Braze has published a report on personalisation in the media and entertainment sector across Asia Pacific. It finds firms with stronger results are prioritising data integration and measurement over more advanced artificial intelligence tools.
The report draws on views from executives at Kayo Sports, Sportsbet, TVer, Tuned Global and other media, gaming and entertainment businesses across Asia, Australia, New Zealand and the Gulf. It argues that, despite rising spending on AI-led marketing technology, many companies still struggle to link personalisation to revenue, retention and customer lifetime value.
Its central finding is that weak data foundations remain a bigger obstacle than access to AI. Organisations generating measurable returns tend to focus on unified data, testing frameworks and commercial accountability rather than adding more sophisticated tools.
That conclusion reflects a broader debate among marketing and digital teams over whether AI investment is outpacing the systems needed to support it. In sectors such as streaming, sport, gaming and music, companies are under pressure to improve audience engagement while also showing clear returns on technology spending.
Personalisation efforts often fall short when treated as a marketing-only initiative. Programmes are harder to scale when ownership sits with one team, performance is judged mainly through campaign metrics and decisions are detached from product and data functions.
Data first
Instead, the report points to a narrower set of basic requirements that it says consistently produce better outcomes: unified data, a single customer or fan identity, clear operational ownership, simpler user journeys and closer alignment across teams.
It argues companies should start with a small number of use cases tied directly to customer experience and business goals, rather than trying to personalise every interaction at once. That approach makes results easier to measure and helps avoid adding complexity before the basics are in place.
One line in the report summarises the view bluntly: "AI amplifies whatever strategy and infrastructure sits underneath it. Without strong foundations, AI simply helps organisations automate inefficiencies faster."
Industry contributors echoed that point from an operational perspective. "Personalisation succeeds when it's treated as a capability, not a campaign. You can only scale personalisation so far without a solid data structure," said Josh Jones, CRM Capability and Enablement at Sportsbet.
Tooling choices
The report also examines how technology purchasing decisions affect long-term flexibility. Given the pace of change in personalisation tools, companies may be better served by modular systems that can be adapted over time rather than committing too heavily to one supplier's roadmap.
That issue is particularly relevant for media and entertainment groups, where audience behaviour, content formats and monetisation models can shift quickly. In those circumstances, executives are weighing not only what tools can do now, but also how easily they can be replaced or integrated later.
Anthony O'Byrne of Kayo Sports made that case in the report. "You don't want to be stuck in the mud of 'I've gone all in with this provider, and therefore my roadmap becomes their roadmap for the next ten years.' You want the openness of a buy model for modules that you add on, and the ability to replace them when you need to."
Contributors to the study include Anthony O'Byrne, Managing Director, Growth at Kayo Sports; Tim Armstrong, Director at Mangrove Digital and former Director, Digital Capability and Data at Nova Entertainment; Josh Jones, CRM Capability and Enablement at Sportsbet; Josh Marton, General Manager, Public Affairs and Marketing at Golf Australia; Peter Filopoulos, Chief Marketing and Digital Officer - Consultant at Canadian Soccer Media & Entertainment and former Chief Customer, Brand and Marketing Officer for Football Australia; Con Raso, Managing Director at Tuned Global; and Yudai Goto, CRM Team Lead, Experience Design at TVer.
While focused on media and entertainment, the report adds to a wider industry reassessment of AI spending. For companies trying to improve customer engagement, the message is that the commercial case for personalisation may depend less on adopting the latest AI applications and more on having the data structure, governance and measurement to support them.
The strongest returns come from foundational work that links customer insight to business performance, rather than treating personalisation as a standalone campaign function.