Adtech Unfiltered

Everyone wants to build a billion-dollar brand, but few understand the marketing strategy necessary to get there. Jean Freeman, however, has built her agency around helping ambitious brands make that leap. In this episode, Jean—Principal + CEO of Zambezi—joins host Noor Naseer to discuss why growth requires more than just putting more money behind what already works, and why creative, media, and long-term brand investment become increasingly important as a business scales. They also explore Jean's "ideas over inventory" philosophy, the role AI should play in advertising, and why influencer marketing is becoming an increasingly important part of the growth equation.

For years, market research and advertising operated in separate worlds. But as media grows more fragmented and marketers face greater pressure to prove every dollar, those worlds are beginning to merge. On this episode of AdTech Unfiltered, Noor Naseer talks with Laura Manning, SVP of Measurement at Cint, about how advertising research is evolving. They explore how consumer insights can inform campaigns while they are still live, why first-party research can be more valuable than modeled assumptions, what AI and synthetic data mean for the future of measurement, and why the post-campaign report may finally be on its way out.

The relationship between brands and agencies is being rewritten. On this episode of AdTech Unfiltered, host Noor Naseer sits down with W. Joe DeMiero, Chief Client and Business Officer at Havas, to share what he's learned about the brand-agency relationship from working on both sides.   Drawing on his experience as a two-time agency CEO as well as a former CMO, Joe shares why today's marketing leaders are increasingly accountable for business outcomes, how AI and technology should support (but not dictate) strategy, and why the future belongs to agencies that prioritize trust, collaboration, and adaptability over the traditional model.  

Media quality has become one of advertising's biggest competitive advantages—but most brands are still measuring it the wrong way. In this episode of AdTech Unfiltered, Sara Maskivish, SVP of Market Enablement - Verification at Protected by Mediaocean, breaks down why the industry is moving beyond traditional brand safety and toward brand suitability. She explains how AI is reshaping verification, why made-for-advertising sites remain a growing challenge, how contextual signals are redefining media quality, and where advertisers continue to leave money on the table. This conversation offers a practical look at where verification is headed next.

Laurie Lam, Chief Brand Officer at e.l.f. Beauty, joins AdTech Unfiltered to unpack what it takes to build one of the world's most culturally relevant brands. From pioneering platforms before they're mainstream to forging unexpected partnerships and embracing community feedback in real time, Laurie shares how e.l.f. stays ahead. She also explores the evolving role of SEO in an AI-driven world, why bold experimentation beats playing it safe, and what marketers should do today to remain relevant as consumer behavior continues to shift.