Dan Gardner thinks the word “transformation” has become too commonplace. The executive chairman of Code and Theory, which he co-founded in 2001, has been around long enough to see all kinds of transformation, to the point that he views a willingness to adopt new technology and upend old ways of operation as mere table stakes in an ever-evolving industry. 

At the start of 2023, Code and Theory helped Yeti design a calendar platform for customers to curate their outdoor plans for the year. Each experience was personalized to the individual’s preferences and culminated in a video that highlighted the events they could look forward to. Nearly one in 10 users added events to their calendars, generating more than 200 million impressions and further bolstering Yeti’s association with outdoor adventure.

Code and Theory also helped small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) see real results through advertising opportunities on Amazon Ads. The agency created a campaign called “Ads That Work as Hard as You Do,” seeking the difficult task of ingratiating an e-commerce giant with mom-and-pop shops. But the effort paid off, resulting in 26% of SMB sales coming directly from the campaign. 

And to promote the Europe-based gambling platform Tipico in Ohio, Code and Theory sought to speak the local language. So the agency used AI to create synthetic Ohioan personas infused with local traditions and rivalries, such as Jay “The VIP Bettor,” Alex “The Ambitious Amateur” and Josh “The Social Bettor.” The campaign, dubbed “Bet Like You’re From Ohio,” connected digital, social and traditional media with key moments for local sports fans, including the opening of the MLB season and the Super Bowl. Within a month, Tipico reached 57% of its annual registrations target.

The Ohioan personas are an early manifestation of what Gardner calls “fourth-party data,” which is a dataset made synthetically by AI from pre-existing first- and third-party data. The new information is intended to be predictive of what consumers will want in the future, as opposed to reflecting what they have already wanted, which is the case with first- and third-party data. 

Gardner is as big an AI enthusiast as you will find in the ad industry. At Code and Theory, this interest is now shared by most employees, half of whom are creatives, and the other half technologists. Together, they are pushing the boundaries for how AI is to be used in the advertising industry, with services from developers such as OpenAI, Midjourney and ElevenLabs at their disposal.

“Business transformation is AI transformation,” Gardner said, though, of course, he’d prefer to use a different word.