Employee Spotlight Series: Q&A with Justine Frostad
The brains behind our brand
Welcome to the inaugural edition of our monthly employee spotlight series: The brains behind our brand. We are excited to launch this series as a celebration of the incredible minds driving innovation and success at Cognitiv. In this series, we are showcasing the diverse talents, experiences, and passions that make up our team.
Join us as we dive deeper into the stories and minds of the amazing people who make up Team Cognitiv.
Kicking us off is the one and only Justine Frostad.
Pronouns: She/Her
Role: Senior Vice President of Marketing
Team: Marketing
Cognitiv Tenure: 4+ years
How would you describe your job to someone who doesn’t work in marketing?
Marketing is in the middle of an AI-driven revolution. 98% of marketers use AI, signaling widespread experimentation and adoption with 64% saying AI is critically important to success in the next 12 months. Our team is on the front lines, translating the crazy-complex deep learning technology that our company offers into stories that resonate with advertisers. I joined Cognitiv just before Covid hit and the advertising world went into a tailspin. Learning in real-time, I’ve evolved with the company as we have built out the first Deep Learning Advertising Platform, which activates deep learning across advertising capabilities and powers intelligent outcomes unique to each client. The core intention behind everything our marketing team does is showcasing how advanced AI may be technically complex, but it’s easy for marketers to implement in a way that actually simplifies and enhances the effectiveness of their campaigns – along with their day-to-day lives.
What is your favorite project you’ve worked on?
Building and growing brands grounded in storytelling and immersive experiences is something that lights me up. In my experience, finding the right people and giving them space, as well as support to tap into their natural talent is the key to doing that successfully. As one of Cognitiv’s early employees, brought in to bring ‘the brain behind the brands’ to life, the most gratifying aspect of my role has been leading the growth and development of our marketing team. Our company does a lot of storytelling and education to convey the value of our AI-driven products. My team led the creation of our Neural Networking event series, as well as our national Deep Learning Roadshow, which both combine beautiful experiences with valuable content that brands can’t get elsewhere. This year we are launching our first brand awareness campaign in partnership with an amazing agency called Manual Labor. The campaign concept focuses on the feeling you get when you partner with the right people or tech – the ability it gives you to clear your mind and get more time back in your day to lean into the things – professionally and personally – that you enjoy most. The creative is far from your typical B2B adtech campaign and we are really excited to see it come to life in the wild. I truly believe that the story you tell and the strategy you put in place are only as good as the people powering it. Seeing my team’s immense personal growth, along with their drive to maintain the creativity and integrity of our brand as we scale rapidly is really meaningful to me.
What’s your all time favorite ad campaign?
I get such a kick out of a brand story brought to life by bold creative. Some of my first exposure to captivating marketing was flipping through countless magazines as a teenager. One that stands out to this day is the iconic Absolut campaign. My sister and I would tear out the pages and compare notes on our favorites – Absolut Psycho is still such a memorable piece of creative for me. Looking back, that campaign was about so much more than the product itself. It encapsulated and reflected many different aspects of that time period and the ads did an incredible job of integrating Absolut into pop culture. It was also used as art to decorate the walls of so many of us, even if we couldn’t enjoy the actual product as teens, we were still enjoying the brand. Years later, Absolut continued to carry this concept through in their more recent collaboration with Heinz. It goes to show: great creative is timeless. When I’m thinking about marketing strategies for our AI technology, I always keep these kinds of creative concepts in mind. I never want to default to boring.
What’s one thing we can’t guess from your LinkedIn profile?
I have music playing wherever I go. Song lyrics, like great copy, have the power to draw you in, change your perspective, light you up or even compel you to make a move in life. Fleetwood Mac, Taylor Swift, Drama, and Van Morrison are some of my go-to artists to set the vibes for my day.
What marketing trend are you most or least optimistic about?
At Cognitiv, we’ve been beating the drum for years when it comes to the transformative power of deep learning AI for advertising. Specifically, its ability to accurately predict consumer behavior and understand nuance empowers marketers to provide a better audience experience. I’m excited that advanced AI is finally moving into the mainstream, evolving from trend to proven approach, because I’ve seen first-hand how it’s evolving the way advertisers connect and engage with their customers while simplifying our client’s everyday lives.
What is one podcast you’d recommend?
Move with Heart, a podcast hosted by wellness entrepreneur Melissa Wood Tepperberg is one of my go-to shows right now. It’s not formally positioned as a marketing podcast, however every guest – and Melissa herself – has such an intentional personal brand so the organic conversations about building businesses from a centered place of authenticity and creative intuition speaks to me.
