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Bonus Episode: Building the Heart of advertising: Jay Wolff on Community, Access, and 212NYC Future!
00:22:19
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- [00:00]
A
This is adtech God, and I command you to listen to this house ad. So if you're listening to this show, just know that you've really stumbled upon a giant network of content across advertising, marketing, media, publishing, and of course, the people that work in this great advertising industry. So go to market, check out all of our brands. We have multitude of shows from the Brand Forum, the Advertising Forum, the Monopoly Report, the Ad Tech God Pod, the Market, and more. We are bringing more podcasts to our network. We are consistently and constantly bringing on new shows. So check it out. Market or search for any of those brands in the app that you use to listen to this podcast. Enjoy the show and see you all soon.
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B
Welcome to the AdTech Godpod, your window into the world of advertising technology and the people behind it. I'm your host, Ad Tech God.
- [01:03]
A
Welcome to the ADTech Godpod, where we speak to the advertising nonprofits of our industry. Today's guest is Jay Wolf, President of 212NYC, the largest networking community in New York's digital advertising industry. Jay Wolf carries 212NYC in his DNA, leading a community that sits at the center of New York City's ad ecosystem. He has sharp instinct, he's a connector. He loves bringing people together and really focuses on relationships and the right type of energy that this industry needs today. Jay, thank you for joining me. Welcome to the EdTech Godpod.
- [01:36]
C
Great to be here. Always wanted to be on this pod,
- [01:38]
A
so it took too long. I've heard great things about you over the years. We've worked together prior, we know each other. But you still don't know who I am based on our pre chat. And I'm not going to tell you because it ruins the surprise, but thank you and thank you for your amazing partnership from Architecture Live. You guys were clutch. You guys were incredible in helping us move that event forward.
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C
Of course, our goal is to partner with the best and the brightest and we consider you that.
- [02:05]
A
So every podcast starts the same. I love to get to know people on a personal level, on a professional level. I think journey is what makes us who we are today. So I'd love to hear from you, Jay. Your background, what got you into the industry and what ultimately made you the president of 21 2, NYC.
- [02:24]
C
Yeah. So it's been a long, long time. Over 20 years in the digital advertising and online media sector. I would say ad tech as well. I began my journey on the agency side. I moved over to cable television and then I went digital in 2006. I never looked back. I joined 212 NYC in 20082009 and it's been a good 17 years of really giving back to our community in New York which is the largest advertising community in the world. And I've just been able to volunteer, help others grow, pay it forward. I've always been really into the leadership aspect of, of of growing leaders and future leaders and getting involved early and networking. So I'm, I'm really. All those buzzwords really define why I stay involved with 21 2, why I became president is I really wanted to help others grow, be an influencer to them and their careers, but also connect people, connect the dots, give them great programming content. Obviously our summer parties, our galas, our big tent pole events are really popular in the community. But more so than that, we deliver really bleeding edge topics and content to the ad community and we do it on a very affordable basis. And I think access for younger professionals who are growing in their career, it's much needed. Sometimes you can't afford to go somewhere and pay, you know, thousands of dollars for conferences. You want to learn. So we bring that education and that opportunity to a really growing audience of young and up and coming professionals in the digital advertising sector. I will say one thing, that when 212NYC was first built, right first created and believe it was in an apartment in the early 2000s digital advertising was banners and buttons. It was, you know, an extension of an, of a paid media campaign. And digital advertising in today's world encompasses ctv, social, native, obviously online, display, video. But digital means everything these days out of home. We're really in this world where digital encompasses so much more than it did when this, the industry or this organization first started. So really great to get so much visibility to all these different sectors of digital advertising and kind of be, you know, kind of lead that I wanted
- [04:49]
A
to ask you because I want to lean in on one part. So up and comers, people who don't have the privilege or ability to you know, pay thousands of dollars to attend conferences. I know because we had a conference and it cost thousands of dollars and it's, it's really hard for many people at various levels of their career to attend that type of conference. Mostly because budgets, they send a few or a handful of people from their company and they're often not selected. How do you bring that information to that I guess sector and that level of you know, digital advertising employees and how do you see that as like a core value prop for people to join 212 NYC? Yep.
- [05:27]
C
Well, first and foremost we make it affordable. Right? A membership is, I believe, 175, 180 bucks a year, gives you access to all the content that we put on. So we make it affordable. It's in your backyard if you're a New Yorker, New Jersey, Connecticut, tri state area. So that's, that's the first thing. Second thing is we have committees, we have opportunities for folks to volunteer. We've got a agency liaison program. We have ways to get involved that are almost simple and turnkey and effortless. And if you want to volunteer, if you want to help out, if you want to work our dodgeball tournament, if you want to be part of the marketing committee, programming, sponsorship, we, we just try to provide access to everyone who wants access to this level of either networking or opportunities. Our events are very diverse and so you might want to partake in a dodgeball tournament, but you just don't have time to go to the, you know, Future of Advertising panel. So that's okay. You know, we want you to go to the panel. But if dodgeball is more your speed, you can connect with people there, you can meet new people. So we try to program the events with a diversity that will get more people out based on what their interests are. And we like bringing people together in those kind of social events as well. So we're always thinking about how to, how to, how to get people in. Unfortunately, the pandemic really changed networking. I don't know if you remember what it was like pre pandemic, but there was a camaraderie and a way that people got together that after the pandemic, I think we lost some of that mojo. So we've been trying to bring that back. We've been trying to program for the current generation of up and coming industry professionals and I think we've done a really good job of that based on the content, the topics and the type of stuff we're doing. But you know what people, everyone operates differently, everybody wants to do things differently. We just try to have a level of diversity in our, in our programming that allows you to do what you need to do and come out and enjoy the events and get the most out of it for yourself.
- [07:28]
A
You know, I was looking at, I was looking at one of your events, the one in particular coming up in May, so that one's May, May 7th. Welcome to the Gen Z economy where culture cashes out and you touch on a, on a demographic, on a group of people that are often ignored and often advertisers ignore them or they just don't know how to reach them, they don't know how to communicate with them. And yet you're bringing it together for this event that you're doing for a few hours, New York City. I would love to hear from you. What is the type of, I guess, audience that you attract, who usually comes to these events and what do you want your attendees to leave knowing and understanding better?
- [08:09]
C
Sure. Well, the, the event before Gen Z is the upfront panel. So we've got an upfront panel. That's right, got Gen Z and then we have an agency dodgeball tournament.
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A
That's awesome.
- [08:19]
C
And then in, in July we have. My job is finding a job. And then in August, I know it's, it's, it's real, it's a great, great topic. Right. And in August we have a massive summer party that we're planning that you know, hopefully we'll, we'll announce really soon. You can see the diversity again of the events. Influencer and Gen Z. Very different than upfront, very different than my job is finding a job. So we've, we've programmed the events to, to be able to bring in different constituents based on where you are either in your career, what you're interested in learning about. So we're always trying to think ahead of the curve. I think the great thing about 212 is the content is provocative. Eons ago our content was like the future of video, the future of mobile cpg. We've really branched out to topics that really are thought provoking and allow people to. And our industry, our current industry, we allow them to learn about new things that maybe they couldn't learn anywhere else. Gen Z as a topic we think is really hot right now. You know, influencers and that whole influencer economy and how Gen Z is taking advantage of the social platforms and Influencer and we just think that there are so many different perspectives between the influencer, the brand, the content owner. And the goal of the events. Right, is to learn and to network and to meet people. There's a, there's a cocktail reception before the event, there's after the event you can linger and you can, you know, shake hands or talk to more people. They're intimate settings. So anyone who's on the panel, you can just go up to after and just ask them, say, hey, I really like that or you know, I really enjoyed that, that thought that you had. So there are intimate events. What you're supposed to get from it is what you want to get from it. If you want to take notes, you take notes. If you Want to meet other like minded people, you meet other like minded people but really the hope is that you come to an event and you get involved with your local organization and community to where you know every listen, every, every city has its own interactive marketing association, right? New York is 212 think LA and LA SF big in San Francisco. Chicago has SEMA, Boston has BEMA. So there are all these different ways to get involved in the, in the community that you live in. We just happy to be in the largest one. So we try to program our events for diversity to reach everyone in this large ad community.
- [10:49]
A
How big is the organization today? How many total members, if you can disclose that do you have and where do you see things heading in the next 12 months as this industry is changing? How maybe new sectors or new mediums that maybe weren't necessarily considered digital advertising are going to start being considered that?
- [11:08]
C
Yeah, we're great question. We're fortunate to have over 5,000 digital media marketing and advertising professionals into one to NYC.
- [11:17]
A
That's huge.
- [11:18]
C
Where we're going is we want to increase membership but we also want to increase corporate membership. Right. We want the Googles and the Amazons and the metas and you know every company that wants to get their teams involved, we love for them to get involved. Basically it's a volunteer organization. You know every dollar that goes in, every sponsored dollar goes back to the community. Whether it's content, whether it's temp hole events, every dollar goes back. We've got a great volunteer board of directors made up of some amazing industry professionals. We've got great committees. Our goal is just keep growing. Right? Keep bringing amazing content, total access and affordability to networking in this ad community. I mean digital like I said before is everything CTV out of home, everything. We embrace all types of media, all types of advertising, creatives, programmatic, non programmatic. So we're reaching everyone. Our goal is to program that way. Our goal is to keep growing and get more members and get more corporate members, get more companies involved.
- [12:26]
A
Can I call you a veteran in the space? You've been in the industry for quite some time. You say veteran, right? That doesn't make you older than you are.
- [12:32]
C
No, I think veteran is a nice way.
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A
Veterans the right way. Right.
- [12:35]
C
Old but not. You're out. You're not out of it.
- [12:37]
A
Yeah, you're not. I don't know if you're old but you're, you know you've, you have experience in the space and a lot of it's changed and I like want to kind of pivot into the direction of the industry. Because I'd love to hear your perspective just being so dialed into to the digital advertising space, sir. We talk about AI, its impact on the overall buying optimization workflow. A lot of the DSPs are automating their front ends. We talk about kind of the shift from TV to streaming, what that means now. We are now shifting from channel targeting to content targeting to show level targeting. And I would love to just hear from your perspective what you hear from your members, what you hear from your community. What is the direction of this industry and what are you just overall excited about and where we're heading and what that means for people in the industry and people who are entering the industry.
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C
Well, our theme this year is called Humanity in Action. And so I just want to put that out there. And that's going to be our gala theme this year. And AI can come in and obviously disrupt right workflow and processes and all types of stuff, but the human connection is still really important. And I think that's where 212 NYC plays. And that's why we're bullish about organizations like 21 2. Because as much as I'm going to say about how AI is, you know, AI is really the future. Humanity is influential and humans make up our organization for everything from leadership to committees to members. So Humanity in Action is really important. I mean, I'm seeing a lot of like AI search optimization actually pop up. A lot of great companies in that space using AI search queries to generate more data for brands. I think that's really exciting. Just the pivot from search to, you know, classic search to AI and going into ChatGPT or Grok or whatever and actually typing your searches. And that kind of data is going to be important for brands to kind of forecast how they're going to, you know, do things moving forward, how they're going to market to consumers. And I think that's really interesting. Part of where we're going, I think generative tools, AI content generation, new contextual opportunities and marketplaces. I mean, I worked for my last company was actually on our thing, you know, object level data in content, you know, at a speed that was pretty unprecedented. So we're going to see more companies, you know, have faster ways of doing things and eliminating complexity. And I love companies that make things simple. I'm a big believer in the simpler you make something, the more someone's going to probably either buy it or use it. I always use the example when I was growing up and I got a gateway Computer at home. I don't know if you. In the early days of buying.
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B
Oh, I know.
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A
I'll tell you after the show my close alignment with gateway computer.
- [15:31]
C
Okay, please do. Yes, please do. Because I remember opening up a gateway computer and there were nine DAGs and a CPU and a big computer and you to assemble everything and go step one through 15. And it's funny now when you buy a Dell or a Mac, you know, they give you the box and it's a computer with a cord. And it just makes me think of like that's the way society is going to move. It's going to take complexity. Complexity is just, it's just no bueno. We need to make things simpler. We need to make things simpler for the end consumer. We, we need to make things simpler from a narrative standpoint with the current marketplace. And there's a lot of, listen, I, you've seen the Lumascapes, you've seen how many companies are out there. Like they're going to be some winners and they're going to be some losers and you want to be on the winning end of the consolidation. So it's a really interesting world out there. I think influencer economy is another thing, right? Like what moves people to buy product more than influencers right now. You know, we've seen, you know, celebrities create beauty lines and then those beauty lines explode over legacy companies who've been working for 50 years trying to get these products in, in market. So it's really, it's a really interesting world out there. I think AI is going to change it a lot, but the principle should basically stay the same, right?
- [16:54]
A
I totally agree and I think even, even with the AI solutions in market. So like this is spun out a ton of AI companies. How many of them truly bring value to the ecosystem? I'm not sure. But that being said, some of them are already getting acquired. So they're 12 months in, 18 months in, 24 months in really the AI growth happened in the last what, 12, 24 months is when we started to see AI powered solutions in market. And I think many of them are going to start making decisions on is this the right time to build or buy and many of them in my personal opinion are going to turn into buy. It's just faster. You bring on the founders, you bring on their, you know, two or three engineers or very good prompt writers and then you implement their technology into your greater platform. So I think if anything from my perspective is we're probably going to see a nice blitz of, you know, Smaller to mid size acquisitions as we go into Q4 to overall kind of lean into that AI powered AI solutions in market. So which is going to spawn up new products, new employment and unfortunately, if you don't keep up like you're going to hurt, unfortunately.
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C
Yep. There's also an abundance of platforms that are being sold out there and I think it's going to be hard for every marketer to have 12 platforms that they use on a daily basis in, day out basis. So companies are going to be, have to be smart about how they approach marketers. Right. There's just too much out there and I think everybody's trying to hop on that bandwagon.
- [18:28]
A
There is.
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C
And that's, that's a problem. Yes, there'll be some major acquisitions, there'll be some major opportunities, but there's a lot of redundancy out there right now. I agree and to me that, that, that could become a problem. But you know, I love innovating. I think also I just want to talk about this. I think robotics are going to become massive.
- [18:48]
A
Oh, interesting.
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C
I don't think, I don't think we're talking enough about robotics. Robots in daily life, robots at home. I don't, I just, I remember at CES walking through the floor at the convention center and robots were everywhere and we talk a lot about AI, we talk about, you know, the future, we talk about influencers. But robotics are going to come into our homes and we going to need to adapt to that. And how those are used as advertising vehicles should be really interesting.
- [19:23]
A
I've never even thought of that. Well, that's, that's why you're here, Jay.
- [19:27]
C
Into the brain of Jay Wolf. I, yeah, but I'm excited, I'm excited by the future. It's just, it's just such an unknown. I mean, 10 years ago we could have said here are the five ad tech companies we think are going to take over the world.
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A
Right.
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C
And I don't know, you could, I don't know if you could do that today. So.
- [19:42]
A
No, I think, I think the market's showing that. I think you're looking at what was the most successful ad tech companies in the space struggling today. You're finding others pivoting very quickly, innovating very quickly. It has been a wild month. It has absolutely been a wild month. I did want to ask you, when it, when it comes to your organization and membership, I know you mentioned it a little bit early on, but how do people get involved? How do they join? What's the process? Is There a vetting process for anyone listening that would want to join. Just so it's easy for them. Where do they go? What do they do?
- [20:17]
C
They go to 212nyc.org they can sign up to be a member. That's easy. You can sign up to be a member. If you're an agency or brand, you have, you have a free membership. If you work on the publisher side or you're in between roles right now, you can sign up and it's a pretty nominal amount for a year. If you want to get involved with committees, you can actually go to the website and sign up for a committee. You can learn more about the different committees, marketing, programming, sponsorship, mentorship, membership. There's great committees you can sign up at the site or you can actually reach out to myself on LinkedIn, J. Wolf, or you can reach out to any other board member, committee member that you see on LinkedIn and say, hey, I'd love to get involved. From a vetting perspective, we do vet folks that want to be on committees and want to be involved, but it's a pretty simple process. And if they're in the field and they're ambitious and they want to help pay it forward for others in the community, we bring them onto a committee and then we have committee leaders. We've got board members, we've got board leaders. There's just a whole, there's a whole funnel of things that can be done once you get involved with 212, it's what I did. I joined as a volunteer, sat at tables outside of a boat cruise. I signed people in and I can tell you, 16 years later, I sit as president. So I'm proof in the pudding of, of, of going from, you know, young professional to, to leader.
- [21:43]
A
So amazing. Thank you, Jay. I appreciate you being here and thank you for your partnership with Market Extreme. We are definitely excited to be partnering with you guys more closely.
- [21:51]
C
Let's keep it going.
- [21:52]
A
Let's keep it. We will. I mean, with all the, with all the events. We will. I could tell you that we will definitely be aligning more closely. Awesome. Thank you, Jay. Thanks for joining me.
- [22:01]
C
Thank you.
- [22:03]
B
Thanks for tuning in to another episode of the AdTech Godpod, a podcast for the people, about the people. Stay connected with me for more insights, trends and interviews in the realm of ad tech. Don't miss out on the latest updates. So follow me on X Instagram and connect with me on LinkedIn. Don't forget ETG Slack community has insights, networking opportunities and jobs. Keep the conversation going and stay at the forefront of ad tech innovation.