We all see ads, and we know brands want to get in front of us to feel something and to buy something. But how do brands know what to do? We talked to Mike Bregman of Havas, Havas Media North America on how they help brands find the right people and where the market is going.

Here’s the interview he did with Jensen, shot on my phone at an event in Cannes put on by CIMM, and Open AP. This is sponsored by iSpot.tv, the TV ad measurement company. Thanks Mike Bregman for such a great interview!

Jensen Muller: What is your name, and what do you do for a living?

Mike Bregman: My name is Mike Bregman, and I'm the Chief Activation Officer for Havas Media North America. What I do is manage a team that helps our clients buy media in smarter ways. This could be a TV advertisement, a page in a magazine, or other forms of media. We try to ensure that our clients' brands are more highly regarded so that when consumers are at the point of purchase, like walking through a grocery store, they see the product, think about buying it, and are even willing to pay full price for it. Advertising is a crucial touchpoint, an important moment of intercept. You have to place the advertising at the right time and place for the right combination of people. My team does the planning, buying, and ultimately measuring how effectively the advertising has intercepted that consumer.

Jensen Muller: So, you deal with other companies, and your customers are other companies, not individuals?

Mike Bregman: Yes, we have clients across various industries. Some are in financial services, like banks, while others sell products in supermarkets. We even have clients that are supermarkets themselves, gas stations, and drug brands. Each client has different needs and audiences, whether they are patients, physicians, or high-net-worth individuals. Every advertiser has different ways to talk to their consumers. Our job is to take all those insights and information and plug them into the right types of advertising to ensure that consumers are aware of, considering, and viewing the brands as differentiated products in the marketplace. Since every brand competes, we use smart data and mathematical models to optimize every advertising dollar. It's like managing a stock portfolio; we decide whether to invest in NBC, CBS, Paramount, Peacock, Netflix, Spotify, iHeart, or TikTok. Wherever consumers are looking, we want them to see our clients' products. My job is to ensure the teams are investing those dollars wisely and seeing returns in terms of more eyeballs purchasing the product and signing up to be part of that portfolio.

Jensen Muller: Wow. Where does the data that informs those decisions come from? Do you collect that data, or do you get it from somewhere else?

Mike Bregman: A lot of our data comes from partners who collect it on our clients' behalf, such as Adobe, Google, and Salesforce. These technology providers give us data in a way we can ingest it, sometimes in petabytes or terabytes. It can be as large as a DNA coding database. We also get TV viewership data from partnerships with TV providers like Samsung and LG, who provide data on which networks and channels viewers are watching. All this data goes into a database, and we write machine learning models to sift through it effectively. My background is in data science; I was a math major in college, so I'm used to creating formulas to analyze data. We use these models to decide how to allocate advertising dollars across platforms like Google, Facebook, and TikTok to maximize sales of products like soda, potato chips, and bread. It's a fun exercise because we're constantly testing different treatments and ways to capture consumers' attention and drive purchases.

Jensen Muller: That's fascinating. Why should young people want to get into this field, and what's your advice for them?

Mike Bregman: Advertising is a rapidly growing space with a lot of smart people finding new ways to use data. It's the future of technology, analyzing how consumers live their lives, their psychographics, and their decision-making moments. Building a brand like Nike or Google requires a strong reputation, which is challenging to achieve. It involves a blend of art and science—having a strong product image and using data and math to figure out what works. For example, Puma, one of our clients, launches various products and sponsorships across different regions. Advertising decisions for Seattle or LA versus New York require careful planning. It's a cool space to test new ideas and products and see what works. Many of these experiments are run by AI, allowing us to invest in data more intelligently.

Jensen Muller: That's awesome. Thank you so much for your time.

Mike Bregman: Thank you guys.