Ex-Apple CEO John Sculley: People Want to See More Than Google and Facebook
Former Apple CEO John Sculley sees big shifts in the ad tech industry, as marketing becomes more personalized. And as smaller companies look to survive, he says they’re turning to Zeta Global, which he co-founded ten years ago.
“There’s so many companies that are for sale because they are too small to be able to compete in the mainstream,” he told Cheddar Monday. “We’ve been constantly approached by companies wanting us to acquire them.”
Just last week, the marketing cloud company bought Disqus, which powers the comment section of websites like TMZ and The Atlantic, services over 4 million websites, and hosts 2 billion monthly unique users.
Sculley also commented on the state of digital advertising, which has been largely dominated by Facebook and Google. He says customers want to broaden their advertising options.
“People want to see other alternatives in addition to Google and Facebook,” he said. “And it’s why you see companies like Zeta Global, and Adobe, and Salesforce.com, and others enjoying so much attention. You have to build out a broader platform.”
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