At the MarTech conference in May 2026, a panel of marketing leaders addressed a persistent friction in the industry: how brands can create personalized customer experiences without crossing the line into “creepy.”
In the session, “Winning Attention Without Losing Trust: Creating Meaningful Moments Along the Customer Journey,” moderator Angela Vega, director of capabilities and operations at Expedia Group, led a discussion with Alec Haase, general manager of AI products at High Touch; Sean Nowlin, founder and CEO of Spotlight IQ; and Ed Poppe, founder and leader of fractional marketing at Poppe Marketing.
Navigating the line between “helpful” and “invasive” is a constant obstacle in the world of marketing. The panel focused on one key theme: personalization only works when customers feel there is a fair value exchange.
Haase says brands often misunderstand personalization as a one-time consent transaction rather than an ongoing relationship.
“The real question,” he said, “is whether the customer feels that profit every time they actually use that data.” He pointed to retail loyalty programs as an example of personalization done right because consumers immediately receive rewards, discounts or convenience in exchange for their information.
Poppe stressed the importance of avoiding experiences that would make consumers uncomfortable if explained out loud. Reflecting on early retargeting practices in the insurance industry, he recalled debates over whether showing the exact car a buyer had seen in ads would seem invasive.
“If you say it out loud, for example, would the customer get scared or agree with that exchange?” Poppe said. “If the answer is no, then personalization is not the way to go.”
Throughout the discussion, speakers questioned the traditional definition of personalization. Nowlin argues that marketers ultimately pursue better business outcomes, not personalization for personalization’s sake.
“The outcome we are aiming for is not personalization,” he said. “The result is growth in our individual businesses.”
The panelists agreed that the best personalization often seems invisible. Haase pointed to Amazon, Netflix and Spotify as examples of companies that offer highly personalized experiences without overtly signaling that they are doing so. “The best experiences may not even feel personalized, even though they are,” he said.
It’s a common struggle: You’re caught between channel-specific goals and a consistent customer experience. Poppe criticized siled channel optimization, noting that clients don’t distinguish between email, paid ads and connected TV campaigns. “The most important thing is the customer and what they are experiencing,” he said, referring to the common frustration of seeing the same ad repeatedly after already making a purchase.
The conversation also explored the growing role of artificial intelligence and automation in marketing orchestration. Haase described how AI-based decision-making systems are increasingly capable of prioritizing customer actions based on business value, such as store visits or loyalty. But speakers warned against too much automation at times when the stakes are high.
Poppe shared a recent experience with an AI-powered customer service line that failed to handle a nuanced scheduling issue, turning what should have been a simple interaction into a frustrating one. “It can go pretty sideways pretty quickly,” he warned.
By the end of the session, the panel had reframed personalization as something broader than individual targeting. Instead, they described it as relevance, trust and collaboration between brands and customers.
As Vega summarized, customers don’t need brands to repeat information they already know. They need experiences that make decisions easier and interactions more meaningful. It’s a continuous process.
