Reddit launches two AI advertising tools to usher in new era of community marketing

Reddit has launched two new AI-powered advertising tools at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity 2025, marking a significant step in what it calls the era of community marketing. 

 

These innovations, collectively branded as Reddit Community Intelligence, leverage the platform’s vast repository of over 22 billion posts and comments to help brands engage more authentically with Reddit’s highly interactive user base.

 

The first tool, Reddit Insights, is a social listening feature that provides marketers with real-time data on trending topics and brand conversations. This AI-driven tool enables advertisers to detect emerging trends and test campaign concepts by converting unstructured user discussions into actionable intelligence. Publicis Groupe is the exclusive tester for Reddit Insights, using it to identify new audiences and gauge brand sentiment for clients like The Hershey Company and Comcast.

 

The second tool, Conversation Summary Add-ons, allows brands to showcase positive user-generated content directly beneath their advertisements. Early adopters of this feature include Lucid Motors and Jackbox Games. By surfacing authentic community feedback, this add-on aims to enhance ad credibility and foster deeper engagement with Reddit’s diverse communities.

 

 

A new era of community marketing

 

Reddit is positioning these tools as part of a new era of community marketing, where brands tap into the authenticity and influence of engaged groups rather than targeting individuals in isolation. COO Jen Wong emphasised that Reddit’s AI layer is designed to guide users deeper into community conversations, maintaining transparency and trust by linking back to original posts.

 

"In a world increasingly flattened by AI, the value of human content on our platform only grows," said Wong. "With Reddit Community Intelligence, we’re not just surfacing insights and conversations; we’re offering deep context, perspective, and the voice of real people at scale.”

 

Campaign reached out to industry experts to ask how much of a genuine innovation they think Reddit’s new community-focused AI ad tools will be. 

 

"If this tech actually helps brands understand, respect, and engage with the nuance of Reddit’s subcultures, then yes, it’s genuinely innovative," says Anton Reyniers, head of strategy at We Are Social Singapore. "It positions Reddit less like a traditional media buy and more like a cultural intelligence bellwether, which is what the industry has been screaming out for from Reddit."

 

Amaury Treguer, co-founder of Bread Agency, says these two new Reddit AI-powered tools mark a significant, innovative leap in community-based marketing. 

 

"With Reddit Insights, strategy teams will be able to bypass manual research and immediately plug into live consumer sentiment, surfacing trends, themes, and tensions that would otherwise take longer to uncover. This, in turn, should mean faster, more grounded, and potentially more effective work for clients," says Treguer. "With the Conversation Summary Add-ons tool, this integration of community commentary directly underneath the ad creative will put trust at the heart of advertising in a way no other platform currently does."

 

Following the launch, Reddit’s stock rose approximately 8%, reflecting investor confidence in the company’s innovative approach to advertising. The announcement comes amid broader industry shifts toward AI-driven advertising solutions, as brands seek to navigate economic uncertainties and evolving consumer behaviours. 

 

Currently a less dominant social channel, can Reddit’s new AI tools boost its visibility enough to encourage advertisers to increase their social media spend on the platform?

 

"We’d absolutely look at Reddit differently, post having a play with these tools," adds Reyniers. "The caveat is: execution matters. If this becomes another blunt targeting engine dressed up in AI clothes, it won’t stick. But if it helps us show up in Reddit communities with relevance and restraint, we’re all for it."

 

And Treguer adds that the ability to validate creative using real conversations and then syndicate those same sentiments into campaign assets brings a level of agility and credibility that’s certainly going to be appealing. "As a result, many agencies will likely be rethinking their media mix and increasing their spending on Reddit."

 

As Campaign reported earlier this month, Reddit is steadily proving itself a dark horse in the social-media advertising landscape.

 

Its growth is impressive. According to Singular's 2025 Return on Investment (ROI) Index, Reddit experienced 47% year-over-year user growth and achieved its first profitable year. Reddit Ads now appears on 18 top performance lists, with particularly strong results in gaming and fintech sectors. 

 

Its organic visibility has surged as well, with a staggering 1,328% increase on Google searches from July 2023 to April 2024. 

 

In the APAC region, Reddit shows significant promise. GWI reports that about 60% of Reddit’s user base is now in APAC. Local subreddits such as r/India, r/Singapore, and r/Philippines have become vibrant hubs for everything from local memes to fan communities.