Matthew C. Doherty’s EXTE Mission: Less Hype, More Impact.

If you’ve been anywhere near ad tech in the last decade, you know the drill—every company promises "game-changing innovation" while quietly repackaging the same old tech with a fresh coat of buzzwords. It’s a world where AI is the solution to everything, even when no one can quite explain what it’s actually doing. The industry, to put it bluntly, is drowning in redundant technology, overcomplicated supply chains, and companies that all seem to be solving the same problem… badly.

Enter Mat Doherty, a veteran of the ad wars who’s been in the trenches for 15+ years—long enough to have seen DMPs come and go, watched programmatic evolve from a curiosity into a behemoth, and now, staring down the next big industry shift: making ad tech actually work.

Now, as CEO of EXTE North America, he’s not here to push another “revolutionary” tech stack that doesn’t deliver. His approach? "Listen. Be additive. Don’t waste time solving problems that already have solutions (unless we can do it better). Build products that actually create meaningful value." A refreshingly direct philosophy in an industry where most execs would rather die than admit their platform isn’t the second coming of ad tech salvation.

Slicing Through the AI Noise (Because Someone Has To)

Spend ten minutes at any industry conference, and you’ll hear “AI” repeated more than a parrot in a data center. But how much of it actually means something?

"We’ve heard the word AI more times than anyone can probably count at this point," Matthew admits. "There’s a lot of confusion around how AI can practically be applied to media execution."

And he's right. Most AI talk in ad tech is about as meaningful as a politician's campaign promise—big on theatrics, light on results. The real question isn’t whether AI can be used, but how it actually moves the needle for marketers.

Matthew’s goal at EXTE is to “sift through some of that clutter and really help explain on behalf of our demand-side partners what we can do for them, and how AI can actually enable better campaign performance.” That means better creative execution, better media performance, and real optimization that isn’t just an algorithm running on hopes and prayers.

Contextual Advertising That Doesn’t Suck

Everyone in ad tech says they do contextual. Most of them are lying—or at least wildly overstating their capabilities.

"Contextual was sort of the topic du jour, but we’ve been building our solution for over ten years," Matthew explains.

EXTE’s approach to contextual targeting isn’t just about reading words on a page and making an educated guess about content relevance. It’s a multi-stage analysis that also looks at embedded media—video, images, everything that actually contributes to what a page is really about. Instead of blindly assuming a page is brand-safe because it contains the word “sports,” EXTE’s semantic methodology understands the broader context, ensuring brands aren’t accidentally serving ads next to content that torches their reputation.

This isn’t about just staying compliant (though that’s a growing nightmare all on its own)—it’s about actually delivering ads in the right place, at the right time, with the right context.

The Plan for North America: Less Talking, More Building

EXTE is already a powerhouse in Spain, LATAM, and Europe, but launching in North America is a different beast entirely. And Matthew knows that.

"There’s a lot we’ll be able to borrow from EXTE’s global success," he says, "but our approach in North America will be completely unique and customized to address the needs of this market."

Why? Because North America is a madhouse. It’s a bloated, fragmented, hyper-competitive market where every marketer is bombarded with ‘solutions’ that mostly just add to the noise.

"We understand that the needs of marketers will vary from country to country, and our approach at EXTE is to develop bespoke solutions to solve those needs. Our biggest strength is our ability to be flexible and nimble. We have the resources to build products quickly, and our guiding principle in North America will be to develop products that are complementary and fit a need rather than trying to retrofit a client’s needs into an existing set of solutions."

Translation? No one-size-fits-all nonsense. No forcing clients into a pre-built system that doesn’t actually serve their business. Just actual solutions tailored to real problems.

Cutting Through the Ad Tech Chaos

Ask Matthew about the biggest challenge in ad tech today, and he doesn’t sugarcoat it.

"The US market is especially crowded," he says. "There’s a lot of redundant technology, with too many companies seemingly able to do all the same things. I empathize with marketers and publishers now more than ever, because in my 15+ years in this industry, I don’t think it’s ever been more difficult to sift through the BS and truly understand how some of these technologies can best be utilized."

That’s the irony of modern ad tech. The industry promised automation and efficiency. Instead, it delivered layers upon layers of complexity, inefficiency, and intermediaries skimming value at every turn.

At EXTE, Matthew wants to actually simplify the process—something most platforms talk about but rarely accomplish.

"We develop technology that streamlines the ad ecosystem and all its component parts—creative, ad format, ad placement, publisher, screen, outcome—in a way that is structured, informed by real-time data, and completely customized to fit how your specific business operates."

Privacy, Compliance, and Not Creeping Out Consumers

Data privacy regulations aren’t going away. If anything, they’re about to get even tighter. And most ad tech companies are scrambling to either:

A) Develop some alternative identity resolution strategy,
B) Shift to a fully contextual-first approach,
C) A little bit of both.

Matthew’s take? Balance is key.

"I personally feel the best compromise here for the publisher, the marketer, and the consumer is to strike a balance where privacy is being respected, but there is still some level of personalization to make an ad relevant to the person who is seeing it," he says.

In other words: Make ads better, not creepier. EXTE is building solutions that drive results while staying legally compliant—without resorting to the “let’s follow this person around the internet” playbook.

Final Thoughts: The Future of EXTE and Ad Tech

If Matthew has his way, EXTE won’t just be another ad tech player trying to survive in a sea of sameness—it’ll be a change agent in digital advertising.

"We are doing this by applying a unique and customized approach to product development and client strategy, and using that strategy to inform the technology that we build so that it can be sophisticated, flexible, and solve real problems."

His favorite word since joining? “Transformative.”

"If we execute our vision properly, I’ll sleep well knowing we lived up to that title."

And if that means shaking things up and cutting through the noise, well—that’s exactly the point.