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Brian Gleason, who previously served as Chief Revenue Officer and President of Retail Media at Criteo, has transitioned to a new leadership role as CEO of contextual ad platform Seedtag. In a recent interview with AdExchanger, Gleason expressed his conviction that contextual advertising represents a significant, even larger, opportunity than the burgeoning retail media sector he championed at his former company. He articulated a vision where marketers are poised to return to the fundamental principles of advertising: connection, attention, and emotion, elements that he believes are increasingly challenging to capture through cookie-based or traditional keyword-centric targeting methods.
Gleason’s perspective signals a potential paradigm shift in how the advertising industry approaches audience engagement. For years, the focus has been heavily skewed towards granular, individual-level targeting, often reliant on third-party cookies. However, with the impending deprecation of these identifiers and a growing awareness of privacy concerns, the industry is actively seeking more privacy-compliant and effective alternatives. Gleason’s embrace of contextual advertising, particularly its advanced, AI-driven iterations, aligns with this industry-wide recalibration.
The Evolution of Contextual Advertising and Seedtag’s AI-Powered Approach
The advertising landscape has undergone a dramatic transformation, moving from broad-stroke campaigns to hyper-personalized targeting. Gleason argues that this intense focus on cookies and precise individual targeting has, in some ways, obscured the core purpose of advertising: to forge meaningful connections with consumers. "We’ve become so hyper-focused on cookies and targeting that we lost what advertising really was about: connection," Gleason stated in the interview.
He posits that true connection is built on capturing attention and evoking emotion, signals that are not easily quantifiable by cookies or rudimentary content taxonomies. This is where advanced artificial intelligence, particularly "agentic AI," comes into play. These sophisticated AI tools can delve deeper into content and user context, surfacing nuanced insights that can then be activated through ad technology platforms.
Seedtag, under Gleason’s leadership, is at the forefront of this evolution. The company has made significant strides in leveraging AI for contextual targeting. A key development was their acquisition of Beachfront, a video-focused Supply-Side Platform (SSP), in the previous year. This strategic move enabled Seedtag’s proprietary AI agent, named Liz, to target audiences not only based on context but also on emotional resonance across Connected TV (CTV) and the broader open web. This capability is crucial in an era where capturing and holding consumer attention is paramount.
Seedtag’s Global Scale and Growth Trajectory
Gleason provided insights into Seedtag’s current business stature and the vast potential of the contextual advertising market. He estimates the global contextual advertising market to be in the range of $250 billion to $350 billion. This figure underscores the substantial opportunity that has drawn him away from the retail media space, which itself is experiencing rapid growth.
Seedtag has established a significant global presence, operating in 17 different markets and connecting with over 16,000 publishers. While the company originated in Madrid, its entry into the U.S. market two years ago has been marked by impressive growth, with a 120% expansion in the past year. The EMEA region has also shown robust performance, with over 30% growth recorded in the last quarter. This established global footprint positions Seedtag well to capitalize on the expanding contextual advertising market.
Seedtag’s Strategic Priorities Under New Leadership
Gleason outlined three primary strategic priorities for Seedtag:
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Introducing Neurocontextual Targeting: This initiative centers on developing and promoting a more sophisticated form of contextual targeting that goes beyond keywords and basic categories. Neurocontextual targeting aims to connect with audiences based on emotion, attention, and interest. Seedtag was an early mover in building solutions for keyword and category-based contextual advertising, and the AI platform Liz represents the next evolutionary step, enabling deeper understanding and activation of these nuanced signals.
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Continued Global Scaling: A core focus will be on expanding Seedtag’s presence and operations across the U.S. and all its existing international markets. This involves deepening relationships with publishers and advertisers, and ensuring the platform’s capabilities are readily accessible and impactful in each region.
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Cross-Channel Expansion, Particularly in CTV: Recognizing the growing importance of CTV, Seedtag is committed to building out its capabilities in this domain. While CTV offers significant reach, Gleason acknowledges that traditional contextual approaches have limitations. By integrating their AI-driven capabilities with CTV, Seedtag aims to unlock new opportunities for contextual targeting in this increasingly vital advertising channel.
Accelerating Growth and Enhancing Publisher Monetization
Gleason’s leadership is not expected to bring about a radical overhaul of Seedtag’s direction. Instead, his extensive background, particularly in agency and retail media, is anticipated to accelerate growth in key areas. A significant emphasis will be placed on strengthening relationships with brands, a crucial element in any advertising platform’s success.
Furthermore, expanding the publisher supply footprint, with a specific focus on CTV, remains a priority. Gleason also highlighted the importance of agency relationships. Having spent a decade at WPP and maintaining strong connections with major holding companies like Publicis and Omnicom, he is keen on integrating Seedtag’s tools more seamlessly into their planning and buying systems. This integration can streamline the adoption of Seedtag’s solutions and drive greater campaign efficacy for agencies and their clients.
For publishers, Seedtag’s focus remains on maximizing their monetization potential. Gleason, who began his career in publishing, understands the intrinsic value of the publisher-consumer relationship. The goal is to help publishers leverage this relationship more effectively by not only employing audience-based targeting but also by enhancing the relevancy of advertising to the content itself. Seedtag’s Liz agent is designed to provide publishers with deeper insights into their content and the emotional connections it fosters, enabling more valuable ad placements.
The Future of Programmatic Advertising: AI Agents and Interoperability
The advertising industry is abuzz with the concept of programmatic advertising evolving into a system where buy-side AI agents communicate directly with sell-side AI agents. Gleason acknowledges this emerging vision but expresses a pragmatic view on its implementation. He questions the practicality of managing numerous distinct AI agents and emphasizes the need for seamless connectivity between these entities.
He believes that a few dominant players will emerge to bridge this gap. While Meta offers a direct pathway into social advertising and Google’s Performance Max provides a comprehensive solution for performance marketing, Seedtag aims to be the intermediary that connects the buy and sell sides through intelligence that spans both. The challenge, and the exciting opportunity, lies in achieving this connectivity at scale, not just within isolated channels.
Addressing Concerns Around AI Transparency and Accountability
The rise of AI in advertising also brings legitimate concerns about "black-box" systems and a lack of accountability in algorithmic decision-making. Gleason directly addressed these issues, stating that transparency, brand safety, and privacy must be foundational principles for any AI-driven advertising solution. He stressed the importance of being completely transparent about inventory, ad placements, and the outcomes of campaigns.
"It can’t just be technology talking to technology," Gleason asserted. He believes that clients need to be brought along on the AI journey, with clear explanations of how models work, how they can be customized, and how they surface emotional connections. This educational approach is vital for building trust and ensuring the responsible adoption of AI in advertising.
Seedtag’s Position in a Blurring Marketplace
As the lines between DSPs and SSPs continue to blur, Seedtag is positioning itself as an intelligence layer that can be accessed through various buying paths. While Seedtag operates an exchange where its inventory is available, it does not aspire to be an end-to-end platform in the traditional sense.
The company’s strategy is to make its intelligence, particularly through its agentic frontend Liz, accessible to all buying paths. This means that while advertisers can activate campaigns directly through Seedtag’s exchange, they can also leverage traditional DSPs to access Seedtag’s data and targeting capabilities. This flexible approach caters to the diverse needs and existing workflows of the advertising ecosystem.
Potential Synergies with Retail and Commerce Media
Gleason expressed an openness to collaborating with retail and commerce media platforms, including his former employer, Criteo. He sees a powerful intersection between commerce and neurocontextual advertising. By marrying emotional signals, contextual targeting, and purchase intent data, advertisers can effectively move consumers up and down the marketing funnel.
"We’d love to have that conversation with everybody, including Criteo," Gleason stated, indicating a strategic interest in exploring partnerships that can enhance the effectiveness of commerce-focused advertising through advanced contextual understanding and emotional resonance. This forward-looking approach suggests Seedtag is actively seeking to integrate its innovative solutions into various facets of the digital advertising ecosystem.
