrain before brands even begin spend on their media campaigns. It allows us to predict resonance with surgical precision—what messages will land, when, and with whom. Without ARI, we’d still be reacting to surface-level signals—waiting on impressions, clicks, or conversions to guide our strategy. With ARI, we’re operating in real time and ahead of the curve. It’s how we transform attention into action—and campaigns into culture.
Can you explain a little bit about how the technology behind ARI works? For example, what are some examples of the “subconscious motivators and emotional intent” the tool will be focused on?
At its core, ARI is built to answer a question legacy tools never could: Why does an audience choose to act, engage, or buy? Most platforms track behaviors. ARI decodes the intent behind those behaviors. It does this by analyzing psychographic data, emotional cues, transaction signals, and cultural sentiment in real time. ARI tracks nine different resonance points including geo-cultural fit, cultural vernacular, and platform relevance, and are scored by the AI to measure how well a message aligns with a person’s values, identity, and state of mind.
The press release mentions that your first ARI deployment was with a prepaid wireless company. Who else/what sectors do you see as your primary market?
While telecom was a powerful proving ground, ARI is category-agnostic. We’re currently in-market with brands across all major verticals including CPG [consumer packaged goods], automotive, health and wellness, food and beverage, entertainment, financial services, streaming, and more. Any brand competing for attention in a crowded digital ecosystem and looking to drive real connection with audiences that actually moves them to act is a candidate for ARI.
What kinds of customer data needs to be collected for ARI to properly predict what content viewers are likely to engage with?
Once a client submits their RFP highlighting their campaign goals, we utilise anonymised and privacy-compliant first- and third-party data sets, including transaction data, content engagement patterns, psychographics, and real-time cultural signals, to better understand their ideal audience. We combine that with our proprietary CultureCore database, which maps 14,000-plus psychographic and behavioral traits across 230 million U.S. profiles.
How does ARI both break with and improve on more traditional approaches to measuring audience engagement and informing ad-buying decisions?
Most legacy systems react to what already happened and ignore the “why.” ARI flips that model by predicting audience resonance before media is deployed. It predicts which segments are likely to convert, why they’ll convert, and when they’re most receptive.
We’re not just segmenting based on demographics or past actions. We’re scoring campaigns on resonance—the alignment between a brand’s message and an audience’s cultural context, emotional mindset, and platform behavior. That predictive layer fundamentally changes how brands plan creative, allocate spend, and measure success. That means less waste, higher impact, and a smarter investment from day one.
How will DCG prioritise protecting consumer privacy? Is anonymising data enough or are there other safeguards?
Privacy is non-negotiable and fundamental to our platform. ARI is built on PII [personally identifiable information]-compliant, anonymised data sources, and we go further by only integrating datasets that meet strict transparency and opt-in standards. But we don’t believe anonymisation alone is enough. Our model avoids invasive tracking and instead focuses on group-level patterns and cultural sentiment. We also work with trusted third-party partners to verify privacy and brand safety, ensuring that insights are actionable without ever compromising personal identity. Our goal is to foster trust, not exploit it.
What would you like to share about how ARI can help brands and ad buyers targeting streaming audiences?
Streaming audiences are fragmented and emotionally selective. ARI empowers advertisers to rise above the noise by identifying not just who’s watching—but why they care. Through integrations with premium OTT inventory and predictive analysis of viewing behaviors and cultural timing, we help brands deploy high-resonance creative at the moment audiences are most open to it. It’s not just programmatic—it’s personal.