At the May 2026 MarTech Conference, a panel of marketing leaders tackled a persistent industry friction: how brands can create personalized customer experiences without crossing the line into “creepy.”
In the session, “Winning attention without losing trust: creating meaningful moments across 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 fractional marketing leader at Poppe Marketing.
Navigating the line between “helpful” and “intrusive” is a constant hurdle in the marketing world. The panel centered on a key theme: personalization only works when customers feel there’s a fair value exchange.
Haase argued that brands often misunderstand personalization as a one-time consent transaction rather than an ongoing relationship.
“The real question,” he said, “is whether the customer is feeling that payoff every time you actually go and 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 emphasized 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 displaying the exact car a shopper had viewed in ads would feel invasive.
“If you’re saying it out loud, like, would the customer be creeped out or would they be OK with that exchange?” Poppe said. “If the answer is no, then personalization isn’t the way to go there.”
Throughout the discussion, the speakers challenged the traditional definition of personalization. Nowlin argued that marketers are ultimately pursuing better business outcomes, not personalization for its own sake.
“The outcome we’re aiming for isn’t personalization,” he said. “The outcome is growing our individual businesses.”
The panelists agreed that the best personalization often feels invisible. Haase pointed to Amazon, Netflix, and Spotify as examples of companies delivering highly tailored experiences without overtly signaling that they are doing so. “The best experiences might not even feel personalized, even if they are,” he said.
It is a common struggle: you’re caught between channel-specific goals and a cohesive customer experience. Poppe criticized siloed channel optimization, noting that customers don’t differentiate between email, paid ads, and connected TV campaigns. “The most important thing is the customer and what they’re experiencing,” he said, referencing the common frustration of repeatedly seeing the same ad after already making a purchase.
The conversation also explored the growing role of AI and automation in marketing orchestration. Haase described how AI-driven decisioning systems are increasingly capable of prioritizing customer actions based on business value, such as in-store visits or loyalty retention. But the panelists cautioned against over-automation in high-stakes moments.
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 one-to-one targeting. Instead, they described it as relevance, trust, and collaboration between brands and customers.
As Vega summarized, customers don’t need brands to repeat back information they already know. They need experiences that make decisions easier and interactions more meaningful.y is a continuous process.