Salt Media's Jordan Bortolotti on seizing the revolutionary moment

Like their partners in the Canadian news industry, the country’s media agencies are undergoing unprecedented transformation. The National Post is holding conversations with leaders of Canada’s largest agencies on the fast-changing fundamentals. This week, Rebecca Harris speaks to Jordan Bortolotti, co-founder of media services and technology company Nectar First (N1), which was recently acquired by Salt XC, a media and experience agency. Bortolotti was named president of Salt Media and remains CEO of Nectar First (a division of Salt Media):

What are your top priorities in your new role as president of Salt Media?

I see a once-in-a-generation opportunity. With consolidation among the media-holding companies, we’re seeing declining trust — and their model is stressed. Our vision is to build a hybrid model that puts clients first and democratizes technology like AI rather than gatekeeping. We believe in building inside our clients’ business to help them create competitive advantage and power the next generation of media.

We have two brands: Salt is our full-service hybrid media agency built for 2030. Nectar builds the technology backbone — AI agents, workflow automation, measurement products like our next generation AI-powered MMM (mixed media modelling) and an ROI forecasting tool. We’re doing a lot of work with AI as it pertains to media planning, buying and optimizing. Together, we’re a new kind of media group: fully integrated, tech-enabled and designed to scale globally. So, I’m trying to build a culture, both internally and with our clients, to embrace this revolutionary time.

How are you integrating AI and where do you see it making the biggest impact in media planning and buying?

AI is not just a buzzword for us — it’s already in production. We’ve built and shipped an AI Agent Layer that handles everything from creative production and audience segmentation to trafficking, campaign optimization, measurement, quality assurance and governance. It’s live today with clients across categories like CPG, retail and pets.

Looking ahead, I think AI is going to 10 times the output of human media teams. It’s really good at automating the work people don’t like to do, so they can focus on the work they do like to do. My vision is a hybrid world where we have creative and strategic thinkers plugged into systems that help us work faster, deploy more personalized, strategic marketing communications and tackle our clients’ diverse business challenges. Previously, we’ve been limited by how much capacity our human beings can work on their business.

For us, hybridity means keeping humans in the loop but scaling our expertise, so every single client gets the benefit of our smartest thinkers. We also know that robots make mistakes. Part of our vision for the future is allowing human beings to supervise, enhance and continue adding to the world of AI. Our flywheel includes multiple checkpoints to keep our AI agents on track.

I do believe that we’ll be able to take on more work for less cost. One example is what we’re doing in media planning. We built a fully automated media planner that’s integrated into several major platforms, and we train it on our clients’ data. What’s interesting is what used to take agencies weeks, we’re now doing in a matter of seconds. It gets us 80 per cent of the way there and then humans do the 20 per cent, the hard work — looking at it and thinking strategically.

With so many platforms fighting for consumer attention — from social media to streaming services — what’s helping brands break through today?

There’s a systemic shift happening; we’ve moved into an incredibly fragmented world where attention is fractured. At the same time, we have content overload. There are so many things happening in so many different feeds, all at the same time.

We have focused on two key areas. First, we believe live experiences and events are going to become much more prominent for brands. So, we’ve separated our business into two groups: experiences and media. We think experiences — tied to carefully targeted and placed media, with strong measurement capabilities — are going to be a unique offering and a way to break through in the future. In a world where we can easily generate AI videos, I think there will be a swing the other way. People are going to crave authentic, real human experiences.

Secondly, there is no longer “One message to hit them all.” We need to break through during the times and places where people are paying attention, using storytelling tactics and entertainment tailored to their needs. The everyday consumer is so used to seeing a personalized feed — whether it’s in their Netflix, YouTube or TikTok algorithm — that when an advertiser tries to infiltrate or hang out in that ecosystem, it can be awkward if you don’t do it authentically and don’t move at a speed that consumers are used to, with a cultural lens that consumers expect.

Our client Kraft Heinz has done an incredible job of doing marketing that matters. One example is the ‘Wienie 500,’ where Oscar Mayer Wienermobiles raced ahead of the Indy 500. It came out of their internal group and their CMO, Todd Kaplan, who is a visionary creative. This became a must-watch event. It’s a very short news cycle — these things come and go in 24 hours — but the impressions they were able to generate, and the brand love they were able to build, were huge. For brands, it’s about understanding the community — like racing fans — looking at your brand assets and where you can authentically play, and the Wienermobile is a perfect example of that.

Can you share your predictions for what’s next for the industry?

Retail media is powering a third wave of digital, alongside search and social. The media world has focused a lot on following people around the internet — building, tracking and selling profiles to advertisers. Now, we’re moving from identity to opportunity — not to follow individuals personally, but to focus on the opportunities when people are making purchase decisions. Retailers have been successful at monetizing their data and creating multi-billion-dollar advertising products, and that’s just the beginning. We’re going to see banks and financial institutions enter this space and put out compelling media offerings. I think we’ll see anyone that owns the point of sale or transaction get into the space. We’re calling it retail media, but it’s more about commerce media or unified media.

As we enter the age of AI, it will become almost impossible for consumers to know what’s real versus generated. So, another trend that’s going to be prominent is this idea of live moments in the real world. A great example is our current fan zone experience at Rogers Stadium. Consumers can film and share their live experiences at the event, and we’re able to create a curated, customized video that blends their content with real, authentic footage from that day at the concert. This custom video can then be shared with their friends.

We talk a lot about people as media. In a new world that’s a sharing economy and has endless amounts of content, people become your greatest and most important sources of media because they’re at your event with their cellphones. They’re capturing and posting it organically online, and as a brand, you’re able to intercept those moments of brand love and amplify them.

Read the rest of the series of conversations with leaders of Canada’s largest media agencies on where the business is going next: 

• Dentsu CEO extols the ‘power of compassion’ in reaching consumers
• Media Experts’ CEO on the evolution of attention
• Havas Media exec touts support for local news
• ‘Hoping there will be an evolution’: Havas Media exec touts support for local news
• GroupM Canada CEO on making advertising better, for everyone
• Jungle Media’s Brock Leeson on the might of local media
• Horizon Media Canada GM on the rewards of taking risks
• PHD Canada philosophy: ‘Creativity can drive disproportionate growth’
• How marketers can reach Gen Z parents: Empathy
• Barlow Media founder on consumer inclusion: ‘Relatable is so important’
• Karine Courtemanche on finding the path to where the consumer is going to be
• Initiative Canada’s CEO on earning consumers’ attention
• Adviso CEO Elizabeth Henry on the end of short-termism
• Cairns Oneil’s president on building growth in a sluggish economy
• Wavemaker Canada CEO on thriving in these troubled times
• Local news ‘matters to people,’ iProspect West’s managing director says
• Fuse Create VP on getting brands to ‘wow’ in these ‘tumultuous times’
• Touché/Omnicom exec says 2024 ‘an inflection point’ for media biz
• The Courage agency’s Rami Dudin on the immortality of big ideas
• Publicis Media’s David Rusli touts ‘shoppable moments’
• GroupM’s Urania Agas on brand love – and longevity

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