Introducing Kindred and Audience Logic

I am very excited to announce that I am joining Kindred as Chief Strategy Officer and that we will be launching the new Audience Logic commerce data product of which I am a principal architect. 

In the last decade I have spent a long time talking and writing about the future of data in marketing. Privacy first, true consumer choice, AI enhanced, commerce intent data has long been the promised land and I couldn't be more pleased to be bringing a product to market that will be transformative. To often data is opaque, generic or demographic in nature, or lacks contextual relevance to specific objectives. 

Audience Logic is designed to work in harmony with the interests of customers, publishers and advertisers allowing both amazing targeting but crucially measurement and planning solutions also. We are developing a truly next generation product that takes all the lessons of the last years with a keen eye to the future. We are launching in Beta in Q2 and I cant wait to update you all with details on this transformative product

The best products though still need scale and that is why joining the Kindred team to deliver a next generation product is so important. Kindred is the biggest success story in digital marketing you haven't heard of. Founded in 2019, Kindred has been quietly building one on the largest performance marketing engines in the world, allowing its users to access e-commerce offers at 150,000 advertisers in 180 markets, whilst ensuring a strong level of communication and value exchange between publishers, advertisers and their customers. When I first met Kindred a little under a year ago they had just 1 million monthly active users on their platform, but such is the rocket ship trajectory of their growth they are already at 200 million MAU’s and with a clear path to continued rapid growth. 

What was it that powered this rocketship, the talents of the founders,  Aaron Simpson and Mike Gadd as well as the hugely talented team they assembled. 

Aaron is the heart of the business. A seasoned entrepreneur (previously he was founder of global concierge service Quintisentially). Aaron is passionate about using business to do good for society, indeed he thinks the trend of business owners to get into philanthropy once they have made their money or as part of their legacy is a mistake, why not use your business to help society now! This is why Aaron has setup Kindred as a social enterprise giving half its profits to good causes with a particular focus on alleviating climate change.  Mike is its brain and one of the sharpest operators I have come across. As we delve into deeply complex parts of digital marketing that have taken me two decades to learn it is humbling to see Mike taking to it like a native despite being new to the space. 

The team is over 60 strong now, with recent expansion into APAC and an office in Singapore.

However I want to mention their extraordinary talent with none of them coming from a digital marketing background. I have recently been spending time with Holly Bartlett and Yipei Huang on existing and new clients. They have both been showing me the ropes on how the business works whilst I wax lyrical on how this applies to the world of data and marketing. What strikes me is the huge amounts of talent they both possess, the expertise they bring to their work and indeed the passion they have for the business and the social good it provides. Seeing Holly present with aplomb to senior folk at huge CTV company. Seeing Yipei work with huge mobile device manufacturers in all corners of the globe. Two absolute superstars in the making you will all hear more about. 

 Not coming from Adtech this team brings a fresh perspective to the current challenges and opportunities in the market. Their “lack” of experience with the status quo is their hidden weapon and actually there knowledge of how to get the best results for Kindred and Kindreds clients is supreme. So often we get into a problem/challenge and the question I get is “why does it have to work that way?” I am quickly realising that Adtech’s way of building tech and solving problems, sometimes is not always the only way… or even the best way. This fresh approach to challenges is leading to innovation at a pace I haven’t seen in my many years in Adtech. It’s exciting! 

I couldn't be more thrilled to help Kindred on its growth path to greater sophistication. To launching Audience Logic a game changing play for marketing data that the industry really needs.