Advertising Executive & Strategic Advisor

Industry
leader.
Straight talker.

Fifteen years building and leading businesses at the intersection of advertising, technology, and global markets. Founder, operator, and commercial thinker who cuts through complexity to what actually works.

Campaign 40 Over 40 Top Women in Ad Tech Ex-CEO SmartAssets Oxford · MBA
Lindsay Hong

What I do

Fifteen years of building, leading, and getting things done.

01
Advertising Effectiveness

Bridging the creative/media disconnect. Content at scale without the waste. What actually drives commercial performance for brands like P&G, Volkswagen, Unilever, and Estée Lauder.

02
Leadership & Ventures

Founding and scaling businesses inside large organisations. Women in leadership. Risk-taking in innovation. The realities — and rewards — of building something new.

03
Technology & Transformation

What actually happens when organisations adopt new technology — the politics, the procurement, the gap between the pitch and reality. With a sharp view on AI in particular.

04
Global & APAC Markets

Cross-border strategy, multilingual content at scale, and deep APAC and China market expertise. Oxford-trained, Mandarin-fluent.

05
Media & Communications

Regular contributor to The Drum, Campaign, LBB, Digiday, and AdExchanger. Podcast guest, keynote speaker, and go-to voice for journalists covering advertising and technology.

In her words
"It's not just DCO that's dead — so is any system that's fundamentally template-based and not predictive." — Lindsay Hong

Writing & Media

Sharp thinking on advertising, technology, and leadership.

The Drum
How to make the perfect AI prompt: add plenty of data

Why structured data — not clever wording — is what makes AI prompts actually work in a brand context.

Read →
Digiday
Do agencies wonder whether generative AI leads to more wasted ad spend?

On the production wastage hiding in plain sight — why nobody talks about all those DCO versions that never get used.

Read →
The Media Leader
How SmartAssets is using data to bridge media and creative

On why 40% of assets are the wrong format before they even go live — and how AI-powered tagging is fixing the gap between creative and media teams.

Read →
LBB Online
From full-service to full-stack: building the future of brand tech

On building SmartAssets inside Stagwell — solving real-world marketing problems that are a "ball-ache" rather than chasing the sexy sell.

Read →
The Drum Podcast
As agentic AI dawns — who owns the future?

Who holds power as AI becomes autonomous: the brands, the platforms, or the operators building the systems?

Listen →
The Marketing Cloud
Lindsay Hong on the genesis of SmartAssets

"I'm optimistic about the future of AI and advertising." On building SmartAssets inside Stagwell, winning a $1M Shark Tank, and what comes next for creative effectiveness.

Read →
The Drum
Generative AI still offers undiscovered opportunities to online advertisers

The content wasteland isn't AI's fault — it's volume-led thinking. On why the real opportunity in gen-AI is data-driven quality, not automated quantity.

Read →
VideoWeek
Why brands which use their data most effectively will win with AI

AI levels the creative playing field — but winners will be brands that interrogate their first-party data to inform what gets made, not just how fast.

Watch →

Speaking

On stage, on the record.

Jun 2026
Brand Innovators Marketing Leadership Summit
SXSW London · Moderator, Long-Term Brand Building & Creative Effectiveness
Marketing
Mar 2026
Marketing Procurement iQ Europe
London · Speaker & panellist on AI governance and tech procurement
Ad Tech
Feb 2026
Brand Innovators Dublin
Guinness Storehouse · Moderator, Creativity That Grows Summit
Brand
Nov 2025
Brand Innovators x HSBC — Building Brands with Purpose, Creativity & Emerging Tech
HSBC HQ, London · Moderator, Speaking Human: Creating Content That Moves, Inspires and Drives Trust
Brand
Jun 2025
Brand Innovators Marketing Leadership Summit London
All Star Lanes, Brick Lane · Hallucination-Free: Building AI We Can Actually Trust
AI
Apr 2025
Brand Innovators x IPG — Evolution of Media, Marketing & Creativity
IPG HQ, London · Moderator, The Art of Effective Creativity: Shaping Meaningful Brand Experience
Creative
2025
Campaign In-Housing Summit
London · Panellist, The Future of In-Housing
Leadership
Nov 2024
AdTech Connect — AI in AdTech: Powering the Future of Advertising
Assembly Europe, Southwark · Panellist, AI trends in the AdTech industry
Ad Tech
2024
VideoWeek — New Video Frontiers
London · Interview on data, AI and brand competitiveness
Ad Tech
2023
VideoWeek — Roadmap
London · Interview on AI and creative effectiveness
AI · Creative
Invite me to speak

Recognition

A few highlights.

2024
Campaign 40 Over 40
Campaign UK
2024
Top Women in Media & Ad Tech
AdMonsters
2024
Performance Marketing Awards
Finalist
2022
Stagwell Shark Tank Winner
$1M funding · SmartAssets

Schedule

Book a call.

Choose a time that works for you. My calendar will only show you when I'm free — nothing else is visible.

Let's work together.

Available for speaking engagements, media interviews, advisory roles, and strategic partnerships across the UK and Europe.

Details

Based
London, United Kingdom
Speaking enquiries
UK & Europe