Episode 5 – Jon Suarez-Davis from super{set}

Welcome to Episode 5 of the Breaking Through the Mayhem podcast, where we explore marketing and advertising in a time of constantly shifting risk and opportunity.

Brought to you by Sightly, our goal is to share the insights of industry leaders from brands, agencies, publishers, and partners as they discuss the challenges and possibilities emerging from the ever-shifting media landscape, such as real-time marketing, brand safety and purpose, influencers, cancel culture, data privacy, technology and more.

Today's guest is Jon Suarez-Davis.

Jon Suarez-Davis (jsd) is super{set}’s Chief Commercial Officer. He leads market strategy and development designed to accelerate super{set} companies’ growth in current, new, and expanding markets.

Prior to super{set}, Jon was SVP, Marketing Strategy & Innovation at Salesforce, where he was responsible for developing and co-creating innovative marketing strategies and solutions with customers and partners designed to build brands and drive sustainable growth.

Jon previously served as the Chief Strategy Officer, Salesforce Marketing Cloud, with a focus on developing technology solutions that empower marketers to deliver connected, personalized, and real-time brand experiences across channels and throughout the customer journey at scale.

In the episode, which was recorded live at the Brand Safety Summit NY on November 3, 2022, Jon discusses:

• How super{set} was founded and the values it holds paramount
• How brands can handle the speed of culture today
• How consumer privacy regulations could change in the future

The Breaking Through the Mayhem podcast - Episode 5

Host:  Adam Katz, Chief Revenue Officer & GM, Sightly
Guest: Jon Suarez-Davis, Chief Commercial Officer, super{set}, Digital Transformation Leader, Board Member, Investor, Advisor
Recorded live at the Brand Safety Summit NY, November 3, 2022

Adam Katz

Welcome to Sightly’s Breaking Through the Mayhem podcast, where we're actually doing this live today, as you guys know, from the brand safety summit here in New York City. So I'm going to kick it over to self-proclaimed JSD and I'm going to let him actually tell us a little bit about himself and his background and then we'll jump into some of the questions.

Jon Suarez-Davis

Hey, it's good to be with you here today. Yeah, JSD, My actual name is Jon Suarez-Davis. Super excited to be with you here today. And I can't wait to have a conversation.

Adam Katz

Well, tell us a little bit about your background. 

Jon Suarez-Davis

I mean, a quick background on me. I mean I've kind of had like three major parts of my career, started on the brand side, it was at Kellogg's. And so on the CPG run and global media and our integrated marketing.

Then I went to small tech, went to a startup company called Krux, Data Management Platform. That was acquired by Salesforce. I spent six great, great years at Salesforce, Chief Strategy Officer of the marketing cloud. And then Adam I just recently, after six great years, just recently left, I'm going back to roll up the sleeves, do a little company building, and I've joined a venture studio called Superset as Chief Commercial Officer and partner there.

Adam Katz

Wow. I don't even know where to start with all that, you know?

Jon Suarez-Davis

I’m old, man.

Adam Katz

So you're saying you're 23 years old. 

Jon Suarez-Davis

Exactly. 

Adam Katz

That's what I just picked up on. But obviously, listen, very cool career, esteemed, and obviously we're excited to hear about you. So one of the big things that we're talking about today is I mean, the world's gotten out of control, right? I don't know that it wasn't always out of control, but I think it's more in our face today than ever.

And people care about it more than they may have over the years. So how would you say a brand should be thinking about navigating today's culture with the speed of information that's out there?

Jon Suarez-Davis

Well, I think you know, you're spot on. When you said, hey, I you know, we live in this dynamic world, and maybe it was always like this. But I got to say, it's nothing like I've ever seen. It truly is amazing, the speed of information, dissemination of engagement, you know, the speed of culture, like you said, it's quite frankly, breathtaking.

I mean, my God, what? Right. You know, we just started November. And what's in the news of all the social platforms and takeovers and so forth. So I do, this is an incredibly dynamic time. And what it means to me is I kind of think through it is, my goodness, you know, how are brands going to navigate this space and what is going to be required of them.

And what I think I really kind of come down to is, again, you know, harkening back to going back to the technology deep side on startups is that, you know, brands are going to have to embrace advanced technology in particular in areas like machine learning and, you know, language A.I. to deal with what's going on in the, you know, in the social space and the user generated content space.

I mean, they're going to need to rely on this technology in order to understand the conversations at a deep level. And then, you know, how to quite frankly, manage it. It's again, breathtaking is honestly, I'm not no B.S. here. It's really the thing that comes to mind. It explains the situation.

Adam Katz

Well, I think breathtaking can be defined as, you know, I could see it in you. Fascinating, right? You know, as you start to look at fascinating things that change, we all know that risk is there when you jump into things in a new way, right. So how would you say that brands should be fair to those vendors as you're walking into obviously startup world right, again?

Jon Suarez-Davis

Yeah. 

Adam Katz

You know, everything's not going to be perfect, right? When you were at Salesforce, it's - 

Jon Suarez-Davis

Yeah.

Adam Katz

- you say something, maybe harder to get it on the roadmap that it would be at another place. But, you know, you have the resources behind it. So how do you expect those things to happen? Then obviously, innovation happens easier at startups, right?

So, how do you expect brands to give the right level of fairness in this process over the next couple of years?

Jon Suarez-Davis

Well, it's a great question. And I'm actually, I'm really intrigued by your word fairness. And I'm actually thinking about it right now because I think it's a really interesting word. And I, so I think I have a little bit of a leg to stand on here because I came from the brand side. But, you know, the brands, the great brands that will not only, you know, survive, but will thrive are the ones that truly understand their values.

The strategy that they're going to go to market on and then they have the process protocols in place. And then importantly, they're going to have to adopt advanced technology at a faster clip than they've ever done. They're just going to have to. There is. I see. I mean, it's just impossible for me to think of a way as we move forward where brands won't have to adopt this.

You know, at an increasingly accelerated pace. And that just is what's simply going to happen. And I just want to build one other thing on your fairness. I think they also, they're going to, the successful ones, are going to really grow a stiff spine and hold technology, hold the platforms that they, you know, advertise accountable.

They're going to have to hold them accountable for the platforms that they are engaging with their customers, their consumers, their people in a way they've probably never had to do.

Adam Katz

And it's interesting, you use the word accountable, which obviously I respect. But how do you get there so easily when you're a small company? You know, obviously you've had different experiences in your career so I think about your experience over the last six years. You got a lot more resources, right? You obviously also we're trying to teach everyone to bring one stack together, right. 

So I think now it's starting to disseminate even further again because you have so many new use cases and different things that are populating in people’s heads. How do we look at fragmentation and the spending of all this money to actually make the right decisions right now? Because I look at it as, you know, when I get called by Salesforce in my role -

Jon Suarez-Davis

Yeah.

Adam Katz

- trying to sell me that whole cloud, the whole stack. Right. Take it all, right.

Jon Suarez-Davis

Take it all. Customer 360, baby.=

Adam Katz

Should be the only thing I do. But ultimately, you know, people have to diversify right now in an even bigger way. So what would be your thought there?

Jon Suarez-Davis

Well, you have a couple of really great points in there. And one, I would just say I think it's important not to confuse or to correlate necessarily resources with productivity. Right? I mean, some of the greatest innovation comes with small tiger teams, small tight teams, so that's one I think, one kind of watch out that I would lay down. 

The other thing is that and I think you are also spot on right that we have a continuum, a pendulum of fragmented point solutions to consolidation to stack to reverting back to like point solutions and that because I think the reason is, is because innovation is typically driven from the bottom up. It's driven from the startup areas. 

I mean, that's just that's fundamentally I think most people and most research shows that. So but what brands can do is just be really disciplined again of, you know, what they're using their technology for. And to your point, you said use cases. It's incumbent for the brands, the companies, the marketers to intimately understand those use cases and then educate themselves through their own internal resources or, you know, valuable partners to say, you know, interrogate all the cloud solutions, the stack solutions as well as there is a point to point. 

And I just want to make one other key point, I believe, is that great companies on the brand side understand the value proposition between consolidated technology and then where they can differentiate. Right. On some of these point solutions. So, you know, again, does one company say, you know what, maybe a consolidated marketing stack with email marketing can be here over in I'll do this my last, right.

I still bleed blue salesforce marketing cloud. And then they may say hey listen there's other areas that I need, that I believe are key differentiators and I may go best in class, I may go point solution on that and then the systems need to work together.

Adam Katz

You know, it's interesting taking it to a different even further level. Right? Obviously, we're going to talk a lot about how fast information is and the craziness within that information. Think about you personally, right? How do you separate in your cultural decisions as a business your bias versus the brands you're working with? How do people stay disciplined today?

Because obviously we're all very heightened how we feel and how we think in this climate. How do we do that and how do we allow employees to feel comfortable in those decisions as well?

Jon Suarez-Davis

Well, I think it really does go and it's not a fluff statement. It goes back to values. What are you, right, what do you have? What are your values, what are my values and from an organization's standpoint, whether it be a company, a society, an association, do you have clarity on what your values are? 

And then if you do, those values truly guide you and you have these principles and you know, there's talk about you know, it's only a principle and that if it costs you money right. That's when the rubber hits the road. So everybody can…

Adam Katz

We got to stop thinking that way.

Jon Suarez-Davis

Right. Or you say, hold on, if it's going to cost me money, I mean, that's where the principle conversation goes up. And I think that's absolutely critical when you have the values and you have the principles that are so tightly articulated and you live by them. And then again, the proof is, OK, that's going to cost me money, cost me revenue, it's going to cost me something, and I stick by it.

That's the true guiding point for all organizations.

Adam Katz

Yeah, it's a great point. I mean, obviously, as we listen to a lot of the conversations that are happening today, I think a lot of it's going to keep evolving around ROI versus consistency and authenticity. Right. Some of the influencers that have always guided my thought process over the years are people that stick to their guns. You know, they're authentic in their ways.

So who are some of the people that you idolize that have helped you think the way you think?

Jon Suarez-Davis

Yeah, well, I mean, that's great. And I love the point in that, too, I mean, again, in my career, I've always try to look for that person or that group. But usually it is, I mean, it is the leader I mean, the leader has a disproportionate in any organization, any institution.

Right. To again, help define those values and make sure we're all living by it. So, you know, I look no further than the again, the super{set} the firm that I've just, you know, joined after Salesforce and Tom Chavez. Tom Chavez is a serial entrepreneur. His first company was a company called Rapt that he sold to Microsoft.

The second is one Krux that, again, how we got to the Salesforce conversation and what I really respect about, Tom, is, again, this absolute clarity of values. And back to my point about principle, like he's not a shrinking violet, I mean we can look him up or people on you know, whenever there people are listening to this go and look at LinkedIn. 

He's challenging, he's going into the venture capital community and challenging their advice and their counsel and he's willing to throw down the gantlet to some big players and influential players and say hold on, hold on, hold on this isn't right. And when you look at it, you're like, my goodness Tom. Like that could be a chilling effect. 

Like, well, what if the deal don't get done? What if they do this? I mean, that's a thought that's in my head. But that's someone I idolize, right?

Adam Katz

That’s awesome.

Jon Suarez-Davis 

Or idolize maybe a little strong, Tommy will be like shit, you don't idolize me. But I respect, I respect deeply for that.

Adam Katz

Awesome. What about in your personal life? Who's been the guiding principle and authentic person for you?

Jon Suarez-Davis

That one's easy. My wife. I know , again, no bullshit there. Yeah, my wife. So as you know, you said I go by JSD right? My wife goes by AMSD, AnneMarie Suarez-Davis. And the reason, I mean, I give like and she's someone that after like undergrad went into social work.

She was working in Chicago, going into Cabrini-Green, Ida B. Wells, right. Deep social work, holding families together. 

Adam Katz

Beautiful.

Jon Suarez-Davis

She then decided, you know, hey, she did that. Then she went on to business school and then she had a professional career and then, you know, and she now has pivoted yet again. And she's really big into like animal therapy and how that can help kids read and how animal therapy can help other people that have, you know, other traumatic things.

And all through that I look at that is a steel thread like she has principle based. And also the last thing is she pushes me. I mean, she's the one who told me to go from Kellogg's to Krux. From Krux to SalesForce now to go back. So that's who I, that's my true North Star.

Adam Katz

Well, first of all, you have to say that either way, but in reality that's awesome to hear. In terms of like the future of what you think is missing in this industry. If you had, let's just say we could fast forward.

Jon Suarez-Davis

Yeah.

Adam Katz

Right. Seven, eight years you'll be a lot younger.

Jon Suarez-Davis

Yeah, I will be 19 at that point.

Adam Katz

Yeah. So what would you say would be utopia to you in bringing together these businesses this way?

Jon Suarez-Davis

Well, it's really, it's related to why I have, you know, moved to rejoin, you know Tom and Vivek from super{set} is because I truly believe, I don't know exactly which chapter we’re in, but we are in a new chapter in this industry. We went from, you know, mass adoption, right? To digital. And if we're all honest with each other, we did that in a very rudimentary way.

And monetization and performance was at all costs. And we kind of f-ed it up a little bit. And so now there is a reckoning. And I, to your point, I see in the next and I don't even think it's I truly don't think it's five, six years. I'm talking now. And to year two year three year five, the whole area around responsibly gathering data responsibly managing data, responsibly activating data all through this lens of trust and privacy.

That to me is -

Adam Katz

Well, how do you create in your opinion a consortium where brands can help each other then? You know, obviously there's a lot of conversations going on around that. Like, so I've been asking a lot of people today this question around how do you give other information to help someone else when you're actually competitive with them?

Jon Suarez-Davis

Well -

Adam Katz

It's an interesting industry where we all want to sit and make it better but then we're also sometimes hurting ourselves. So how do you kind of balance that dynamic?

Jon Suarez-Davis

Yeah, man, that's a really great question. You got me thinking on so many things like that because the way you phrased that, you know, to your point of coalitions and in my career, we have always had some blockers as far as, you know, how do you get Kellogg's and General Mills in a room? How do you get Coke and Pepsi?

How do you get AT&T and Verizon? You could go on and on. But I think what's different here now, Adam, is that this is about rising the tide of everyone. I mean, there is no, there shouldn't be a competitive blocker to talking about doing what's right, about responsible data, about trust. Right. So you really have me kind of thinking about that. 

I, and again, maybe I'm being a little too Pollyanna but I, I don't see the tension for companies coming together and then saying how is, how are we going to look at data? How is privacy a first right principle no matter how we are, right, we're going to compete on price, we're going to compete on user experience, we’re going to compete on other things.

But this is not a competitive comment or a competitive conversation. This is about fundamentally, we got to make sure everything. I mean, just one key point in that, right now as we stand, 30% of the world is under some form of modern privacy regulation. Right. A modern concept of that is going to be it's 30% today is going to be 40%. It's going to be 50%. It's going to be 80%. If, I mean, if we don't figure this out, this is exponential threat to like, you know, commerce, to like capitalism. I'm not going to go like too academic on it but like I believe that, I truly do.

Adam Katz

Very interesting. And where are you located now?

Jon Suarez-Davis

I am, I live three fourths of the year in Indianapolis, Indiana, smack in the middle of the country. And then the other quarter, I think I did quarters was my metric, I, my wife and our two boys. We live in Michigan on a little island in a lake called Gull Lake, Michigan.

Adam Katz

Wow. So where do you consider yourself from?

Jon Suarez-Davis

I consider myself from Michigan.

Adam Katz

Interesting. OK, and are you a Spartan fan? Or a Wolverine fan?

Jon Suarez-Davis

OK, are you poking the bear? Are you, I think you're poking -

Adam Katz

I’m just asking a question. You guys just beat each other up. So I'm just curious where you're at.

Jon Suarez-Davis

My AMSD, as I mentioned, is a MBA at Ross Graduate. And I am a fanatic, sometimes obnoxious University of Michigan fan. 

Adam Katz

The maize and blue.

Jon Suarez-Davis

Go blue.

Adam Katz

Got it. And when you look at the moment that happened then with them right last week, how would you have handled it?

Jon Suarez-Davis

Well, you know, I'm definitely not at that pay grade and they make some good pay over there. But in all seriousness, well, I feel it was a great game because the outcome. But talk about a shitty way to end, you know that is not, you know, no matter how much I'm not a fan of the team over in East Lansing, there is a respect and there needs to be a decorum right and it's not good, man.

Adam Katz

And I think that's built a lot in what we do here at our company, you know we're focused a lot on on values on principles how you bring those into the market at the speed of today's information.

Jon Suarez-Davis

Yeah.

Adam Katz

I think you've been incredibly, incredibly helpful today in understanding your perspective on the industry. In terms of advice, in closing to anyone listening, what would you say would be your best advice to learn about these topics?

Jon Suarez-Davis

Oh, my gosh. You know, I'm really glad you asked that question, because one of the other persons I just respect immensely in the industry and in the marketing and business is Raja, Rajamannar, the CMO and President of Health Care Division right at MasterCard. And one of the reasons I respect him is he just talks about learning, you know, learn, learn every day.

Make it a part of your routine and books, podcast. 

This one, right? Should listen to you more often. But you know, I'm less about like specifically what, but just that one key takeaway is whatever vehicle forum mechanism learn, keep learning keep. You really got to keep doing that.

Adam Katz

I love that.

Jon Suarez-Davis

If you're not doing that, you really honestly should find another profession.

Adam Katz

Are all your kids going to Michigan or?

Jon Suarez-Davis

No, they're not. We have our oldest, he's a sophomore at Grinnell College in Iowa. He wanted to go small liberal arts. We’ll see what the younger one does, but, yeah.

Adam Katz

Well, listen, it was a lot of fun having you on Breaking Through The Mayhem today. And thank you. It was great to meet you.

Jon Suarez-Davis

Hey, I really appreciate your time man. This has been awesome.

Adam Katz

Thank you.