Few advertising leaders begin their careers as opera singers—fewer still go on to shape digital standards at the IAB, navigate the rise of programmatic, define automation for premium TV, and build outcome-driven commerce media. Julie Van Ullen has done all of it.
Across publishing, ad tech, television, and retail media, she’s followed a clear throughline: make the system work better for marketers, media owners, and consumers alike. As the industry faces fragmentation, opaque metrics, and rising pressure to prove ROI, her perspective is especially timely.
In this conversation, Julie reflects on her unconventional path to iSpot, why transparency is advertising’s most undervalued currency, and what it means to shift measurement from a retrospective reporting tool to a real-time revenue engine—powered by AI, unified data, and outcome-based optimization.
Watch the interview with Julie Van Ullen, iSpot President & CRO. Full transcript below.
How did you get into the advertising industry?
Julie Van Ullen: I got into advertising in a pretty fascinating way. I’ve had a number of careers—from being an opera singer to working as an editor at magazines. I was the editor of Fine Woodworking and Fine Homebuilding at Taunton Press, and that was really the origin story of how I got into advertising.
Those businesses were incredibly endemic. If you were writing an article about building a shed, you were working directly with a company like Ryobi on their tools and how they were used. That experience coincided with the moment when advertising dollars were rapidly shifting from direct-sold print to digital. I knew very little about digital advertising at the time, but it was clearly something that was going to fundamentally change the industry.
That led me to spend nine years at the IAB under Randall Rothenberg, which was the best possible place to truly understand every facet of what became the big tent of online advertising. And here we are.
You spent nine years at the IAB. What was that experience like, and what did it shape for you?
Julie Van Ullen: I held a variety of roles there, including running revenue. It was a really tumultuous and interesting time. Back then, the IAB was primarily a publisher trade association lobbying on behalf of publishers.
One of the big changes Randall and I helped drive was the idea that no one works in a silo. There isn’t just one piece of the value chain. By bringing in the buy side—and especially technology partners—we were able to dramatically grow revenue.
That experience is also what made me obsessed with programmatic. I love efficiency and good customer experience. This was the era of header bidding and competing with Google on an impression-by-impression basis. I became deeply interested in how programmatic could evolve beyond backfill and remnant inventory into an efficiency play for premium, direct-sold inventory.
That led you to OpenX and then to FreeWheel. What was the shift there?
Julie Van Ullen: I went to OpenX because they had some of the most interesting header bidding technology at the time, and I believed my relationships with major publishers could help elevate programmatic beyond commoditization.
But as exciting as that era was, it also led to real commoditization. That pushed me to think more deeply about how technology and automation could be used without treating users like bid signals.
That’s what brought me to FreeWheel. They were defining what programmatic should mean for television—and they got it right. TV isn’t a commodity; it’s premium inventory. Programmatic there was about automation, scale, and efficiency, not price erosion. That experience pulled me fully into the TV ecosystem.
You then spent nearly a decade at Rakuten. What drew you there?
Julie Van Ullen: Rakuten might sound like a departure, but it really wasn’t. Rakuten is the largest cash-back shopping app in the U.S., and when I joined, there was no data-enabled way for marketers to use cash back strategically.
Everyone got the same cash-back rate, regardless of behavior or brand affinity. Over my eight and a half years there, I worked closely with product teams to transform cash back from a blunt instrument into a precision tool—tying first-party audiences to differentiated incentives that actually drove outcomes.
The throughline across my career is using data and targeting in a way that’s good for marketers, good for publishers, and good for consumers. If all three aren’t benefiting, it’s not worth doing.
That’s a great segue to iSpot. What ultimately drew you to the company?
Julie Van Ullen: Two things: iSpot’s dogmatic commitment to transparency, and the value of its underlying data.
I fundamentally hate how much of the tech industry thrives on obfuscation. I want to support companies that are creating clarity for marketers—because transparency ultimately creates better outcomes for consumers and allows marketers to reinvest more effectively.
iSpot is one of the few companies that truly attacks that problem head-on, removing barriers between marketers and consumers and focusing on outcomes that matter.
You’ve said measurement often gets treated like a cost center. Why is that, and how does that change?
Julie Van Ullen: Measurement is treated like a cost center today. It’s complex, resource-intensive, and typically delivers insights after the fact. You need large analytics teams just to extract value from it.
What excites me is the shift from measurement as a retrospective insights tool to measurement as a real-time revenue tool. These insights can now be injected directly into DSPs and publisher workflows, enabling optimization based on outcomes while campaigns are still live.
That’s one of the biggest transformations our industry will undergo in the next few years.
That brings us to optimization feeds and outcomes at scale. Where is this heading?
Julie Van Ullen: Optimization takes many forms, but at its core, it’s about enabling brands and publishers to adjust in real time.
Our work with Roku is a great example—allowing them to ingest iSpot insights and optimize campaigns based on audience or outcome goals while campaigns are running, not after they’re over.
Marketers are being asked to do more with less. This is one of the most powerful ways to drive efficiency and effectiveness across the ecosystem. And ultimately, these insights will flow directly into major DSPs, empowering agencies and brands alike to operate with far greater precision.
Let’s talk about AI and iSpot SAGE. What excites you most there?
Julie Van Ullen: There is no better use case for AI than democratizing access to massive datasets.
iSpot has over a decade of granular creative and media data—everything from who appears in an ad, to wardrobe, setting, products, and performance. Historically, that data was incredibly hard to query.
With iSpot SAGE, marketers can ask simple questions about what’s worked for specific audiences, outcomes, or industries—and get answers instantly, even generating full creative briefs. The same applies on the media side.
In the future, UI matters far less than the ability to ask the right questions and get real answers. AI enables that, but only if the underlying data is truly powerful.
Fragmentation is one of the biggest challenges marketers face. How does iSpot think about unification?
Julie Van Ullen: How could you not be excited about unification?
One of the reasons I came to iSpot is our direct relationships with over 300 brands. Brands have made it clear—they need unified measurement across linear and streaming.
The last walls are coming down. Walled gardens are recognizing that unification benefits everyone. We’re excited to work with YouTube, Amazon, TikTok, Meta, and others to provide apples-to-apples measurement so marketers can understand reach, outcomes, and effectiveness holistically—and adjust in real time.
From a leadership perspective, what’s your cultural focus in this new role?
Julie Van Ullen: Nothing matters more to me than culture and people.
I believe deeply in ownership. Everyone should come to work feeling like this company is theirs—because it is. I have zero tolerance for a lack of ownership.
If people feel empowered, excited, and responsible for moving the mission forward every day, success follows naturally.
Last question: you’ve referenced the “Overview Effect.” Why does that resonate right now?
Julie Van Ullen: The overview effect is the cognitive shift astronauts experience when they see Earth from space—it changes how they understand everything.
I think our industry is at a similar moment. What worked yesterday won’t define success tomorrow. We all have a responsibility to step back, reassess what truly moves the needle, and understand how we individually contribute to transformation.
That mindset—pulling back to see the whole picture—is exactly what this moment demands, both for iSpot and the industry at large.