🎧 Episode Highlights
In this tech-forward episode of [radically candid], Tim Rowe sits down with Colin Davis, CTO @ [cognition], to unpack the powerful engine behind dynamic creative, automation, and attribution in streaming TV advertising.
From ingesting massive data sets and inventory feeds to serving personalized, performance-driven creative—Colin shares how his team moves fast without breaking things, why ad serving is the future, and how clean architecture, collaboration, and a culture of curiosity drive innovation at scale.
⏱️ Quick Takeaways (2-min read)
- The Role: Why Colin sees CTO as conductor—not coder
- The Speed: Weekly sprints, daily standups, and rapid iteration
- The Culture: Problem-solvers over perfectionists
- The Stack: Serving dynamic video + display with real-time feedback
- The Impact: Closing the loop between impression, action, and attribution
🧠 What a CTO Actually Does (01:00)
- Orchestrates priorities across dev, product, and client feedback
- Stays hands-off with code but deeply involved in architecture
- Emphasizes outcomes over output—building what users actually want
- “Dev is the how. Product is the why.”
⚙️ Engineering Velocity at Scale (03:00)
- Weekly sprints + instant feedback cycles
- Rapid prototyping—without sacrificing long-term vision
- Team structure: Culture-first, then skillset
- Full-stack devs preferred for flexibility across projects
🧱 Building with Purpose (05:00)
- Passionate problem-solvers > people who say “no”
- Hire for attitude, upskill for everything else
- Cross-functional collaboration enforced through mentorship + code review
- “Dare to fail” is a core company ethos
📊 Closing the Attribution Loop (12:00)
- Headless Analytics Tag (HAT) connects impression to website activity
- Works across platforms: Amazon, The Trade Desk, Basis, and more
- Goes beyond QR: real measurement without flawed proxies
- “It’s not about last click—it’s about assisted outcomes”
🤖 Automation Everywhere (15:00)
- “We make creative the easiest part of your workflow”
- How to turn a data feed into dynamic display + video creative at scale
- How VAST and HTML tags replace the need for DSP switching
- Helps creative teams and agencies spend less time producing content
🎯 From Targeting to Tag Delivery (17:00)
- Matching inventory + offer data to media strategy in minutes
- Creative updated mid-month or mid-campaign automatically
- Clients gain time and insights, while focusing on business outcomes
🧠 Decisioning at the Edge (23:00)
- Ad serving = ability to react to data, not just pre-plan
- Dynamic creative optimized mid-flight based on real-time signals
- Helps DSP partners increase performance + campaign ROI
- “We’re not just a source of content—we’re a source of outcomes”
🧩 Tech That Connects It All (27:00)
- Challenges: Hiring the right culture fits, integrating with evolving platforms
- Flexibility is key: especially with fast-evolving AI tools
- Cognition is often first in to test alpha/beta products with partners
💥 Final Hot Takes + What's Next (29:00)
- Clean rooms = worth it for better retargeting + clearer profiles
- Ad server = most exciting tech at Cognition
- Future = faster time to value, higher fidelity signals, real outcomes
- “MP4s don’t tell you anything. Our creatives do.”
🎬 Listen to the Full Episode
A deep dive into the architecture, attitude, and automations powering Cognition’s ad tech ev
