How to scale Streaming TV ad tech development with Collin Davis, CTO @ [cognition]

Radically Candid: Learn about Streaming TV advertising.

🎧 Episode Highlights
In this tech-forward episode of [radically candid], Tim Rowe sits down with Colin Davis, CTO @ [cognition], to unpack the powerful engine behind dynamic creative, automation, and attribution in streaming TV advertising.

From ingesting massive data sets and inventory feeds to serving personalized, performance-driven creative—Colin shares how his team moves fast without breaking things, why ad serving is the future, and how clean architecture, collaboration, and a culture of curiosity drive innovation at scale.

⏱️ Quick Takeaways (2-min read)

• The Role: Why Colin sees CTO as conductor—not coder
• The Speed: Weekly sprints, daily standups, and rapid iteration
• The Culture: Problem-solvers over perfectionists
• The Stack: Serving dynamic video + display with real-time feedback
• The Impact: Closing the loop between impression, action, and attribution

🧠 What a CTO Actually Does (01:00)

• Orchestrates priorities across dev, product, and client feedback
• Stays hands-off with code but deeply involved in architecture
• Emphasizes outcomes over output—building what users actually want
• “Dev is the how. Product is the why.”

⚙️ Engineering Velocity at Scale (03:00)

• Weekly sprints + instant feedback cycles
• Rapid prototyping—without sacrificing long-term vision
• Team structure: Culture-first, then skillset
• Full-stack devs preferred for flexibility across projects

🧱 Building with Purpose (05:00)

• Passionate problem-solvers > people who say “no”
• Hire for attitude, upskill for everything else
• Cross-functional collaboration enforced through mentorship + code review
• “Dare to fail” is a core company ethos

📊 Closing the Attribution Loop (12:00)

• Headless Analytics Tag (HAT) connects impression to website activity
• Works across platforms: Amazon, The Trade Desk, Basis, and more
• Goes beyond QR: real measurement without flawed proxies
• “It’s not about last click—it’s about assisted outcomes”

🤖 Automation Everywhere (15:00)

• “We make creative the easiest part of your workflow”
• How to turn a data feed into dynamic display + video creative at scale
• How VAST and HTML tags replace the need for DSP switching
• Helps creative teams and agencies spend less time producing content

🎯 From Targeting to Tag Delivery (17:00)

• Matching inventory + offer data to media strategy in minutes
• Creative updated mid-month or mid-campaign automatically
• Clients gain time and insights, while focusing on business outcomes

🧠 Decisioning at the Edge (23:00)

• Ad serving = ability to react to data, not just pre-plan
• Dynamic creative optimized mid-flight based on real-time signals
• Helps DSP partners increase performance + campaign ROI
• “We’re not just a source of content—we’re a source of outcomes”

🧩 Tech That Connects It All (27:00)

• Challenges: Hiring the right culture fits, integrating with evolving platforms
• Flexibility is key: especially with fast-evolving AI tools
• Cognition is often first in to test alpha/beta products with partners

💥 Final Hot Takes + What's Next (29:00)

• Clean rooms = worth it for better retargeting + clearer profiles
• Ad server = most exciting tech at Cognition
• Future = faster time to value, higher fidelity signals, real outcomes
• “MP4s don’t tell you anything. Our creatives do.”

🎬 Listen to the Full Episode
A deep dive into the architecture, attitude, and automations powering Cognition’s ad tech ev