Seedtag CEO Brian Gleason Outlines Vision for Neuro-Contextual AI Advertising Expansion

Brian Gleason, recently appointed Chief Executive Officer of Seedtag, is steering the global neuro-contextual advertising leader through significant expansion across connected TV (CTV) and the open web. Gleason brings decades of experience from previous leadership roles at Criteo and GroupM, where he helped build commerce media strategies and scale global businesses. His vision for Seedtag centers on making advertising more human, sustainable, and effective through the company's proprietary AI platform, Liz.

What excites Gleason most about Seedtag's mission is how the technology moves beyond traditional contextual advertising. "For Seedtag, AI has never been a buzzword—it's been the foundation of everything we've built since day one," he explained. The company's neuro-contextual approach combines neuroscience principles with advanced embeddings, enabling Liz to understand content in a human-like way by analyzing text, images, video, and emotional cues while respecting user privacy.

Seedtag's recent 120% year-over-year growth in North America and successful expansion into markets like Australia and Canada demonstrates the momentum behind this approach. Gleason attributes this success to both technological strength and the trust built with brands and agencies. Looking ahead, he identifies CTV as a major growth opportunity, noting that while it's a fast-growing category, contextual advertising in CTV remains an evolving space where Seedtag can bring unique capabilities.

The company's privacy-first approach addresses growing industry concerns around data privacy and the decline of third-party cookies. "Privacy is built into every part of our offering," Gleason emphasized. By focusing on user interests, intentions, and emotions rather than personal data, Seedtag helps advertisers succeed without compromising performance. The recent strengthened partnership with Human Security reinforces this commitment to providing authenticated, fraud-free inventory across CTV and the open web.

Seedtag's CTV offering stands out because it brings the same depth of contextual intelligence from the open web into streaming environments. Liz analyzes video content using natural language processing, computer vision, and sentiment analysis, breaking it down into over 11,000 categories and recognizing 600+ objects and 300 situational contexts. The emotion model works at both show and scene levels, enabling more precise ad matching.

The company's AI Intention Models represent another key differentiator, allowing brands to distinguish between casual browsing and transactional readiness. This capability has delivered significant performance improvements for clients, such as a leading automotive client in Spain that achieved a Cost per Quality Visit 68% below target and Cost per Lead 35% below goal.

As marketers shift from demographic targeting to intent and interest-based strategies, Gleason advises that contextual advertising offers the scale and value that micro-targeting lacks while delivering messages that are welcome rather than intrusive. "The promise of personalization has faced challenges as micro-targeting adds significant cost and lacks scale," he noted. "Contextual advertising is the unlock—it offers massive scale and tremendous value."

Looking ahead 12-18 months, Gleason's top priorities include continuing to scale while advancing privacy-first advertising through neuro-contextual strategies powered by Liz. The company will focus on refining AI models, expanding adoption across key markets, and advancing CTV offerings. As Seedtag grows rapidly across North America, EMEA, LATAM, and APAC, maintaining innovation and company culture remains crucial. "You always need to remember where you came from and what made you successful," Gleason reflected. "Seedtag was born in Madrid, and that will always be the heartbeat of the company."