Seedtag CEO Brian Gleason Outlines Neuro-Contextual Advertising Vision and Growth Strategy

Brian Gleason, Chief Executive Officer of Seedtag, is steering the global leader in neuro-contextual advertising through continued expansion across CTV and the open web. Appointed in August 2025, Gleason leads the company's mission to redefine digital advertising through Seedtag's proprietary AI platform, Liz, overseeing a global team of 700+ across North America, EMEA, LATAM, and APAC. What drew Gleason to Seedtag was the intersection of technology and media, describing it as the biggest opportunity to redefine how advertising works by making it more human, sustainable, and effective.

Gleason emphasized that for Seedtag, AI has never been a buzzword but the foundation of everything built since day one. What excites him most is how the technology goes beyond traditional contextual awareness campaigns by understanding users' interests, intentions, and emotions in real time, delivering meaningful impact across the full funnel from awareness to action. What truly differentiates Seedtag is the commitment to bringing emotion, intelligence, and integrity back to advertising through neuro-contextual advertising, which Gleason describes as a smarter, more human approach.

Neuro-contextual advertising represents a significant evolution beyond traditional contextual methods like keyword matching, URL analysis, or predefined categories. By combining neuroscience principles with advanced embeddings, Seedtag's neuro-contextual AI, Liz, understands content in a human-like way. Liz comprehends everything on a page or screen including text, images, video, and emotional cues while respecting user privacy. The platform processes millions of articles daily in ten languages to determine not just what content is about, but why it sparks certain interests, intentions, and emotions in users.

The recent introduction of Agentic AI features the Liz Agent, a conversational interface that lets brands and advertisers directly query Liz about competitive positioning, audience resonance, or contextual alignment. This makes accessing her full capabilities seamless, helping clients activate campaigns with more intelligence, speed, and precision. Seedtag recently reported 120% YoY growth in North America and successful expansion into new markets like Australia and Canada, driven by the strength of the technology and trust built with brands and agencies.

Looking ahead, one of the biggest opportunities is in CTV, where contextual advertising remains an evolving space. Seedtag's CTV offering brings the same depth of contextual intelligence built on the open web into the streaming environment. Liz analyzes content using natural language processing, computer vision, and sentiment analysis, breaking it down into over 11,000+ categories. For video content, Liz can recognize 600+ objects and 300 situational contexts, with emotion models working at both show and scene levels to detect key moments, themes, and predominant emotions.

Seedtag's approach to privacy-first, context-based advertising directly addresses industry concerns around data privacy and the decline of third-party cookies. By focusing on user interests, intentions, and emotions rather than personal data, advertisers can succeed in a privacy-first world without compromising performance. The company recently strengthened its global partnership with Human Security, reinforcing the commitment to providing authenticated, fraud-free inventory across CTV and the open web.

The AI Intention Models represent another key innovation, allowing Seedtag to distinguish between casual browsing and transactional readiness. This capability means brands can avoid wasting spending on low-intent impressions and focus investment where consumers are most likely to act. A leading automotive client in Spain achieved a Cost per Quality Visit 68% below target and a Cost per Lead 35% below the goal, demonstrating how intention-based targeting directly translates into stronger campaign performance.

As marketers shift from demographic targeting to intent and interest-based strategies, Gleason advises that contextual advertising offers the unlock for personalization at scale. While micro-targeting adds significant cost and lacks scale, contextual advertising delivers massive scale and tremendous value while ensuring messages are welcome rather than intrusive. For the next 12-18 months, Seedtag's top priorities include continuing to scale while advancing privacy-first advertising through neuro-contextual strategies powered by Liz, refining AI models, expanding adoption across key markets, and advancing the CTV offering.