1. What strategies are in place to enhance remote collaboration among production teams, ensuring seamless editing and content management across multiple locations?

Arcitecta’s Mediaflux Real-Time solution is explicitly designed to empower remote collaboration in production. It allows editors to edit anywhere, meaning they are no longer tethered to event locations and can access live, growing media files from any site. This capability enables real-time collaborative editing across multiple locations, so that a video editor in one city can start cutting a highlight reel while another team member elsewhere continues capturing footage. Mediaflux facilitates seamless media management behind the scenes, so all collaborators see the latest content virtually instantly, with playback possible in real-time across sites​. In practice, teams can review and edit content as it’s being recorded or rendered, eliminating the lag that traditionally hampered remote work. By providing a unified data environment and high-speed file sharing, Mediaflux optimizes remote workflows and ensures that distributed production teams remain synchronized and productive​.

2. What measures are being taken to eliminate workflow bottlenecks, particularly in live sports and broadcast environments where speed is critical?

Live sports and broadcast productions are extremely time-sensitive, and Arcitecta addresses this by eliminating common workflow bottlenecks that slow down content delivery. Traditionally, editors had to pull footage from a single on-site location, causing delays in fast-paced environments​. Mediaflux Real-Time removes these chokepoints by enabling continuous access to footage even as it’s being recorded, effectively allowing editing to happen in parallel with capture​. The platform supports real-time editing and removes single-location-based workflow bottlenecks, so teams are not waiting for files to finish recording or copying before work can begin​. One key innovation is using one data stream to serve multiple sites: Mediaflux sends the live feed once and lets multiple editors at different locations tap in, eliminating the need to buy and configure dedicated streams or connections to each editing location​. This not only accelerates turnaround (remote editors can start cutting highlights almost instantly as the action unfolds​) but also reduces infrastructure complexity and cost. In essence, Arcitecta’s approach lets global production crews work simultaneously and in real time, drastically cutting post-production times and ensuring content is delivered to air or online as fast as possible​.

3. How are you ensuring data security and compliance in your production workflows, especially when dealing with live, growing video files?

Handling live and continuously growing video files presents security and compliance challenges, and Mediaflux incorporates robust practices to protect content. Built-in encryption and granular access controls safeguard sensitive media assets, preventing unauthorized access or data leaks even as files are being actively recorded and transferred​. By enforcing role-based permissions and secure authentication, Mediaflux ensures that only authorized personnel can access or modify footage, an important compliance measure for media organizations dealing with embargoed content or exclusive rights. Arcitecta explicitly acknowledges the need to mitigate security risks and compliance issues that arise with distributed file access​, and addresses this by protecting sensitive files with encryption and access controls even while optimizing storage and transfer efficiency​.In addition, the Mediaflux Livewire transfer module moves data at high speed securely, meaning large live video files are transmitted over networks with encryption in transit and without exposing content to eavesdropping​. These measures ensure that live production workflows remain not only fast but also safe and compliant with industry regulations and content protection policies.

4. How is your organization preparing for potential shifts in production demands that may further influence the balance between on-site and remote production workflows?

Arcitecta has strategically built Mediaflux to be location-agnostic, preparing organizations for shifts between on-premises and remote production demands. As the industry gravitates toward hybrid workflows (combining on-site studio work with remote contributors), Arcitecta ensures that the underlying data access is seamless regardless of where the work happens. In fact, it shouldn’t matter where these data workflows occur – the solution is to deliver data where it’s needed at the right time on a global distributed edge that remains simple and high-performance​. Mediaflux effectively creates a single global namespace for content, allowing team members in the studio and those working remotely to all see and interact with the same files in real time. This means whether production shifts more toward on-site operations or pivots back to remote editing, the workflow doesn’t need to be re-architected; Mediaflux will deliver consistent, near-instant access to media assets for all users. Arcitecta also offers features like edge caching (through its Mediaflux Edge component) and multi-site synchronization to maintain low-latency access in any geography​. By investing in these hybrid-cloud and multi-site capabilities, Arcitecta is future-proofing production workflows against location-based disruptions. Mediaflux Real-Time is  setting a new standard for speed, efficiency, and collaboration as hybrid and remote production environments continue to evolve​. In short, Arcitecta is actively enabling location-independent workflows so that organizations can fluidly adjust the on-site vs. remote balance without losing productivity or increasing complexity​.

5. What role do partnerships with technology providers play in your roadmap to scale targeted, measurable production capabilities?

Partnerships with major technology providers play a significant role in Arcitecta’s roadmap, allowing it to scale and extend Mediaflux’s capabilities in targeted ways. A prime example is Arcitecta’s collaboration with Dell Technologies. By combining Arcitecta’s Mediaflux Real-Time software with Dell’s high-performance storage (PowerScale NAS and ECS object storage), the company delivers a robust, end-to-end solution optimized for media workflows​. This partnership means that Mediaflux can be deployed on reliable, industry-grade hardware and take advantage of Dell’s infrastructure for better throughput, storage scalability, and data durability. The value of such a collaboration is highlighted in a Dell data sheet, which notes that Arcitecta’s pioneering metadata and data orchestration tools, coupled with Dell’s powerful, industry-trusted infrastructure, enable a global distributed edge that stays simple and performant for complex workflows​. In practical terms, these alliances help Arcitecta scale targeted production capabilities – for instance, speeding up multi-site content delivery by tightly integrating with networked storage systems, or improving real-time editing performance via optimized hardware-software coordination. Arcitecta showcases these joint solutions at industry events (e.g. demonstrating Mediaflux Real-Time with Dell at NAB 2025) to emphasize measurable improvements like faster content turnaround and lower latency across distances​. Beyond Dell, Arcitecta’s platform is designed to be vendor-agnostic and works with virtually all data storage and infrastructure solutions and protocols, making it flexible for integration with other technology providers as well. This openness enables partnerships with cloud providers, archival systems, and other specialists – all contributing to a richer ecosystem. By collaborating with tech partners, Arcitecta can focus on its software strengths (metadata management, data orchestration, etc.) while relying on partners for complementary strengths, thus scaling up the overall solution. The result is a more powerful, versatile Mediaflux offering that delivers quantifiable benefits (e.g. reduced transfer times, higher throughput, greater storage efficiency) to production teams​.

6. What long-term strategies are in place to ensure sustained growth in a market where real-time content access and hybrid production capabilities are important?

To ensure sustained growth and stay ahead of evolving production needs, Arcitecta is pursuing long-term strategies centered on real-time content access and enhanced hybrid production capabilities. Fundamentally, Arcitecta positions Mediaflux as powering the future of live production​. This vision means continually innovating so that media teams can work with content immediately as it’s created. For example, the ability to support continuous file expansion (handling files that are still growing) and to let editors start working even while files are still being created is a forward-looking feature that gives Arcitecta an edge in live production workflows​. As content demands increase (more feeds, higher resolutions, more remote contributors), Arcitecta’s roadmap focuses on scalability and performance at extreme levels. The Mediaflux platform is built on a high-performance metadata database and a unified data fabric that can scale to billions of files and petabytes of data, ensuring that as clients’ libraries and workload sizes grow, the system can handle it without degradation​. Arcitecta also integrates AI-driven indexing and automation into Mediaflux (for instance, using AI to index metadata for fast search and to trigger workflow automation) to help organizations manage the deluge of content efficiently​. Emphasizing a hybrid cloud approach is another pillar of the long-term strategy: Mediaflux seamlessly spans on-premises and cloud environments (and even tape archives via partners), which gives organizations flexibility to adapt their storage and compute mix over time without changing their workflow tooling​. In addition, Arcitecta is fostering an ecosystem of interoperability and open APIs so that Mediaflux can serve as a central hub in any production pipeline, protecting customers’ investments as technology evolves. By focusing on these areas – real-time access, global collaboration, intelligent data management, and partnership-driven integration – Arcitecta aims to future-proof media workflows. The company’s recent recognition (such as industry awards at NAB 2025) and positive early adopter feedback calling the Real-Time solution a game-changer indicate that Arcitecta’s strategic direction is positioned for sustained momentum. Moving forward, Arcitecta is committed to continuously accelerating media workflows and enabling true location-independent, real-time production to meet the growing demand for instant, anywhere content creation​.

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1. With diverse categories spanning many industries, how do you maintain consistency and fairness in evaluation?

Two things, primarily. First, we select a numerically large number of judges, close to 150 top-notch journalists. This makes it very likely that judges will have some familiarity with the broad contours of the market they're judging. Second, we emphasize journalistic achievement, not topic expertise. Vertical B2B media is similar in form to mass B2B media, such as the Wall Street Journal, Fortune Magazine, The Economist, Financial Times and others. Our judges are all high-ranking, experienced and accomplished journalists. They know the components of a well-crafted piece of journalism. 

2. What trends or themes did you notice across this year’s entries—such as an increase in investigative work, multimedia content, or data journalism? 

It's really all of the above. Entry trends evolve over time, but not as much year to year. All of the journalism techniques you mentioned are reflected in the Neal Awards within their own categories. Measurement and KPIs, plus AI, are two areas that are gaining steam as is journalistic entrepreneurship. Overall, two things stood out in 2025. First, B2B journalism is moving in the direction of lead generation. Content created by editors is increasingly required to produce qualified leads. This practice is new for many journalists, and some don't take to it naturally. The second area that was hot for 2025 was, not surprisingly, politics and government. We added categories for best coverage of the 2024 election, and another for regulatory and legislative coverage in the context of the served market. Both were very popular this year.  

3. How does the SIIA support the long-term careers of award winners and fellows beyond the ceremony itself?

One of our awards is a partnership with Northwestern University's Medill School where the recipient is paired with an executive and spends a week at the University for a course in B2B media. We also post winners online for promotion and provide assets for winners to share in their own social-media feeds. We encourage all winners, plus their bosses and colleagues, to tout their recognition. It conveys expertise on the part of the journalists and expresses the commitment and values of the parent company. In effect, it creates an aura of success and through that, drives revenue. 

4. In your view, what are the biggest challenges and opportunities facing B2B journalism today?

There are many. As mentioned above, lead-gen writing can be perceived as "marketing" writing, and some journalists are not comfortable with it. And then there's the areas mentioned in your second question. In short, B2B journalism is transitioning to a whole range of new skillsets, and media organizations have to train their people and hire those who have those skills. Social-media journalism is a technique of its own, as is the brief snippet style of TikTok and YouTube Shorts. The opportunities are abundant. You could just take the positive side of all these challenges. A different challenge exists in some markets, namely those that cover politics, Congress, and the bureaucracy as their beat. There's a tone of hostility towards the media, even to what are essentially B2B brands like Politico. 

5. Are there plans to expand the Jesse H. Neal Awards to include new media types such as podcasts, newsletters, or AI-assisted reporting? 

Two of these three are already existing categories. We assess categories every year and since I've managed the program, we’ve added 4-6 new categories each year while dropping those that are no longer appealing to our entrants. We see a lot of opportunity in continuing this, even to the point of categories directed at enthusiast consumer media. 

6. What role does the SIIA Media division play beyond hosting the awards? 

We're a full-service trade association that serves media operators across the enterprise. We produce conferences, host councils for specific disciplines and provide both networking and education - enhancing a sense of a community with shared opportunities and challenges. We also have additional recognition programs, including a B2B Hall of Fame. We publish proprietary research and a twice-weekly newsletter. We represent the industry's interests in the legislative and regulatory sphere. 

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1. What specific areas of demand generation do you believe offer the most growth potential for Gigamon under your leadership?

I see several high-impact opportunities for demand generation growth at Gigamon. There’s enormous potential in more deeply integrating brand and demand functions. Historically, these have operated in parallel tracks. By tightly aligning them, like we did with the 2025 Hybrid Cloud Security Survey, where we explored hybrid cloud security in the age of AI, it wasn't just a brand builder; it became a powerful demand-gen engine with legs across campaigns, channels, and customer touchpoints.

Artificial Intelligence-powered marketing also presents significant growth potential for Gigamon. AI is rapidly finding its way into global workplaces due to its ability to enhance productivity, automate processes, and enable smarter, faster decision-making. The marketing industry is no exception. There’s a real need to harness AI to drive smarter, more process and productivity in content development, which ultimately delivers more productive execution.

Another key area for us is the intentional focus on Ideal Customer Profiles (ICPs). By clearly defining and prioritizing our most valuable customer segments, we ensure that our efforts and resources are aligned with those who drive the greatest return for the business. This enables us to craft tailored use case messaging and develop targeted go-to-market campaigns that resonate deeply with high-potential buyers. We've found this results in higher-quality leads, stronger conversion rates, and accelerated revenue growth.

Finally, I see growth in continuously adapting how we use our channels like field marketing, digital presence, media, analyst relations, and beyond. The “what” may stay consistent, but the “how” must evolve with the data and buyer behavior, meeting customers where they’re at. That requires a team culture that’s agile, data-driven, and willing to experiment.  

2. In your experience, what role does marketing play in creating trust and credibility with CISOs and IT decision-makers?

Marketing plays a foundational role in establishing trust and credibility with CISOs and IT decision-makers, especially in cybersecurity where relationships and reputation matter deeply. To build that credibility, we’re focused on meeting CISOs where they are, with relevant, data-backed insights, peer-led narratives, and use cases that reflect real-world impact. Tailoring content to their specific needs and pain points is critical. For example, we took the broader survey mentioned above and created a focused piece, CISO Executive Summary, further focusing the data on CISOs’ specific challenges and priorities.  This is a great example of how we can emphasize clarity, precision, and consistency when communicating to key stakeholders. We are delivering value in the form of data and insights for security leaders, while establishing Gigamon as a leading authority..

3. From a strategic standpoint, how critical is deep observability to an organization’s hybrid cloud security strategy?

Deep observability provides complete visibility into all data in motion, including encrypted and complex AI-driven communications, enabling organizations to detect and respond to security threats proactively. This visibility is essential for securing hybrid cloud environments, where traditional monitoring tools often fall short, especially with the rapid growth of AI-generated traffic and shadow IT applications.

Gigamon serves more than 4,000 organizations worldwide with the Gigamon Deep Observability Pipeline, including more than 80% of Fortune 100 enterprises and 9 of the 10 largest mobile network providers.

4. How do you see the role of marketing evolving in response to the growing complexity of hybrid cloud security challenges?

As hybrid cloud environments grow more complex, the role of marketing must evolve from simply generating leads to deeply articulating value, especially in a space where deep observability isn’t always immediately understood or budgeted for. Our job is to educate, contextualize, and elevate the strategic importance of deep observability. That means clearly communicating not only what we do, but also how we help CISOs and their teams improve ROI, reduce risk, and drive operational efficiency.

We also have to account for a shifting audience. Gigamon has traditionally sold into network teams, but as we expand into cloud and security, we’re increasingly engaging new buyers who often don’t talk to each other internally. Marketing has to bridge those silos, tailoring messages by persona, and helping unify stakeholders around shared outcomes. Our success depends on how well we can translate complex technical value into compelling, role-specific narratives that resonate across the decision-making unit.

 5. In your view, what are the key marketing KPIs that should align with revenue-generation goals in cybersecurity-driven enterprises?

Modern marketing KPIs must reflect the full spectrum of today’s buyer journey. Think about segmenting your KPIs into three key categories: brand, engagement and intent, and pipeline generation.

Brand focuses on signals that indicate growing awareness and trust, such as branded search volume, direct traffic from target accounts, website interactions, social media or community engagement, and the impact of analyst and public relations. AR and PR can be measured through inclusion in analyst reports and inquiries, media coverage, interviews, and share of voice.

Pipeline metrics should center on both sourced and influenced pipeline to bookings. Teams should track marketing qualified accounts (MQAs), opportunity conversion rates, and marketing’s contribution to sales velocity. While we are not completely walking away from marketing qualified leads (MQLs), the shift toward MQAs acknowledges that buying decisions are made at the account level by multiple stakeholders. MQLs can still serve a role in lead-level nurturing, but MQAs should be integrated into your metric system as a more accurate and strategic measure of pipeline potential.

Engagement and intent, traditionally considered softer metrics, are critical indicators of buyer behavior. Engagement encompasses meaningful interactions—such as content consumption, return visits, anonymous visits, multi-persona activity within accounts. Intent signals indicate buyer readiness, including third-party intent data, website visits, and self-reported attribution—giving marketing teams a lens into where, how, and when to activate demand.

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1. How does the ACE generative AI tool differ from traditional ad‑optimization tools, and what measurable impact has it made on advertiser ROI so far?

The ACE (Adaptive Content Engine) generative AI tool represents a step-change in creative optimization for performance marketing within the Rokt platform. Unlike traditional ad-optimization tools that rely heavily on manual A/B testing or rule-based systems, ACE leverages advanced generative AI models trained specifically on Rokt’s proprietary Transaction Moment dataset. This enables it to generate and adapt ad creatives in real time, tailored to highly specific transactional contexts and consumer intent signals.

Whereas traditional systems typically iterate on a limited set of static variants, ACE dynamically crafts new creative variations that reflect subtle but impactful differences in tone, format, copy, and visual elements. It uses natural language generation, machine learning, and experimental design to systematically find the wording that resonates best with each audience, often yielding substantial conversion lifts (on average ~21% lift in conversion rates). It does so with a deep contextual understanding of what performs best on Rokt.

Advertisers using ACE have seen measurable performance gains, with the tool consistently delivering improvements in click-through rates, conversion rates, and ultimately return on investment (ROI). In benchmark testing, ACE-generated creatives have outperformed legacy variants by +20% conversion rates across key verticals. These gains translate into more efficient customer acquisition and higher revenue per impression, particularly for brands focused on maximizing the impact of performance marketing budgets.

2. What synergies are you seeing post‑acquisition of Aftersell, particularly in terms of upsell opportunities during cart, checkout, and post‑purchase moments?

Aftersell’s native “Upsells” capability has already lifted average-order-value by 15 %+ for thousands of Shopify merchants. By merging that engine with the Rokt Brain, we’re now deploying the same bespoke cross-sell logic to enterprise-scale retailers on Rokt’s network, unlocking materially larger revenue pools. Integrating Rokt Thanks into Aftersell lets merchants convert what was once a passive confirmation page into a high-intent engagement surface, delivering fresh incremental profit while preserving a premium shopper experience. The enhanced commercial model from this gives us reinvestment firepower to keep building first-party tools that compound those gains for merchants.

And, with Aftersell anchoring us in the DTC ecosystem, Rokt Ads can now reach a new segment of brands while simultaneously giving the entire network access to a broader pool of high-quality advertisers. Ultimately, this leads to more ad demand diversification and better results for our ecommerce partners and advertisers. 

3. You grew revenue by 40 % YoY to reach $600 million. What were the key levers of that growth, and what does 2025 look like from a revenue‑strategy perspective?

In 2024, we drove a 40 % year-over-year lift to $600 million by landing a wave of new ecommerce partners—vastly expanding supply—and by unlocking higher spend from existing advertisers across the network. For 2025, our plan is to compound that momentum by focusing on four priorities: first, elevating relevancy so every impression shown to shoppers performs better; second, broadening demand by winning new client segments and verticals; third, rapidly scaling Rokt Pay+, which turns the payments page into a profit engine; and fourth, integrating mParticle to deepen our CDP capabilities. Alongside these initiatives, we will keep pushing both supply and demand growth aggressively, onboarding bigger brands and powering transactions at an even faster clip.

4. What are the most overlooked moments in the ecommerce transaction journey where you are delivering hidden value for clients?

Ecommerce teams usually fixate on acquisition and product pages, but the quiet profit is hiding in checkout. For example, Rokt turns what merchants see as a cost center (the payments step) into a revenue engine by letting payment providers and BNPL partners compete for a placement, so every click monetizes itself without adding friction. In other placements, such as the cart, our ML can surface in one-click add-ons that lift AOV before the order even finalizes, while the order-confirmation page surfaces premium first- or third-party offers that convert at engagement rates multiples above standard ads. By optimizing these moments, Rokt consistently unlocks incremental dollars per transaction and upgrades overall unit economics that most brands never realize are possible.

5. What advice would you give to ecommerce brands looking to drive more value at the point of transaction without compromising customer experience?

To drive more value at the point of transaction without compromising the customer experience, it’s critical to start by letting data guide every decision. Treat each checkout change as a hypothesis: instrument the funnel end-to-end, set clear success metrics such as incremental revenue per session or attachment-rate lift, and test relentlessly. Evidence-backed micro-optimizations always win over sweeping, unvalidated redesigns and protect the shopper experience while surfacing new revenue. Equally important, ensure strong foundations, especially identity resolution. When you can reliably recognize a shopper across devices and sessions, you can present tailored offers, payment methods, and loyalty nudges that feel helpful rather than intrusive, which ultimately drive more incremental revenue. A strong data foundation turns checkout into a moment of relevant value instead of an upsell that clutters the journey.

6. How does your recent appointment—and those of your fellow leaders—support Rokt’s broader goals for growth and innovation?

My role as CPO is to integrate our products—Rokt Ads, Pay+, Thanks, and Aftersell—into one cohesive, AI-powered platform that helps brands and retailers deliver more relevant experiences at the moment of transaction. It’s about turning our data and AI advantage into products that are simple to use, drive real results, and become essential to our partners.

Claire, as Chief AI Officer, is making sure our models continue to get smarter, faster. Her team is building the AI capabilities that power everything from relevance to creative generation—like our new ACE (Adaptive Content Engine) tool—and making sure that innovation is responsibly applied and easy to integrate into our products.

Pete, as SVP of Advertiser Partnerships, is focused on growing and strengthening our advertiser ecosystem. He’s helping us bring in new categories and deepen relationships with top brands, which feeds even more data and demand into the platform.

Together, we’re tightening the loop between product, AI, and partnerships—so Rokt can keep pushing the boundaries of real-time relevance and fuel the next phase of our growth.

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