Building Culture That Actually Works: Agency Growth, Acquisitions & What's Next

Joe Shelerud welcomes Will Fisher, CCO and co-founder of Amerge, fresh off the announcement that Amerge is joining Podean, the same group that acquired Ad Advance just weeks earlier. In this episode, Joe and Will pull back the curtain on what it really takes to build a world-class Amazon agency, and what joining a global group means for their teams, clients, and the future of retail media.Key Takeaways:The Amerge origin story — Three ex-Amazon employees (spread across London, Bratislava, and beyond) who saw a gap.Tech-first DNA — Both Amerge and Ad Advance independently built proprietary technology before scaling their agencies.Cracking international markets — How Amerge expanded from the EU into the US by finding local leaders with boots-on-the-ground expertise.Non-endemic advertising as a DSP differentiator — Why working with non-endemic brands pushed Amerge to develop some of the most sophisticated DSP setups in the industry.Culture as a deal-breaker — Will and Joe both share how cultural alignment outweighed deal structure in their decisions to join Podean.Podean's emerging global model — With Ad Advance (North America), Amerge (EU/UK), Commerce Canal (retail analytics), and now eight combined founders, what the group is building is something the industry hasn't seen before.Advice for agency founders — Understand your clients' gaps before you go looking for partners, and never underestimate the importance of values fit.👉 Follow, subscribe, and connect with us on LinkedIn and at adadvance.com to catch future episodes.

Joe Shelerud, CEO of Ad Advance, sits down with Ryan Craver, Chief Strategy Officer of Podean, for a candid, fast-moving conversation on what's actually happening in AI right now — and what it means for agencies and marketers.Key Takeaways:The pace is the story. From ChatGPT's launch in November 2022 to Claude Sonnet 4.6, OpenClaw, and Perplexity Computer all dropping within weeks of each other — the speed of innovation has fundamentally changed how teams need to operate.Agent orchestration is here. OpenClaw, Claude Cowork, and Perplexity Computer each offer different on-ramps to agentic workflows. Ryan and Joe break down what each one actually does and who each is best suited for.Real wins are happening. Tasks that once took an hour are taking five minutes. Recurring research, competitive intelligence, and internal reporting are being automated — right now, not someday.Input quality is everything. Weak prompts and poor context yield weak outputs. Building out skills, brand guidelines, and knowledge bases inside your AI stack is what separates teams getting real value from those just dabbling.Don't get locked in. Both hosts agree: building around one model ecosystem is risky. The future is model-agnostic routing — pick the best tool for each task, not just the most familiar one.Models will become commodities. The real value is shifting to the platforms, orchestration layers, and workflows built on top — the "picks and shovels" play of the AI gold rush.A great listen for agency leaders, marketers, and anyone trying to cut through AI hype and find what's actually worth their time.

Joe Shelerud is joined by Mark Power, co-founder and Chief Engagement Officer at Podean — the global commerce agency that recently acquired Ad Advance — for a candid conversation about building agencies from the ground up and why culture is the most underrated competitive advantage.Key Takeaways:Mark's 30-year journey from B2B email marketing in London → content marketing → IPG → founding Podean with co-founder Travis JohnsonWhy Amazon is more than a sales channel — and the gap Podean was built to fill"Positive Energy" as a cultural umbrella — how Podean distilled its values into something every team member, across every acquired company, can rally behindThe real markers of cultural health — including why the first 3–4 weeks of a new hire tells you everythingRemote culture done right — what actually works when your team is virtual and globalTransparency = Trust — why sharing the bad news openly builds more loyalty than a polished internal comms strategy ever willNavigating acquisitions — how Podean is integrating Ad Advance and Commerce Canal without an "our way or the highway" mindsetWhat's coming next — a new show hosted by Mark Power and Podean co-founder Ryan Craver, going beyond advertising into broader commerce and industry trendsIf you're building a team, scaling an agency, or navigating a merger, this episode is packed with practical wisdom from two founders who've lived it.

If you've ever struggled to justify brand spend to a CMO or CEO — this episode is for you.Joe Shelerud is joined by Tony Miller, Director of Programmatic Strategy at Ad Advance (now powered by Podean), to break down one of their most powerful tools: Customer Avatar. Instead of relying on assumptions about who your customers are, Customer Avatar reverse-engineers your actual best buyers using Amazon's purchase data — and builds targeted, scalable audiences from there.Key takeaways:Why upper funnel advertising has historically felt like guesswork — and how to fix itHow Customer Avatar is built from real purchase behavior, not assumptionsThe Venn diagram approach to layering audiences for precision targetingHow to measure upper funnel success beyond ROAS (the metrics that actually tell the story)How Amazon Marketing Cloud unlocks path-to-conversion data to tie brand spend to revenueReal-world results: campaigns driving 68x ROAS, 81% new-to-brand customers, and page views as low as $0.11Plus: big news — The Ad Project is now powered by Podean, a global agency that expands the team's ability to support clients across creative, international markets, and more.Next episode: Co-founder of Podean, Mark Power, joins the pod.

In Episode 176, Maarja Hewitt and Tony Miller, Ad Advance's Director Programmatic Strategy, discuss Amazon DSP’s shift to the Open Internet with new partnerships from Roku, Disney, Netflix, and Spotify. Key takeaways include:One-Stop Shop: Amazon DSP expands to offer video and audio ads across the Open Internet.Unified Media: Solves fragmentation by offering better frequency control and measurement.New Opportunities: Roku, Disney, and Netflix partnerships unlock unique reach and global scaling.Audio Expansion: Platforms like Spotify and SiriusXM bring addressable, programmatic audio to DSP.2026 Outlook: A reset in media planning with unified reach and outcome-based strategies.Tony also shares his thoughts on how brands can adapt to this new DSP landscape.👉 Follow, subscribe, and connect with us on LinkedIn and at adadvance.com to catch future episodes.

Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2025 delivered big numbers, but not in the way many brands expected.In Black Friday & Cyber Monday 2025 Results: Shopper Trends & AI’s Impact, host Maarja Hewitt is joined by Ad Advance VP of Operations, Erik Swenson, to break down how the holiday shopping season really played out. They look at traffic, conversion, and sales trends, why the events felt softer even as total volume grew, and how an elongated deal season changed shopper behavior.They also dig into the growing role of AI in holiday shopping, from Amazon’s Rufus price tracking and deal guidance to third party AI shopping assistants that help consumers compare products and marketplaces in seconds.Key takeaways:Traffic was up, but conversions spread across more days instead of spiking on two eventsEarly deal cycles and “holiday all season” messaging softened the traditional Black Friday and Cyber Monday peaksAI made shoppers more price aware, more informed, and more comparison drivenBrands that ramped budgets early, refreshed creatives, and coordinated off Amazon channels saw stronger results2026 will reward earlier planning, stronger first party audiences, and clear value messagingA focused, practical breakdown for ecommerce and retail media teams planning their next Q4.👉 Follow, subscribe, and connect with us on LinkedIn and at adadvance.com to catch future episodes.

Recorded live at Amazon Ads unBoxed, Joe Shelerud talks with Meredith Goldman, Director of Media Enablement at Amazon Ads, about the newest innovations across DSP, AMC, AI-driven creative, and audience expansion.They explore how Creative Agent and Ads Agent are lowering barriers for advertisers, how advertisers can use AI without replacing human expertise, and how AMC is becoming the central hub for measurement and optimization across the full funnel.Key Takeaways:How Amazon is using AI to democratize advanced advertising toolsCreative Agent’s role in scaling personalized, high-performing creativeAds Agent’s natural-language recommendations for audience and campaign optimizationWhy Deal Builder will accelerate access to premium supplyHow AMC connects signals across sponsored ads and DSP for deeper measurementWhy human strategy + AI execution creates the strongest resultsWhat these updates mean for brands planning 2025–2026 retail media strategies👉 Follow, subscribe, and connect with us on LinkedIn and at adadvance.com to catch future episodes.

In Episode 173 of The Ad Project, Joe Shelerud continues the AI conversation with Ad Advance Software Engineer Roger Branham — expanding on how OpenAI’s Agentic Commerce Protocol could transform not just shopping, but advertising itself.They unpack:How ChatGPT and Gemini could evolve into major ad platformsWhat happens when generative AI gains deep insight into user behaviorThe tension between monetization and user trustThe future of pay-per-conversion models and hyper-personalized creativeHow these shifts could impact Amazon’s dominance in retail mediaAs AI transitions from tool to “agent,” Joe and Roger explore what the next era of digital advertising might look like — and how brands can prepare for it.👉 Follow, subscribe, and connect with us on LinkedIn and at adadvance.com to catch future episodes.

In this episode of The Ad Project, Joe Shelerud talks with Ad Advance Developer Roger Branham about how AI is disrupting eCommerce.They explore:ChatGPT’s new instant checkout and what it means for sellersHow the OpenAI x Stripe commerce protocol could reshape online transactionsWhy Walmart might adopt AI faster than AmazonHow data ownership, ads, and trust evolve in an AI-driven worldWhat smaller sellers should do to stay ahead of the next wave of online shoppingThis is a forward-looking, technical, and strategic discussion that every brand should hear as AI becomes part of the customer journey.👉 Follow, subscribe, and connect with us on LinkedIn and at adadvance.com to catch future episodes.

Live from Amazon Accelerate, Joe and Adobe’s David Devisser unpack the new Adobe Express integration with Amazon Ads. You will see how to discover policy-ready templates, connect your Creative Asset Library, run real-time checks, and export to the right specs in one flow. Key takeawaysYou can start from Amazon Ads templates inside Express, then customize quickly. Real-time policy checks and safe-zone guidance catch issues before export. Export automates spec fitting for video, including bitrate and frame rate, then saves back to your library. 👉 Follow, subscribe, and connect with us on LinkedIn and at adadvance.com to catch future episodes.