Interview with Noam Neumann, COO, Glispa

In this interview, Noam Neumann, COO, Glispa shares mobile ad tech insights and discusses how performance marketing can drive better user experiences and suggests tips for engaging mobile-only millenials as they take control of their experiences. Before joining Glispa, Noam served as VP Technologies and Data at Mobfox, leading the company’s product strategy, technology and data teams. As VP Mobile Strategy at Matomy, he built a long term global strategy, and led the development of Mobfox SSP, DMP and a DSP. Noam holds a physics and philosophy degree from Tel Aviv University

TDE: Tell us about your product/business and your specific role?

Noam Neumann: Glispa aims to make mobile ad tech simple. Our advanced solutions are designed to increase efficiency on both the buy and sell side: making it easier for agencies and advertisers to forge meaningful connections with target audiences, while helping publishers maximize in-app monetization. By combining the conventional app install business with mobile network operators (MNOs), interactive ads and retargeting, we are able to provide a streamlined means of delivering engaging, data-based ads.

My role as Chief Operating Officer at Glispa involves overseeing all aspects of business and ensuring core areas of the company – operations, product and technology are running smoothly.

TDE:  What is the core issue your product/technology aims to address and what sets it apart from the other players in the market?

Noam Neumann: Glispa is currently the only company to offer a fully integrated mobile ad tech stack that allows partners to reach high-quality mobile users at scale. Our product suite houses all key campaign technologies under one roof, which not only reduces costs and makes management less complicated, but also provides access to comprehensive insight that can be instantly used to fuel optimization.

It is comprised of four central facets. Firstly, a performance marketing division that enables brands to achieve campaign KPIs and re-engage users through data-driven app retargeting. Then there is an ad exchange, which combines real-time bidding technology and automatic traffic optimization across the most relevant demand sources. Thirdly, we run an in-house creative factory to help clients simplify and automate creative work in mobile advertising. And finally, we provide a powerful platform that connects MNOs and manufacturers with customers in the mobile ad space – enhancing their digital inventory and generating new revenue streams. Our four-pronged approach puts us in a unique position to improve performance and engage consumers throughout the entire mobile lifecycle.

TDE: What’s the one industry, sector or role that your technology is most relevant to?

Noam Neumann: Glispa predominantly sits within the mobile ad tech industry, but we also work with a diverse range of brands and publishers across gaming, automotive, and FMCG verticals to name just a few. Whatever the product, app or solution, our technology can be used in any sector to create holistic campaigns that achieve measurable results.

TDE: How can Glispa help marketing teams approach their prospecting goals of awareness, consideration and decision-making using digital platforms? Is performance marketing the only way forward for today’s marketers to assert their value-add to enterprises?

Noam Neumann: Performance marketing isn’t the only way for modern marketers to demonstrate the value they generate, but it’s certainly becoming a more accepted and valued channel. In recent years, the technique has evolved beyond the more basic goals such as clicks or downloads, to encompass a wider range of tactics and metrics, including brand advertising and user engagement. Performance marketing is able to offer granular campaign measurability and the detailed insight it provides into the most inspiring content and effective ad formats allows marketers to both prove the impact of their efforts and continually optimize them; ultimately driving better user experiences and ROI.

Further to this, Glispa’s unique combination of creative and media allows marketers the opportunity to take an innovative approach to advertising throughout the sales funnel by personalizing ads in real time, sparking a deeper interest from users and in turn driving higher conversion rates. By bringing media and creative together under one roof Glispa can better support marketing organisations, as they benefit from extensive data and inspiring creative that maximize the impact of campaigns.

TDE: What are some of the common challenges your customers approach you with?

Noam Neumann: A limited supply of mobile inventory and a lack of user data prove to be constant challenges for our customers. With a dearth of mobile publishers and in-app placements the same consumers are repeatedly being served the same ad formats in the same places. Just as with desktop banners this is causing ad blindness and there is a strong possibility mobile may lose its edge if nothing changes.

MNOs and increasingly original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) offer a compelling solution to both these problems. They have access to huge stores of valuable and hitherto untapped first-party user data and can offer advertisers a different route to interacting with their audiences through unique touch points in premium fraud-free environments. Advertising through MNOs and OEMs combines hyper targeting, transparency, and vast reach — attributes that have previously only been available in isolation.

TDE: With GDPR and consumer privacy regulations now stringent, how can marketers maximize their opportunities for the mobile-only millennial generations without marring CX?

Noam Neumann: The GDPR is a positive development for the ad tech space as it has forced the industry to deal with data more responsibly, and in the long-term will help eliminate unethical vendors. The GDPR encourages greater transparency, a principle which should be applied to all areas of marketing and should be fully incorporated into business models. Marketers must put the user first as opposed to viewing the GDPR merely as a tick box exercise.

By being open and honest about data practices brands will be able to form stronger, more trusting relationships with consumers of all generations, but particularly millennials who place a high value on sincerity.

We see a real opportunity with the GDPR to engage mobile-only millennials as they gain more control over their own experience. For instance, the regulation is driving adoption of playable ads because they incorporate a GDPR compliant opt-in element. Users can decide whether or not to consent to data collection to allow them to enjoy a fun and interactive mini game but aren’t forced to do so. This level of transparency is highly appealing to users, especially the millennial generation, allowing them the freedom of choice to opt-in if they wish.

TDE: AI is where the enterprises are moving today. Considering Glispa is a tech product vendor itself, how is the presence of AI unfolding within your enterprise and were there any employee concerns that you needed to address as the COO during the transition?

Noam Neumann: There’s no doubt that AI is where the industry is heading. While we don’t expect AI to replace humans in ad tech, it will certainly enable employees to work more efficiently and greatly enhance levels of precision and scale in programmatic advertising.

We are seeing AI unfold mainly at  decision-making junctions within the company, particularly when looking at pricing and a better fit of audience and brand campaigns. The reason for this is simply the vast amount of information that needs to be analysed in these areas in near real time, making them an excellent starting point. For example, when we look to match a specific impression to a campaign, we need to look at the app it came from, time of day, type of ad, who the user is, where they are located – as well as many other parameters – and compare them with historical data to inform the bid.

AI changes the current process of somebody manually looking at aggregated data and  optimizing, into an ongoing automatic process.

For more DX insights follow Noam Neumann on LinkedIn.