As one of adtech’s most experienced and respected figures, Matt Barash has spent over two decades building, leading and advising some of the most significant names in the space. Now, he’s stepping into a new challenge as Chief Commercial Officer at Nova, a creative tech company.
In this interview with NDA Editor Justin Pearse, Matt discisses why now is the perfect time to bet on creativity, what Nova is actually building, and why the industry might just be having its 1999 moment all over again.
You’ve had an incredible run in adtech. Why make this move now, and why Nova?
I’ve been in adtech for 25 years now. That’s a long time, and over that time, adtech has become very much about infrastructure – about pipes.
But in the past 18 to 24 months, we’ve seen some big shifts. There’s disruption in the air again, almost like we’re back in 1999, with AI accelerating across every corner of the industry. Agencies, vendors, publishers – everyone’s talking about it.
So last summer, I stepped back to reset. I started to feel legacy adtech fatigue.
The bit of the industry that has been most overlooked for the past 25 years? Creative.
Everyone talks about making advertising more effective, about data, measurement and optimisation. But no one talks about the creative, which is still the only thing the consumer actually sees.
What exactly is Nova’s role in fixing that problem?
Nova allows brands, publishers and vendors to repurpose social video and display creatives – the kind you see on TikTok, Instagram, YouTube – and run them seamlessly across the open web using IAB-standard formats. It’s a way to extend those creatives beyond the walled gardens.
That’s powerful because the creative we see inside those walled gardens tends to feel more authentic.
Consumers actually engage with it. So we’re helping marketers scale that kind of creative thinking into environments where it hasn’t been possible before.
The company used to be known as Polar, and after an acquisition by a private equity firm, it rebranded as Nova. What I like about where we are today is we’re a tight team – just 55 people – and the ownership structure gives us focus and stability in a chaotic market.
You mentioned that the creative side of advertising has been left behind in the adtech arms race. How are you planning to change that?
The industry today lacks iconic creative figures.
That’s not to say AI will replace human creativity, but it can help us get smarter and better. For too long, adtech has been self-serving and not particularly helpful to agencies or publishers. Nova is about rebalancing that.
We’re trying to show that creative can be the differentiator.
We’re already seeing great traction with agencies and more interest from publishers who want to offer something new. Creative is the most natural place for them to start evolving their ad product.
And how are you thinking about the creative agencies themselves? They’ve often been sidelined in the media-first, data-driven world.
Exactly. Creative has been separated from media, especially in the holdco model, and I think that’s a shame.
While I don’t know if we’re the ones who can fully reunite them, we can certainly help media teams lean into creative more.
The reality is, we’ve gone from a world where John Wanamaker said half his advertising spend was wasted and he didn’t know which half, to one where a 1% click-through rate is considered good.
That’s a broken system. Creative is the best lever we have to improve performance.
What does success look like for you in this role?
If we can prove that Nova’s creative formats make media more effective – and that agencies and publishers can make more money with them – that’s success. I also think AI should make agency life better, not scarier.
If we can integrate what we do into their planning processes and become a preferred partner, we’re doing our job.
