Marty Berman joins Admix as VP Sales US and LATAM

Admix, the pioneering In-Play advertising platform that bridges the gap between gaming and advertising, announces the appointment of senior advertising industry leader Marty Berman as VP of Sales for North America and LATAM.

Berman’s appointment signals the latest phase of Admix’s 2021 US growth strategy, which will see the experienced teambuilder spearhead a major talent acquisition drive across the US, with Q3 and Q4 hires planned for New York, Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles. The Chicago native will work closely with Michael Silberberg, Admix’s New York-based VP of Global Partnerships.

He joins Admix with over two decades of media and advertising industry experience, having held senior leadership roles at global organizations such as InMobi, Integrate Marketing, NBC Internet, Triad and Monster, with key accounts including American Family Insurance, United Airlines, GMC and Progressive Insurance.

The gaming industry is at a tipping point following the change in consumer habits accelerated by Covid-19, which accelerated gaming’s mainstream cultural awareness and hypergrowth.

Consumers now spend more time gaming than they do on social media, creating both an opportunity and a challenge for brands to reach the three billion active gamers globally given the intrusiveness of many gaming advertising formats. Admix’s proprietary rendering technology has been engineered from the ground up, to insert demanding ad creatives into any 3D environment.

Marty Berman, VP Sales for North America and LATAM, commented:

“As demand increases exponentially to buy gaming inventory programmatically, Admix is in the lead position to deliver a solution to the Northern America and LATAM markets that solve the major barriers of scale to reach this elusive audience. Reaching the gaming audience via In Play media will continue to grow rapidly given its non-intrusive nature and the ability to automate the process programmatically, properly target, measure and prove ROI.”

Announcing the hire, Samuel Huber, CEO at Admix, commented:

“ Marty is a critical hire who will help Admix communicate the significant benefits of In-Play advertising, and he will also be instrumental in building our boots on-the-ground team across the East Coast, West Coast and Midwest.”

Over the last year, Admix has experienced hypergrowth with an 800% revenue increase driven by unprecedented inbound and direct sales, and expects to double in size from 40 to 100 staff this year.

Nearly 69% of adults are worried their company pension is investing in businesses that are contributing to climate change

Research from Cushon, a FinTech workplace savings disrupter, has found that a staggering 99.5% of the population have no idea about the scale of carbon emitted as a result of their pension’s investments.

When coupled with the fact that each average UK pension pot finances the CO2 equivalent of nine family cars, this lack of awareness is a ‘national scandal’.

According to Cushon’s recent research, more than eight in ten (84%) people are concerned about climate change and 69% are specifically worried that their company pension could be investing in businesses that are contributing to climate change.

In 1995, the average carbon emissions per capita in the UK were 9.3 tonnes. Over the last 25 years the population has actively managed to reduce this output to 5.9 tonnes, yet the way people invest their pension pots remains relatively unchanged and finances nearly four times our personal emissions.

Choosing to use a climate-friendly pension is minimal effort and saves the CO2 equivalent of 27 years’ of recycling each year.

With £2.2 trillion of assets held by pensions, and 62% of the population saying that they would engage more with their pension if they knew their money was making a positive impact on climate change, this exposes a massive missed opportunity for the UK to simultaneously do good for the planet and encourage healthier saving habits for retirement.

Climate change and savings habits are inextricably linked, and the pension sector’s part in this is a considerable, if poorly understood, part of the equation. In fact, each pension pot in the UK finances an average of 23 tonnes of CO2 emissions each year[6] through its investments.  Yet, only a tiny fraction of the population is aware of this.

Responding to this issue, Cushon recently launched a world first Net Zero Now pension. In doing so, their members are actively contributing towards slowing climate change and a 1.5 degree target. The fund has a management fee of just 0.15%, while offering highly competitive returns without sacrificing performance.

Responding to the Cushon research, Baroness Ros Altmann CBE, former UK Pension Minister, said: “It is about time we put people’s pension savings to good use in the battle to protect our planet and knowing their money can help long term sustainability will encourage more people to feel proud of their pensions.

Our latest guest for BlockSpeak 15 is CEO of Binance, Changpeng Zhao, aka CZ.

BlockSpeak 15 guest this week needs little introduction to anybody in the crypto and blockchain world.

Changpeng Zhao, better known by the kindly acronym CZ, is the CEO of the world’s biggest exchange Binance.

I took the liberty of calling him CZ and in this episode, CZ speaks on a wide range of subjects, not least the effect of Covid-19 on Bitcoin and crypto activity on the Binance exchange, as well as the long-term implications of this extraordinary disruption on all types of finance.

According to CZ, exchange volumes have gone up more than 500% over the past three months as traders and speculators have either moved over from more traditional fiat exchanges or incumbent investors have increased their activity.

He also links this with the recent Bitcoin halving and is fundamentally optimistic about the future of crypto as a more mainstream from of money that will continue to gain critical mass.

Moreover, CZ is also questioned about the security of his exchange and recent high-level stories about wallets being hacked and the booty being transferred to the Binance exchange and the being converted into other cryptocurrencies such as Monero and being spirited away to the extent that law enforcement agencies such as the FBI and UK Police lose the trail.

While being relatively non-committal on how Binance has improved its security in light of these stories, he confronts the questioning front-on and comes across as somebody who understands transparency.

Listeners to BlockSpeak who are fascinated by how exchanges work and this increase of magnitude of trading during these surreal days will enjoy this episode. The numbers certainly back this up.

This episode (BlockSpeak 15) has proved to be the most-viewed of all our conversations to date and we’re delighted to announce that CZ will be joining us later this year to share future opinions and reflections.

To view previous episodes go to the BlockSpeak page of this website or the main site at www.blockspeak.io.