Sizmek Announces Appointment of Nikos Acuña as Chief Visionary

NEW YORK, Feb. 27, 2018 -- Sizmek, the world’s largest independent buy-side advertising platform delivering impressions that inspire, today announced the appointment of Nikos Acuña, formerly the Managing Director of Rocket Fuel Institute—the company’s AI Innovation and Media Lab, to the newly created position of Chief Visionary, reporting directly into Mark Grether, CEO of Sizmek.

This news comes following Sizmek’s 2017 acquisition of Rocket Fuel, and its more recent announcement for total transparency—to empower and differentiate agencies and advertisers. With this appointment, Acuña will serve as Sizmek’s lead evangelist, educating the market on emerging trends at the intersection of data, technology and customer experiences, while helping agencies and their clients develop innovative strategies to impact their business.  

“Nikos is one of the digital industry’s most provocative luminaries informing the future of marketing. He possesses keen foresight into how technology can empower agencies and brands through creative augmentation as opposed to automation alone,” said Mark Grether, CEO of Sizmek. “Nikos will be a key resource in guiding clients through an era of accelerating change and opportunity. He will not only help crystallize Sizmek’s vision, but I am confident that he will also help shape the story of our industry.”

Acuña brings over 20 years of experience in marketing technology and media. He is the author of The Predictive Business and Mindshare (Motion Publishing, 2012), which received Foreword Magazine’s Book of the Year Award, the USA Best Book Award in 2012, and a Publisher recommendation for the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award. He published over a dozen foundational research studies on AI and cross-industry digital transformation over the past two years, and speaks frequently at conferences around the world about creativity and innovation, AI’s implications in a connected future, and how to deepen engagement by tapping into intrinsic human desires.

“Sizmek is dedicated to redefining the way brands connect with audiences. It's more evident than ever by the way they bring data, creative, and media together for optimal campaign performance across the entire customer journey,” said Nikos Acuña, Chief Visionary at Sizmek. “I look forward to supporting Sizmek’s tradition of innovation, by identifying the forces that propel our industry forward. My focus will be on catalyzing growth and inspiring the next generation of industry leaders.”

Among his upcoming speaking engagements, Acuña is slated to speak at SXSW, leading the “What AI Reveals about Our Place in the Universe” panel with world-renowned scientists and AI practitioners. The discussion will explore how artificial intelligence reveals patterns in our brains, bodies, cities, advertising ecosystems, and the universe at large. The panel takes place at Fairmont Hotel on March 9, from 11:00 am – 12:00 pm CT.

Additionally, Acuña is launching a bi-weekly video series called Symbiosis. In the spirit of Jason Silva’s Shots of Awe, Symbiosis explores innovation at the intersection of data, technology, and experiences through a portrait of a postmodern futurist. The first episode launched today and can be found on YouTube, Facebook, and nikosacuna.com.  

About Sizmek
Sizmek is the world’s largest independent buy-side advertising platform that creates impressions that inspire. In the digital world, creating impressions that inspire is vital to fostering relationships of trust with agencies and brand as well as building meaningful, long-lasting relationships with customers. Sizmek provides powerful, integrated solutions that enable data, creative, and media to work together for optimal campaign performance across the entire customer journey. Our AI-driven decisioning engine can identify robust insights within data across the five key dimensions of predictive marketing—campaigns, consumers, context, creative, and cost. We bring all the elements of our clients’ media plans together in one place to gain better understanding for more meaningful relationships, make every moment of interaction matter, and drive more value across the entire plan. Sizmek operates its platform in more than 70 countries, with local offices in many countries providing award-winning service throughout the Americas, EMEA, and APAC, and connecting more than 20,000 advertisers and 3,600 agencies to audiences around the world.

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