Ep. 145 Why Creative Still Wins with Big Happy CEO Jonathan Frohlinger

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AdTechGod (1:00)

Welcome to the AdTechGod Pod, your window into the world of advertising technology and the people behind it. I'm your host, AdTechGod.

Welcome to the AdTechGod Pod, where we speak to the leaders in the advertising industry. Today's guest is Jonathan Frohlinger, CEO of Big Happy. Big Happy is a high impact mobile advertising company, if you're unaware. Jon has a great and long background working in the industry. He's worked at companies like Coffee Labs, Verve, Starcom, US Open, and more. Our pre-chat was awesome because I realized we are both very unfiltered and I can't wait for this unfiltered combo. Jon, thanks for joining me today.

Jonathan Frohlinger (1:42)

Thanks for having me, ATG, and excited to get a nice little Thursday night rolling with you here. Let's chat some ads, my friend.

AdTechGod (1:50)

I start my podcast the same way. It's a meet the guest type of intro.

I know who you are. I've actually met you in person before, but you probably would not know that. But I would love to hear from you, your background, what you did in the advertising space. You worked with agency side, you worked at mobile companies. Tell me, how did you become the CEO of Big Happy and what got you to this point?

Jonathan Frohlinger (2:13)

Yeah. I had the pleasure of landing at Starcom post-college. I had absolutely no idea what working on the Samsung CTV team meant at the time, but that didn't really matter. Graduating in the 2011 recession, you took whatever job you could get at that point. And it turned out to really be the best thing for my career, I think. Growing up in an agency and growing up with really smart people around you is just really exhilarating. And you get to talk to so many folks out there. It's kind of during the proliferation of Programmatic and AdTech and all these things. So it was a really fortunate time to be on the agency side, learn so much, and then ultimately went into the AdTech world, spent a few years at Verve Mobile. Really got to understand the pipes of AdTech and how DSPs connect to SSPs, data segments are loaded. But the thing I loved about Verve and really the thread throughout my career is that I've always loved the creative that goes into advertising and how that's portrayed. It's of course the only thing that the consumer actually sees. So, while we had an incredible AdTech background at Verve, it was really the creative that I loved selling there.

I was working with so many amazing clients and partners.

Ultimately, went a bit off the deep end and went really into the creative production world for a few years. And that's when I would like to say that I got my MBA in CGI and also a little bit of business and just got a ton of great learning experiences there. And then really kind of birthed in the company sense, Big Happy is a brainchild of those three things. How do you make media buying much more effective through creative and through graphics, but make it so that brands and agencies are able to tap in in a really easy way and scale these ads through their DSPs of choice, their viewability partners of choice, their data segments of choice. And ultimately, we make incredible ads that really do reach the consumer in a way no one else can. And so, that's how Big Happy kind of came to be. And seven years in now, we're having a lot of fun. The team has grown tremendously, but it's just an incredible, incredible run.

AdTechGod (4:20)

I have a question for you. For the people who are listening, what's your, I guess, elevator pitch for Big Happy? What's your core focus, your unique selling proposition to market?