NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct 22, 2026--
GumGum, The Mindset Company™ transforming advertising, announced today the release of its Mindset Advertising Report, revealing that marketers increasingly see consumers’ mindsets as a critical factor in determining advertising relevance, even as many continue to rely on traditional identity-based audience targeting. The report, which surveyed over 2,000 marketers across key global markets, found that while the industry has largely embraced mindset as a principle, adoption as a methodology has yet to catch up.
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Across the U.S., Australia, and the UK, the findings reveal a consistent pattern: mindset is winning the argument but has yet to change the plan
Mindset advertising by the numbers
GumGum’s research reveals where mindset is gaining ground and where adoption still lags:
The findings arrive at a pivotal moment for the advertising industry. As AI tools make it easier to reach more people faster, whether those people are actually receptive has never mattered more. For brands and agencies still defaulting to identity-based planning, the research suggests that the gap between believing in mindset and building campaigns around it represents a significant missed opportunity.
“The data tells a clear story: marketers believe in mindset, but belief and execution are still two different things. Over 80% of marketers agree that mindset aligned advertising outperforms identity based targeting, yet the majority would still default to identity based planning for their next campaign. That gap is exactly what GumGum exists to close," says Marcus Startzel, CEO of GumGum.
The full Mindset Advertising Report can be viewed HERE.
About GumGum
GumGum is The Mindset Company™ transforming advertising. We deliver results by matching brands with people in the right mindset, in the moments that matter. Powered by the Mindset Graph™, our AI-driven data engine processes billions of real-time contextual, creative, environmental, and historical signals to match every ad with the most receptive audience. The result is advertising that drives meaningful outcomes for advertisers and publishers, and is more relevant for consumers. Founded in 2008 and headquartered in Santa Monica, GumGum operates in over 19 markets across North America, Europe, Japan, and Australia. Learn more at gumgum.com.
GumGum
A federal judge in California has ordered the Trump administration to halt investigations in nine states into whether noncitizens are registered to vote.
U.S. District Court Judge Araceli Martinez-Olguin in Oakland found the government's effort is relying on data that is full of errors and that it's leading to intimidation of groups performing voter assistance efforts. She said it should be halted until polls close on Election Day, Nov. 3.
She put her ruling, which was made Wednesday, on hold until Friday to give the administration a chance to appeal.
The ruling applies to investigations in California, Connecticut, Georgia, Missouri, Nevada, New York, Pennsylvania, Washington and Wisconsin.
It comes as the Trump administration has been hunting for noncitizen voters throughout the country in the months leading into the midterm elections. The administration has signaled that it's a major problem, when in fact it's quite rare, as even its own investigations have shown.
The lawsuit was filed by the California Nurses Association and National Nurses United, along with the Voto Latino Foundation, San Francisco and Santa Clara County.
In response to the ruling, the Department of Homeland Security issued an email statement Thursday saying it's focused on “removing aliens who vote and dilute the votes of U.S. citizens,” while adding, “We have no plans to question or investigate people we believe to be U.S. citizens.”
The judge based the decision to halt the investigation only on the unions’ assertion that the probe is harming voter assistance and mobilization efforts involving citizens. She did not find that union members' right to vote was being infringed because most of them do that by mail and not in person. She said investigations don’t need to target U.S. citizens, use armed agents or intimidate citizens who are urging others to vote.
According to legal filings in the case, investigators were told to target naturalized citizens to see whether they had voted before they became U.S. citizens. The lists of voters to check came from sources that included state and local governments and publicly available information. Martinez-Olguin called them “voluminous and unreliable.”
“Even under the best conditions, there is a high likelihood of error in review because there is no federal database containing citizenship status of U.S. residents,” Martinez-Olguin wrote in her ruling. “The time limitations implemented during the Surge further exacerbate the risk of error.”
The Department of Justice has been demanding detailed and unredacted voter roll data from the states and has sued the 30 states that have refused to turn it over, losing each of those cases so far. The judge noted that for states that refused to share their records, the administration was trying to obtain them through “unreliable commercial versions of voter roll data.”
She said during a “surge” phase of the investigation starting in late August, agents were ordered to complete reviews of flagged individuals taking no more than 12 minutes per person to assess whether they were legally qualified to vote.
In their challenge, the plaintiffs said some U.S. citizens felt they were wrongly identified and investigated as part of the probe. Martinez-Olguin said those fears “are well understood as intimidation” that has chilled people from attending campaign events and working as poll monitors during the election.
Beau Tremitiere, a lawyer representing the unions and voter group, said in a statement that the ruling affirms the groups’ position.
"It was clear from the start that DHS built its lists on bad data, never checked how often it was wrong, and recklessly sent agents to people’s homes weeks before an election," Tremitiere said.
Details of the investigation, known as the "Unlawful Voter Initiative,” came to light last month after Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York and Democratic Sen. Alex Padilla of California released a whistleblower report about it.
Homeland Security Investigations task force officers escort a suspect accused of illegally registering to vote during a federal operation in Commerce, Calif., Monday, Oct. 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
