Adam Heimlich's Journey From Advertising Skeptic to Evangelist

The former hip-hop writer put on a suit to help companies adapt

By Catherine Perloff

Originally published by AdExchanger, Oct 24th, 2022

But at the start of his career, Heimlich thought advertising was stodgy. “It wasn’t full of young people; there was no digital,” Heimlich said, describing the crowd in 1992 at McCann Erickson, where he worked as a temp. “That generation above me seemed more conservative.”

Heimlich grew up in a family he described as “anti-capitalist and leftist,” and he’s a proud member of Gen X, whose hero was the late musician Kurt Cobain. Music writing seemed like a more philosophically aligned profession than advertising, so for a decade, Heimlich covered the ins and outs of hip-hop and rap at his first full-time job for the New York Press and later as a freelancer.

But as he entered his 30s and was looking for a more “adult job” after a scuttled book proposal, Heimlich turned to advertising, where he knew his skills as a writer would be valuable. He put them to work right away at his first advertising job: search marketing for an early internet startup.

Being clever with words got Heimlich far. Google, at the time, prevented advertisers from using the word “best” in order to prevent false claims. But Heimlich got the tech giant to carve out a campaign for one of the startup’s clients, Citibank, which featured the keywords, “Choose the credit card that’s best for you.”

“I made Citibank a shitload of money,” Heimlich said.

He discovered that his skills as a music writer were relevant for an ad exec. “All media is really the study of hits, the study of what gets a response and the study of what gets an audience,” Heimlich said. “That’s true of whatever music you love, all the way to ads.”

When he could apply that expertise to companies, he lost his Cobain-like disdain for the profession. “I found that I really enjoyed working for a big advertiser,” Heimlich said. “Far from selling out, I could help these companies adapt to new technology.”

Big mistake

“Not working in business sooner to avoid entrepreneurialism,” Heimlich said. “It was something I was reluctant to do. I thought it would change my identity.”

Lesson learned

It was harder than Heimlich thought to raise money for his startup, with investors more interested in seeing profits than merely a compelling idea. “The less you need them, the more they want you,” he said.

How he got the gig

To get his first advertising-adjacent job, he leaned on a friend working at startup Partsearch Technologies. The friend tipped Heimlich off to when a smoke break was happening, allowing Heimlich to run to the office directly from a job fair and successfully pitch himself.

Pro tip

Be humble. “I was always the kind of person who nobody could tell you anything,” Heimlich said. “My tip is don’t be like that.”

Adam Heimlich was an early adopter of tools that have since become mainstream in digital advertising, founding Horizon Media’s programmatic desk in 2014.

As CEO of Chalice Custom Algorithms, he helps brands carefully assess their media spending, a fine-tooth-comb strategy that is only just starting to be in vogue in programmatic advertising. He’s also become an advocate for the ad-tech industry, testifying before Congress about Google undermining competition.