Hearst Magazines Launches Aura IQ, an AI-Powered Ad Platform

9 Jun 2026

The media company Hearst Magazines, home to titles including Esquire, Cosmopolitan, and Good Housekeeping, unveiled a new platform on Tuesday, called Aura IQ, that combines artificial intelligence with its first-party data to automate audience-building and campaign planning.

The platform is built on top of a preexisting product, an audience-targeting solution called Aura, which Hearst Magazines launched in June 2024. That offering used contextual signals to build 30 distinct personas, called Auras, which the company would use as the basis for brand campaigns. Today, Hearst Magazines uses Aura in one in every three of its campaigns.

With Aura IQ, which has launched internally but will debut to the public during Cannes Lions, the company has taken the technology a step further.

The new platform introduces AI agents to automate several core advertising functions. In doing so, the company has been able to accomplish tasks that previously took hours, such as building custom audiences, analyzing campaign performance, and responding to RFPs, in just minutes, according to Mike Nuzzo, the senior vice president and head of data solutions and insights at Hearst Magazines.