Advertisers often feel that to capture consumers’ attention and drive outcomes means bombarding their targets with interruption and noise.
Adam Gendelman, VP, Head of Sales, Supply & Operations at Wunderkind Ads, argues that it doesn’t just have to be that way. Rather, actual ad effectiveness demands that marketing messages be more inviting, rewarding, and, yes, even paying heed to consumers’ interests and time.
Wunderkind has built its business around a seemingly counterintuitive principle: kindness. As Gendelman told The Outcome in an interview, this isn’t about warm feelings. It's a clear-eyed focus on strategic timing, behavioral science, and a measurable bet that respecting users’ attention drives better performance than overwhelming them with ads.
He makes the case that “inflection points” — moments when users naturally pause or finish consuming content — represent the sweet spot for digital advertising. Whether it’s a display ad triggered by upscrolling behavior or a CTV ad served only when viewers hit pause, Wunderkind's approach challenges the industry's volume-first mentality.
Wunderkind’s philosophy is backed up by the agency’s data. About 90% of users prefer ads after they’ve finished consuming content, Gendelman says, adding that campaigns that put a premium on these moments have delivered a 79% lower cost-per-store visit for brands like Ulta Beauty.
In the conversation below, Gendelman explains how treating consumers as “people with intent” rather than targets isn’t just good ethics, it’s good business.
At Wunderkind, “kindness” means delivering digital advertising that respects the user’s attention, intent, and time. In practice, that means not interrupting or overwhelming someone with irrelevant or poorly timed ads. It’s about being helpful, not intrusive. We’ve made it a core principle because respect for the user drives performance. Kindness translates into relevance and timing, which are measurable drivers of engagement and conversion. In a crowded ad ecosystem that too often relies on volume and noise, this approach stands out by aligning empathy with performance.
“Inflection points” are those brief but powerful moments when a user is most open to brand engagement. For example, instead of serving a display ad mid-article or mid-scroll, when it feels intrusive, wait until the user finishes consuming content. We have a number of proprietary behavioral triggers that trigger our display ads, such as when a user significantly upscrolls, is inactive for a set period of time, or is about to exit a page. At that moment, they’re naturally pausing and cognitively available to process a new message. Using our behavioral signals and targeting solution partners, we can trigger the right creative in milliseconds. The result is advertising that feels organic and timely, not disruptive.
For CTV, we apply the same rigor to Pause Ads. The pause button is the viewer's explicit signal that they are taking a break and their attention is available. We respect that moment by serving a full-screen, high-impact ad only during that natural viewing pause. We ensure the ad is delivered programmatically, adapting automatically to major platforms and devices for scale and simplicity, resulting in a non-interruptive user experience that transforms downtime into a valuable touchpoint.
The most surprising takeaway wasn’t just how high that number was, it was how consistent it was across demographics. Younger users, who typically have higher ad tolerance, were just as adamant about preferring ads post-content as older audiences. It reinforces that user attention is a scarce and valuable resource, regardless of age or media habits. What it tells us is simple: people don’t mind advertising, they mind bad timing.
When we respect that flow, engagement metrics don’t just rise; brand sentiment also improves for our advertisers. And for our community of high quality publishers displaying these ads, prioritizing a positive, non-intrusive experience with fewer, higher-quality placements creates a more valuable and sustainable content platform.
We’ve seen the opposite in our data. When ads are delivered at the right moment and to the right user, fewer impressions can drive greater performance for lower funnel action. It’s a shift from “how many ads did we serve?” to “how many people actually cared?” When attention is earned rather than forced, every impression works harder and can drive more than just impressions, they can drive website visits, sales and more efficient ROAS, among other more valuable, lower funnel results.
The increasing demand for our first-to-market CTV Pause Ads highlights that there is a shift towards non-disruptive formats taking place.
The kind approach is communicated through both design, which is about respecting the viewer's time, and delivery, which is about respecting the viewer's context.
Firstly, by design, the ad should not make the user work to get back to their content. For our display ads, this means the ad always includes a clear 'X' out option, immediately signaling to the user, "We are not trapping you." For CTV Pause Ads, this means the ad is triggered by the user pressing pause and instantly disappears the moment they press play. The creative itself must also be high-quality and offer a clear, immediate value proposition, from a direct call to action or tap-to-map to find your nearest location on display, or a QR code for CTV.
Second, in delivery, we focus on respecting the user's overall context. This means the ad adapts automatically and flawlessly to whatever device the user is on.
By focusing on non-disruptive design and context-aware delivery, we ensure the ad is experienced as a valuable touchpoint rather than an unwanted interruption, which naturally leads to higher conversion rates.
We help advertisers shift their mindset from viewing users as generic "targets" to viewing them as "people with intent" by focusing on two core principles:
Firstly, respecting attention, rather than chasing users. The biggest difference is moving from a push strategy to a pull strategy. We advocate for respecting a user's primary goal (consuming content), not disrupting it.
Instead of simply defining users by what they are (a cookie, an age group), we layer in the aspect of what they are doing. This shifts the advertiser's mindset from, "I must serve this ad now before they leave," to, "I will serve this ad only when the user's attention is actually available and they are ready to process a new message." This feels organic, timely, and respectful to the person on the other end.
Secondly, connecting ad engagement to real-world value. We move beyond vague brand metrics and connect the ad experience directly to the user's goals, such as finding a product, saving money, or accessing information. By ensuring the ad is high-quality, non-intrusive, and offers a clear value exchange, we treat the user like a discerning customer. When advertisers see this "kind" approach drives higher engagement, better conversion rates, lower Cost Per Acquisition and higher ROAS, they realize that treating people with respect drives better performance.
Ultimately, we make the case that when you stop treating people like targets and start respecting their time, they reward you with their business.
On the advertiser side, Ulta Beauty is a solid success story for this approach, with a holiday campaign last year that secured AdExchanger’s 2025 Programmatic Impact Award for Trailblazing TV Campaign. At the heart of this win was a first-of-its-kind programmatic Pause Ad campaign that activated Ulta’s rich first-party member data across premium CTV inventory.
By leveraging Private Marketplaces and layering in Ulta’s CRM audiences, we delivered high-impact creative and messaging that drove real results, most notably a 79% lower cost per store visit. This campaign proved that first-party data can scale in CTV, bridging the gap between screen and store with measurable performance.
A great example on the publisher side is Weather.com. Our teams worked together to build a content-first, ad-second experience, making sure users always received critical weather updates before seeing any ads. Every placement was intentional: premium brands, creative that aligned with Weather.com’s tone, and formats that felt native to the experience. That shared commitment to trust and quality over volume paid off. Weather.com increased ad revenue through our unique incremental revenue generating placements, while decreasing bounce rate by 10.7%, proving that when ads complement the experience instead of competing with it, engagement follows.
This shared focus on quality engagement across the advertising ecosystem proves that you don't have to sacrifice performance or revenue to treat your audience with respect.
Kindness builds memory and positive association. When users consistently experience ads that feel helpful and well-timed, they start to associate that feeling with the brand itself. Over time, this fosters trust, which is the foundation of loyalty. Immediate conversions are great, but sustained attention and engagement drive lifetime value and build brand loyalty. In a world where consumers can easily switch brands, especially in today’s world of economic uncertainty, being the company that listens, even in advertising, creates a lasting emotional edge. Kindness, in that sense, is not only a differentiator, but a long-term growth strategy.
