Mimetic Desire (ft. Jonah Goodhart, CEO of Mobian)

In this episode of AdTech AdTalk, hosts Adam Heimlich and Gareth Glaser are joined by the legendary Jonah Goodhart, founder and CEO of Mobian and former founder of Moat. Jonah shares his perspective on the ad tech industry, the power of storytelling, and why he believes the people in advertising are fundamentally good.

0:36 Welcome Jonah Goodhart, Founder & CEO of Mobian
2:25 Why People Love the Ad Industry
5:05 AI, Optimization, and the Limits of Human Storytelling
7:20 "Save the Cat": How AI Unearths Subconscious Storytelling Formulas
10:48 The Human Element: What AI Can't Replicate
13:35 The "Chinese Room" Analogy for AI Comprehension
14:44 Mimetic Desire: Are Humans Just Imitators?
16:55 Jonah on Starting Moat While Raising Four Kids Under Five
20:33 A Healthy Perspective on Competition in Ad Tech
26:21 Jonah’s Top Advice for Selling to Marketers: "Go Have 800 Meetings"
31:56 Why Publishers Are Open to New Narratives Like "Agentic"
35:28 How Mobian Solves Content Demonetization for Publishers and Advertisers
41:32 Deconstructing the Hype Around "Agentic Media"
42:42 Jonah Defines Agentic AI: Autonomous Reasoning with a Feedback Loop
49:44 Agentic Systems as the End of Logging Into Multiple Platforms
55:27 AI's Future: A Technological Shift as Big as Mobile
59:46 The Key to Success: Solving Tactical, Real-World Business Problems