To explore the cutting-edge innovations that Aryel is bringing to the market, we interviewed Mattia Salvi, CEO and Co-founder, and Vincenzo Schifano, COO and Co-founder of Aryel.
They discussed Aryel’s newest product, Sonar™, a GenAI-powered media planning solution that aims to revolutionize how brands engage with their audiences by leveraging Augmented Reality, GenAI, and premium data.

Let’s dive into the conversation to learn more about how Aryel’s solutions are setting new standards in media planning and advertising.

What is Sonar™, how did it come into being, and how does it fit with Aryel’s other solutions?

Sonar™ is Aryel’s Generative AI-powered media planning solution designed to optimize advertising by creating highly personalized media plans. It was developed as a natural extension of Aryel’s existing products, such as AI Insights and Creatives, which already leverage augmented reality and emotional data. Sonar™ integrates with these tools, but adds a new layer of Generative AI to craft media strategies based on detailed insights into audience behavior, emotions, and even facial features. This integration ensures that advertisers can not only target the right demographics but also engage audiences on an emotional level, all within Aryel’s ecosystem of GDPR-compliant, AR and AI-driven solutions.

How does Sonar™’s Generative AI improve audience segmentation and ad effectiveness?

Sonar™’s Generative AI enhances audience segmentation by analyzing a wealth of data, including emotional responses, behavioral traits, and facial features like face shape, nose shape, mouth shapes, eye color, and hair color. By processing this data alongside demographic, psychographic, and engagement pattern behavior, Sonar™ creates highly specific audience segments known as AR-chetypes, which go beyond simple demographics. These segments are based on emotional triggers, detailed facial characteristics, and behavioral patterns that provide a holistic view of how different audience groups will emotionally and behaviorally respond to an ad. This depth of segmentation allows for highly personalized campaigns that not only reach the right audience but also connect with them emotionally, significantly increasing the effectiveness of the ads.

How does Sonar™ help advertisers and media planners optimize their campaigns?

Sonar™ empowers advertisers and media planners by using AI-driven insights to recommend the most effective channels and publishers for ad distribution. The tool evaluates not only audience behavior and emotional reactions but also facial features to pinpoint the best-fitting AR-chetypes for each campaign. For instance, certain facial features like eye color or mouth shape might correlate with specific emotional responses to visual content, helping Sonar™ identify which audience segments are most likely to engage. This ensures that media planners can allocate their budget more efficiently, optimizing campaigns for both emotional engagement and ROI. Additionally, AI Insights continuously refines media plans by analyzing real-time feedback, enabling dynamic adjustments throughout the campaign. This feedback loop ensures that advertising dollars are spent where they will generate the best results, significantly improving return on investment.

You mentioned Sonar™ uses “Archetypal Advertising.” Can you elaborate on what this concept means and how it enhances ad campaigns’ emotional engagement with audiences?

Archetypal Advertising is a technique Sonar™ uses to segment audiences into groups based on their emotional, psychographic, demographic, and facial feature characteristics, as well as their engagement patterns. These groups, or AR-chetypes, are personas that reflect how certain audience types are likely to respond to specific emotional triggers. For instance, one AR-chetype 1 may be drawn to adventurous and bold messaging, while another might resonate more with themes of trust and security. By understanding these emotional drivers along with facial features and behavioral data, advertisers can craft messages that deeply connect with each AR-chetype, fostering more meaningful engagement. Sonar™ matches campaign targets to these AR-chetypes and provides recommendations on media allocation, including site lists, ad sizes, and timing, to effectively reach the ideal audience and maximize campaign impact.

How does Sonar™ differentiate itself from other media planning tools in the market?

Sonar™ stands out in the market by integrating emotional insights and facial feature data into the media planning process. While other tools may focus primarily on demographic or behavioral data, Sonar™ goes further by tapping into the emotional responses of audiences. This is made possible through Aryel’s unique AI Insights platform, which uses vision tracking to collect data from users interacting with augmented reality ads. Additionally, Aryel is the only company offering programmatically distributed, camera-enabled AR ads in the market. This combination of real-time emotional data, AR-based engagement, and AI-driven media planning makes Sonar™ unlike any other tool available, as it allows for far more personalized, immersive, and emotionally engaging campaigns.

What are Aryel’s expansion plans with Sonar™, and are there new markets or sectors you’re targeting with this product?

With Sonar™, Aryel is looking to expand its presence globally, particularly in regions where digital advertising and immersive technologies are rapidly growing. The company is eyeing sectors where personalized and emotionally engaging ads can make a huge impact, such as CPG & FMCG, Fashion, Automotive, and Media & Entertainment. Additionally, Aryel is exploring the potential in industries like Healthcare and TelCo, where understanding user emotions can significantly enhance engagement and outcomes. The goal is to make emotionally intelligent advertising the standard across a wide range of industries, and Sonar™ is the tool that will help achieve that expansion by making AR-driven and AI-enhanced campaigns more accessible to brands globally.

As our interview comes to a close, it’s clear that Aryel’s innovative use of Generative AI, emotional insights, and augmented reality is pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in digital advertising.

Sonar™ offers a unique approach to media planning that not only reaches audiences on a deeper, emotional level but also ensures campaigns are optimized for the best results. With global expansion plans and a focus on sectors where emotional engagement is critical, Aryel is set to transform how brands communicate with their audiences.

Thank you to Mattia Salvi and Vincenzo Schifano for sharing their insights on this exciting journey.