Eric Vissers at a Glance
Role: VP Marketing, GLAD TO BE (formerly drtv.agency)
Co-Founder: ADER Edge
Current Focus: Growth Marketing, Media Strategy, AI-Powered Data Analysis
Location: Berlin, Germany
Marketing Experience: 20+ Years Across International Markets
AI Tools of Choice: Claude and ChatGPT
Biggest AI Superpower: Turning Complex Data into Actionable Marketing Insights
Marketing Belief: “AI is the co-pilot: it cannot make the final decisions.”
Biggest AI Opportunity: Separating Causation from Correlation in Marketing Performance
AI Pet Peeve: AI-Generated Content Still Needs Human Judgment
“AI helps our teams dig deeper into the data faster, and spend more time advising our clients.”
Eric Vissers has spent more than 20 years helping digital-first businesses grow through data-driven marketing strategies, media planning, and international market expansion. His career spans performance marketing, business development, creative production, and strategic consulting, working with brands across industries and global markets. As AI becomes increasingly important in marketing, his experience offers a practical perspective on how agencies can use emerging technologies to turn complex information into meaningful business insights.
Today, as VP Marketing at GLAD TO BE (formerly drtv.agency) and Co-Founder of ADER Edge, Eric combines strategic marketing expertise with a strong interest in AI-powered workflows and audience intelligence. His work involves developing growth strategies, connecting insights across marketing channels, and helping businesses make more informed decisions. At GLAD TO BE, a media agency combining brand thinking with performance marketing, this means using data and technology to improve how campaigns are planned, evaluated, and optimized.
Rather than viewing AI simply as a tool for generating content, Eric Vissers sees its greatest value in helping marketing teams analyze data, challenge assumptions, and strengthen strategic decision-making. In this interview, he shares how his team uses Claude, ChatGPT, and MCP-connected workflows to accelerate audience research, improve media recommendations, and deliver actionable insights to clients — while explaining why critical thinking and human oversight remain essential.
Q&A
Which AI tools are most valuable to your team today?
Where has AI delivered the clearest productivity gain so far? The tools we use at the agency vary in strength and capability. But if I had to name two, it would be the most obvious ones: Claude and ChatGPT. The biggest gain for us is reading data. Our daily business consists of crunching numbers. Be it target audience insights, brand lift studies, search volume impact or campaign analysis, we run layers of cross-referencing data to separate either causation or a correlation in the activities we do for our clients. AI helps our teams dig deeper into the data faster, and spend more time advising our clients.
Can you share one example where AI improved a workflow, campaign, or client outcome?
Too many to choose from. But one case pops up every time when i get asked this question: when we pull target audience data from a global market research and audience intelligence platform, we use a specific framework to search it and present our findings to the client. Not too long ago, this process used to take quite some time. With a direct MCP connection with Claude, we can run these reports covering brand discovery and media consumption, and then calculate the ratio showcasing which channel combination will generate the most impact when run together. This is an absolute client pleaser, because it is also mapped against the full customer journey, with recommendations on how to communicate at every step of the funnel, based on synthetic target audience interviews.
How has AI changed the way your team approaches creative or strategic decision-making?
AI has allowed us to tackle strategic challenges from different viewpoints. The tools give us the chance to challenge our own assumptions and evaluate a problem from different angles, widening our vantage point and, at times, that extra creative spark we need. Take the synthetic target audience approach I mentioned: even though it is not qualitatively the same as conducting direct audience interviews, it still gives us a direction, grounded in consumer insights from more than 1,000 to 3,000 respondents.
How are clients responding to AI being used in your agency’s workflows and delivery process?
So far, knock on wood, it’s been positive. We’re pretty sure they use a lot of it on their side too. What they see is that have been quick and consistent in our deliveries, and as long as this continues, I expect they’ll stay happy.
What guardrails or best practices are most important for responsible AI use in your team?
First, does the task really need AI to solve? We want to make sure our team doesn’t lose that critical thinking. Second, is the output generated useful to the client, to the company, to your own credibility. And finally, AI is the co-pilot: it cannot make the final decisions.
Where do you see the biggest opportunity for AI in marketing agencies over the next 12 months?
At the speed we are moving now, I see AI working harder on data, using various methods to separate causation from correlation in the campaigns agencies run. That’s driven by growing interest in the short- and long-term impact of marketing, and in identifying the levers that create the most impact, using approaches such as MMM. From a creative standpoint, the opportunity lies in using it well: we’re seeing more AI-generated creative running on billboards and TV screens, and don’t get me started on digital assets. Some of it is getting unbearable to see. 🙂
Final Thoughts
Throughout the interview, Eric Vissers presents AI as a practical tool for strengthening marketing intelligence rather than simply accelerating everyday tasks. His examples demonstrate how agencies can use AI to investigate complex datasets, connect audience insights, and identify opportunities for more effective marketing strategies.
What stands out in Eric’s approach is his emphasis on asking the right questions before introducing AI into a workflow. Technology should serve a clear purpose, produce useful results, and support the expertise of the people responsible for interpreting its findings. This becomes especially important when distinguishing meaningful performance drivers from patterns that may not reflect genuine cause and effect.
As marketing agencies continue to adopt AI, the greatest opportunity may lie in combining advanced analytical capabilities with human critical thinking and strategic judgment. Eric Visser’s perspective offers a useful reminder that better marketing decisions depend not only on the technology available, but on how thoughtfully its insights are applied.
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