The Secret to... Standing Out from the Crowd with Phil Schraeder, GumGum

The Secret to... Standing Out From The Crowd

with Phil Schraeder, CEO of GumGum

Join us for another career culture deep dive as we dig into identity, sexuality, and standing out in the crowd with special guest Phil Schraeder, CEO of contextual advertising technology leader, GumGum! Phil spills all on his coming out journey, how to stay accountable in the workplace, and just how many bright and colourful shirts he owns...

Disclaimer: When we say off the record we mean it; we're touching on sensitive issues and hard to talk about topics. The topics discussed in today’s episode are sexuality, workplace equality, and representation of non-majority groups. Please listen responsibly and find a list of resources and links below.

Episode Resources

Episode Transcript

The Human Rights Campaign - https://www.hrc.org

Stonewall UK - https://www.stonewall.org.uk

LA LGBT Centre - https://lalgbtcenter.org

Mind Out LGBTQ Mental Health Service - https://mindout.org.uk

Interested in appearing on our podcast as a guest? We're looking for season four stars to spotlight – if you're up for authentic, open conversation and ready to share your brilliant thoughts and ideas, get in touch today!

Listen to more episodes

About Phil and GumGum

Phil Schraeder is an executive and recognized thought leader in digital advertising and contextual technologies. As Chief Executive Officer of GumGum, the leading contextual intelligence company, Phil Schraeder believes that we don’t need to know who people are in order to deliver relevant, engaging and effective digital advertising. As the CEO, he is responsible for GumGum’s success in leading the industry in privacy-first, contextual intelligence technologies based on a consumer’s mindset, and not their personal data. Phil is passionate about making advertising experiences better for consumers by ushering the industry into mindset-first, privacy-forward solutions in an exciting and fast-moving digital ecosystem.

An advocate for LGBTQ+ equality, Phil lives by the mantra, “Don’t spend time with anyone or anywhere you can’t be your authentic self.”

GumGum is a contextual-first, global digital advertising platform that captures people’s attention, without the use of personal data. We believe that a digital advertising ecosystem based on understanding a consumer’s active frame of mind rather than behaviour builds a more equitable and safer future for consumers, publishers and advertisers alike. Founded in 2008, GumGum is headquartered in Santa Monica, California and operates in 19 markets worldwide.

GumGum - gumgum.com

Connect with Phil on LinkedIn - linkedin.com/in/philschraeder

< Older Post

Newer Post >

More from our team & client partners

The Credibility Premium: Why AI has just made riding solo impossibly expensive

August 14, 2026

For the last twenty years or so, brands have been rightly obsessed with their search rankings. But in the time it takes for consumers to completely reinvent their online research habits – which it turns out wasn’t very long at all – it has become clear SEO was the easy part.

Creator marketing: The growth engine brands can no longer afford to ignore

August 13, 2026

There was a time when creator partnerships were considered a ‘nice-to-have’ in supporting a marketing campaign. They were great for achieving an extra few likes and comments across social platforms, but rarely were creators considered central to an ad campaign, never mind a long-term growth engine.

Rob Hall, CEO of Parallel: “Digital Twins and ‘Customer Suitability’ can power better decisions in media activation”

August 12, 2026

While brand safety and brand suitability help advertisers avoid harmful environments and align campaigns with brand values, Customer Suitability asks whether a video placement is right for the customer viewing it. Parallel combines proprietary AI, large-scale data sets and digital twins – synthetic replicas of consumer

Andy Squire, Brave Ads: “AI replacing traditional Search? It’s not as simple as that”

August 10, 2026

NDA spoke recently with Andy Squire, RVP Sales EMEA at Brave Ads, about the rapid evolution of the Search marketplace and how marketers can reassess their strategy for discoverability…

Brandtech’s Jellyfish Launches AI Ads Optimisation in Share of Model™

By Ren Bowman • August 6, 2026

Jellyfish, a global digital marketing leader within The Brandtech Group, today announced AI Ads Optimisation, a major expansion of the paid media optimisation capabilities within its proprietary Share of Model™ Platform. The update extends beyond the existing Google Ads integration for Performance Max to generate media

Tinder ‘Dump Traditional Dating’: Alternative fourplay

By Ren Bowman • August 6, 2026

Oh the joys of online dating…are there any? Not according to many of those we know but maybe, just maybe Tinder has the answer, with its Double Date feature.

How adtech CEOs should use LinkedIn in 2026: a visibility playbook for the AI world

July 25, 2026

Everyone knows that CEOs should be using LinkedIn. But so often it’s something they promise they’ll get around to after the board meeting, after the investor update, product launch, client pitch, or one of a hundred other urgent tasks competing for attention. It's time to stop treating LinkedIn as a nice to have.

Stop the scroll: how to win at SEO in the age of AI search

May 14, 2026

How people seek and find information, optimising for the front page of search engines is no longer optimal. GEO has made technical SEO more important than ever.

Journalism and Gen-Z: What is the future of the profession, and will AI be friend or foe?

May 14, 2026

As of 2026, approximately 45% of workers have AI anxiety: they fear that in the near future AI will make their job obsolete. From the perspective of a Gen-Z student beginning to consider what her career might look like, Tabitha Bonner looks at the adapting role of journalists.