Viant’s latest earnings call was a case study in clear, memorable messaging — centered on three differentiators, customer wins, and a bold vision for the industry’s future. The takeaway for other adtech leaders: focus on three repeatable proof points, make the customer the hero, and connect your story to where the market is headed.

CEOs shouldn’t respond to every critic — only those with substantial audiences who are engaging in good faith and repeating a common criticism. When CEOs do engage, they should use authentic language, acknowledge mistakes briefly, make one clear point, and show the human complexity behind leadership. Sam Altman’s recent X reply illustrates this approach.

Most CEOs know they should post on LinkedIn but struggle with what to say. The answer is simple: build your reputation through four types of content — thought leadership, building in public, case studies, and data — to share ideas, show authenticity, prove results, and earn credibility.

The AdCP launch was a great example of B2B marketing and narrative framing, positioning agentic advertising as a generational transformation. Scope3 and its allies made a bold, outcomes-focused case for agentic as the open internet’s answer to the walled gardens — and showed that in 2025, attention is earned through vision, clarity, and CEO evangelism.

The Trade Desk CEO Jeff Green’s recent podcast appearance was a welcome step, but it highlighted missed opportunities in executive communications. To maximize impact, TTD should do more public-facing content, focus on big-picture storytelling, and clearly articulate how it's using AI to shape the future of advertising.

Most adtech companies squander social media by outsourcing it or posting like it’s 2010, when in fact it’s the single most powerful lever for building reputation and pipeline. A can’t‑lose approach is simple but not easy: consistently comment on the industry’s influential voices, pick a clear north star, and use content buckets to keep your message fresh and memorable.

Adtech CEOs often misunderstand marketing — treating it as a tactical output, over-prioritizing easily measurable tactics, and expecting outsized results without investing in their reputation. Effective marketing requires consistent, reputation-driven communication that builds trust over time, not viral hacks or last-minute launches.

If an adtech platform like Magnite wants to grow by an order of magnitude, it needs to crack the SMB/performance market. The major hurdle there is solving distribution, and so far, no one in adtech has made a serious attempt. Here’s what that would entail.

Magnite’s acquisition of Streamr is a smart move, but it should be the opening act of a much bigger strategy. If Magnite wants to become the AppLovin of the open internet, it needs to go all-in on performance TV, serving SMBs with the ease, outcomes, and inventory that define the dominant ad platforms.

Magnite’s acquisition of Streamr reflects the central opportunity of the Outcomes Era: making the open internet as easy and performant as search and social. The combination of AI-driven creative automation and measurable outcomes points to a broader strategy for unlocking SMB budgets and raising adtech’s ceiling.

Most founders just describe what they do. They don’t tell a story. But if you want to build a generational company, you need a clear villain, a cause worth fighting for, and a narrative that makes your success feel inevitable.

ESPN’s new app aims to counter cable’s decline and rising competition from TikTok, YouTube, and other streamers by consolidating sports content, adding short-form “Verts,” and integrating AI-driven personalization, betting, and e-commerce. But to evolve without sacrificing its DNA, ESPN must build its brand around charismatic personalities, make them easy to access on demand, and ensure they collectively project a clear, unified identity.

MSNBC’s rebrand to “My Source News Opinion World” reflects a failure to meet the moment for media companies navigating the AI era. In a landscape where LLMs commoditize news, media brands need to stand out with clear, differentiated, provocative identities, not corporate platitudes.

The Trade Desk’s recent earnings call positions objectivity as the wedge between open internet adtech companies and the walled gardens. There may be a bigger story for TTD and other adtech companies to tell about AI as a revitalizing force for the open internet — and, by extension, independent adtech.

Sharp Pen is all about the idea that the CEO is the chief evangelist: i.e., we help our clients practice founder-led marketing. Unsurprisingly, then, some of the best marketing thinkers are founders. Steve Jobs is a prime example. Here’s his marketing wisdom.

Marketing grows companies by telling a clear, differentiated, and urgent story and getting that story in front of the right people, regularly, to build attention, clarity, differentiation, urgency, and trust. When that happens, you get more leads, faster sales cycles, and higher-quality deals.

Differentiation is one of marketing’s key objectives. But even better is driving trust. The CEO evangelism playbook can help you win even if your product is perceived as a commodity by building customer affinity.

Nearly everything about communication has changed since 2005, but most B2B companies run marketing as if the smartphone had never been invented. Throw out the 2005 marketing playbook. The CEO is the chief evangelist. Here’s how to empower them to build a company around their vision.

Earning media coverage as an adtech company may feel like a great mystery. It really boils down to three tactics: making the customer the hero of the story, sharing data that shifts the industry conversation, or challenging the status quo with a hot take.

Modern marketing means creating an owned and shared content engine that tells your story directly to customers instead of relying on the media to do it for you. But if you're sold on the modern playbook, how do you implement it? Here's a roadmap for ambitious CEOs.