Rethinking Media Strategy Beyond the Click with AI, First-Party Data, and Customer Segmentation

Discussion with Kip Pogrebenko

In today’s increasingly fragmented media landscape, successful campaigns hinge not on clever copy alone but on razor-sharp customer insight and the smart use of data. Few understand this better than Kip Pogrebenko, CEO and co-founder of Medloaner. Having led data science initiatives at top-tier firms like Omnicom Media Group, played a pivotal role in developing Amazon’s Marketing Cloud (AMC), and built AI tools that streamline hospital supply chains, Pogrebenko has spent his career at the nexus of marketing, AI, and product innovation. In this interview, he breaks down the strategies that helped transform Amazon's advertising capabilities and how these same principles are driving growth for startups today.

Unlocking the Power of First-Party Data

For Pogrebenko, first-party data isn’t just a tactical advantage—it’s the foundation of future-ready marketing. He recalls how the release of Apple’s iOS 14.5, which disabled most ad tracking, exposed the industry’s overreliance on third-party cookies. “There was almost an apocalypse”, he says, referring to the moment when 93% of ad targeting went dark overnight. It served as a stark reminder that strategies built on external data can collapse without warning.

In contrast, first-party data offers control, precision, and long-term value. When companies own their customer data, they dictate how it’s processed, modeled, and activated. This becomes even more powerful when integrated into clean-room environments like Amazon Marketing Cloud (AMC), where external insights can be layered onto internal datasets.

Brands can, for example, upload paid search audiences from Google into AMC and gain a window into how those same users behave across Amazon’s properties. From there, they can use Amazon’s lookalike modeling to scale reach dramatically—“Potentially reaching millions of new shoppers”. As Pogrebenko puts it, this matters because “When people come to Amazon.com, they know what they want to buy”. It’s a level of purchase intent rarely matched on other digital platforms.

Customer Segmentation: The North Star for Growth

Understanding exactly who the customer is—and what they’re willing to pay for—is where meaningful innovation truly begins. Early in his career, Pogrebenko learned this lesson firsthand after building a technically sound product that ultimately failed, not due to flaws in execution but because it didn’t address a clear customer pain point. It wasn’t until he studied strategy at Harvard Business School that he recognized the missing piece: successful product development must be rooted in segmentation, not just features.

Today, his product strategy starts small and focused. “You launch a product to conquer the smallest segment that you have, but also to get those learnings”, he explains. These micro-launches help teams identify what truly drives value, setting the stage for scale.

He applies the same rigor to pricing. Different segments perceive different levels of value—some may pay $100 for one specific feature, while others may only spend $20 for a full suite. “Without understanding this you’d probably shove that customer into the $20-per-month segment and leave revenue on the table”, he notes.

To sharpen this approach, Pogrebenko uses the Jobs to Be Done framework. By quantifying both the importance of a customer problem and their current level of satisfaction with existing solutions, teams can prioritize high-impact features and avoid wasting resources on low-value enhancements.

Bridging Creativity and Data in B2B Advertising

Contrary to popular belief, creativity isn’t the starting point for successful marketing. “Creativity comes second”, Pogrebenko says. Instead, clarity and segmentation lead the way. He recounts testing messaging with a barebones slide—“A white PowerPoint slide with just three words”—and seeing it outperform more polished content, simply because it spoke directly to a known pain point.

However, the B2B environment is rapidly evolving. Pogrebenko observes that younger decision-makers—many raised on TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram—expect the same level of aesthetic quality and storytelling in B2B as they do in consumer marketing. “We call it the gray carpet office world—and it’s dying”, he says, describing the fading dominance of traditional, sterile enterprise branding.

This shift is particularly relevant for mid-market businesses, like auto dealerships, that are increasingly adopting digital strategies. “You have to do B2C strategy because you can find them on streaming TV, on YouTube”, Pogrebenko points out. As the line between B2B and B2C blurs, successful campaigns must combine emotional resonance with analytical precision.

 Operationalizing AI and Breaking Down Silos

While AI offers unprecedented speed and scale, Pogrebenko emphasizes that true transformation begins with internal alignment. “There has to be a single source of truth”, he insists. Without it, even the best technology falters—metrics become inconsistent, teams work in silos, and troubleshooting becomes guesswork.

This shared foundation allowed Pogrebenko and his lean team to develop and launch an entirely new product—Red Flag—in just seven days using internal AI agents. Designed to help users identify behavioral red flags in potential dates, the app blends computer vision with behavioral science and has already begun to evolve through user feedback. “We built it for ourselves and nevertheless we went from scratch to launch in seven days”.

Still, the challenges of deploying AI in real-world environments remain. In one case, an AI-generated video mistakenly displayed “launch of Safe Flag” instead of “Red Flag”. It was a small glitch, but one with outsized implications for brand safety. “That’s what we’re talking about”, Pogrebenko says, underscoring how even minor AI missteps can erode trust.

Compliance also remains a bottleneck. “All messaging in creatives has to all go through legal and compliance”, he adds—especially for companies with strict regulatory oversight. Balancing agility with governance is essential as AI tools become more embedded in marketing and product workflows.

Inside the Data-Driven Mindset Powering Growth

Pogrebenko offers three imperatives for executive leaders:

• Anchor every initiative in customer segmentation—not just marketing, but pricing, product, and messaging.
• Treat first-party data as a core business asset, essential for personalization, attribution, and strategic clarity.
• Prioritize team alignment and data consistency to reduce friction and scale execution.

He likens a high-performing team to a jigsaw puzzle: “Everyone has its own shape, everyone has its own complementary responsibilities. There should be no duplication of efforts”. In this model, innovation becomes a byproduct of collaboration. In short, marketing innovation doesn’t begin with tech. It begins with understanding—of your data, your customer, and your team.

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