Yelp Ad Summit 2023

Session: Fireside Chat

Over the past decade, Raja Rajamannar has transformed Mastercard into one of the fastest-growing brands in the world. He is also a Wall Street Journal-bestselling author, and a frequent speaker and media commentator. His book, “Quantum Marketing: Mastering the New Marketing Mindset for Tomorrow’s Consumers,” has become a touchstone for marketing leaders and academics around the world.

Recently inducted into the Marketing Hall of Fame and Forbes’ Most Influential CMOs Hall of Fame, Raja has been recognized as one of Insider’s Most Innovative CMOs six times. He was also named Advertising Person of the Year by The AD Club of New York, and has a number of other accolades and awards as marketer.

Originally from India, Raja received his bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from Osmania University and Master of Business Administration from the Indian Institute of Management in Bangalore. He currently resides with his wife and younger son in the United States.

Session: The Power of Activating National Advertising Locally

As Chief Marketing Officer at Nekter Juice Bar, Jon Asher leads brand development and marketing, brand partnerships, franchise marketing, technology enhancement and innovation, menu innovation, and product development with a core focus on ensuring a fresh, frictionless and fun omnichannel marketing experience across all customer touchpoints in-store, online and out-of-home (OOH). He was responsible for transitioning Nekter’s loyalty program from punch cards to a pioneering mobile app with more than 1.3 million members and recently led a successful rebranding effort that helped propel Nekter Juice Bar to its position as one of the most successful next-gen juice bar brands in the country with more than 200 locations. Jon began his career as an Aerospace Analyst before switching over to marketing in the biotech, outdoor and fitness retail sectors, and now enjoys promoting a healthier lifestyle in the QSR space.

Session: The Power of Activating National Advertising Locally

Krista is currently Sr. Director of Media Planning and Strategy at Focus Brands, home of seven loved food brands – Moe’s, McAlister’s, Cinnabon, Jamba, Auntie Anne’s, Carvel and Schlotzsky’s. Krista has spent her career leading omni-channel brands in Media Planning, Buying and Analytics across many industries. She has a passion for connecting the consumer with intentional content to drive action, all driven by robust data.

Session: The Power of Activating National Advertising Locally

Eric is the Senior Vice President of Performance Media at Spark, responsible for overall development of Paid Search strategies and activation as well as partner relationships and team growth and development.

Eric has a diverse background across various verticals with a focus on evolving SEM best practices and implementation. With 12 years experience in the Paid Search and Performance Media landscape, Eric oversees client teams across a umber of verticals including CPG, QSR, Finance, and Insurance verticals.

Eric is an MBA graduate, and is based in New York, NY.

Session: The Folly of Last-Click Attribution

Paul Baumgarthuber is a seasoned professional with over a decade of experience in the beauty and aesthetics industry. As the Chief Marketing Officer of LaserAway, he has played a pivotal role in the company’s growth and success, establishing it as a national leader in the field. Leveraging data-driven marketing techniques, he has helped expand the company to over 100 locations. Prior to joining LaserAway, Paul’s entrepreneurial background includes starting three companies, and he also has experience working in the agency world, where he developed expertise in entrepreneurship, business management, and growth marketing strategies. In his leisure time, he enjoys outdoor activities such as skiing and golfing, as well as spending time with his family.

Session: The Folly of Last-Click Attribution

Madan Bharadwaj is a leading expert in advanced marketing measurement systems. Over 15 years and 4 attribution startups, he has brought breakthrough innovations like multi-touch attribution and incrementality testing to market that is helping marketers navigate away from last click attribution.

Most recently, Madan founded M^2 to shape a methodology-agnostic framework to solve for attribution. He teaches the framework in the industry’s first advanced attribution masterclass, and helps brands access high quality attribution talent and services through the M^2 attribution services marketplace.

Madan has worked with 100s of large and emerging brands across retail, eCommerce, telco, finance, insurance, auto and CPG. Madan holds a master’s degree in Computer Engineering from University of Central Florida and a bachelor’s degree in Electronics and Communication engineering from University of Madras.

Session: The Folly of Last-Click Attribution

Scott is the General Manager, Client Services, for the Trade Desk for San Francisco/Pacific Northwest. In his role he helps drive client business growth through programmatic best practice and partnership in solving for the hottest growth sectors in marketing – identity, retail media, and CTV – on the industry leading Trade Desk platform.

Prior to the Trade Desk Scott worked client side at Purple Innovation (mattresses) where he was VP Growth and Advertising supporting all aspects of Purple’s wholesale, owned retail, and online measurement and revenue growth.

Prior to Purple Scott lead media groups for Agency.com (Omnicom) and AKQA (WPP) for 20+ years managing P&Ls and building teams to solve for all the major growth eras of digital media age including desktop, search, mobile, social, video, commerce, and programmatic – and for clients including Clorox, Uber, Audi, Gap, Visa, Coke, and many others.

Session: The Accelerating Relationship Between AI and Advertising

Joshua is the CEO and Co-founder of HeyGen, a next-gen generative AI video platform with customizable AI avatars, right from your browser. He previously worked at Snapchat from 2014 to 2020, one of the founding engineers built Snapchat Ads.

Session: The Accelerating Relationship Between AI and Advertising

David Berkowitz is the founder of the AI Marketers Guild community and the FOAF.pro fraction-of-a-fractional CXO network. Previously, he held marketing and strategy leadership roles with omnichannel ad tech platform Mediaocean, social listening firm Sysomos, Publicis agency MRY, and Dentsu agency 360i. He has contributed more than 600 columns to outlets such as Advertising Age, MediaPost, VentureBeat, and Adweek, and he has spoken at more than 400 events globally.

Session: The Accelerating Relationship Between AI and Advertising

Nick Miaritis is Chief Client Officer at VaynerMedia, based out of the New York office. He joined the agency in 2018 and is tasked with leading brand partnerships, accelerating growth, and helping build and deploy new agency capabilities. Prior to joining Vayner, Nick spent 12 years at Saatchi & Saatchi, where he worked around the globe with many of the agency’s brand partners and led teams that created some of the most recognized campaigns in the industry including the Cannes Grande Prix winning “It’s a Tide Ad” Super Bowl program and Miller High Life’s “One Second Ad.” He is also the co-founder of the popular trivia app, FleetWit, adviser to payments platform Prizeout, and adviser to Pro Sports League, Athletes Unlimited.

Session: Thinking About Inclusive Advertising

As the Global Chief Content Officer of Stagwell Media Network, a global full-service marketing and communications group, Pruitt partners with agency CEOs, clients, publishers, creative, entertainment, sports and gaming companies to develop innovative partnerships, products and solutions to grow and scale the businesses and their offerings. She and her team develop and support brand-driven customer experiences in everything from traditional publisher environments to Web 3.0. 

Pruitt has spent 20 years at the forefront of marketing and monetization for global clients, distribution companies, and IP rights holders. Pruitt has extensive consumer engagement and marketing experience from her prior roles as Chief Marketing Officer of The Honest Company, Co-founder and President of Dentsu’s The Story Lab, and Chief Content Officer at Carat. She has also previously built and led integrated marketing and sales teams at global production powerhouses Fremantle Media, Mark Burnett Productions, Warner Bros, 19 Entertainment, and Octagon, where was responsible for the strategy and activation of MasterCard’s FIFA World Cup, Major League Baseball and the NFL sponsorships.

She is a proud mother of 3 children, speaks Japanese, and is an active philanthropist for Angelman Syndrome among other causes.

Session: Thinking About Inclusive Advertising

Bing Chen is an impact founder, investor, and new world builder. He is Executive Chairman and Founder of AU Holdings: a family of companies that incubate and invest in multicultural creators, companies, and communities to rebalance socioeconomic equity. He is also Executive Chairman, Chief Executive Officer, and Co-founder of Gold House that powers cultural change by uniting, investing in, and championing Asian Pacific communities. He is also General Partner and Co-founder of Aum Group, a premier multicultural film fund; and serves as a Board Director and Advisor to several leading digital media companies. Previously, he was YouTube’s Global Head of Creator Development and Management, where he was one of the original and principal architects of the multi-billion dollar creator and influencer ecosystem that supports 300 million creators worldwide. He is a Hollywood Reporter Next Gen Leader and Most Influential Agent of Change; Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree; American Advertising Federation Hall of Achievement and Jack Averett honoree; ABC News History Maker; Fast Company Brand That Matters; Milken Institute Young Leaders Circle Member; PTTOW! Member; ADCOLOR Catalyst Honoree; Asia Society Asia 21 Young Leader; and Asian Chamber of Commerce Entrepreneur of the Year. Bing is a third culture kid across North America and Asia, finally graduating from the University of Pennsylvania. He was born in Knoxville, Tennessee, which becomes obvious at $11.99 buffets.

Session: Thinking About Inclusive Advertising

Louis Carr has been with BET Networks for 36 years, serving as the President of Media Sales for the last 21 years. During his tenure with the company, Carr has transformed the multicultural space for some of the world’s biggest brands. Through strategic partnerships with corporations like Procter & Gamble, Unilever, McDonald’s, General Motors, Facebook, Apple, and many more, he has been a guide and a consultant on opportunities that exist within black and brown communities. Through his deep understanding of linear TV, digital and social platforms, he has made BET Networks the number one brand and choice for Black consumers. Carr’s mantra, “Be led by data and insights,” has driven BET to have the largest repository of information on Black consumers than any other media company worldwide. His understanding of this data has inspired him to create content and messages that help marketers sell products and services and help them become good corporate citizens.

In addition to Carr’s stellar professional career, he has had a long-term commitment to young people and his community. Carr founded the Louis Carr Internship Foundation (LCIF) 19 years ago to help improve diversity in corporate America through paid internships. The foundation has provided 200 paid internships, in which 61 alumni now have full-time jobs within the industry. He has also created The Blueprint Men’s Summit and The Blueprint Connect Podcast, which bring together some of Black America’s high profile thought leaders to educate Black men in the areas of Finance, Health, Careers, Relationships, and Entrepreneurship. Staying true to his commitment of giving back, Carr launched his latest brand called WayMaker. He purposed this initiative to help provide direction, wisdom and inspiration to people wanting to grow their life and change the world. Through the quarterly WayMaker Journal and other avenues, the umbrella brand offers insight from subject matter experts across a wide range of fields.

Carr has been recognized by theboardiQ as a Top 100 Hall of Fame African American and was named one of the Most Influential Black Corporate Directors by Savoy Magazine. He was honored with the 2022 Media Award from the AEF (ANA Educational Foundation) for his outstanding contributions to the next generation of young, diverse advertising and marketing leaders. He has served on more advertising industry boards than any other African American. He held seats on the International Radio and Television Society (IRTS), the Video Advertising Bureau (VAB), the Advertising Council, and the American Advertising Federation (AAF).

Session: Refocusing the Consumer-Brand Relationship on Loyalty

Maya leads large-scale collaborations with corporate and media partners to further the reach of the Ad Council’s social impact initiatives as their Director of Brand and Industry Partnerships.

In her role, Maya oversees the Media Team’s brand engagement, runs the Ad Council’s Impressions for Good program, which equips agencies and corporations with well-suited and impactful PSAs for creative and incremental media testing, and deepens relationships with C-suite leaders of our partner organizations to further brand and industry engaging

When she’s not at work, Maya enjoys volunteering in her local community garden in Brooklyn and throwing mugs and bowls at her pottery studio.

Session: Refocusing the Consumer-Brand Relationship on Loyalty

Stacy Moss is an accomplished marketing leader with over 15 years of experience. With her extensive background in marketing and creative strategies; optimizing ROI using data and insights; and omni-channel marketing; Stacy has accelerated Noodles’ loyalty, CRM, paid media, and integrated marketing capabilities in her role as Director of Brand Marketing. Stacy is passionate about building brands and challenging herself, and others, to come with fresh perspectives.

Session: Refocusing the Consumer-Brand Relationship on Loyalty

His favorite You Pick 2 is Media Innovation and Strong Business Results, RJ Keeney is the Sr Manager, Media at Panera Bread. In his current role he leads media acquisition, winback, and retention for Panera’s Unlimited Sip Club across Digital channels with a focus on audience strategy and LTV measurement. Prior to brewing up subscriptions, he spent his career agency side across Search, Display, Social, AdTech, and Media Measurement at an Enterprise level.

Session: Refocusing the Consumer-Brand Relationship on Loyalty

Jeff Lin is the Director of Media and Growth Marketing at sweetgreen. Sweetgreen started from three Georgetown students who were simply looking for a healthier way to eat near campus and 16 years later they’ve opened over 200 stores nationwide. Sweetgreen’s mission is building healthier communities by connecting people to real food. They do this by sourcing from local farmers whenever they can, focusing on sustainability, and always serving fresh, plant-forward food that taste great and makes you feel great. Jeff leads a team that oversees all media verticals including Social, Search, Programmatic, Traditional, and Direct Partnerships driving toward all key business objectives.