Teads hires former Innovid CMO to steer omnichannel platform growth

Teads introduced on January 5, 2026, the appointment of Dani Cushion as Chief Advertising Officer, efficient January 6, 2026. Cushion will lead the corporate’s world advertising and marketing group and drive model, communications, and go-to-market technique because the omnichannel outcomes platform accelerates its growth throughout linked tv and open web promoting.

The appointment positions Cushion on the heart of Teads’ transformation following vital organizational adjustments in current months. In line with the corporate, Cushion will oversee advertising and marketing operations throughout what CEO David Kostman characterised as “a pivotal second of integration, innovation, and accelerated platform growth.”

Cushion joins from Innovid, the place she served as CMO from December 2023 by way of July 2025. Throughout her tenure, she led world advertising and marketing and communications efforts that positioned the CTV promoting know-how firm for its acquisition by Mediaocean, which was introduced in 2025. The Innovid expertise locations her amongst a small group of promoting know-how executives who’ve navigated each public market operations and strategic exits.

Her profession trajectory demonstrates constant engagement with corporations at crucial inflection factors. At Cardlytics from 2015 to 2020, Cushion developed the advertising and marketing imaginative and prescient for the publicly-traded fintech and promoting know-how firm, guiding it by way of its preliminary public providing. The corporate, which operates buy intelligence platforms inside banking purposes, required subtle positioning to elucidate its data-driven promoting mannequin to each monetary markets and promoting {industry} stakeholders.

“Dani has a confirmed skill to translate advanced {industry} dynamics throughout CTV and the open web into actionable advertising and marketing methods that drive actual enterprise outcomes,” Kostman mentioned within the announcement. “Her impression at among the most vital corporations within the {industry} speaks for itself.”

Earlier in her profession, Cushion served as SVP of International Advertising and Communications at Millennial Media from 2014 to 2015, contributing to the cellular promoting platform’s public firm operations earlier than its acquisition by AOL, which later turned a part of Verizon Media. That transaction, accomplished in 2015, represented one in every of a number of consolidations within the cellular promoting sector throughout the mid-2010s, a interval when platform fragmentation created alternatives for scaled options.

The Millennial Media expertise supplies related context for Teads’ present place. Cell promoting platforms in that period confronted challenges in demonstrating worth propositions to each advertisers searching for cross-platform attain and publishers searching for monetization options—dynamics that parallel present linked tv market circumstances the place advertisers navigate measurement challenges and attribution gaps throughout fragmented streaming environments.

Cushion additionally brings expertise from ExecOnline, the place she served as CMO from 2021 by way of December 2023. The academic know-how platform, which companions with enterprise faculties for management growth applications, required totally different advertising and marketing approaches than promoting know-how corporations, suggesting adaptability throughout enterprise fashions and viewers varieties.

“Teads sits on the heart of among the most vital improvements in advert tech—significantly as CTV continues to evolve—and the chance forward is important,” Cushion said within the announcement. “With its know-how, world scale, and multi-screen attain, Teads is uniquely positioned to assist manufacturers and publishers navigate a quickly altering ecosystem.”

The appointment follows Teads’ November 2025 announcement of Mollie Spilman as Chief Business Officer. Spilman oversees world business technique and works with regional management groups to speed up development and deepen consumer efficiency. The 2 govt appointments inside a two-month interval point out organizational preparation for scaled operations.

Teads operates as an omnichannel outcomes platform connecting advertisers with premium media throughout net, cellular, and linked tv environments. The corporate maintains direct partnerships with greater than 10,000 publishers and works with over 20,000 advertisers globally. This positioning locations the platform on the intersection of a number of {industry} developments: the continued development of linked tv promoting, ongoing consolidation in promoting know-how infrastructure, and advertiser calls for for outcome-driven measurement past conventional consciousness metrics.

The linked tv alternative represents a central component of Teads’ technique. CTV advertising continues experiencing rapid growth as streaming audiences broaden and conventional linear tv viewership declines. Nonetheless, the CTV market faces persistent challenges in measurement standardization, attribution methodologies, and cross-platform monitoring—points that require subtle advertising and marketing communication to deal with advertiser considerations whereas demonstrating platform capabilities.

Teads’ platform structure emphasizes outcome-driven promoting relatively than pure impression supply. The corporate leverages predictive synthetic intelligence know-how to attach media placements with model inventive and context-driven addressability. This strategy responds to advertiser calls for for efficiency accountability throughout model consciousness campaigns, a shift from historic model promoting approaches that emphasised attain and frequency metrics with out direct consequence attribution.

The corporate’s scale supplies benefits in a fragmenting media panorama. Direct writer partnerships throughout greater than 10,000 properties provide advertisers entry to premium stock with out relying completely on walled backyard platforms. For publishers, Teads represents a monetization choice past platform-dependent promoting techniques, significantly related as publishers navigate traffic challenges from AI-driven search end result adjustments and evolving discovery patterns.

Cushion’s background in efficiency advertising and marketing and model positioning aligns with Teads’ emphasis on “full-funnel outcomes” throughout model consciousness and conversion aims. The corporate positions itself as driving “significant enterprise outcomes for branding and efficiency aims,” language that displays industry-wide motion towards unified measurement frameworks relatively than siloed marketing campaign optimization.

The timing of Cushion’s appointment coincides with broader promoting know-how {industry} consolidation. The Innovid-Mediaocean transaction that occurred throughout her Innovid tenure represents one in every of a number of combos in CTV measurement and promoting supply infrastructure. These consolidations usually goal to supply complete options spanning marketing campaign planning, inventive personalization, measurement, and attribution—capabilities that particular person level options struggled to ship at scale.

Teads itself accomplished vital transactions lately. The corporate’s February 2025 mixture with Outbrain merged complementary companies: Teads’ video and show promoting know-how with Outbrain’s content material advice platform. That integration created a bigger entity with each premium video capabilities and content material discovery options, increasing addressable market alternatives whereas creating operational complexities that require coordinated advertising and marketing approaches.

Advertising management for mixed entities requires navigating a number of stakeholder audiences. Advertisers want readability on platform capabilities, particularly when mergers mix distinct applied sciences. Publishers require communication about monetization alternatives and implementation necessities. Buyers, in Teads’ case as a publicly-traded firm on Nasdaq below ticker image TEAD, count on articulation of development methods and aggressive positioning. Workers throughout world operations want understanding of organizational route and worth propositions.

Cushion’s expertise guiding Cardlytics by way of its IPO course of supplies related background for public firm communications. Public promoting know-how corporations face explicit challenges explaining enterprise fashions to monetary analysts unfamiliar with industry-specific terminology and income recognition practices. Cardlytics’ buy intelligence mannequin, which derived promoting concentrating on from financial institution transaction information, required training about information infrastructure, privateness compliance, and closed-loop attribution—advanced subjects that parallel Teads’ want to elucidate omnichannel promoting supply and consequence measurement.

The Chief Advertising Officer function at Teads encompasses obligations past conventional model advertising and marketing. In line with the announcement, Cushion will oversee the corporate’s go-to-market technique, suggesting involvement in product positioning, gross sales enablement, and channel technique. This expanded scope displays a standard sample in B2B know-how corporations the place advertising and marketing organizations more and more affect income operations relatively than focusing completely on model consciousness and lead era.

Teads faces aggressive pressures from a number of instructions. Giant platform corporations together with Google, Amazon, and Meta function vital promoting companies with proprietary viewers information and intensive writer relationships. Unbiased promoting know-how corporations together with The Commerce Desk, Magnite, and PubMatic compete for advertiser budgets and writer partnerships. Specialised CTV platforms corresponding to Roku, Samsung Adverts, and VIZIO Adverts focus particularly on streaming environments, whereas Teads pursues omnichannel approaches.

Differentiation on this aggressive atmosphere requires clear articulation of worth propositions. Teads emphasizes its independence from walled gardens, positioning this as a bonus for advertisers searching for transparency and for publishers sustaining management over their promoting operations. The corporate’s predictive AI know-how represents one other differentiation level, although a number of rivals additionally emphasize machine studying capabilities for optimization.

The worldwide footprint presents each alternatives and complexities. Teads operates throughout greater than 30 nations with a workforce approaching 1,800 folks. Worldwide growth requires localized advertising and marketing approaches that account for regional regulatory frameworks, aggressive dynamics, and market maturity ranges. European markets, as an example, function below GDPR privateness rules that form promoting concentrating on capabilities, whereas Asia-Pacific markets reveal totally different ranges of CTV adoption and distinct writer ecosystems.

Cushion’s background consists of worldwide expertise. Her roles at Millennial Media and Cardlytics concerned world advertising and marketing obligations, suggesting familiarity with multi-market operations. Her public talking engagements at {industry} occasions together with CES, Cannes Lions, Promoting Week New York, Fortune Brainstorm Tech, and the Cell Advertising Affiliation’s CMO and CEO Summit point out consolation working in high-visibility boards the place aggressive positioning and thought management matter.

The promoting know-how {industry} continues experiencing transformation pushed by a number of forces. Privateness rules together with GDPR in Europe and state-level privateness legal guidelines in the US constrain third-party cookie monitoring, forcing platforms to develop various concentrating on and measurement methodologies. The rise of retail media networks creates new competitors for promoting budgets as retailers leverage first-party buy information. Synthetic intelligence capabilities allow each inventive personalization and marketing campaign optimization, whereas concurrently introducing new complexities in transparency and explainability.

Automation represents one other vital development affecting promoting operations. Advertisers more and more count on platforms to optimize campaigns mechanically based mostly on consequence aims relatively than requiring handbook changes. This shift from hands-on marketing campaign administration to goal-based optimization adjustments the worth proposition that promoting know-how platforms should talk—emphasizing consequence supply over characteristic capabilities.

Related tv measurement challenges stay unresolved industry-wide. In contrast to digital show promoting the place click-through measurement supplies clear attribution, CTV lacks standardized interplay mechanisms. Platforms make use of numerous approaches together with probabilistic matching, household-level publicity monitoring, and incremental raise measurement, however no common commonplace exists. Teads’ emphasis on outcome-driven promoting requires advertising and marketing communication that addresses measurement credibility whereas explaining methodological approaches.

The writer ecosystem faces its personal challenges that impression platforms like Teads. Visitors declines from AI-powered search summaries have an effect on writer pageview volumes, decreasing promoting stock availability. Publishers concurrently face stress from advertisers demanding model security controls and contextual relevance, requiring platforms to supply subtle content material categorization and adjacency administration.

Cushion’s appointment follows a broader sample of promoting know-how corporations recruiting advertising and marketing leaders with public firm expertise. Because the sector matures past venture-capital-funded development phases, corporations more and more require executives who perceive investor relations, analyst communications, and the precise calls for of working as publicly-traded entities. Her background navigating IPO processes at each Cardlytics and Millennial Media, plus positioning Innovid for strategic exit, aligns with these necessities.

The timing additionally displays Teads’ want for advertising and marketing management because it communicates its evolution from a video promoting platform to a complete omnichannel outcomes platform. Rebranding efforts—significantly for established corporations with present market recognition—require cautious execution that maintains model fairness whereas introducing new positioning. Cushion might want to steadiness Teads’ popularity in premium video promoting with communication about expanded capabilities throughout show, CTV, and performance-driven promoting.

Her academic background features a Bachelor of Science in Advertising with minors in Philosophy and Economics from Lehigh College, the place she graduated magna cum laude and served as a four-year varsity soccer starter and two-year captain. She additionally studied overseas at College Faculty London, specializing in Philosophy and Economics. The athletic background suggests aggressive drive and workforce management expertise, attributes that translate to govt roles.

Earlier profession expertise included roles at SiriusXM from 2005 to 2010, the place she managed content material advertising and marketing and companion advertising and marketing applications leveraging sports activities and leisure property to drive subscriber acquisition. She additionally labored at Millsport/The Advertising Arm from 2001 to 2005, main built-in advertising and marketing applications for shoppers together with XM Radio, Frito-Lay, and Pepsi-Lipton, specializing in sports activities and hospitality sponsorship activation.

Business observers will watch how Cushion approaches a number of advertising and marketing challenges particular to Teads’ place. First, the corporate should talk its worth proposition to an more and more consolidated advertiser base the place main holding corporations management vital budgets. Second, Teads must articulate differentiation in consequence measurement as rivals additionally declare efficiency capabilities. Third, the corporate faces the continuing problem of explaining advanced promoting know-how to audiences starting from technical practitioners to C-suite executives at manufacturers.

The Chief Advertising Officer appointment represents one component of broader organizational growth at Teads. The corporate continues constructing its management workforce to assist its omnichannel platform ambitions. Past advertising and marketing and business management, profitable execution requires product growth, engineering, information science, and operational capabilities aligned with strategic route.

For the promoting know-how sector, govt appointments like Cushion’s present indicators about firm priorities and strategic route. Her background emphasizes B2B know-how advertising and marketing, public firm operations, and positioning corporations for development or exit—capabilities that recommend Teads focuses on demonstrating enterprise worth to present and potential traders whereas capturing market alternatives in CTV and omnichannel promoting.

The announcement positions Cushion’s begin date as January 6, 2026, offering minimal transition time between announcement and starting obligations. This rapid graduation suggests both intensive advance preparation or confidence in her skill to quickly assess organizational wants and market dynamics. Firms usually announce govt appointments with a number of weeks’ lead time, however the January 5 announcement for a January 6 begin date signifies totally different timing issues.

Teads’ assertion about coming into “its subsequent chapter of development” signifies organizational confidence in market alternatives and inner capabilities. The phrasing suggests motion past integration phases following acquisitions towards scaled growth and market share features. Advertising management performs a vital function in such phases, shaping how traders, clients, companions, and workers perceive the corporate’s route and capabilities.

The promoting know-how panorama that Cushion enters differs considerably from when she started her profession within the early 2000s. Digital promoting has advanced from a supplementary advertising and marketing channel to the first promoting medium in lots of markets, with programmatic automation enabling scaled marketing campaign execution throughout hundreds of thousands of writer properties. Related tv has emerged as a development class, bringing digital promoting capabilities to streaming environments whereas introducing measurement complexities.

Privateness rules have basically reshaped promoting know-how capabilities. The deprecation of third-party cookies in browsers requires various approaches to viewers concentrating on and measurement. Id decision—connecting consumer interactions throughout units and platforms—has change into a crucial functionality that platforms should talk successfully to advertisers involved about attribution accuracy.

Synthetic intelligence has reworked from a distinct segment functionality to an anticipated platform characteristic. Advertisers more and more assume that platforms make use of machine studying for marketing campaign optimization, inventive personalization, and fraud detection. Advertising communication should differentiate particular AI capabilities relatively than treating AI as a adequate worth proposition.

Cushion’s LinkedIn profile signifies membership on the board of administrators for Ladies in Know-how from 2017 to 2022, a corporation supporting ladies in STEAM careers from classroom by way of boardroom. The involvement suggests dedication to {industry} variety initiatives and organizational management past day-to-day operational obligations.

Her talking expertise at main {industry} occasions positions her as a thought chief able to representing Teads in high-profile boards the place aggressive dynamics and {industry} developments obtain vital consideration. These occasions present platforms for saying product developments, sharing analysis findings, and shaping {industry} narratives—actions central to advertising and marketing management at main promoting know-how corporations.

The appointment comes throughout a interval when promoting know-how corporations face questions on sustainable aggressive benefits. As platforms provide more and more related capabilities in programmatic bidding, viewers concentrating on, and marketing campaign optimization, differentiation turns into tougher. Advertising management should establish and talk genuine differentiators relatively than counting on generic positioning.

For Teads, potential differentiation areas embrace its writer relationships, CTV capabilities, consequence measurement approaches, and platform independence from walled gardens. Cushion’s accountability consists of figuring out which differentiation messages resonate with goal audiences and find out how to talk them successfully throughout owned media, earned media, and {industry} occasions.

The Chief Advertising Officer function additionally includes inner communications and tradition constructing. Following acquisitions and govt adjustments, workers want readability about organizational route and their roles in executing technique. Advertising leaders usually form inner narratives that affect worker engagement, retention, and productiveness—components significantly vital for know-how corporations competing for expertise.

Wanting ahead, Cushion’s success will doubtless be measured by a number of components. Model consciousness metrics will point out whether or not Teads’ market presence expands amongst goal advertisers and businesses. Income development, whereas influenced by a number of components past advertising and marketing, supplies context about whether or not go-to-market methods successfully seize market alternatives. Worker engagement and retention provide indicators about inner communication effectiveness. Investor confidence, mirrored in inventory efficiency and analyst commentary, signifies whether or not monetary markets perceive and worth Teads’ technique.

The appointment represents a big second for each Cushion and Teads as they navigate evolving promoting know-how markets, aggressive pressures, and alternatives in linked tv and omnichannel promoting. Her monitor document demonstrates functionality to function at senior ranges in advanced know-how corporations, whereas Teads’ scale and market place present a platform for impression throughout the promoting ecosystem.

Timeline

• 1999: Dani Cushion begins profession in sports activities advertising and marketing at Main League Soccer and ISL North America
• 2001-2005: Works at Millsport/The Advertising Arm managing built-in advertising and marketing applications for main manufacturers together with XM Radio
• 2005-2010: Serves in content material advertising and marketing and companion advertising and marketing roles at SiriusXM
• 2010-2015: Joins Millennial Media in numerous advertising and marketing roles, promoted to SVP International Advertising & Communications
• 2015: AOL acquires Millennial Media (later a part of Verizon Media)
• 2015-2020: Serves as Chief Advertising Officer at Cardlytics, guiding firm by way of IPO
• 2017-2022: Serves on Board of Administrators for Ladies in Know-how
• 2021-December 2023: Serves as Chief Advertising Officer at ExecOnline
• December 2023-July 2025: Serves as Chief Advertising Officer at Innovid, positioning firm for acquisition by Mediaocean
• August 2025-January 2026: Works as strategic advisor to high-growth firm CEOs and founders
• November 2025: Teads appoints Mollie Spilman as Chief Business Officer
• January 5, 2026: Teads pronounces Dani Cushion’s appointment as Chief Advertising Officer
• January 6, 2026: Cushion formally begins function as CMO at Teads

Abstract

Who: Dani Cushion, a advertising and marketing govt with expertise guiding promoting know-how corporations by way of IPOs and strategic exits at Innovid, Cardlytics, and Millennial Media, joins Teads as Chief Advertising Officer. David Kostman, CEO of Teads, made the announcement as a part of broader govt workforce growth.

What: Teads appointed Cushion to guide its world advertising and marketing group, overseeing model technique, communications, and go-to-market initiatives. She’s going to information advertising and marketing operations for the omnichannel outcomes platform because it expands capabilities throughout linked tv, show promoting, and performance-driven campaigns with consequence measurement.

When: The announcement occurred on January 5, 2026, with Cushion’s official begin date of January 6, 2026. The appointment follows the November 2025 hiring of Mollie Spilman as Chief Business Officer, indicating accelerated management workforce growth throughout the remaining months of 2025.

The place: Cushion will work throughout Teads’ world operations, which span greater than 30 nations with practically 1,800 workers. The corporate, headquartered in New York and publicly traded on Nasdaq below ticker image TEAD, maintains places of work all through the Americas, Europe, and Asia Pacific areas.

Why: Teads requires advertising and marketing management because it integrates current acquisitions, expands its linked tv capabilities, and communicates its evolution from a video promoting platform to a complete omnichannel outcomes platform. Cushion’s expertise positioning promoting know-how corporations for development and navigating public market operations aligns with Teads’ must articulate worth propositions to advertisers, publishers, and traders throughout a interval of {industry} consolidation and fast CTV market development.