Attention and context · Episode 50 · Season 4 · ·
Storytelling and the Art of Reaching People When They Are Ready
Kerel Cooper, CMO at GumGum, on why contextual advertising reaches people at the moment they are most receptive, why coming up through ad operations made him a more commercially rounded CMO, and why the art of storytelling, creating an emotional connection between brand and audience, is the skill that every marketing leader must develop.
Kerel Cooper, CMO, GumGum. In conversation with John Horsley.
Storytelling and the Art of Reaching People When They Are Ready
0:0030:00Why a non-traditional path through ad ops created a more commercially rounded CMO and why contextual advertising reaches people at their most receptive
Kerel Cooper has been in advertising and marketing for over 26 years, moving through ad operations, account management, commercial leadership, and product marketing before becoming CMO. At GumGum, the contextual advertising media company, he leads marketing with an unusually deep understanding of how the commercial, operational, and technological dimensions of advertising actually work.
In this conversation Cooper explains why GumGum's contextual advertising approach, matching brand to consumer based on what they are reading or watching rather than who they are demographically, reaches people at moments of genuine receptivity. He also makes the case for the non-traditional CMO path, arguing that understanding what sales teams go through on the front lines produces fundamentally better marketing decisions.
Tell us about GumGum and your role
“GumGum is a contextual advertising media company focused on powering meaningful connections between brands and consumers. We use contextual advertising to match the brand with the consumer when we feel the consumer is in the right mindset to engage with that brand. I have been CMO for about 15 months, my second stint as a CMO. 26-plus years in advertising and marketing.”
Cooper describes contextual advertising as a mindset-match problem rather than a data-match problem.
Tell me about your non-traditional path to CMO
“My career background is not a traditional path to CMO. I ran ad operations teams at publishers, account management teams at Live Intent, and led the entire commercial organisation at Group Black as President of Advertising. Those experiences taught me things about process, commercial reality, and what sales teams go through that I could not have learned coming up through marketing.”
The operational depth shapes how Cooper thinks about marketing decisions.
Why is storytelling so central to what you do?
“What has always fascinated me about marketing is the art of storytelling and the ability to use storytelling to have a person create an emotional response or connection to a particular product or brand. That is the foundation. Everything else, the technology, the data, the channels, is in service of that.”
Cooper places storytelling at the centre of his CMO philosophy.
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Become a Voice →What have you taken from your experience across different types of businesses?
“Different experiences in different areas of the business taught me different things. Running ad operations taught me how the machine works. Account management taught me what clients actually value. Commercial leadership taught me what drives revenue. All of that combined makes for a better CMO.”
The synthesis of operational experience across the commercial system.
What is the biggest change you have seen in marketing over 26 years?
“The impact that technology has had. When I started there was no Facebook, no Instagram, no X, AI was not as trending as now. Technology changes the way marketers think and the way businesses think generally. But the fundamental job, creating emotional connection between brand and audience, has not changed.”
Technology changes the how. The what remains storytelling and emotional connection.
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Read the full transcript
Lightly edited for readability
John Horsley Tell us about GumGum and your role.
Kerel Cooper GumGum is a contextual advertising media company. We match brand to consumer when the consumer is in the right mindset to engage. 15 months as CMO. 26-plus years in advertising across ad ops, account management, commercial leadership. Not a traditional path to CMO.
John Horsley Why is storytelling so central?
Kerel Cooper What has always fascinated me about marketing is the art of storytelling and using it to create an emotional response or connection to a product or brand. All the technology, data, and channels are in service of that. It does not change. The how changes. The what does not.
