Employee Spotlight Series: Q&A with Kevin Giaccone
The brains behind our brand
Meet Kevin Giaccone, the driving force behind Cognitiv’s Client Success team as Director of Operations. With nearly three years on the team, Kevin has played a pivotal role in shaping our operational strategies, ensuring seamless campaign setups, and optimizing workflows across departments. His journey at Cognitiv is marked by remarkable personal and professional growth as he leads a thriving operations team that supports our rapidly expanding business.
Dive into Kevin’s story and uncover more about his excitement for Cognitiv, adtech, and the world of deep learning.
Pronouns: He/Him/His
Role: Director of Operations
Team: Client Success
Cognitiv Tenure: Almost three years!
How would you describe your job to someone who doesn’t work in your department?
Ad Operations is responsible for campaign setup, collection of data used by our data scientists to train our clients’ custom algorithms, supporting the finance team with billing, and working with our product and engineering teams to ensure existing and new products/tools work as intended. We also strive to improve operations for the broader organization by evaluating and modifying interdepartmental workflows.
Can you share a bit about your background and how you landed at Cognitv?
Cognitiv found me! I was agency-side at Digitas and was happy to be learning and growing there, so I wasn’t actively looking for roles. When a third-party recruiter reached out, I was drawn in by Cognitiv’s offering since I’ve always felt that so much of the manual optimizations completed by hands-on keyboard traders in DSPs could and should be automated.
During the interview, it was clear that I would be working with brilliant people who would challenge me. While I was lucky to work with and for a great team on the agency side, I knew this role would provide me with exposure and growth opportunities that no larger company could reasonably offer.
What aspect of Cognitiv makes you excited about working here?
While it’s not how we position ourselves in the marketplace, I like to think we’re not an adtech company that brings deep learning to programmatic advertising; I like to think we’re a deep learning company bringing the most advanced form of AI to advertising. This has been the company’s vision since long before the release of ChatGPT and similar solutions, so it’s an honor to be at a company that is and has been deeply ingrained in that mission rather than being at “just another adtech company along for the ride.”
Can you share an accomplishment or project you are most proud of from your time at Cognitiv? Tell us about it.
I’m proud to have grown the Cognitiv Ops team into what it is today. When I first joined, there had been no “Ops person” for about five months, and we didn’t have as large of a book of business. Since then, the number of clients and campaigns has grown substantially (shout out to sales, marketing, and CS!), and we’ve released several new products and internal platforms (shout out to DS and engineering!).
The Ops team has grown from a lone squad of one to a mighty team of four, and we’ve been able to operationalize in a way that’s supported growth far exceeding 4x in both the number of campaigns and revenue. We’ve done so in a way that will scale with the company as it continues to grow, which has taken a massive amount of work but will pay us back with dividends.
Who on #TeamCognitiv inspires you the most, and why?
I’m grateful to work with so many intelligent and inspiring people here at Cognitiv, but if I had to choose one person, I would have to go with Marc Hudacsko, our Chief Technology Officer. As our CTO, of course, Marc is highly technical. Most people would expect him to be able to talk about the ins and outs of our systems, how they’re built, how they work with one another, etc.—and he absolutely can. What’s more impressive is that he maintains that technical brilliance while being one of the most engaging leaders I’ve ever encountered. He keeps everyone on track while ensuring they feel heard, guiding the team toward a shared goal while valuing different perspectives. Beyond that, his presentation skills are legendary. Marc has figured out a way to disseminate technical information in a friendly manner to non-technical folks with the enthusiasm and charisma that I’ve otherwise only seen in movies.
What advice would you give someone just starting their career in our industry?
Be prepared to adapt. This industry is constantly evolving, and if you’re not eager/able to keep up with the trends and latest changes, you won’t be set up for success.
Describe your ideal weekend.
The ideal weekend for me includes travel. I love visiting a place I’ve never been to and exploring without a set agenda. Usually, that takes more than a weekend, but I’m learning it doesn’t have to!
Let’s end with a fun fact! Tell us something unique about you – maybe your Astrology sign, a talent, favorite vacation spot, etc.
In August 2022, I learned that sharks are not actually attracted to the scent of human blood by cutting my finger about 18 inches away from a shark’s face. I am sharing this as a PSA to save someone the panic that I went through, hopefully!
