Genuin Connections

mattjpj
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Video conversations with our community of brand marketers, innovators, creators, media mavens, and commerce-minded thought leaders.

  1. 2d ago

    Genuin Connections: Episode 20 -- Bob Regular, CEO at Infolinks

    Infolinks CEO Bob Regular has survived the dot-com crash, 9/11 and 2008, and he’s still betting on what media becomes next. On this episode of Genuin Connections, Bob joins Matt Wurst to share how a young TV producer from Newfoundland became one of digital advertising’s earliest builders. He talks about trading commercial airtime for his first web clients, watching the economics of online ads collapse overnight, and the persistence it took to rebuild. Bob also explains why Infolinks built a premium marketplace around quality instead of scale, why attention matters more than targeting, and why context is winning as identity fades. He gets candid about ad tech’s buzzword habit, the trust gap holding back AI media buying, and why he sees AI as the next great content era. Plus, why Infolinks partnered with Genuin, and where short-form video is taking our attention.

  2. Oct 22

    Genuin Connections: Episode 14 -- Chad Hickey, Founder/CEO at Givsly

    What if advertising could actually do something good — and perform better because of it? Chad Hickey, CEO and Co-Founder of Givsly, spent nearly two decades building revenue teams at some of ad tech's most data-driven companies. Then he asked a question the industry tends to avoid: what if media dollars could reflect what people actually believe? That question became Givsly — a values-based advertising platform that connects brands with consumers through shared beliefs, and directs real dollars to nonprofit causes in the process. In this episode of Genuin Connections, Matt Wurst and Chad dig into why values are entering the consumer consideration set alongside price, quality, and convenience — and what that means for how brands build trust, drive performance, and show up consistently for the people they're trying to reach. What we cover: Why values-based advertising is a targeting strategy, not a cause marketing tactic How Givsly achieves 90%+ retention by running campaigns that outperform The difference between genuine purpose and performative purpose — and how consumers tell them apart Why human connection is becoming the defining scarcity of the next decade What the fastest-growing values-driven consumer segments actually look like (hint: it's not who you think) If you're a marketer trying to build something that lasts, this one's for you. 🎙️ Genuin Connections is hosted by Matt Wurst, CMO at Genuin — where we explore the convergence of community, content, creativity, commerce, and the future of media and marketing.

  3. Aug 19

    Genuin Connections: Episode 19 -- Mindie Kaplan, EVP Growth & Marketing - MediaMint

    Mindie Kaplan built an AR/VR agency from scratch in 2016, sold it to MediaMint, and spent the years since figuring out what "human plus AI" really means for one of the ad industry's biggest operations partners. Now EVP of Growth and Marketing, she talks with Matt Wurst about her path from founder to executive, how a single client's messy workflow became MediaMint's AI product Mia, and why some of the world's biggest brands are still duct-taping together their tech stack. They also get into the Million Mammogram Challenge, the campaign Mindie started after catching her own early-stage breast cancer, now aiming for a million mammograms scheduled by 2028. A conversation about founders, AI, and building things that matter beyond the P&L.

  4. Jul 14

    Genuin Connections: Episode 18 -- Jacqueline Corbelli, Founder, CEO at BrightLine, from Cannes Lions

    Jacqueline Corbelli, Founder and CEO of BrightLine, joins Genuin CMO Matt Wurst at Cannes Lions 2026 for a new episode of Genuin Connections. Corbelli built her company on a bet that connected TV was coming years before the industry believed it. It took a pandemic to prove her right. In this conversation, she and Matt get into what it actually takes to lead through disruption instead of reacting to it. Topics include: - Why it took a pandemic to force the shift from linear to connected TV - The gap between claiming AI adoption and actually being ready to use it - Why every platform ends up building the same proprietary walls, and resisting the outside help that could fix it - How AI is finally making interactivity scalable inside long-form content, without replacing human creativity - The difference between earned trust and forced scale, and why she calls out Amazon by name - What it means to lead with responsibility rather than ego in an industry that wasn't built for people who look like her - Why the throughline across every wave of change, from mobile to streaming to agentic AI, is the same: build for what's coming before you're forced to A candid, unfiltered conversation about building infrastructure for a future that hasn't arrived yet, and what it costs to get there first. Genuin Connections features conversations about community, content, creativity, commerce, and the convergence of media and marketing. Subscribe for more from the Genuin Connections series. #GenuinConnections #CannesLions2026 #BrightLine #ConnectedTV #AdTech #AI #MediaAndMarketing

  5. Jun 30

    Genuin Connections: Episode 17 -- Brian Kaminsky, COO at Infillion, at Cannes Lions

    Recorded live at the 2026 Cannes Lions, Genuin Connections host Matt Wurst sits down with Brian Kaminsky, Chief Operating Officer at Infillion, for a sharp, no-hype conversation about where advertising is actually headed. Brian has spent 20+ years scaling media businesses, from HuffPost and Reuters to more than a decade inside iHeart's ad tech world. In this episode he breaks down the shift from programmatic to agentic advertising, why the next generation of media buying changes what's possible, and how Infillion's composable, open approach is built to free marketers from walled gardens and all-or-nothing platforms. The two get into the move past AI hype toward AI that actually works, Infillion's acquisition of Catalina and what SKU-level shopper data unlocks for CPG brands, open web measurement with walled-garden fidelity, and the part of this business that stays human no matter how much automation arrives. If you work in advertising, media, marketing, or ad tech, this one rewards a full listen.

  6. May 18

    Genuin Connections: Episode 16 -- Ashan Khan (Uber Ads) & Scott Hendrickson (Firmly) at POSSIBLE 26

    Recorded live at POSSIBLE 2026 in the Genuin Suite at the Fontainebleau in Miami Beach, this special episode of Genuin Connections brings together two leaders at the center of where media, commerce, and AI are converging: Ashan Khan, Head of Global Agency Partnerships at Uber Advertising, and Scott Hendrickson, Chief Revenue Officer at Firmly. Host Matt Wurst, CMO of Genuin, leads a conversation titled "From Discovery to Decision: Collapsing the Distance Between Content and Commerce" — covering how the marketing funnel is evolving, what agentic commerce actually means today, and where revenue is being left on the table between attention and transaction. Ashan unpacks how Uber's two-sided data set — mobility and Uber Eats — gives CPG and QSR brands an unusually complete picture of consumer intent. Scott explains how Firmly is building the infrastructure that lets consumers check out with a merchant wherever they encounter the product — inside publisher content, LLMs, ad units, and vertical shopping assistants — and why merchant-of-record status is critical for lifetime value. Together, they explore the convergence of attention and convenience, the limits of agentic shopping, the walled gardens problem in retail media, and why data collaboration is the quiet flywheel that will determine which commerce bets actually pay off.

  7. Apr 21

    Genuin Connections: Episode 15 -- Sean Atkins, CEO at Dhar Mann Studios

    What does it take to build a global storytelling brand from a YouTube channel? Sean Atkins, CEO of Dhar Mann Studios, has spent 20+ years following consumer behavior to its next destination — from cable to the early internet to streaming to the creator economy. Now he's running the largest scripted digital creator operation in the world, reaching 160 million followers and 300 million views every week.In this conversation, Sean and Genuin CMO (and podcast host) Matt Wurst get into the structural reasons brands need creators now, who really owns authenticity in a brand-creator partnership, and why the marketing value chain inside most Fortune 100 companies is completely broken for the creator era. Sean also reflects on what it means to scale a founder-led business without losing its soul, why the biggest constraint in any company is usually the founder themselves, and why a nonlinear career is a feature — not a liability. Honest, experienced, and genuinely useful for anyone building in the attention economy.

  8. Mar 4

    Genuin Connections: Episode 13 -- Debra Aho Williamson, Founder at Sonata Insights

    How is AI reshaping the future of marketing, advertising, and consumer decision-making? And what happens when discovery, research, and purchase all happen in a single conversation? In this episode of Genuin Connections, host Matt Wurst (CMO, Genuin) sits down with Debra Aho Williamson, Founder and Chief Analyst at Sonata Insights and former eMarketer analyst of 20 years, to unpack the rapid rise of AI media and the AI advertising economy. Debra has spent decades helping marketers understand the biggest digital transformations—from the early ad-supported web to the rise of social media—and today she’s one of the leading voices analyzing how AI platforms like ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, and Copilot are transforming consumer behavior and marketing strategy. Together they explore how AI is collapsing the traditional marketing funnel, what Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) means for brands, and why trust, authority, and context are becoming the new performance signals in an AI-driven media ecosystem. They also discuss why the convergence of organic AI visibility and paid AI media is happening faster than the evolution of search or social media—and what marketers must do now to stay ahead. Topics Covered in This Episode: - Why AI is the fastest digital transformation marketers have ever faced - How consumers are using AI assistants to discover, evaluate, and buy products - The rise of AI media as a new advertising channel - Why AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) and paid AI advertising must work together - How conversational AI is compressing the traditional marketing funnel - The role of trust, authority signals, and brand credibility in AI environments - How retailers and platforms like Amazon and Walmart are embedding AI into commerce experiences - What marketers should expect from AI advertising and measurement over the next 18 months Debra also shares her perspective on which companies may dominate the AI media landscape, why marketers must pay closer attention to consumer behavior shifts, and how brands can prepare for a world where answers—not clicks—drive outcomes. If you're a marketer, media executive, brand leader, or founder trying to understand how AI will reshape advertising, search, commerce, and content, this conversation is a must-listen.

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About

Video conversations with our community of brand marketers, innovators, creators, media mavens, and commerce-minded thought leaders.

Information

  • Creator
    mattjpj
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    22
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2025 All rights reserved.
  • Show Website
    Genuin Connections