`brando:Context`

Activation context describing audience, channel, jurisdiction, and operational conditions for brand behaviour.

rdfs:comment
Activation context describing audience, channel, jurisdiction, and operational conditions for brand behaviour.

Term definition

IRI: brando:Context
Type: owl:Class
Superclass: schema:Intangible
Defined in: brando: (Brando Schema Vocabulary v1.3)

A brando:Context describes where, for whom, and under what operational conditions the brand is active. It captures the variables that change how a brand should behave, even when the core brand identity is the same.

Typical examples:

“Retail chatbot – UK”
“Investor relations – global site”
“Paid social ads – DE”
“Customer support email – US, regulated products”

In a Brand Knowledge Graph, Brand → Context → Tokens/Policies is one of the main paths your runtime will follow.

Intended usage

Use brando:Context when you need to:

Differentiate behaviour by channel/surface
e.g. public website vs authenticated app vs internal assistant.
Differentiate by audience
e.g. retail customers, small businesses, institutional investors.
Handle regulatory / operational differences
e.g. region, jurisdiction, product line, lifecycle stage.

A single brando:Brand will typically have multiple brando:Context nodes, each with its own:

audience descriptors (brando:audienceSegment, brando:audiencePersona),
operational conditions (brando:domainContext, brando:effectiveDuring, brando:appliesTo),
attached tokens (brando:usesVerbal, brando:usesVisual, brando:usesAudio),
attached governance (brando:hasPolicy and possibly brando:hasAutomationRule).

Your Brand OS or AI middleware normally:

Resolves the relevant brando:Brand.
Selects an appropriate brando:Context for the current request.
Aggregates tokens and policies from both Brand and Context.

Relationships

Inbound: from `brando:Brand`

brando:Context is usually reached via:

brando:hasContext
Domain: brando:Brand
Range: brando:Context
Comment: “Links a brand to one or more activation contexts in which it operates.”

Example (brand-side):

{
  "@id": "https://example.com/brand/northstar",
  "@type": "brando:Brand",
  "schema:name": "Northstar Bank",
  "brando:hasContext": {
    "@id": "https://example.com/brand/northstar/context/retail-chatbot"
  }
}

Outbound: tokens and policies

Contexts share many of the same links as brands:

brando:usesVerbal
- Domain: brando:Brand, brando:Context
- Range: Brando:VerbalIdentity
- Comment: “Attaches a verbal expression token defining how the brand speaks in this scope.”
brando:usesVisual
- Domain: brando:Brand, brando:Context
- Range: Brando:VisualIdentity
- Comment: “Attaches a visual expression token defining how the brand looks in this scope.”
brando:usesAudio
- Domain: brando:Brand, brando:Context
- Range: Brando:AudioIdentity
- Comment: “Attaches an audio expression token defining how the brand sounds in this scope.”
brando:hasPolicy
- Domain: brando:Brand, brando:Context
- Range: brando:Policy
- Comment: “Attaches governance, safety, and compliance policies to a brand or context.”

Pattern (non-normative):

Attach defaults at brando:Brand level.
Attach overrides / specialisation at brando:Context level. At runtime, merge Brand + Context tokens/policies into an effective configuration.

Key properties (domain = `brando:Context`)

The following properties have brando:Context in their rdfs:domain.

1. Audience descriptors

Property IRI	Range	Type	Comment (summary)
`brando:audienceSegment`	`xsd:string`	`owl:DatatypeProperty`	Strategic grouping of individuals who share needs or characteristics relevant to this context.
`brando:audiencePersona`	`xsd:string`	`owl:DatatypeProperty`	Persona-style archetypes representing typical users in this context.

Usage notes (non-normative):

brando:audienceSegment is good for simple labels (“retail customers”, “SMBs”, “developers”).
brando:audiencePersona is good for referring to internal personas by name (“Everyday saver”, “Enterprise buyer”). You can have multiple persona names per context.

Example:

{
  "@id": "https://example.com/brand/northstar/context/retail-chatbot",
  "@type": "brando:Context",
  "brando:audienceSegment": [
    "Retail banking customers",
    "Prospects researching savings accounts"
  ],
  "brando:audiencePersona": [
    "Everyday saver",
    "New-to-finance customer"
  ]
}

2. Operational conditions and scope

Property IRI	Range	Type	Comment (summary)
`brando:domainContext`	`xsd:string`	`owl:DatatypeProperty`	Operational, legal, channel, regional, and use-case conditions encoded as a structured JSON payload (as a string).
`brando:effectiveDuring`	`xsd:string`	`owl:DatatypeProperty`	Time window or schedule when this context, campaign, or policy is active, expressed as a structured JSON value.
`brando:appliesTo`	`xsd:string`	`owl:DatatypeProperty`	Optional scoping for which products, categories, personas, or channels this node applies to.

Usage notes (non-normative):

brando:domainContext
- Intended for machine-readable JSON serialised as a string.
- Use it for things like { "channel": "chatbot", "surface": "public-website", "region": "UK" }.
- brando:effectiveDuring
- Also JSON-as-string; can represent date ranges, schedules, or conditions (e.g. { "validFrom": "...", "validThrough": "..." }).
- brando:appliesTo
- Free-form scoping; can reference product codes, persona IDs, or internal channel identifiers.

Example:

{
  "@id": "https://example.com/brand/northstar/context/retail-chatbot",
  "@type": "brando:Context",
  "brando:domainContext": {
    "channel": "chatbot",
    "surface": "public-website",
    "region": "UK"
  },
  "brando:effectiveDuring": {
    "validFrom": "2025-01-01",
    "validThrough": null
  },
  "brando:appliesTo": "Savings accounts; current accounts; UK-only"
}

In practice your Brand OS may parse these JSON strings into structured objects in your own runtime model.

3. Files and external systems

These properties are shared across several domains (brando:Brand, brando:Context, tokens, policies, etc.), but are important for contexts:

Property IRI	Domain (includes)	Range	Type	Comment (summary)
`brando:downloadableFile`	`brando:Context`	`schema:MediaObject`	`owl:ObjectProperty`	Links a brand, token, context, campaign, or policy node to the most up-to-date creative files exposed by the Brand OS or DAM.
`brando:supportingFile`	`brando:Context`	`schema:MediaObject`	`owl:ObjectProperty`	Links a brand, token, context, campaign, or policy node to additional files helpful for production but not the primary asset.
`brando:externalSystem`	`brando:Context`	`schema:SoftwareApplication`	`owl:ObjectProperty`	Links a brand, context, policy, campaign, or automation rule to a software application that represents an integration target.
`brando:externalSystemId`	`brando:Context`	`xsd:string`	`owl:DatatypeProperty`	Identifier for the corresponding object in an external tool such as Adobe GenStudio, Meta Ads Manager, Figma, or internal CMSs.

Usage notes (non-normative):

Use downloadableFile for canonical artefacts scoped to that context (e.g. “Support chatbot script for UK”, “Channel-specific guidelines”).
Use supportingFile for context-specific reference materials (e.g. transcripts, example chats, training docs).
Use externalSystem + externalSystemId to hook the context into external platforms:
- a specific ad account,
- a workspace or project ID,
- a configuration object in an orchestration system.

Example:

{
  "@id": "https://example.com/brand/northstar/context/retail-chatbot",
  "@type": "brando:Context",
  "brando:downloadableFile": {
    "@id": "https://assets.example.com/northstar/contexts/retail-chatbot-guidelines.pdf",
    "@type": "schema:MediaObject",
    "schema:name": "Retail Chatbot Context Guidelines (PDF)"
  },
  "brando:externalSystem": {
    "@id": "https://example.com/integrations/chat-orchestrator"
  },
  "brando:externalSystemId": "northstar_retail_chatbot_uk"
}

Example: brand + context with tokens and policy

A small JSON-LD example showing how brando:Context is used in practice:

{
  "@context": {
    "schema": "https://schema.org/",
    "brando": "https://brandoschema.com/"
  },
  "@graph": [
    {
      "@id": "https://example.com/brand/northstar",
      "@type": "brando:Brand",
      "schema:name": "Northstar Bank",
      "brando:hasContext": {
        "@id": "https://example.com/brand/northstar/context/retail-chatbot"
      },
      "brando:usesVerbal": {
        "@id": "https://example.com/brand/northstar/tokens/verbal/default"
      },
      "brando:hasPolicy": {
        "@id": "https://example.com/brand/northstar/policies/global-brand-safety"
      }
    },
    {
      "@id": "https://example.com/brand/northstar/context/retail-chatbot",
      "@type": "brando:Context",
      "brando:audienceSegment": [
        "Retail banking customers"
      ],
      "brando:audiencePersona": [
        "Everyday saver"
      ],
      "brando:domainContext": {
        "channel": "chatbot",
        "surface": "public-website",
        "region": "UK"
      },
      "brando:effectiveDuring": {
        "validFrom": "2025-01-01",
        "validThrough": null
      },
      "brando:appliesTo": "Savings accounts; current accounts",
      "brando:usesVerbal": {
        "@id": "https://example.com/brand/northstar/tokens/verbal/support"
      },
      "brando:hasPolicy": {
        "@id": "https://example.com/brand/northstar/policies/regulated-claims-uk"
      }
    },
    {
      "@id": "https://example.com/brand/northstar/tokens/verbal/default",
      "@type": "Brando:VerbalIdentity",
      "brando:toneOfVoice": "Calm, empathetic, precise."
    },
    {
      "@id": "https://example.com/brand/northstar/tokens/verbal/support",
      "@type": "Brando:VerbalIdentity",
      "brando:toneOfVoice": "Reassuring and efficient. Focus on clear next steps."
    },
    {
      "@id": "https://example.com/brand/northstar/policies/global-brand-safety",
      "@type": "brando:Policy",
      "brando:enforcementLevel": "mandatory",
      "brando:riskTag": [
        "brand-safety",
        "tone-of-voice"
      ]
    },
    {
      "@id": "https://example.com/brand/northstar/policies/regulated-claims-uk",
      "@type": "brando:Policy",
      "brando:enforcementLevel": "mandatory",
      "brando:riskTag": [
        "financial-regulation",
        "uk-regulation"
      ]
    }
  ]
}

Runtime behaviour (non-normative pattern):

Resolve brando:Brand → https://example.com/brand/northstar.
Select brando:Context → retail-chatbot based on channel/surface/region.
Aggregate tokens:
- Brand-level verbal token (/tokens/verbal/default),
- Context-level verbal token (/tokens/verbal/support).
- Aggregate policies:
- Brand-level global safety policy,
- Context-level UK-specific regulation policy.
- Use audience and domain info to tailor prompts, retrieval, and risk checks.

Concepts / overview
- Brando types overview
- Getting started
Related types

brando:Context

Term definition

Intended usage

Relationships

Inbound: from brando:Brand

Outbound: tokens and policies

Key properties (domain = brando:Context)

1. Audience descriptors

2. Operational conditions and scope

3. Files and external systems

Example: brand + context with tokens and policy

Related documentation

`brando:Context`

Inbound: from `brando:Brand`

Key properties (domain = `brando:Context`)