GenAI and the Next Phase of Contextual Creativity in Programmatic

Creative has historically lagged behind in programmatic strategy. While media buying has become increasingly automated and performance-driven, the message itself has remained static, often disconnected from where and how it appears.That’s starting to change.

Generative AI’s Role in Creative Development

The main value of Generative AI in advertising today is straightforward: it enables scalable, fast, and modular creative generation. Instead of a handful of variations, brands can now produce hundreds, with differences in copy, tone, layout, or format...tailored to a variety of environments and moments.

This doesn’t replace human creative strategy. Brand tone, timing, and audience nuance still require human oversight. GenAI extends creative capacity, but it doesn’t replace judgment.

Contextual Understanding Is Getting Deeper

Context is no longer limited to basic page categorization or keyword scanning. Advanced systems now analyze entire domains and URL structures, extract semantic meaning from full-page content, and interpret article tone, reading depth, and engagement intent.

For CTV environments, automatic content recognition (ACR) is making real-time analysis possible, not just of what’s on screen, but how and when viewers are engaging. Mid-roll content, in-show cues, and even audio signals can now inform where and when certain creatives should run.

Audio content analysis adds another layer - transcripts, tone, and pacing can be evaluated to determine relevance and resonance for a given ad.

The result is a more complete, real-time understanding of the environment. Not just what page or app someone is on, but what the actual content is saying, how it’s structured, and how the user is likely engaging with it.

Where It’s Going

The next evolution is simple in concept: aligning creative not only to the user or the channel, but to the actual content moment. Contextual signals (whether from domain-level analysis, ACR data, or audio transcription), can be passed into creative engines to select or generate the appropriate version of an ad.

A generic video ad may not be ideal for every CTV episode. A skincare banner shouldn’t look or read the same on a dermatology blog and a celebrity news site. The goal is to pair message with moment, with precision and control.

Current Gaps

Many advertisers are generating large creative sets with GenAI but aren’t pairing them to contextual signals in any meaningful way. Without environmental alignment, creative scale becomes noise.It’s not enough to build 300 ad versions. The system serving them needs to understand where they belong, why, and whether they’re performing.

Our Work at Mavern

At Mavern, we’ve focused on building contextual systems that interpret full content environments (text, video, audio) and surface actionable signals. SignalTap is already used to map domains and URLs to tone, format, and content category across web and app inventory. We’re extending that logic to include audio cues and CTV signal layers via ACR data.

The next step is creative decisioning: passing those signals to a creative engine that can match or assemble assets accordingly.

We’re continuing to develop this with a focus on real-world deployment, transparency, and control - not just theoretical alignment.

There’s more to build, but the direction is clear: creative and context can no longer operate separately.

When they’re paired with intention, performance improves...and not because of targeting tricks, but because the message makes sense in the moment.