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Rob Rakowitz, Head of Marketing at Vidmob chats about the rise and optimized implementation of data-driven marketing in this MarTech Interview with MarTechSeries:

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Hi Rob, tell us about yourself and what about the state of marketing most interests you today?

I’ve spent my career at the intersection of media, data, and innovation—including leadership roles in companies like WFA, Mars, WPP’s Mindshare, and OMD—helping brands navigate the increasingly complex and fragmented digital landscape. Now at Vidmob, my focus is on ensuring marketers and agencies understand the power of creative data—how it can shape campaigns, drive business growth, and offer a more intelligent approach to marketing.

What excites me about marketing and advertising today is that we’ve gone from imagining to enabling. For years, we’ve talked about data-driven marketing, but with creative data at scale and Gen AI tools, we are finally seeing it in action. Marketers have been optimizing media spend for decades, but the creative itself—arguably the biggest driver of performance—has often been left to intuition. Now, with the ability to analyze and optimize creative performance at scale, brands can be more precise, more responsive, and more effective in their storytelling, with clear, measurable ROI to back it up. That’s a game-changer.

What are you looking forward to as Vidmob’s new Marketing Head?

Creative data is having its moment, and I’m excited to reinforce Vidmob as the leading creative data platform. We have the most robust data available, and with over 40 proprietary AI models, we integrate best-in-class AI to unlock first-party creative data. This enables our clients to transform every creative decision into a data-driven advantage.

Vidmob is a true partner to marketers, agencies, and platforms, helping build data-driven campaigns and creating a space where organizations can leverage their strengths to deliver impactful brand campaigns. We’re not just offering a tool; we’re using data to optimize creative, media, and measurement to drive brand growth. The best part is that creative data works across all industries and teams—whether you’re a global enterprise, an agency, or a challenger brand looking to scale. All you need is curiosity.

I look forward to partnering with top marketers and agencies to scale creative data’s impact, driving smarter media investments, stronger brand performance, and measurable business outcomes.

What marketing trends will dominate the online and offline segments through 2025?

There are four trends that I see emerging in 2025:

1. The Rise of Ad-Supported CTV and Video Network Aggregation
   The advertising landscape in video content is undergoing a transformation, driven by the evolution of Connected TV (CTV). Just as social media networks once fragmented and reaggregated mass audiences, we’re now seeing a similar shift in video consumption. Ad-supported global CTV networks are expanding, creating new opportunities for marketers to engage audiences in more immersive, lean-in moments. With the resurgence of high-quality content on these platforms, marketers will have a chance to harness creative data in fresh ways, optimizing ad strategies based on deeper viewer engagement.
2. Retail Media Networks Enhancing Attribution and Actionable Insights:
   Retail media networks are experiencing significant growth, with major retailers following Amazon’s lead in monetizing their platforms. These networks allow brands to gain deeper insights into customer behaviors, improving attribution and campaign effectiveness. By leveraging creative data, marketers can better balance brand-building efforts with direct demand generation, leading to more strategic and optimized marketing approaches. While some caution remains, the potential for precise, data-driven advertising in retail media is immense.
3. The Reconvergence of Creative, Media, and Measurement
   As marketing becomes increasingly data-driven, there is growing pressure to reconnect creative, media, and measurement into a cohesive strategy. For some organizations, this means internal consolidation, while others will adopt cross-organizational collaboration through shared operating systems. There is no one-size-fits-all solution, but success will depend on the integration of technology, data, and—most importantly—strong, empathetic leadership that fosters innovation and creativity.
4. Gen Alpha Redefining Media Consumption
   Younger generations, particularly Gen Alpha, are fundamentally reshaping how content is consumed. Unlike previous generations, they often break down long-form content into bite-sized segments, consuming entire shows in fragments on platforms like YouTube and TikTok. Gen Alpha has also coined “brain rot” content, prompting a new type of marketing and campaign creative to reach this audience. These shifts present both challenges and opportunities for marketers, requiring them to rethink traditional media strategies and develop more adaptable, platform-native content to engage these evolving audiences effectively.
5. Gen AI transformation going micro and macro
   I think that GenAI is on the lips of a lot of marketers and agencies with c. 70% of these organizations using it in campaign development—that’s a lot of experimentation. I’m of the opinion that GenAI won’t kill Don Draper and Peggy Olsen like some pundits have said, and it’s going to create a solid foundation to operate from, provided you have the right data and training sets. I am going to be watching for the micro and the macro; micro on executional improvements—actual ads or media activation, and then the macro on transformational change—work processes and collaboration models.

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What should today’s marketers do better to optimize how they build, integrate and run workflows and processes with their martech stack?

Marketers today need to make sure their tech and data stacks aren’t just a random collection of tools, but rather a connected system that helps them build what they need. Ideally, marketers and agencies should be creating an integrated ecosystem that can grow with their business. A well-connected martech stack makes it easy for data to flow smoothly between platforms, breaking down silos and helping teams make more informed decisions.

The biggest focus should be on collecting and using first-party data to gain a competitive edge. With privacy rules tightening and data signals becoming harder to track, brands that can turn their first-party creative data into actionable insights will stay ahead. Martech should not only support this shift but also actively help brands build smarter, data-driven marketing strategies that lead to real results.

A few thoughts on the future of AI, martech and marketing?

Looking ahead, I see AI as the next major shift in marketing. The first two waves—audience and behavioral data, along with programmatic advertising—already disrupted the industry and created the martech landscape we know today. Now, AI is an essential tool for marketers, but the real challenge is how brands harness it without compromising creative integrity or brand equity. For instance, one of the biggest concerns with genAI is that it might dilute creative quality or introduce brand risks if not carefully managed.

That said, when AI is paired with quality data—specifically creative data—it can boost marketing effectiveness while ensuring brand consistency. AI is here to enhance creativity, not replace it. By using detailed datasets, including creative insights, brands can train AI models to produce content that’s engaging and aligned with their brand identity, driving growth without losing control.

AI is also transforming how brands and agencies work together, disrupting the traditional agency model. Creative data and AI provide an opportunity for brands and agencies to work more collaboratively, using insights to reduce risks and make marketing decisions that are rooted in performance. The brands that embrace this shift—partnering with agencies in new ways and leveraging AI to enhance their strategies—will be the ones that thrive​.

Are there industry leaders or innovators you’d like to shout out to here and why?

1. Brian Wieser – I think Brian is one of the brightest analytical minds in the industry and always has a good pulse of where the industry is heading in terms of growth, development and demand – his views are my weather report in many ways.
2. Sorin Patillinet – I’ve been fortunate to work with Sorin in the past, and I think he’s emerged as one of the leading, practical and accessible voices in the space of applied marketing effectiveness at large scale company. If you want to see where theory meets practice as it relates to marketing effectiveness, Sorin is a good person follow.
3. Coca Cola – There’s a lot of experimentation with GenAI at marketers when looking at data from WFA benchmarks – but very few of them are intentional and public about it. We can all learn a lot from what TCCC is doing as a brand and enterprise. They’re open to the industry, transparent with consumers, and responsible with end users.

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