Hello, Jasper! Could you share some key insights you’ve gained throughout your marketing career?

In the 12+ years I’ve spent in B2B SaaS Marketing, I’ve seen time and again that building relationships with your audience over time is the only viable way to long-term success. No one wakes up in the morning and decides to switch a critical component of their MarTech stack on a whim. Growth “hacks” and pure conversion-focused plays only take you so far. Instead, the main role of our marketing function is to create opportunities for our teams to build personal relationships with our audience at scale. In other words, as the leading Customer Engagement Platform, we need to practice what we preach to our customers.

What marketing challenges are specific to the North American market, and how do you address them as the VP Marketing, NA of CleverTap?

North America tends to be a focus area for many companies, so the competition for share of mind is quite high. Audiences are inundated with messages and have learned to become skeptical, sophisticated buyers. More often than not, they look for the best, not the cheapest, solution. But once a decision has been made, they can move quite quickly – and expect much more agility than, for example, buyers in Europe. Ultimately, it comes down to breaking through the clutter, building trust, and then providing exceptional service. Marketing plays a central role in all these three functions.

What sets CleverTap apart as the preferred customer engagement platform for companies aiming to optimize their customer lifetime value?

At CleverTap, we believe that disparate point solutions create disparate customer journeys. That’s why we built an all-in-one platform that combines the intelligence a business needs with powerful tools to put this insight into action. By providing an integrated solution for analytics, product experiences, and lifecycle marketing, we create an environment that encourages synergies between marketing and product teams. The results are not only improvements in operational and cost efficiency but also in the resulting customer experience.

The second major competitive advantage we have comes down to the granularity and volume of customer data we can store and process. Our proprietary data layer powered by TesseractDB™ lets CleverTap customers build truly personalized customer engagement strategies and user journeys that span their entire life cycle.

In your three months with CleverTap, what notable changes have you introduced to the marketing strategies?

A lot of our effort has been focused on building better relationships with our customers and potential customers. Face-to-face interactions are a key component of this strategy. To execute this well with a globally distributed team, we have introduced new processes and concepts – we want to be known as the experts in building better experiences. We are also working on our approach to providing meaningful content. Our audience is sophisticated buyers, and it’s important to show that we value their attention by providing interesting, relevant insights.

Can you share instances of how you’ve applied your strong analytical skills to resolve complex marketing challenges?

An analytical mindset is critical to many aspects of marketing decision-making, from determining the right metrics to define and track success consistently to effectively running digital campaigns to making informed choices on positioning and messaging. But the most interesting cases are those where analytical thinking only gets you half the way, and you have to mix it with intuition. Marketing is full of gray areas and unknowns – you rarely have clear “wrong” or “right” approaches to solve a given challenge. For example, the usual B2B SaaS customer journey includes multiple touch points that may include a mix of events, content, paid media, and other channels. Each can be independently measured to a certain degree, but it is often hard to prove the aggregate impact of integrated campaigns that combine all channels. Making decisions in the face of this uncertainty means that you have to look at data where it is available while ensuring that it doesn’t obscure the big picture.

How do you plan to navigate your role at CleverTap going forward?

“We are the largest Customer Engagement Platform globally and have a distinct technological advantage, thanks to innovations like TesseractDB™, RenderMax, and most recently, Scribe. Within North America, our market position as challengers aligns us with digital thought leaders who need to outsmart and not outspend their established competition. We need to stay hungry, flexible, and smart when it comes to positioning our products, reaching our audiences, and building relationships with them. To succeed, we need to rally our global team and provide focus, set a high bar for our marketing output, especially content and experiences, and embrace new technologies like AI. In this context, I see myself as a contributor who provides guidance, facilitates conversations between different internal and external stakeholders, and helps create alignment between them.

Welcome, Jan! Could you share how your background in economics enables you as the VP of online marketing at IONOS?

My education in business administration and e-commerce helps me daily in making marketing decisions. Online marketing has a high impact on the economic future of the company. Having internalized business processes here is an important factor in thinking entrepreneurially.

In what ways does IONOS serve as a 'one-stop shop' for all digitalization requirements?

We are a one-stop shop for SMEs in particular. Our new structure allows us to grow with our customers while meeting the needs of professional web users. This starts with a domain name and a professional email address, continues with entry-level products such as website builders and collaboration tools, and can be extended to an enterprise platform, depending on individual needs.

Small and medium-sized businesses are a significant focus for IONOS. How do you tailor your online marketing strategies to cater to the specific needs of SMBs?

Yes, that’s right. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are the backbone of many economies, which is precisely why we are passionate about supporting local entrepreneurs through our products. This is reflected in our online marketing communications, where we emphasize these very qualities. Understanding the specific problems or challenges that an SME faces is crucial as a starting point. After we’ve truly understood these issues, we approach our communications with the intent to solve them. We also fine-tune our marketing strategies to specifically target these small businesses to reduce inefficiency. Our aim is to engage in sharp, clear communication that provides a solution to the exact problems they face, directly addressing the needs of our intended audience.

Can you share a few examples of online marketing campaigns under your leadership that garnered unprecedented positive results? What distinct approaches did you employ for each of these campaigns?

Our products are generally not purchased impulsively. We can see this in the data. Users often visit our pages several times to gather information, perhaps comparing them with other providers or collecting information before deciding to make a purchase. This initial phase, the beginning of a customer journey, is very important for convincing a potential customer about us.

At IONOS, we’re currently in a dynamic phase, heavily investing in our brand. This investment is having a significant impact on our online marketing strategy. We’re supporting this branding phase with a comprehensive 360-degree approach to digital marketing. In every marketing channel, we aim to guide the user through every stage of the customer journey with targeted communication. This starts from the brand-driven awareness phase and extends all the way to the conversion-focused purchase phase. We’re leveraging all the tracking technologies available to us. Our goal is to achieve maximum brand penetration in the market while also attracting a lot of new customers. We’ve successfully managed this balance in several European countries over the past few years. As a result, we’ve been able to build our brand very profitably, which is why we plan to continue investing in our brand in the future.

Can you provide insights into the latest offering from IONOS, the AI website generator, and how it enables professional website development in no time?

AI is rapidly redefining the way websites are built. With the new Website generator for IONOS MyWebsite Now, SMBs can now create a complete website with a homepage and up to four subpages. All they need to do is enter their company name, industry, and a short description, and it will generate three design options for businesses to choose from. They select their preferred option and simply edit & expand it. Here again, we use AI tools to automatically generate images from a simple text command. SMBs can also choose from 12 different tones to find the perfect tone for their website content. In addition, the IONOS MyWebsite Now offers an AI SEO text generator to generate search engine-optimized headlines and text.

What criteria do you consider when evaluating marketing technology software?

Aside from the obvious factors such as features and price, we also place a strong emphasis on data security and the location of data storage. At IONOS, we are very conscientious about data security, and this is reflected in our choice of software.

The digital marketing landscape is constantly evolving. What recent trends or innovations in online marketing do you find particularly relevant to IONOS?

One of the biggest trends is TikTok. It’s not exactly new, but the consistent increase in reach is quite impressive. What is interesting here is that it operates very differently from other video platforms. One has to adapt to it, and then it is possible to reach any target group on TikTok. Furthermore, the development of internet privacy is a major issue. Google aims to improve internet privacy by phasing out third-party cookies from its websites. Firefox and Safari no longer support them either. These changes will have a significant impact on banner ads.

Welcome, Greg! How does your extensive 20-year experience empower your role as the CEO at Chati?

Having spent two decades in the webinar and virtual event business, using many different virtual event platforms, I’ve gained an intricate understanding of what features make a virtual event platform unique, top-tier audience engagement and the tools to increase it, evolving market needs, and technological trends. This experience naturally informed my decisions when creating the team to develop Chati, ensuring we deliver solutions that resonate with our clients, are technologically advanced, and are always a step ahead.

What are some of the biggest challenges and opportunities you face as the CEO of a virtual event platform in the post-pandemic era?

In the post-pandemic landscape, while many are keen to return to in-person events, there’s a recognized value in virtual platforms. The challenge is in striking the right balance between virtual and physical experiences. The opportunity, however, lies in refining and innovating our hybrid offerings to ensure they offer the intimacy of in-person events while retaining the accessibility and convenience of virtual platforms.

How do you foster a culture of innovation and collaboration among your team members at Chati?

At Chati, we prioritize open communication and celebrate diverse perspectives. We also value the “virtual” aspect, and all have worked remotely since Chati’s inception. We have an open-door policy to ensure that every voice is heard and every idea is added to the drawing board. We encourage team collaboration across marketing, design, and development teams, which provides unique perspectives, broadening the creative pool.

What are some unique features and benefits that Chati offers its clients and partners?

Chati provides a high-quality video chat feature called ChatiConnect, which allows event hosts to include video breakout sessions within the event environment, mimicking the face-to-face feel of physical events. Chati also has many interactive tools to keep attendees engaged as they navigate the virtual event and watch presentations, responsive templates with 3D customizable options, and, finally, advanced analytics tools to empower clients to make informed decisions, enhancing their event outcomes. Chati supports multi-format content, from webinars to workshops to interactive remote team building.

How does Chati differentiate itself from other virtual event builders in the market?

Chati’s uniqueness lies in its deep-rooted understanding of audience engagement and building virtual environments to optimize it, backed by two decades of industry insight. Our platform goes beyond just hosting an event; we provide an experience that’s immersive, intuitive, and insightful, ensuring both hosts and attendees derive maximum value.

What are the key values and principles that guide your leadership style at Chati?

Transparency, integrity, and adaptability are my guiding principles. I encourage the team to consistently push creative boundaries and think outside the box, whether it be for the platform development itself or for creative and marketing campaigns. Although we do have a chain of managerial structure, I encourage project ownership and make sure that individuals are heard, valued, and empowered to contribute.

How does Chati help organizations with their marketing and sales purposes through its event technology?

Chati’s event technology is designed to provide actionable insights. From attendee behavior analytics to feedback mechanisms, organizations can gauge audience interest, tailor their marketing strategies, identify potential leads, and nurture relationships more effectively.

What primary factors contributed to Chati’s rapid growth and success in the event tech industry?

Chati’s success can be attributed to our commitment to innovation, deep understanding of market needs, and relentless focus on client satisfaction. Our robust platform, coupled with exceptional customer support and unique features like ChatiConnect, has made us a preferred choice in the industry.

What are the current trends and challenges that you see in the event tech space?

The event tech space is evolving rapidly with a growing emphasis on hybrid events, AI-driven personalization, and sustainability. Challenges include navigating the changing attendee expectations, integrating new technologies, and ensuring the human touch isn’t lost amidst the digital transformation.

Tell us more about your passion for reptiles and how you started Snake Country.

I’ve been fascinated with reptiles (primarily snakes) since I was a little kid. My parents didn’t allow me to have snakes in the house, so as soon as I moved out and went to college, I bought my first boa constrictor. Over the following number of years, I was able to collect a few more reptiles I always wanted as a child. A couple of years later, life got in the way of my reptile passion; I fell in love, got married, and had three sons. Years down the road, one of my boys became interested in snakes. We went out and bought a king snake, which turned into two, then three more snakes over the next few months. That quickly ignited my passion for reptiles all over again. It snowballed from there. I began purchasing some high-end genetics of both boa constrictors and ball pythons. We went from five snakes to over 100 within the next year. We had snake racks in almost every room in our house, so I decided to make a breeding business out of it, then moved our snakes into a facility and created the company Snake Country LLC.

Snake Country now has over 1,000 animals; we breed over 100 females and have roughly 400-500 babies every year. We have four employees and are now turning a profit. After working all day at Labroots and Chati, I go down to our facility and spend another 2-3 hours there every night of the week. I love it!

Welcome Joel! Could you recount your first marketing role in your career? Also, can you draw parallels and distinctions between that early experience and your current position as the Director of Growth Marketing at Nylas?

My first marketing role was at ReachLocal as a marketing ad editor. I was a rookie, mastering the nuances of paid search; now, at Nylas, I guide the broader marketing narrative. It’s a testament to the idea that from humble beginnings come great journeys. Each step, each challenge, has been a lesson propelling us forward.

How do Nylas’ email and scheduling APIs empower developers to enhance business productivity through improved communication and workplace capabilities?

Countless hours of productivity are lost due to things such as context switching, broken workflows, or tracking down relevant data points or information. Nylas aims to solve this and much more by making it simple, fast, and easy for developers to integrate data-rich communication channels such as email, calendars, and contact lists into their applications. Through these integrations, users can bridge the gap between their own applications and workflows and some of the most frequently used communication channels. This lets users have all their data, channels, and communications within a single interface, enabling business productivity and more simplistic workflows.

How has Nylas been differentiating its suite of API solutions from other vendors in the market?

Nylas is the only API solution specializing in both email and calendars. Rather than building integrations into every single service provider, Nylas makes it easy for organizations to securely connect their application to their users’ email, calendar, and contacts through a single point of integration. This allows companies to build these integrations significantly faster, meaning they are able to go-to-market faster as well.

Could you elaborate on the significant changes you’ve implemented in Nylas’ marketing strategy that have led to notable improvements for the company?

We’ve done a lot of work on our SEO strategy, created lots of content, and built a lot of campaigns through an SEO lens. This has allowed us to not only create meaningful content but has also made it easy to find and get in front of the right people.

How do Nylas’ solutions simplify the day-to-day tasks of marketers, ultimately resulting in streamlined and optimized marketing efforts?

Nylas allows marketers to send large-scale email interactions based on email service provider rate limits. Since these emails are able to come from a user account rather than a third-party IP, these emails tend to receive higher open rates, higher deliverability, and more. Nylas also arms marketers with up-to-date communications data, which can help marketers better understand their customers and curate more personalized workflows and experiences for them.

What specific criteria do you utilize when evaluating martech technologies for your organization?

One key criterion that I look for in martech solutions is how easily we can integrate it into our existing systems. Martech tools can be great, but if it is a challenge to connect it to what we already have, then it can create lots of short- and long-term challenges.

How will the partnership with Master of Code pave the way for innovative advancements in conversational AI chat solutions?

The combination of Nylas and Master of Code means businesses can more effectively meet their customers in some of the most frequently used communication channels, email, and chat. Additionally, this partnership will help companies combine innovative technologies like communications APIs and conversational AI without the complexity or time needed to build these solutions on their own.

Could you elaborate on the groundbreaking integration solution Nylas is developing and its potential to set new industry standards?

In a world where development hours are incredibly important, our APIs are helping developers and their teams save countless hours of development time. This not only allows organizations to ship products and features faster, but it also helps companies deliver a better experience for their developers, something that is becoming increasingly critical as a measure of success for companies of all sizes and industries.

Welcome, Jamshed! How did your experience in some of the world’s leading companies shape your current role as the SVP, Global Head of Strategy & Services at Marigold?

I started my career on the agency side at Wunderman/Thompson and Havas, working in the services team and directly engaging with customers. As we all know, the agency world can be a bit frenetic. Fast velocity. Extremely intense. High energy. It was a great learning experience. Those early experiences provided me with a deep understanding of customer needs and challenges and the creativity needed to meet their urgency and innovate on their behalf. Transitioning from the agency world to the vendor side with time at Salesforce and Microsoft, I had the opportunity to work with renowned global brands in diverse industries. There are many similarities and differences between the agency world and the tech vendor world. This exposure broadened my perspective and taught me that, regardless of the industry, similar challenges exist. Clients need partners to help them succeed in a competitive marketplace.

What primary responsibilities does your position at Marigold entail? What changes have you implemented in six months of your role that have propelled the company’s growth?

When I came to Marigold a few years ago, the organization had acquired a number of outstanding technology companies and was in the beginning stages of bringing those capabilities together in a way that would create a competitive advantage for our clients and our company. As we sit here today, that transformation has occurred, and Marigold is now positioned as a market leader for Relationship Marketing. One of our superpowers is that not only do we now offer amazing technology, but we also wrap world-class services around the tech to help our clients improve their time to value, maximize their investments, and, most importantly, engage with their customers in more meaningful ways. This transformation has been incredibly satisfying to be part of.

In alignment with this transformation, as Senior Vice President, Global Head of Strategy & Services, my goal has been to help Marigold unite our various services teams across our global company with one unified leadership team. In the past six months, we have initiated significant changes to how we work with our customers to provide white-glove support by unifying our services team, including: 

• Strategic Focus: We have shifted our approach from primarily emphasizing technology to leading with strategy. This change involves asking the right questions, focusing on problem-solving and delivering value and outcomes that matter to our customers.
• Global Leadership: I lead the division across Marigold’s global business, which means overseeing our operations on a worldwide scale. We’ve expanded our presence to touch every continent, making us a truly global team capable of serving clients in numerous countries.
• Team Integration: We have set out to align our approach, methodologies, and customer engagement strategies. By doing so, we aimed to elevate the quality of our services and set higher standards for customer satisfaction.

These changes have not only improved our internal operations but have also positioned us for significant growth and enhanced customer satisfaction. In essence, it has created a competitive advantage for Marigold. Many of our competitors can not, do not, or will not offer these services. At a time when clients need to do more with less within their own teams, the availability of these services is critical for their success. It’s exciting to see all of this come to fruition. I feel like an ‘agency’ kid again.

In what ways does Marigold’s Relationship Marketing technology enable businesses to deliver highly personalized experiences, helping acquire new customers and grow existing ones?

Today, clients need help figuring out what it takes to win the customers’ hearts, not just their transactions. They need to work harder to know more about their customers and to help them along their path to purchase in a contextually relevant way over time. This is the foundation of relationship marketing. And it is, in fact, what we do here at Marigold.

Since joining the company three years ago, I’ve witnessed how Marigold’s solutions empower marketers and, in turn, help our team acquire, nurture, and grow loyal customers all in one place. We’re one of the only firms who can tie together the full customer lifecycle across all of those customer life stages. Since Marigold’s technology is a comprehensive solution that allows businesses to engage with consumers at every stage of their journey, the unified approach simplifies the process and ensures a consistent and personalized experience. Coupled with our white glove services, it’s a winning combination. Additionally, all of our products are scalable, so we can serve a wide range of clients, large and small, across many verticals. Whether a customer starts with one component of our technology or the entire suite, they have the flexibility to expand and leverage additional features from our portfolio as their needs evolve. Finally, our data-driven approach in our relationship marketing technology enables marketers to not only acquire new customers but also to foster long-term loyalty. Data-informed personalization means that businesses can create meaningful connections with their customer base, turning them into loyal advocates.

What key KPIs do you prioritize in precise tracking and measuring the success of your strategic initiatives?

We use an OKR framework (Objectives & Key Results) to track various initiatives across teams and ensure alignment with the overall vision. Since our customer size is scalable, so are outcomes. We are always asking ourselves - ‘did we achieve the outcome that we set out to deliver?’ This starts by making sure we are aligned on the overall goal of a campaign so we can develop the strategy and tactics across our solutions that are going to be deliverable and achievable within a reasonable timeframe.

In terms of the marketing KPIs we focus on with our clients, it varies depending on the specific engagement. If we’re supporting a loyalty program, the metrics will relate to member growth, profitability and revenue contribution of the program, program engagement, repeat purchase, CLTV, member satisfaction, etc. The metrics for a CRM program will be similar, of course, but the specific measures will relate to the activities and behaviors supported by the program.

Can you recall any instance when you had to pivot a strategic plan due to unexpected circumstances? How did you still manage to successfully attain the initially set goals?

Over the past few years, consumer behavior has changed dramatically. In fact, during the pandemic, almost 90% of people changed what they buy, how they buy, and where they buy. Even if they wanted to be loyal, most consumers couldn’t remain loyal to their favorite brands due to supply chain issues or limited access during the pandemic. And while some pre-pandemic buying behaviors have returned, many have not. It’s clear that the buyer journey today is much different and more complex. It is also constantly evolving. And it happens over time. Add to that the increase in data volume and velocity, the rapidly evolving marketing technology landscape, and a challenging economy, and you have the perfect storm for most marketers. They have been dealing with unprecedented changes in consumer behaviors. As a technology and service provider, we’ve had to pivot to help our clients deal with the significance of these unexpected market conditions and continue to thrive despite the headwinds.

Additionally, being flexible in this kind of work is essential, particularly when taking on new teams and exploring new opportunities. For instance, when we had to adapt to remote work due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we transitioned from in-person workshops to online whiteboard engagement. Later, we pivoted again to a hybrid model. Throughout these transitions, our focus remained on aligning with customer objectives and ensuring momentum was not lost. What I took away from that period of time is that you have to stay vigilant and be brave enough to pivot. Effective and constant communication was vital to ensure that everyone moved in the same direction despite the change in plans. While the path to achieving our goals may have changed, our commitment to achieving the desired outcome remained unwavering.

Marigold was recently named the “Best Overall Email Marketing Company”? What exceptional characteristics of Marigold’s solution have contributed to achieving this recognition?

We are both humbled by and proud of this recognition. Our dedication to innovation has really set us apart in the marketplace and helped us earn this recognition. Additionally, I think leaning in on strategy and service has also helped and created a competitive advantage. We continuously strive to enhance our platform by bringing together various components to provide an exceptional customer experience. An example is our use of live content within the messaging platform, which has enriched the engagement and interaction with our customers. We have also distinguished ourselves by bringing together messaging and loyalty into one platform. This integration allows us to leverage loyalty use cases and incorporate them into messaging strategies, ultimately delivering outcomes that promote customer advocacy. I guess you could say that it’s a combination of our people, strategic focus, and technology innovation that is helping us stand out in a crowded field.

How is Marigold positioned to disrupt the martech space with more advanced marketing solutions over the next five years? What would be your role in shaping this pathway?

Marigold’s strategy for the next five years centers around enhancing marketing solutions by combining loyalty strategies with cutting-edge AI/ML technologies. We aim to double down on loyalty within CRM and leverage AI/ML to supercharge our offerings. From a services perspective, my role involves helping our customers understand how market changes can be translated into effective tactics and executed through our platform. We encourage experimentation and innovation, challenging conventional approaches and differentiating ourselves from competitors. Our commitment to continuous innovation in collaboration with our customers will be pivotal in achieving our goals. It’s an exciting time to be in the marketing business. And it’s the perfect time to be a leader in the discipline of relationship marketing.

Welcome, Scarlett! How does your professional background of working in big data, analytics, and computer software enable you to be better in your current role as the CEO of AnalyticsIQ?

I’m happy to be here! I believe my background and experience in different roles and industries allow me to bring a unique perspective to the martech and data space. I have a background in credit risk in a regulated industry, so a high standard for data quality, ethics, and privacy is always top of mind for me. I strongly believe those principles apply in marketing. I am also fortunate enough to have worked in different places across the globe, which has given me the opportunity to experience diverse perspectives and cultures.

Throughout my career, I have cultivated a love for building things, and that is what I’m most excited about continuing as CEO at AnalyticsIQ – building innovative products, building a quality culture, and building our company.

Could you highlight some key factors that have contributed to AnalyticsIQ receiving the recognition of “Best Predictive Analytics Solution”?

First and foremost, credit goes to our incredible team because our success is a team effort. We have a group of intelligent, diverse, and innovative individuals who are passionate about our mission of driving better outcomes for all with data, and that is evident in the products and solutions we create.

We also know that we are not successful unless our clients are even more successful, and this motivates us to constantly push the envelope and innovate with data. But to be specific, our proprietary and custom research processes led by our one-of-a-kind Department of Cognitive Sciences set AnalyticsIQ and our predictive data apart. The vast majority of our data products are created using a powerful combination of cognitive psychology and data science. Our Cognitive Sciences team utilizes a scientific, research-based development process that is tested and validated. This resulting intellectual property created by our Cognitive Sciences team through their proprietary research is the basis for many of the individual data products we develop with best practices in data science and predictive analytics. The integration of cognitive psychology and data science results in highly predictive, stable, and unique data assets at scale. Brands, marketers, and data science teams across industries use AnalyticsIQ data assets to better understand consumers and ultimately drive better outcomes.

Can you provide deeper insights into AnalyticsIQ’s core offerings, namely PeopleCore consumer data, BusinessCore B2B data, and Connection+ B2B2C linkages? How do these solutions empower organizations to garner better business outcomes?

Absolutely. PeopleCore is the first consumer database rooted in cognitive psychology and predictive analytics and provides a complete picture of who people are, what they do, and why they make decisions. BusinessCore is our B2B data asset, but what makes it unique is its focus on providing insight into the professionals making decisions – not just traditional business information and firmographics. That leads perfectly to Connection+, which is a powerful solution that links our two databases, unlocking a complete B2B2C view of an individual both as a consumer and professional. These B2B2C linkages and the resulting insight fuel powerful use cases in today’s hybrid world.

What essential changes have you been implementing since you held the chair of the CEO? In what ways do you believe these changes will push the envelope for AnalyticsIQ?

One of my first goals and objectives as CEO of AnalyticsIQ is to drive us to become more customer-centric than ever before. We want to solve tomorrow’s customer challenges today. However, a solution isn’t truly a solution if it’s not addressing a real problem, so the voice of the customer has to be the driving force of all of our decisions. I believe that being product-led by constantly collecting and translating customer feedback and insights directly into our strategies and solutions will ensure we’re pushing the right envelope in the right way.

I also want to make sure we are leading the way when it comes to navigating the evolving regulatory environment to ensure our clients do not skip a beat when leveraging data to power their marketing. To that end, we continue to take an active role in industry developments and have built an internal compliance team that ensures we’re able to deliver powerful data that meets all regulatory requirements and respects consumer privacy.

How does having a robust identity enrichment solution enhance an organization’s marketing efforts and contribute to delivering more sophisticated personalized experiences?

The digital world today is full of disparate, anonymous identifiers that offer little insight on their own. However, consumers expect brands to deliver personalized and relevant experiences across channels. This is why not only identity but also enrichment has become paramount. So, at AnalyticsIQ, we’re uniquely positioned to help digital marketers make this happen with our ability to unlock 1500+ predictive PeopleCore and BusinessCore data points and enrich a variety of identity signals with our Identity Intelligence solution. This helps brands not only identify individuals but also actions based on reliable insights and activate across channels – all with one partner.

How will the new partnership between AnalyticsIQ and Claritas allow businesses to achieve new heights of marketing ROI by leveraging the advanced PRIZM Premier segmentation solution?

Claritas is a leader when it comes to marketing segmentation, and we’re thrilled to give our clients access to PRIZM Premier codes alongside our PeopleCore consumer data. Our partnership emphasizes our mutual commitment to elevating marketing ROI for both agencies and brands. By pairing PRIZM Premier with AnalyticsIQ’s predictive people-based data, marketers can delve deeper into segment personas and take action based on reliable and comprehensive data. This empowers users to enhance personalization at scale and improve marketing results.

In what manner has AnalyticsIQ managed to uphold a working balance between privacy and personalization, guaranteeing that their customers do not need to compromise in either aspect?

Throughout my career, I’ve worked in highly regulated industries with stringent privacy and compliance requirements. So, an awareness of and adherence to these types of requisites is naturally at the forefront of my mind. And at AnalyticsIQ, our mission is to fuel better outcomes for all with data – and that includes consumers. That means that privacy and regulatory requirements are at the center of the data products we create from the start. However, thanks to our proprietary research methodologies and product development procedures that rely on cognitive sciences, public and opt-in data sources, and best-in-class data science techniques, we have not had to sacrifice predictive power, data quality, and, ultimately, our clients’ ability to personalize. Furthermore, our team has built and continues to add to an entire suite of FLA, Reg B, and ECOA-friendly elements specifically designed to provide value while adhering to regulations around consumer privacy.

By blending cognitive psychological research and predictive analytics, we are able to provide innovative solutions that can provide actionable insight into consumers in a privacy-compliant, non-invasive manner.

What emerging trends do you foresee in the predictive analytics and data science space? How is AnalyticsIQ positioned to capitalize on these trends?

Emerging trends in the predictive analytics and data science sector point to a transformative period ahead. The non-linear customer journey necessitates an evolved ability to understand consumers and deliver personalized experiences at every interaction. The impending deprecation of third-party cookies and rising privacy regulations will notably reshape the data and martech landscape. Predictive analytics, leveraging machine learning and AI, will become vital in anticipating customer preferences while upholding privacy standards. Emerging technologies such as Connected TV (CTV) and audio marketing are also gaining traction, and I believe predictive analytics will play a crucial role in powering real-time personalization opportunities in new ways.

At AnalyticsIQ, providing reliable and actionable data and insights in a privacy-centric manner based on research and predictive analytics is what we’ve been doing for over a decade. And, thanks to strategic partnerships, our own internal capabilities, and our commitment to privacy, we will continue to fuel better marketing outcomes with data as our industry continues to evolve.

You were recently recognized as one of the Top Women in Media & Ad Tech; how do you plan to sustain this feat, and what advice would you offer to aspiring women trying to make a mark in the business world?

While I was recognized individually, being named one of the Top Women in Media & Ad Tech by AdExchanger and AdMonsters is truly a team accomplishment. However, I believe we can sustain such quality performance by continuing to innovate, leaning into our curious nature as builders and researchers, and ultimately following through on our mission.

My message to women in business is to always maintain your convictions, pursue excellence in everything you do, and not settle for situations that stifle your potential. By staying authentic to yourself and proactively seeking supportive environments that resonate with your ethos, you will position yourself for success. And remember that each step you take also paves the way for others.

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.

Welcome, Michael! With over 25 years of experience in diverse roles, could you highlight some key milestones and accomplishments that have shaped your career?

I would say my career has been defined by being open, interested, and passionate about exploring what’s next. This was sparked at my first job with Canon USA, where I was a marketing manager in the consumer products division and part of a team that brought the first personal copier, facsimile, and all-in-one computer called the Navigator to market in the U.S. We also launched a pretty impressive channel strategy, including the development of derivative products to sell into emerging channels like office superstores and warehouse clubs. It was really a thrilling time and job that helped define the kinds of companies I’ve worked at throughout my career. Since then, I’ve only sought opportunities and organizations that are disruptive and innovative in an emerging industry.

At ZDNet, we defined Web 1.0 as a top 10 site with more time spent than any other site aside from search engines. Leading marketing and strategy there, as well as taking them public, led me to explore new ways to monetize eyeballs, resulting in the launch of the industry’s first content-driven, vertical market email newsletters. That success led me to be part of the leadership team of a JP Morgan/Flatiron VC-backed, viral email company that we transformed into one of the first email service providers and later sold to Epsilon.

At Epsilon as CMO, we transformed the organization from a stogie, old database company into a leading marketing services organization through a series of acquisitions enhancing our email, data, and agency capabilities. My involvement with M&A got me excited about social — so much so that I launched my own social CRM company called Conversa Marketing, which was later sold to StrongMail, which became StrongView and then Selligent. There, I led the integration of my social solution into an email platform, which exposed me to the power of orchestrating messaging across channels and inspired my next move of leading Emerging Channels at Responsys, where I spearheaded the integration of SMS, mobile & display advertising, and social into the email platform. My exposure to the power of mobile there and subsequently Responsys by Oracle, where I led the acquisition of a mobile start-up called PushIO, got me passionate about the power of mobile. Several investments later in mobile and location companies led me to InMarket.

How has InMarket been successful in being a leading provider of real-time, omnichannel marketing solutions?

What really attracted me to InMarket was the power of its innovative and disruptive advertising solutions and the Moments product specifically. This unique solution’s ability to connect with consumers in real-time and at their precise moment of need was eye-opening, particularly when I saw the engagement rates in the double digits and averaging 6x the industry benchmark. It is the highest-performing advertising you can do, with engagement rates higher than display and mobile advertising and even email and search.

This notion of sensing and responding to consumers based on real-time signals and at their precise moment of need across the customer purchase journey is what’s next. The sophistication and number of signals will continue to grow, and the emergence of AI will only help enhance the accuracy and relevance of these interactions over time, which is exciting.

Done well, marketing and the relationship between consumers and brands will reach new heights, where relevant experiences will be expected, and campaigns will be optimized and fine-tuned to fulfill true one-to-one marketing. This notion of real-time sense and response is a new era of marketing that is a win for both the consumer and the marketer, and I’m incredibly excited to be part of it by leading the way at InMarket.

What key strategic initiatives have you employed as InMarket’s Chief Strategy Officer, and how have they propelled the company’s growth?

The Chief Strategy Officer plays a crucial role in a company’s growth. We must be able to provide expert guidance to make decisions that will promote long-term growth and sustainability.

Like all emerging innovative and disruptive companies I’ve worked with in the past, it’s about telling the story and sharing best practices. At InMarket, we’ve spent a lot of time sharing and acknowledging our clients’ successes and highlighting best practices. Whether it’s our Lift Leaders awards program and video series recognizing the companies and their leaders driving ROAS success or our Breakthrough Moments campaigns showcasing the ins and outs of creating great, engaging experiences for consumers, sharing these stories within the market and among our clients has been instrumental in fueling our rapid growth.

In many respects, I, along with my incredible team, have been able to create a platform to raise up and recognize those marketers who are like me, interested in challenging the norms, blazing the trail of innovation, and disrupting the way marketing is and should be done — it’s kind of a full-circle moment.

Could you provide an instance from your professional experience where you confronted a complex challenge? Please detail how you skillfully managed and resolved the situation.

The pandemic sent consumer behavior into an unpredictable frenzy that most brands and InMarket clients weren’t prepared to deal with. I’m so proud of how our team responded to this incredible challenge. We quickly realized we had the opportunity to help guide our clients in real time. Our unique data, including intent, location, and transactional data, gave us unique insight into the changing behavior of consumers down to the local and product levels. We lit up a COVID-19 site reporting a shift in visitation and shopping behavior frequency, dwell time, volume, and size of individual products purchased. We launched new solutions to help brands reach consumers at home and enhanced the capabilities and functionality of our solutions, including the ability to do more in every ad unit, such as add to cart, buy online and pick up in-store, measure web-to-store, and more. It was transformational and also very exciting to become a go-to source for marketing intelligence for so many large and respected brands.

How do you ensure that InMarket continues to stay ahead in the competition and maintain its position as an industry leader?

I think it’s about listening to our employees, customers, and consumers and staying true to our commitment to discovering what matters for those key constituencies. If we do that, we will continue to innovate, disrupt, and grow our company as well as the future of marketing.

InMarket has garnered numerous accolades and awards for its 360-degree marketing intelligence solutions. Could you elaborate on how these awards have reinforced the company’s commitment to pioneering and advancing groundbreaking products?

The industry recognition has been amazing. It serves as validation that the work we do on behalf of our clients not only generates amazing outcomes but also gets recognition from independent third parties as the best of the best. Having said that, our company’s mantra to “discover what matters,” along with our values to hire good peeps, kaizen (seek constant improvement), get Shtuff done, be data-driven and agile, drive us forward, and fuel our ability to pioneer new programs and innovate new solutions on behalf of our clients.

Additionally, InMarket, founded by two brothers, has not taken any VC money and is profitable. That is a unique thing to say in today’s VC-fueled AdTech/MarTech ecosystem. It’s been freeing in so many respects, particularly in the entrepreneurial spirit that runs through the company. The ability to bring an idea to the table, get it funded, and to the MVP stage, paired with an environment that is supportive of failing fast, allows us to think creatively about our clients’ problems and take actions, or, stated another way, take many more shots on goal to find new and innovative solutions that solve marketers problems.

You’ve been recognized as one of the “100 Most Influential People in Business-to-Business Marketing” multiple times. What do you believe sets you apart as a digital marketing leader and industry influencer?

As a child, I struggled in school, and it took a while to figure out that I was, in fact, dyslexic. School was hard; I had to work twice as hard for that B as the next kid, but it drove me and my work ethic. I’m also convinced it rewired some connectors in my brain and gave me the gift of thinking differently, which is why I’ve so often found myself in strategic positions, involved in M&A or running emerging channels that had to be “figured out” at major companies like ZDNet/CNET and Responsys/Oracle. This, combined with my general passion for marketing, openness, and excitement to learn and try new things, as well as the ability to listen and translate challenges to opportunities, has fueled a lot of my success.

My advice to anyone starting their career right now is to be fearless and don’t worry so much. Pick an industry that is emerging or growing rapidly. Find a company with products you believe in. Interview the employees as much as they interview you — are they smart? Can you learn from the folks you will be working with and finally get in the field? I’m a huge believer that marketers should spend a good portion of their time on sales calls and in front of other marketers, hearing first-hand about their challenges and what keeps them up at night. These conversations energize me and get me thinking about potential solutions and ideas on how the company can help — be it a data cut to validate a hypothesis or putting forth a new idea that drives innovation in a current solution or a brand new solution. If you do these things, I’m pretty confident you, too, will have a long and very successful marketing career.