Why Knowing Your Audience Matters More Than Ever

A conversation with Matt Sweeney, CEO, Xaxis NA

Originally posted on: Adweek | October 4, 2018

At the end of September during Brandweek, Adweek caught up with Matt Sweeney, CEO, Xaxis, North America, to hear about trends he’s seeing in the advertising industry and ways brands could improve in terms of technology and capturing user data.

Here’s what he had to say.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Adweek: What are some of the most significant changes we’re seeing now in the advertising industry?

As a promise of digital, the opportunity has always been the one-to-one communication. It’s more personalized messaging and engagement with your customers and prospects, and that’s been promised for a long time now. I think it’s time that all players in that space deliver on their promise. [If you’re a] data company, it’s time to deliver, if you’re a tech company, it’s time to deliver, if you’re a media business, it’s time to deliver on that promise.

My conversations with CMOs [are about how] they’re no longer just thinking about building brands. [They’re] saying, ‘How do I sell more sneakers and cars?’ The good news is that they have a seat at the table with the CEO and CFO and others. The challenge is, OK, how do you actually put something quantifiable behind the investments we’re making and that huge shift to digital? Show me that those investments are actually driving the business forward.

As new technologies come online and further advancements are made in gathering and reporting user data, what should brands do to keep up?

At Xaxis, we’ve developed our own technology over the years. A lot of the other big media buyers and holding companies either partnered or licensed technology. A lot of people look at that as being the aggressive, or not as smart [of a] way to invest dollars. I think those investments are paying off now—not just for Xaxis, but for GroupM.