Atraxa Grand Unifier

”It’s an honour to travel with you today,” he joked as he led me to the Grand Unifier’s private jet as we struggled to avoid each other’s heaters and mass of possessions packed in three trolleys – laptops, games consoles, toiletries, and almost everything they are required to contain in one tiny box.

A former Microsoft Research executive, Thom Appleton has spent the past 18 months “return-free” travelling to the world’s top tech companies in Singapore and Silicon Valley to pitch their technologies at the global summit run by the World Economic Forum (WEF). In August he wrapped up a European speaking tour hosted by some of the leading tech companies of the day (Twitter, Adobe, Softbank, Google, Intel, Red Bull, etc.), giving a keynote address and accompanying three sessions on how Facebook fits into the digital advertising market and what are the possibilities to use it as a reliable source of advertising data.

Over the months that followed, Appleton joined the WEF in Rotterdam to deliver six sessions on the topic of the digital advertising landscape, which is now poised at the head of the game amongst mediums: everything from TV and movies to a $50 billion “Ad by Design” competition by Facebook to the availability of more data by big players in the market. In the second session, hosted by Fiat, Appleton introduced the range of Facebook advertising measures that are available, which in turn gave an analysis of what these can do to boost the user experience. In the third session, held by Intel, Appleton discussed what the future of mobile computing will hold, the importance of real-time analytics and the future of user interactions, amongst other interesting topics.

The questions and issues presented by the Grand Unifier (photo credit: Jonas Fofang)

Who is this ‘you,’ the Grand Unifier?

I am a serial entrepreneur; I worked for tech giant, Visa, before joining Twitter. I have started businesses that have gone public. And I've also founded brands, sold them and developed them and then launched them again within the internet age.

How did you become involved in this project to share your passion for digital ad measurement?