Joe Ligé, Founder &amp; CEO, Culture Hive Media Group, explains why culture, not identity, drives performance in advertising. We break down cultural targeting, AI-powered ad relevance, and how brands can avoid “cringe” marketing moments. Plus: Meta vs. Google ad revenue, OpenAI’s ad future, and Viant’s latest acquisition strategy. Takeaways Culture Demographics Bad ads come from cultural blind spots Cultural relevance can be measured Brands should focus on rituals, communities, and moments Programmatic is shifting from “who” to “where.” Authenticity beats proximity Meta’s growth is accelerating OpenAI ads are coming Chapters 00:00 Intro + Ari’s tech meltdown 00:45 Guest intro Joe Ligé Culture Hive Media Group 02:03 What is Culture Hive Media Group 03:17 Origin story behind the culture, first advertising 05:42 Culture vs ethnicity explained 07:59 Rethinking targeting beyond demographics 08:46 Cultural cornerstones, rituals, communities, moments 09:56 How the Cultural Relevancy Score CRS works 12:22 Using AI to detect bias and bad ads 15:24 Authenticity vs cringe marketing 16:42 Case study Mountain Dew and gaming culture 19:01 How the tech and programmatic integration works 21:21 Culture first strategy and audience expansion 25:04 News Meta vs Google OpenAI ads Viant deal 49:32 Wrap up Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Episode 169: Joe Ligé on Culture and How it Works in Advertising

Marketecture: Get Smart. Fast.

# Full Transcript

**Podcast:** Marketecture: Get Smart. Fast.

## Participants

- **Ari Paparo** (Marketecture)
- **Eric Franchi** (Marketecture Media, Inc.)
- **Joe Ligé** (Culture Hive Media Group)

## Transcript

This podcast is brought to you by The Build, a new podcast from the guys behind Sincera, Michael Sullivan and Ian Myers. They built their company by figuring out clever solutions to a few important ad tech problems in our industry. And that's exactly what the show is about. Mike and Ian interview some of the smartest tech minds in the biz to hear about how they identified opportunities, solved their hardest challenges and grew their businesses in the process.

Listen to The Build with Mike O'Sullivan wherever you get your podcasts. All right. Welcome to the Marketecture: Get Smart. Fast.. This is Ari Paparo. I'm here with Eric Franchi. How are you doing, Eric?

Doing well. I survived the no Ari interview of 2026. Yeah. So we're switching around a little bit today. So we have a great guest, Joe Ligé, who is the founder and CEO of Culture Hive Media Group. He gave a great conversation at Marketecture Live. And I said, well, let's have him on. And then we scheduled a recording and we got I got my coffee and, you know, I got my notes and Eric, you know, got his stuff.

And then my computer crashed in the most spectacular way I've ever seen. Like there was smoke coming out. You know, we had to reset the breakers in my house. It was like a real issue. So, Eric, how'd the interview go? As you were about to hear, it went great. Joe is fantastic. Joe could have done it on his own, quite frankly.

But it was a great conversation. So for those unfamiliar, he is building an ad tech company around the notion of starting with culture first rather than starting with identity rather than starting with audience. Make that the basis of how brands start to think about engaging, engaging various groups. So it was fascinating. He's got some really good anecdotes and stories, most notably around like a founding story for his business.

So I enjoyed it a lot. And I even snuck in a little joke that you might have said towards the end. So I think I did you justice. Yeah, a little sardonic humor. I appreciate that. Well, I'll listen to it. This will be like the first version of our podcast. I listened to it a while because I haven't heard it. I hope you enjoy the conversation with Joe. And then we've got our news, which includes this allegedly Facebook being bigger than Google. And then and then the Viant T Vision acquisition where I have a lot of things to say.

So I hope you enjoy the interview and we'll be back in a bit. All right. I am here with Joe Leger from Culture Hive Media. Joe, how are you doing? I'm doing good. How are you doing today? Good, good. We'll take it from the top. What is Culture Hive Media? Yeah, absolutely. Front of top. So Culture Hive Media is a full stack ad tech and media company that's built around literally one idea that culture...

Episode 169: Joe Ligé on Culture and How it Works in Advertising

Transcript

Built for investment professionals

Every day you wait, your competitors are finding
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Episode 169: Joe Ligé on Culture and How it Works in Advertising

Transcript

Built for investment professionals

Every day you wait, your competitors are findingedge in conversations you're not hearing.

Every day you wait, your competitors are finding
edge in conversations you're not hearing.