I’ve always been curious about how things work. My first job in advertising was at a small boutique agency during the earliest days of digital buying before it was even a “thing.” I remember everyone on the legacy teams thought I was crazy. “Who’s buying digital?” they’d ask. “Me,” I’d answer. I started as an assistant digital strategist, and I did my own ad trafficking all the way to reporting and billing.
Originally Published at MediaVillage
It was like learning the plumbing before designing the kitchen. I understood how the pipes connected. That foundational view of understanding data, platforms, delivery and measurement set the tone for how I’ve approached media ever since.
Years later, that same curiosity helped lead to the founding and creation of LocalFactor, now part of Viamedia, and continues to shape how I see the industry evolving. And there’s no bigger force reshaping media and marketing right now than artificial intelligence.
Let’s be clear: AI isn’t coming. It’s here. And it’s accelerating faster than most of us could have imagined.
WPP just launched a “Large Marketing Model” to convert trillions of data signals into predictive insights. Meta is about to roll out AI-powered ad creation where you input a product image and a budget, and it handles the rest. A Madison Logic/Harris Poll study found that half of marketers plan to invest more in AI for lead gen, content creation, analytics, data management, and predictive modeling.
Every part of marketing - from creative ideation to buying, billing, targeting, and performance reporting - is already being touched by AI.
And AI doesn’t just touch data; it feeds on it. And increasingly, the reverse will also be true. The two are inseparable.
The challenge: We are all drowning in fragmented data. What works on display may not work in CTV. What works in mobile apps may fail on linear TV. Every screen, every platform, every environment is different.
This fragmentation leads to drop-off, inaccuracy, and wasted spend. And while this seems overwhelming, AI offers a practical way through it, if you know how to pair it with the right infrastructure and the right approach to audience.
That’s the heart of what we’ve built with LocalFactor. We’ve always believed that great marketing starts with great data but also that the way you structure and activate that data matters just as much.
Our Geo-Graph™ breaks geographies into billions of unique, privacy-forward audience units. Instead of relying on individual device IDs, we build localized, scalable targeting segments - LFIDs – that enable precise, cookie-less targeting across digital, CTV, and linear channels.
So, if a client wants to reach baseball-loving, pizza-eating dads in Connecticut, we don’t guess. We use our model to find the highest-density audience clusters, create a segment, and deploy across inventory without losing half the audience to device limitations. This isn’t just theoretical; we’re seeing measurable results: 12x time spent, 267% brand recall lift, and a 95% client retention rate.
This approach is guided by three core pillars:
1. Unique Data + Supply
2. Proprietary Technology
3. Exceptional Service + Execution
That third pillar, people, is the most underrated. AI doesn’t replace people; it enhances them. It gives our teams more insight, more precision, and more time to focus on what really matters: delivering impact for our clients, our teams, and ourselves.
As we integrate AI into our own systems, from smarter modeling inside the Geo-Graph™ to real-time reporting dashboards, our goal is simple: make campaigns smarter, performance clearer, and execution faster.
This mindset was central to the merger between LocalFactor and Viamedia. Beyond combining scale, reach, and supply, we shared something more important: a belief in data-backed marketing and a culture that puts people first.
Viamedia’s CEO David Solomon has been saying for years: “Data is the new creative.” He was right. And now, with AI, we’re finally unlocking what that really means.
We don’t fear this next wave of disruption, we welcome it. The future of marketing isn’t about who can gather the most data. It’s about who can make it work.
And AI, when paired with the right team and technology makes it work smarter, faster, and better.
