After Building Google’s Advertising Business, This Founder Is Creating An Ad-Free Alternative

Plus: Maryland’s First-In-Nation Digital Ad Tax Could Catch On—If It’s Legal

Good morning,

During his 15-year career at Google, Sridhar Ramaswamy built, scaled and ultimately ran the internet giant’s $115 billion advertising division. Now, he’s building a new search engine: Neeva. Unlike Google, it is ad-free and doesn’t track users’ data, and this week, it raised $40 million Series B funding, bringing its total raised to $77.5 million at a $300 million valuation. In reporting on the fundraise, I spoke with the cofounders and investors like billionaire Reid Hoffman about why they think the startup stands a chance against the competition.

Meanwhile, Burger King has been facing backlash over a seemingly sexist International Women’s Day tweet was posted by the burger brand’s U.K. division. The company launched a new IWD campaign on Monday to announce its investment in scholarships to develop women’s culinary skills, but those intentions were distracted from because of a single tweet that read: “Women belong in the kitchen.” Fernando Machado, Burger King's global CMO, says it was “obviously not our intent” to offend. (For more on the intersection of IWD and marketing, check out ForbesWomen Editor Maggie McGrath’s take on the commercialization of the day.)

As always, if you have news tips or story ideas, feel free to email me.

Stay well,

Marty

Marty Swant

Editor, CMO Network

Creativity

Unilever Ditches The Word ‘Normal,’ Becoming The Latest Company To Make Big Changes In The Name Of Inclusivity

Forbes Contributor Sonia Thompson writes about Unilever removing the word "normal" from all their beauty and personal packaging and advertising.

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MGA CMO Jamie Gutfreund On Metaverse Marketing

As kids look for more ways to socialize online, toy brands are finding new ways to interact with them in the metaverse.

One of those companies is LOL Surprise. Inside of Roblox—an online gaming company that had its IPO earlier this week—LOL is debuting a new line of dolls while creating ways for fans to play games with their families and favorite influencers within the virtual world. According to Jamie Gutfreund, CMO of LOL’s parent company MGA, the strategy is to launch game franchises similarly to how studios launch movies.

"We’re thinking about the global experience, and how to give consistent opportunity globally, just like a studio does," Gutfreund says. "It’s important to think beyond the U.S., it’s a big world out there, it’s a growth opportunity for our brands…This is where kids are this is where they spend their time. So if we’re not there, we’re not doing our jobs as marketers. You can’t just be there, you have to deliver something that’s unique. How do we go above and beyond in the metaverse so we can earn this relationship with our fans?"



	"Roblox has 31 million daily active users. What a great place to spend time at scale. If you think about it, it used to be you could buy an ad on network TV on Saturday mornings and reach kids everywhere and it was super easy. Now, over half of the users are under 13...What a great place to build relationships."

Jamie Gutfreund

Chief Marketing Officer, MGA

Leadership & Strategy

DoubleVerify Detects New Ad Fraud Scheme On Connected TV Devices That’s Costing Advertisers Millions

The ad verification company DoubleVerify has uncovered a complex ad fraud scheme involving more than 2 million devices a day and costing advertisers more than $5 million a month.

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