Welcome to MarTech Cube, Aaron. To start off, could you please share a bit about your professional journey and what led you to your role as Chief Marketing Officer at Mediaocean?
Well I guess it’s a bit of factory fiction. I was born to write and went to school for journalism but after burning out on deadlines it was time to flee, so I transferred into advertising and found all I need. My first job out of college was in sales at L90, a big modern ad network based in Santa Monica (it’s all just California magic) where I sold banners, emails, pop-ups – everything must go! From there I joined seekers on the ridge in the lead up to search at Resolution Media.
Those early years of SEM and SEO were a dripfield so I decided to give it time and pivoted into a marketing role before we saw the silver rising and got acquired by Omnicom. Then I doubled down on search at Kenshoo (now called Skai) with some incredible creatures building out tech to lead the way. I was CMO there for about 5 years and saw the potential with social (you could say it was one-in-one-out) so arcadia got me running to 4C which had the whales of the space using our social ads manager.
In July of 2020, with covid casting Dr. Darkness, Mediaocean bought 4C and we sailed into the myst. Now I’ve turned clouds across your ocean family of brands running marketing across Prisma, Protected, and Innovid. After 10 years at this old sea and 25 years in ad tech, I definitely feel it now and AI is the new hungry sight so, as ever, we’re always almost there.
Mediaocean’s 2025 H2 Market Report highlights a major shift from experimentation to execution in marketing. What are the key drivers behind this transition, and how should marketers respond to this new phase?
Despite the uncertain macro conditions, our research shows that ad spend is remaining resilient. Across all 10 media channels we asked about, more marketers said they planned to increase or maintain budgets than said they planned to decrease. The top 3 channels for increased spend are CTV, social, and digital display/video. Clearly brands are prioritizing high-impact placements where ads are dynamic and performance can be measured.
AI is one of the biggest change agents (pun intended) as we move from experimentation to execution. 47% of marketers surveyed said they’re using Gen AI for data analysis and another 46% are using it for market research. So it’s not just for creating assets and writing copy. AI is helping power all aspects of marketing workflow and brands should seek out AI-driven tech platforms that connect insights to action.
CTV continues to dominate budget increases. What makes CTV such a powerful channel today, and what steps should marketers take to overcome ongoing challenges like frequency capping and cross-channel measurement?
Prisma President, Ramsey McGrory, likes to say that if linear television and programmatic digital had a baby, it would be CTV. You’ve got traits from both “parents” with the immersive sight, sound, and motion of linear and the interactivity and measurability of digital. CTV really is the golden child!
Marketers are still grappling with managing reach/frequency (R/F) across platforms and an influx of new measurement methodologies. Prisma helps marketers address this by integrating multiple advanced currency providers (ACPs) into our omnichannel platform and integrating with Innovid for ad serving to harmonize R/F per household. We also have Protected by Mediaocean to detect fraud and ensure brand safety. Using these products, buyers can get the most efficient reach and eliminate waste across the media supply chain, while delivering hyperrelevant ads to consumers and making sure they don’t see them over and over again.
With 72% of marketers now prioritizing generative AI, how is Mediaocean helping brands operationalize AI across the ad lifecycle—from planning to optimization?
AI is infused into all surfaces at Mediaocean across Prisma, Innovid, and Protected. From audience segmentation to creative development to ad verification and multitouch attribution, we’re leveraging AI while keeping humans in the driver’s seat. We put a lot of emphasis on control and transparency so it’s clear where AI is being deployed and what signals are being used as inputs.
The most important thing about AI in marketing is having systems directly connected to points of activation. There are lots of cool AI products in the market but they sit outside the foundational buying and billing platforms so they’re limited in the data they can access to inform their models and can’t easily implement the outputs into live campaigns. These point solutions require extra steps and extra fees and all that extra friction limits the upside and compresses ROI.
Our CEO, Bill Wise, said recently that “in world of AI, relationships and connectivity still matter most.” Those are some Wise Words!
The decline of third-party cookies is reshaping identity strategies. How do you see the balance between first-party data, partner IDs, and probabilistic methods evolving in the second half of 2025?
The rise of AI came at the perfect time with third-party cookies deprecating. LLMs can extrapolate from deterministic identifiers and scale them to a broader universe with or without cookies. This helps marketers scale precision targeting and creative personalization strategies. Of course, the modeling is only as good as the inputs so you need clean first-party data and harmonization of third-party sources. Taking it one step further, having AI-driven identity resolution directly embedded into your activation platform will ensure you can seamlessly execute in market – not just to launch campaigns but to optimize in real-time based on what’s working.
From a personal strategy standpoint, how do you stay ahead in such a fast-moving, tech-driven industry—both as a marketer and as a business leader?
I like to listen to podcasts at 2x speed so I can double up on my intake. I mix it up with news shows, industry pods, and celebrity interviews. This helps me stay current on everything that’s going on in the world and pop culture – and gives me fodder for the virtual water cooler. Some of my faves are Hard Fork, Marketecture, and Smartless. I also listen to a lot of music and sometimes my best business ideas – and interview answers – draw inspiration from bands like Phish and Goose.
What advice would you offer to marketers who are trying to modernize their strategies but feel overwhelmed by the pace of change in AI, data, and media?
I heard from a CMO who started a ritual with her team called, “How have I AI’ed today?” The expectation is that everyone shares their use case(s) and it doesn’t matter if it’s some mind-blowing new innovation or just a quick shortcut. Getting people comfortable with taking – and sharing – their steps throughout the crawl, walk, and run phases of AI adoption is a massive win.
Finally, what’s your outlook for the rest of 2025 and beyond? What will separate the marketers who thrive from those who struggle in this evolving landscape?
To paraphrase Zvika Netter, Innovid CEO: in a world of AI with humans and agents working together, it’s not 1 + 1 = 3, it’s 1 + 1 = 11! The marketers who thrive will be those that see AI as an opportunity, not a threat, and rally their teams and partners in pursuit of singularity – whether that be breakthrough AGI or ROI.
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Aaron Goldman, Chief Marketing Officer at Mediaocean
Aaron Goldman is Chief Marketing Officer at Mediaocean, the foundational technology partner for omnichannel advertising. In this role, he leads a wave of initiatives across corporate marketing, communications, content, branding, and demand generation for the Innovid, Prisma, and Protected products. Prior to Mediaocean, Aaron ran global marketing for 4C, Kenshoo, and Resolution Media. He has 25 years of industry experience and, in his spare time, you can find Aaron posting clips of jam bands and trick shots on his YouTube channel @JudePerfect.
