Innovid has tapped marketing veteran Dani Cushion to drive the advertising platform’s global marketing and communications efforts.
As newly appointed chief marketing officer, Cushion will report to Innovid Chief Commerical Officer Dave Helmreich, who joined the company a year ago.
Based in Atlanta, Cushion is tasked with leading Innovid’s global marketing and communications efforts, elevating its personalization and measurement- solutions for converged TV across linear, CTV and digital, in the market, with a strategic focus on driving company growth.
Cushion joins with expertise from previous CMO roles, including most recently at education technology platform ExecOnline, where she was the company’s first marketing chief. Prior to that she held the C-level marketing role at advertising and fintech platform Cardlytics since 2015, where she developed the global marketing roadmap and helped position the company for a successful IPO.
“As a long-time CMO of both public and private technology companies, Dani is an expert at pioneering global marketing strategies that accelerate business results,” said Helmreich in a statement. “Her passion for leading companies through rapid growth will be instrumental in helping us solidify Innovid’s position as a strategic partner for the world’s largest brands, agencies, and media partners as the TV ad industry continues to evolve.”
Earlier in her career Cushion served as SVP of Global Marketing and Communications at Millennial Media – later acquired by AOL and Verizon Media, also helping to guide through its IPO, international expansion and M&A.
“Innovid has been redefining the TV advertising ecosystem for more than 15 years, and I’m proud to join this amazing team as we drive continued innovation and integrity in the industry,” said Cushion in a statement. “I look forward to helping our clients realize the exponential value that comes from creating, delivering, measuring, and optimizing converged TV ads on one platform – helping them build powerful relationships with consumers across linear, CTV, and digital.”
Cushion is the latest in a wave of personnel appointments by Innovid in recent months. In October the company hired Anthony Callini as chief financial officer, replacing Tanya Adreev-Kaspin who is exiting to pursue other opportunities but remaining with Innovid for a six-month transition period. Other hires include Sarah Ripmaster as SVP of Strategic Accounts in August, and more recently in November, Alex Rowe as SVP of Enterprise Sales.
Innovid has marked momentum with its CTV advertising platform. In the third quarter, CTV revenue derived from ad serving and personalization offerings jumped 9% year over year, contributing $14.4 million. It’s measurement business also saw revenue growth, increasing 8% year over year in Q3 to $8.4 million and accounting for 23% of revenue. Total revenue in the quarter was up 5% to $36.2 million and Innovid narrowed its quarterly net loss to $2.7 million, compared to a loss of $11.8 million the same period of 2022. Adjusted EBITDA more than doubled to $6.5 million.
In Q3 CTV accounted for 55% of all video impressions served, according to Innovid. It also counted customer wins in the quarter of Revlon, Fanatics, Bausch Health and OnRunning. The company also touted premium publisher partners, including NBCUniversal, as expanding their usage of Innovid’s measurement solution “to help prove the value of their inventory to advertisers.”
In the fall, Innovid was not one of the vendors to pass the initial certification phase of the U.S. Joint Industry Committee to serve as cross-platform currency for TV ad buying and selling – but in response to the news, said it wasn’t pursuing a currency strategy or focused on multi-platform currency as a business, and therefore had not expected to be selected.
Helmreich at the time noted its InnovidXP platform is used by brands and agencies to measure converged TV performance against business goals, as well as publishers. He also said in September that Innovid was currently in conversations with the OpenAP-led JIC “about a possible non-currency related partnership.”