DirecTV Advertising's Matthew Van Houten went from selling SpongeBob ads to winning two Emmys for pause ads, and now he's making them programmatic for the first time while teaching at NYU Stern. 📺 From SpongeBob to Advanced Advertising: Spent 20+ years, from selling Nickelodeon ads at Paramount to 13 years at AT&T, navigating the $65 million DirecTV acquisition 🚀 The Growth Guy: Focused on partnerships, operations and business development, building teams and growing the business through all the changes 🤝 All Ships Rise Together: Big believer that partnerships make the business healthy and successful, you've got to have the right partners to make it work 🎓 Hidden Talent Professor: Teaching for 15 years at Baruch and now NYU Stern, bringing the next wave of advertising innovation forward 🏆 Two-Time Emmy Winner: Won Emmys for advanced ad formats like pause ads, now bringing them into the programmatic era with Triple Lift

Magnite's Greg Sherrill is opening streaming TV to advertisers who couldn't afford expensive studios before using AI-powered tools that build 30-second ads quickly. He's solving creative chaos while working on everything from scene-level targeting to pause ads. Forefront of What's Next: Built a career always chasing what's next, and for the past decade, that's been streaming and connected TV at Magnite 📺 AI Meets Creative Chaos: Working with partners like Anoki on scene-level targeting and LG on tile ads while navigating too many places to stream and too much content 🤖 Opening Up Streaming TV: Acquired Streamer AI to help brands build 30-second ads quickly, opening up streaming TV to SMB advertisers who couldn't afford expensive studios 🚀 Beautiful Creative That Drives Outcomes: Focused on how brands can continue making amazing, beautiful, impactful creative that actually works in a world with too many streaming options 🎨 Relationships Carry You Through: Maintain important relationships and surround yourself with great people you trust; those connections create bigger impacts on the industry in positive ways 🤝

TikTok's Rema Vasan took a non-linear path from agencies to platforms, proving culture drives conversion with 170 million users, believes it's all marketing, not a choice between cultural and performance, and says chase learning, not titles, while being a dedicated Madonna fan. Age 13 Marketing Epiphany: Had a crush on her neighbor, who was an Ogilvy copywriter; it didn't work out, but the power of storytelling stuck 💘 Non-Linear Path to TikTok: Started at Ogilvy in a full circle moment, pivoted through digital marketing and influencer marketing, now on the platform side at TikTok 🔄 Culture Drives Conversion: TikTok's 170 million US users make it where cultural relevance thrives, proving culture translates to conversion with real business outcomes, not just vanity metrics 📊 It's All Marketing: No choice between culturally relevant marketing and performance marketing, engage with communities to feed the funnel while giving meaningful ways to convert 🎯 Chase Learning Not Titles: Chase learning over and over, identify mentors and be one yourself, approach every day like it's day one, plus Madonna is a classic entertainer 🎤

A classroom video made Kevin Johnson hear angels singing; now he's leading WPP Canada through AI transformation while proving that success and being good humans can coexist. The Heavens Opened in Class: A teacher threw on "The Power of Advertising" video, angels started singing, and he knew that was his industry and never looked back 📺 AI Is Reorganizing Everything: WPP Open is letting people pivot to creativity and innovation, reorganizing to focus on what matters most - the client's business 🤖 Team Culture Wins: Has a winning track record with a roll-up-your-sleeves culture, believes success and being good humans can coexist 🤝 Whitney Houston Karaoke King: Go-to song is "I Wanna Dance with Somebody," wishes he could binge-watch movies with tea and a blanket 🎤 The Legacy He Wants: Hopes people see that being successful and being good, respectful humans can coexist, and if that's his legacy, it's a good thing 💫

Alex Heath went from blogging about tech in high school to The Verge, now he's independent with Sources and Access podcast that launched with Zuckerberg as guest one, covering the AI race while playing Ultimate Frisbee and belting Sinatra at karaoke. From Blogger to Independent: Started blogging about tech in high school to pay for college, spent a decade at Business Insider and The Verge, now running Sources newsletter and Access podcast 📱 Zuck as Guest Number One: Launched Access podcast with Vox in record time, got the name and went live within a month with Mark Zuckerberg as the first guest 🎙️ Podcasts Are the Future: Sees podcasts and newsletters as where people get their media now, building a flywheel between written scoops and audio storytelling 🚀 Direct Inbox Relationship: Sources newsletter is his bottom funnel with the most direct connection to his audience, syndicated once a week on The Verge 📧 Saturday Ultimate Frisbee Player: Plays Ultimate Frisbee for workouts, hits poker games in LA, and belts Frank Sinatra at karaoke because his low voice pulls it off 🎤

EY's Lou Cohen talks about what happens when AI actually starts thinking instead of just generating answers. He's sharing his philosophy on why people are the real product and the advice he wishes he'd told his younger self. People Are the Product: Chief Digital Officer at EY and professor at three NYC universities, the real value comes from employees bringing knowledge and experience to clients 🎓 From Marvel to Microsoft: Started at Marvel Comics launching AOL shopping, built his own collectors site during the dot-com boom, became an original hire for MSN Search that became Bing Ads 🚀 Neurocognitive AI Revolution: Going beyond Gen AI to where AI actually starts thinking, not just generating answers that might give you 11 when you ask for one plus one 🤖 Privileged Seat Philosophy: Talks with smart people thinking 5-10 years ahead for corporations, then brings that back to transform EY's own way of working 💡 Advice to Young Lou: You're not going to be a doctor, lean into marketing and business, embrace the internet early to accelerate faster, and the 100 emoji ends every conversation ✅