← AdTechGod Pod
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- [00:00]
A
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- [00:34]
B
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- [01:15]
A
Welcome to the AdTech Godpod, your window into the world of advertising technology and the people behind it. I'm your host, Tech God. Welcome to the @Tech God pod, where we speak with the revenue leaders of our industry. Today's guest is none other than Julie Van Allen, President and CRO at iSpot. Julie's had multiple leadership roles at the IAB, OpenX, FreeWheel, Rackuten Advertising, and Ratin Rewards. If you've ever met, worked, or engaged in a conversation with Julie, you will know that she's an incredible leader, one who brings compassion and unbelievable knowledge to the table. Julie, thank you so much for being on today's pod. Welcome to the podcast atg.
- [02:02]
B
That was lovely. Thank you. And thank you for having me.
- [02:05]
A
It took me at least, God, I don't know, 27 seconds to write that intro, so I'm glad that it really hit all the. All the high points on that one.
- [02:13]
B
It feels a little less important now, but thanks.
- [02:17]
A
No, thank you. Thank you for taking time out of your day. And congrats on your new role at I Spot.
- [02:21]
B
Thank you so much. I am beyond thrilled to be here. So one of the most innovative companies I've been at in a while, so it's. It's easy to get up and get stoked every morning.
- [02:29]
A
Yeah, I definitely want to hear more about it. You've worked at some amazing companies, Julie. We have a lot of mutual friends. You do not know who I am yet, but I would love for you to tell the listeners how you reached where you're at today. You're a pretty influential, very successful woman in the space and I think it's really important to some of my female listeners to understand like how you got to where you're at today and what that path looked like.
- [02:53]
B
Well, I appreciate that. I also appreciate the yet about knowing who you are. The this career has been long and winding and exciting and fueled with like a, a very purposeful focus of being my authentic self along the journey. I think that's important for any, any executive, but particularly for female executives. I think it's very easy to get pulled into wanting to create kind of corporate veneers and things that, that make you feel more powerful perhaps. But I, I think as we talk through things today, at the center of everything that I'm proud of is the fact that I am very much the same human being here on this podcast as I am out at drinks, as I am on Bloomberg, as I am behind the desk every day. And I credit a lot of my ability to stay focused on that with my early mentors. I think when my career started at the iab, I was actually in more publishing, traditional publishing before I came to the iab, but had a nine year stint there under Randall Rothenberg, who shout out to Randall is one of the most amazing human beings with whom I still speak on a regular basis and helps guide me in all of the right arenas. But I think that was such a foundational moment for my career, not only in having a mentor like him who is so versed in the marketing and advertising landscape in such a cerebral way, but, but also the sheer amount of people and topics and subject matter that I learned there in my nine years under this very big tent representing, you know, marketers to publishers and everything in between was, I think, the foundation for success on which I lean quite a lot today. People and trust is the currency that matters.
- [04:44]
A
Julie, it's really interesting you mentioned that, you know, your time at IAB working with Randall, that relationship you've built with him of trust and being a mentor. A lot of people I've interviewed over the last two years have just mentioned having this like advisory board of friends, colleagues, people that they trust that they can speak to openly. How important do you think it's been having Randall as one of them with making decisions to move to, you know, OpenX or move to Freewheel or even move to Rakuten.
- [05:15]
B
And now I spot I don't think I could have done it without folks like Randall. And I also do have like a board of advisors, if you will. And I think having like a good, an amazing female executive mentor is also critical in its own right. But every single time that I've looked for a new position or I've even questioned how I might approach something challenging in my existing role, I will call Randall. And I think fundamentally why I think he's so valuable is that he has such a holistic and clear view of where the industry is headed that I count on his futurism to really help me not only position choices around where I'll go next, but really whether or not the place I am is positioned for growth, but to also kind of taught another side of him. Like he's an incredibly human leader and he has taught me early days the criticality of A word from our sponsors.
- [06:17]
A
This is at Tech God in the 2026 IAB Annual Leadership Meeting is where the digital media market align, bringing together the leaders who shape investment, innovation and growth across the ecosystem. It's a rare opportunity to build high value relationships, surface new revenue paths across AI commerce and measurement, and stay ahead of the shifts redefining how business gets done. Be in the room where the year ahead takes shape. Join us in Palm Springs February 1st to 3rd and register at iab.com/alm use code ATG ALM26 to save $500. Again, go to iab.comalm and use code ATG ALM 26 to save yourself $500.
- [07:13]
B
Of inspiring people through through your own actions and through your own trust and authenticity in them every day. So couldn't deal with Adam.
- [07:22]
A
You know, you touch upon something that I discussed with a prior guest, actually somebody that I happened to record with today, was like the importance of the human element and just being yourself. And I think many times and this happens, you get lost in the corporate jargon, you get lost in the corporate bureaucracy. And in order for you to position yourself correctly within that company, like you kind of lose yourself, you lose your sense of humor, your sarcasm, even your opinions start to change because your opinions become truly the opinions of the company. And with you, and I can say this, having heard you speak, having seen you in the market working, you are pretty much who you are. Everywhere you go, it's like, take it or leave it. I am who I am. And I think that that makes a massive difference in the way people perceive you and work with you and they just enjoy your company. And I think that's a Huge difference.
- [08:14]
B
Yeah, well, thanks for saying that. And it doesn't work everywhere. Like, when I interview places, I basically say that I'm like, this is how I am. If that's going to for you, great. It doesn't mean that I'm not a company person. If my CEO tells me something, I tell them I disagree.
- [08:27]
A
Of course.
- [08:28]
B
Still going to go do that thing and you will never know that I didn't agree, but.
- [08:32]
A
Right.
- [08:33]
B
But yeah, I think that's my job. That's what you're paying me for. And a lot of the challenge in being in tech generally is that things change so rapidly. Change is just a reality. And whether it's. Whether it's like acquisitions or business model changes or new technology or like layoffs, which is very, you know, relevant right now in market, across the board, like, these are all just realities. And the only way through them is to build trust and candor with your team. They're all adults. The more you try to create narratives, the more you don't tap into the human rationale and trust them with why we're doing what we're doing. I think the more we, we go askew in building teams that really want to follow you into a war zone and teams who really want to build the company to its next era.
- [09:23]
A
You know, I love that you mentioned that because the transparency is something that I'm very focused on here at marketexture. People will ask me, hey, sorry, like, is it okay that I. Yes, it's absolutely 100% okay that you disagree with me. Like, yes, it's 100% okay that you tell me that post sucks. Yes, it's okay that you tell me that was boring. Like, I need your feedback because I'd rather get the feedback from someone internally than get feedback from a paying client, someone who's watching the content. Like, this is our opportunity to filter before we push live. And the only way that happens is creating an environment where you feel like you can pick up the phone and have a conversation and be transparent. And sometimes that doesn't happen. So I love leaders that are like that. It's something that I try to do here as well.
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B
Amazing. There's not enough, though.
- [10:13]
A
More, there's not enough. Julie, you. You moved into the connected television space after your time at IAB. You worked at OpenX, you worked at Freewheel. You were at both of those companies during a very fast growth period for ctv. Now you're into measurement. My question is, how does that all loop in together? What made you move from, you know, connected Television to Rakuten and then to measurement after that.
- [10:38]
B
I think maybe the easiest way to answer that question is that like I get up every morning because I fundamentally love the free Internet, I love free media. I will do everything in my power to make sure that it remains that way. But having grown up in more of kind of the transactional display space and I even like have these vivid recollections of thinking about ad stacks and how do I get above critio or how do I get first look at inventory before for Google. Like I never thought about those as people back in the day when I was doing this. Those are people, those are experiences that people are having with that content with those brands. And I think fundamentally that became my driver for getting up every morning is this holy grail search of a win, win, win that works for advertiser, publisher as well as the end consumer. And it is what drove me from going from more of like a display oriented landscape to something more, you know, high value like television. But it also is what took me into retail tech for the last eight and a half years at Rakuten, which is to say that it's not a surprise to anyone to hear that we're in a very tumultuous time. There's a lot of uncertainty, a lot of kind of whether that's economic, political or whatever. And that has translated into both brands having their own challenges. But at the end of the day, the consumer looking for ultimate value which can come anywhere between getting a coupon and cash back all the way through having a really authentic and honest conversation with a brand that's trying to earn their business. And Rakuten represented an ability for me to use this very malleable lever called cash back tied to brands own CRM strategies to do exactly that. And by the way only get paid when you help a brand sell something that's pretty darn cool. But and then moving over to I spot, you know, very simply was that I think that this industry, this television industry that is undergoing tremendous evolution right now, which we can talk more about, is very ripe for change making and the honesty that comes with what are we capable of doing and can we bring the industry along to actually move in new ways and take advantage of data and capabilities that get away from the ancient buying and measurement techniques of the past and less thinking about clawbacks and things and thinking about measurement in real time, actionable, optimizing on data, making measurement equal revenue.
- [13:21]
A
It's funny, measurement is looked at as, you know, what was the real purpose of this what was the outcome of this? What does this mean for my ad dollars? But it all goes back to initial point, which is the customer, which is the user, which is the viewer, which is the guy buying products or the woman buying products. Like all of it comes back to that experience. How important do you think measurement will be as we start to see user consumption of video content change, moving, from, like you said, traditional television to connected television to social platforms to the creator economy? How important do you think measurement is there and how will that differ?
- [13:58]
B
The criticality of measurement in the future of the continued, you know, path of fragmentation is to be the, the source of truth and to be an agnostic source of truth. By the way, like, shout out to the Trade Desk who's like one of our greatest partners, who has a very similar ethos. Yeah, I spot very. We're, we're integrated into Trade desk as their default measurement provider to prove incrementality for that reason, because we're so synergistic. But I, I think what the at from a. Let me answer it from a consumer standpoint, which is that the consumer demands not seeing the same ad over and over again, like, reach and frequency only goes so far. Consumer wants to be engaged with in an authentic way on different channels, depending on where they are in that particular moment. And the only way that a brand can understand what's working for a consumer is to see the outcomes. So we also have to move beyond the audience measurement piece of this and be actually looking at what are the outcomes of your strategies and not just piping them into MTA and MMM models that can be actioned on every quarter or half year, but rather in real time. How can you learn what is working for your consumers both from a creative standpoint and from a media investment standpoint and make those changes in real time?
- [15:20]
A
Yeah, it's the amount of change that's happened in the last six or seven years has been pretty wild. Like, it's been a pretty wild ride. Like, when you look back at the capabilities that we have today in advertising, just across, like the digital space and the way consumer habits have changed from, you know, traditional television to streaming to social, to suddenly someone like myself with a microphone and laptop is creating content on a regular basis. It's incredible how much value it brings, but how much disruption it brings to the way media buyers buy and where they buy. So my question to you, Julie, is as we're moving into 2026, things continue to change. What are you really positive about? What's like, the thing that you're really bullish about going into the new year because the news loves negativity. They love it. That's what drives clicks. They love it. Anything you could say that's negative. People love it, the algorithms love it. But like, what's something really positive that you feel about 2026 that people should be aware of?
- [16:25]
B
Man, I'm like, so not negative. Like, I'd be really bad. Clickbait. I think a couple of things, but the one that I'll hit on for you is that I think while our industry in aggregate oftentimes as forward thinking as it is, it's not great at changing fast. But one of the areas of change that I see happening very quickly is a desire to actually integrate actionable data insights and agnostic data insights into walled gardens. So for instance, we're launching a partnership with Roku whereby you can access in real time outcome based data from ISPOT and change your media buy within Roku. I think you can also do that from a creative standpoint as well, based on I spot data. So this I think is. And they're not the only one with whom we're engaging. I just can't give away too much, but I think that that's, that's a really hefty motion that I see in place, a willingness to accept. Maybe that's not the right way to say it because I'm sure walled gardens would prefer to grade their own homework all day long, but there's an understanding that that isn't going to work and they're turning to folks like Ispot to help bring those pieces together for marketers.
- [17:45]
A
Okay, so I'm going to pivot a little bit on the pod because you obviously have been very successful in your career. You've built a great reputation for yourself and you've brought a ton of growth to the companies you've worked at. Even just looking over the last 10, 15 years, like these are all the most rapid growing companies in some of the most attractive and high growth areas we've seen in digital advertising, from streaming to rewards to now measurement. My question to you is, how's that been as a female in the space? My podcast in particular is majority female. I don't know if you knew this, some people know this or not. Yeah, it's majority female. I'm at like 65% female and like 35, 60, probably 60, 40 at this point. And my main question is like there are barriers. Yeah, there's definitely an industry that is predominantly male and it is what it is. Like there's changes happening and people are applying those changes. But how has that been for you and your growth and what's really gotten you to this point? So anyone listening is aware.
- [18:46]
B
Well, a lot, a lot has changed in terms of kind of what is acceptable behavior over the last 20 something years. So I think that there's a lot of, there's a lot of stories over drinks we can talk about. But I think that the, the main answer to your question is that I recognize the transition in myself that was really critical early days in ad tech where I was really one of the only females in any given office. I think I internalized being kind of one of the tech bros, if you will, as a, as a strength and almost like anti feminine, anti feminism kind of. And I'm so embarrassed by that. Thinking back, I think it was a survival mechanism and I've been trying to make good on that since, which is to say that there is a unique experience. There's a new unique experience, not just for women, but really you could, you could put any adject and any, anything in there and someone is going to have their own unique experience. It just needs to be recognized. And there have been places that I've worked where I'm pretty clear that there's a, there's a ceiling that won't be, that won't be broken and it's time for me to go. I always try and seek out people who will help me navigate challenging situations of which there have been many. But like anything else, I think mainly what I've learned is support. You stand on the shoulders, let others stand on your shoulders, and if something's not working for you, find the next thing and the next place who will accept you and help you grow. I think that's the best thing that I can say.
- [20:24]
A
You know, I think, and thank you for that, Julie. I think it's very open of you to say that, and I think some would not have. And so I'm glad that you, you did. I think one of the things that I've, I've learned, having just spoken to so many people, is I myself, I may or may not be female, but most everybody knows I'm male. But I myself have had multiple women on the podcast that have mentioned glass ceiling limitations. I need to push 10 times harder. And because I don't experience that myself, I find it really interesting to hear and I think it helps me better understand, like, how do I empower the women that work at marketexture to push forward? And I joke internally all the time, like, yeah, Go for it. I don't care. Run with it. Like, if you want to own it, own it. Like, you don't have to ask me. We were all partners here. We're not 7,000 people. And I think putting people on your shoulder and lifting them up, whether this is other women in the space, whether these are coworkers that need a little boost and they're not women, like, even if it's someone that you think has potential and needs assistance, I think that plays a huge role. Lifting up in a work environment has no negative impact on anything for the person lifting or the person being lifted. It's actually only positive. And so I love that you mentioned that.
- [21:43]
B
And people don't make time for it. You have to make time for it. It's, it is, it is work. It is work. And, and I, and I think it goes beyond like a gender paradigm. It goes toward really the uniqueness of any individual. I will say, and I think many people, when they don't find somebody easy or somebody relatable, a manager is much more likely to not engage that individual or not up level that individual. And I think that that is oftentimes it really makes a good, just a really world class leader versus an okay one is one who can really distinguish what are you good at, what are your superpowers and how do I, how do I wrap my arms around that and make that work for the organization is like sprinkling the fairy dust.
- [22:25]
A
Yeah. And I feel that those superpowers are not always known immediately. And the importance of mentorship. Jeremy Bloom, who's my, my business partner, he has like a mentorship platform for that, which is, you know, people are allocating time to do it. And he tells me one of the biggest challenges is finding people who are willing to allocate enough time to do it. So people have to be willing to put in the time and the work to guide people to just be better at what they are at work, what they do at work, who they are as a people. And many times on LinkedIn specifically, it's very easy to post how much you would love to help people impacted by a layoff. It's very rare that you find someone actually DM someone and say, hey, I noticed you were a product manager. There's a role here. We've spoken twice in the last three years. I'd love to get you to the front of the line. And there's a very big difference between talk and actual action. And I think that's something that frustrates me on LinkedIn. Where I'm like come on. Like I love the likes and comments. I'm addicted to it too. But at the same time do something.
- [23:28]
B
Well it's a totally different purpose right? It's either is a self serving purpose versus someone who's actually trying to Absolutely.
- [23:34]
A
Julie, I I wanted to thank you. I wanted to thank the I Spot team for having you on the pod. You've been an incredible guest and I wish you the absolute best that I Spot.
- [23:43]
B
I couldn't thank you more. Atg. Thank you, thank you.
- [23:47]
A
Speak soon 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 ATG Slack community has insights, networking opportunities and jobs. Keep the conversation going and stay at the forefront of adtech innovation.