LG is partnering with technology company Zenapse to make connected TV (CTV) advertising more personal by understanding viewers’ emotions and motivations. This move is aimed at helping advertisers deliver messages that feel more relevant to people based on how they think and feel, not just what they’re watching. As part of the partnership, LG will use Zenapse’s Large Emotion Model, also called LEM. This is a new kind of artificial intelligence model designed to study and analyze emotional and psychological patterns. It’s different from a Large Language Model (LLM), which is built to generate and understand human language. While LLMs help AI understand words and text, LEMs are focused on understanding what drives human behaviour emotionally.
This collaboration is being rolled out through a multi-year licensing agreement between Zenapse and LG Ad Solutions Innovation Labs. The first result of the partnership is enhanced audience targeting for CTV ads. By combining Zenapse’s emotional data with LG’s first-party viewership data what shows people are watching, how often, and when advertisers can now get a more complete picture of a viewer’s mindset.
This type of advertising, which LG refers to as “psychographic targeting” or “emotionally aware advertising,” goes beyond traditional methods. Most advertising on CTV has been based on demographics (like age or location), or contextual targeting, which places ads based on the content or theme of the show a viewer is watching. While contextual ads try to match the mood of the program, LG and Zenapse are focusing instead on the viewer’s internal emotional state.
Their approach looks at broader behavioural patterns and personal motivations. For example, instead of just placing a feel-good ad during a comedy show, the system might show it to someone who, based on emotional modelling, is currently in need of uplifting or optimistic content, no matter what they’re watching.
Still, viewing habits play an important role. LG’s system blends content consumption data what viewers choose to watch and how often they return with the emotion-based insights provided by Zenapse. This combined data helps advertisers deliver messages that speak to individual values, habits, and emotional preferences.
The companies describe this collaboration as just the beginning. LG has stated that the agreement with Zenapse opens the door to future innovations that could bring even more emotionally intelligent features to the TV screen. These could include tailored experiences beyond advertising, although no specific products have been announced yet.
LG emphasized that this approach is not about replacing current targeting methods but enhancing them. By using emotional insights, the company hopes to offer advertisers a more powerful way to connect with their audiences.
While some CTV ad technologies already focus on mood-based targeting through the type of content being watched, Zenapse’s emotional intelligence model adds another layer by analyzing personality traits, value systems, and emotional triggers. This could give advertisers better tools to reach audiences in ways that feel more human and less generic.
The partnership aims to build more meaningful connections between brands and viewers by understanding not only what people watch but why they watch it and how they feel when they do. According to LG, this could eventually change how people experience ads on TV. And for advertisers, it presents an opportunity to go beyond surface-level targeting and speak to the core of what matters to each viewer. With this new model, LG and Zenapse are setting the foundation for a different kind of ad experience one where emotional intelligence plays a central role in reaching the right audience with the right message.