Brandon Bethea
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About

The person behind the work

Twenty years in marketing data, a family that keeps me grounded, and a few things I do for the joy of it. The career map, mentors and published work are below.

About · outside the office

Designer, musician, dog dad. Data executive.

I've always built a team life beyond the deliverables. Many of the people I hired and led are now some of my oldest friends, and the trust we built outside the office made the work inside it better.

“Be sure you're right, then go ahead.”My dad's rule, and how I've run every job

Brandon playing bass with colleagues at ThinkLA's AdJam in Los Angeles
MusicBandmates at workI've played bass in bands with colleagues at several jobs, most recently Innocean. Here: my POSSIBLE band at ThinkLA's AdJam.
Brandon holding Izzy, his Boston Terrier, in sunglasses
PetsIzzy, research assistantHead of morale. Never missed a deadline.
Painting of Izzy by Brandon
ArtIzzy, painted by me
Brandon and his wife in traditional Korean wedding attire
FamilyMet my wife on the jobAgency life gave me more than colleagues.
POSSIBLE colleagues with their bikes before the coastal team ride
CyclingThe coastal rideA monthly team ride I started to welcome new hires in LA.
Career map · 2001 to 2026

Twenty years turning new marketing data into decisions

I started as a designer, spent seven years in-house in web, email/CRM and UX, then built analytics and intelligence practices at agencies. Each colored bar is a case study; select one to see what it covers.

Insights and intelligenceCompetitive analysis since 2006
Automaker CIAutomaker AI analyst Challenger brand Competitive Scorecard · the method throughout
Measurement and decision scienceWeb analytics and measurement since 2004
Adaptive AudienceAdaptive Aud. Telecom Fuel retail University
Products and customer experienceDesign, CRM, UX and testing since 2001
Ad sales Mobile ML modules

Private case study: select to previewOngoing practiceIn-house years

Insights and intelligenceCompetitive analysis since 2006
Measurement and decision scienceWeb analytics and measurement since 2004
Products and customer experienceDesign, CRM, UX and testing since 2001
2023–2026

Innocean USA

Media intelligence for a global automaker's three brands. My team built the competitive-intelligence system behind its weekly leadership reviews, and I built the first prototype of The Brain, an AI analyst on Microsoft Copilot, then ran point as the team built it out.

Competitive intelligenceAI decision support
2019–2023

Mindshare

WPP's global media agency. Advanced analytics for advertisers in consumer goods, energy, financial services, travel, life sciences and higher education. Business lead for pricing and roadmap on a series of machine-learning modules in Synapse, Mindshare's analytics platform.

Mix modeling and forecastingAnalytics products
2017–2019

Hearts & Science

Omnicom's data-driven media agency. Led marketing sciences for a national telecom with a bi-coastal team of 10: a weighted partnership scorecard, biometric creative research and the change management behind a move to multi-touch attribution.

AttributionCreative research
2015–2017

POSSIBLE

A WPP digital agency. Ran media and analytics for the Los Angeles office. Built a personality-archetype framework for planning pages and offers, proved it with live A/B tests, and won agency investment in a biometric research lab.

Customer research and testingCompetitive benchmarking
2011–2015

Sq1 and Adaptive Audience

Went from freelancer to strategy lead to partner as a ~40-person agency grew to ~140. Created Sq1's SMART™ testing-and-optimization method, and co-founded Adaptive Audience, a privacy-first platform that matched digital media exposure to in-store sales. It was sold with Sq1 to Ansira in 2015. I also ran its co-marketing with ad-tech partners Turn, LiveRamp and Adometry: a CMO guide, partner case studies and conference talks. The published results: +30% return on ad spend for a big-box retailer (LiveRamp) and 86% of its attributed revenue traced to display (Adometry, now part of Google).

Online-to-offline measurementBuilding and selling a business
2000–2011

ZAAZ and the early years

Designer at Hancock Advertising, then seven years in-house at Tyler Junior College, Cox Communications and SuperPages.com (Verizon's directory business), then digital media at Vertis. At ZAAZ, a Seattle digital agency, I ran a global smartphone maker's A/B testing program across seven markets.

Design, email/CRM and UXWeb analyticsGlobal testing
Who taught me

Mentors and influences

The leaders and authors behind how I work, in the order they shaped it.

  1. 2000s
    Steve Krug and Flint McGlaughlin · books and coursesWatch real people, then ask why.Started my obsession with usability research, and became the base of Sq1's optimization method.
  2. 2004–2006
    Vel Williamson and Nagesh Tata · Cox CommunicationsProve it, then sell it.Vel handed a designer a business question about online sales. Nagesh taught me to win support with forecasts and comparisons.
  3. 2007
    Jason Burby and Shane Atchison · Actionable Web AnalyticsAnalytics counts when someone acts on it.Their book led me to ZAAZ.
  4. 2011–2015
    Ernie Capobianco and Judge Graham · Sq1Treat the idea like a business.Took me from freelancer to strategy lead to partner, and taught me to fund, sell and exit a start-up.
  5. 2015–2017
    Jason Carmel and Dmitria Burby · POSSIBLEGive good people a bigger stage.Jason had been my advocate since ZAAZ; Dmitria helped Los Angeles take on the agency's largest accounts.
  6. 2019–2023
    Ikechi Okoronkwo and Fabio Giraldo · MindshareTurn models into products.Sharpened my advanced analytics and machine learning, and taught me the product marketing and business sense behind Synapse.
  7. 2023–2026
    Ben Gogley and Cindy Scott · Innocean USALead with the story leaders need.Coached me on executive narratives, how the auto industry really works and how to lead a team through it.
Actionable Web Analytics cover
On the shelf · 2007
Actionable Web AnalyticsJason Burby and Shane Atchison. One of the books I learned the craft from.
 Scale with Speed cover
On the shelf · 2018
Scale with SpeedJudge Graham, my partner in building Adaptive Audience, on growing a company to an exit.
MECLABS
On the shelf · course
Become a Marketer-PhilosopherFlint McGlaughlin, MECLABS Institute. Where I learned conversion optimization.
On the record

Writing, talks and recognition

Ad Age
Byline · 2017
Psycho-Social Seduction: 5 Triggers for Consumer Persuasion ↗

Ad Age, Agency Viewpoint

Total Retail
Byline · 2014
How Data Can Bridge Retail's Digital Divide ↗

Total Retail

Turnwith Sq1
Guide · 2014
The CMO's Guide to Data-Driven Marketing (PDF) ↗

Built by Turn's team from my campaign-planning process for a retail client; published by Turn with support from Sq1. Launch infographic (PDF) ↗

LiveRampAdometry
Partner case studies · 2014
LiveRamp and Adometry (by Google)

Retail case studies quoting me as President of Adaptive Audience.
LiveRamp case study (PDF) ↗
Adometry case study (PDF) ↗

LiveRamp RampUp
Talks · 2012–2014
RampUp 2014 panel: How Top Brands Use Data Onboarding ↗

Also XCMO Summit (co-presented with LiveRamp) and Conversion Conference West (with a client)

AdweekMediaPost
Press
Coverage of the agencies and work my teams sold and built

Adweek profile of Sq1, 2014 ↗
MediaPost Media Agency of the Year: Mindshare, 2019 ↗
MediaPost Media Agency of the Year: Mindshare, 2022 ↗

Want the full case studies?

They name clients and show results, so I share them with people evaluating me for a role.

Request case-study accessConnect on LinkedIn ↗