MarTech Edge Interview with Jordi Capdevila Espitia, Global Head of Marketing, Seedtag

Welcome, Jordi! Thank you for taking the time to speak with us today. Please share with us your career story, which led you to your current role as the Global Head of Marketing at Seedtag.

My experience comes from first solo managing marketing for small to medium-sized B2B businesses, all the way to eventually building entire teams at much larger companies. A combination of self-trial and error and learning from my teammates built up my career to the point where I am today, leading marketing at Seedtag, with 500+ employees and a global team of 30 people.

Can you provide an overview of Seedtag’s core contextual advertising solutions? How do these solutions allow brands to deliver exceptional ad experiences?

Seedtag was born 9 years ago with the vision of building a solution to reach people with a respectful and privacy-first approach. With that in mind, we trained Liz, our contextual AI technology, that leverages Deep Learning, Computer Vision, and Natural Language Processing capabilities that allow us to deliver ads on relevant websites that target suitable audiences in the open web, without the use of cookies.

We evolved from display advertising with a few formats to now more than 150 configurations, including video, in different placements along the editorial content of our premium publishers. Users are served with non-intrusive ads that correlate with their reading experience and interests.

What methods do you employ to identify and segment your target audience effectively? How does it contribute to enhanced reach & engagement?

We work closely with our Sales and Growth teams to understand who we are speaking with, day in and day out. We get to know the buyer personas and buying committees that are driving budgets toward our solution in order to educate and nurture them with the best content — getting them informed to make an informed decision when placing their digital advertising budgets and maximizing returns. I believe that this approach is the way to go when looking for long-term growth, greater engagement, and reach.

Seedtag recently launched the industry’s first generative AI capability for contextual dynamic creatives; could you share how this innovation enhances the creation and delivery of advertising content?

This is a key development for Seedtag in 2023 and the next step in our ability to modify creatives to better fit within the context of a page. We’re pioneering the use of generative AI in campaign creatives, which allows us to resonate with consumers even further and drive better results for our clients. With the ability to generate multiple versions of the same ad, brands can maximize their impact and adapt their original creatives to fit within a diverse range of contexts, delivering greater attention and brand outcomes for our customers.

How do you adapt your marketing strategies to changing consumer behaviors in the digital advertising space?

It is all about being proactive through consumer listening and trend watching to see where the industry is heading instead of continuously adapting to support the never-ending changes of our industry. We believe that collaborating with our customers and partners is the best way to set the pace of an industry and define the future of contextual advertising.

With the emphasis on cookie-free engagement, how does your contextual AI technology work to connect brands with consumer’s specific interests?

We possess the capability to construct an intricate network encompassing all the URLs that have been meticulously analyzed. This network, known as the Contextual Graph, serves as a powerful tool for matching topics and interests with the briefings of our customers. The result is a remarkable synergy, enabling us to strategically position ads in those specific topics, achieving greater affinity with the consumer’s interest.

Our innovative approach stands out as truly distinctive, transcending conventional categorization methods. We establish a direct connection by tying back every single interest to the consumer, getting informed in real-time with the right ad. This dynamic real-time connection ensures that our customers’ campaigns are equipped with the optimal advertisement, offering a highly personalized and effective marketing strategy.

How do you maintain a balance between delivering relevant advertising and respecting consumer’s privacy and preferences?

We prioritize user privacy by not storing personal data, a decision made from our core values of respecting the user. Our focus is solely on understanding the context of the content and respecting the anonymity of every user behind the screen. This allows us to deliver relevant ads that are seamlessly integrated within the right context, ensuring consumers have an even stronger engagement with brands. Therefore, we are all in within a privacy-first world.

How do you envision the future of contextual advertising, and what role does Seedtag aim to play in shaping this landscape?

Contextual is reaching beyond the open web to diverse channels where people seek information and entertainment. Each of these channels has a context that advertisers can tap into, all while maintaining a commitment to respectful engagement with consumers. We believe in harnessing the power of context to deliver value and relevance in every interaction, so I see Seedtag defining the future of contextual advertising and setting the standards for it.