Illuma Technology, the British independent contextual AI specialist, has expanded into the US with the appointment of New York-based Kevin McElroy as Chief Revenue Officer.
Kevin is former SVP North America of Grapeshot, the contextual adtech company which was acquired by Oracle in 2018. In the role, he developed the commercial team in North America and successfully penetrated the competitive brand safety market, ultimately building a client list of Fortune 500 brands. Kevin has also worked for social media advertising company Blinq Media, which was acquired by Gannett in 2012.
Illuma was established in London in 2015 by computer scientists from Cambridge University, UCL and Imperial College. Its moment targeting technology works by reading the real-time contextual signals driving attention and engagement in order to identify new target audiences. The technology takes a bottom-of-the-funnel-up approach to finding new users, rather than top-down, and it significantly increases qualified reach and brand uplift by finding large new online audiences when they are most likely to be receptive to brand messages.
Illuma works without relying on personal data or cookies and is compliant with the GDPR and CCPA. Its privacy-friendly technology is already being used extensively by traders on Blue Chip brands across a growing number of major European trading desks.
Kevin has been tasked with growing an Illuma team in the US while driving both platform integrations and agency adoption as the industry transitions to a cookieless future.
Kevin said: “I am incredibly excited about the global opportunity that exists for Illuma. With the seismic changes currently happening in digital advertising, our technology is well-positioned to fill much-needed gaps for clients. Our industry is always thirsty for unique offerings which deliver concrete results and transcend the hype – Illuma checks those boxes.”
Illuma co-founder Peter Mason said: “Kevin joins Illuma at a pivotal moment when the industry is urgently seeking alternatives to cookie-based targeting. His experience makes him ideally placed to grow Illuma’s offering in the US and we’re incredibly excited about working together and bringing our unique technology to US traders in the months and years ahead.”
About Illuma Technology
Illuma is a British company at the forefront of contextual AI in programmatic advertising.
Its audience expansion technology finds new audiences online without using personal data or cookies.
Illuma’s adaptive contextual technology employs proprietary AI algorithms which allow advertisers and agencies to identify contextual patterns which unveil the real-time content consumption of each brand’s unique audience, finding patterns in the page contexts that drive high-quality engagements.
With this approach, Illuma expands and targets new, relevant and meaningful audiences and uncovers audience insights that are unique to each brand.
Illuma is based in London and was established in 2015 by Peter Mason and computer scientists from Cambridge University, UCL and Imperial College.
To date, its machine learning technology has been deployed in more than 2,000 highly successful advertising campaigns worldwide.
www.weareilluma.com
Twitter: @weareilluma
