Overvoew

What does it take to build a category when customers do not yet know they need what you are selling?

In this episode of The Digital Diaries, Peter Woods speaks with Amit Sharan, SVP of Marketing at Tatari, about building brands, marketing teams and entirely new markets.

Amit shares lessons from helping build LiveRail into a leading video advertising platform before its acquisition by Facebook. He also reflects on his time at Meta, where he worked across advertising and products including Facebook Watch, Facebook Live and video monetisation.

The conversation explores why Amit prefers building over maintaining. He explains why clarity of positioning was so important at LiveRail and why marketing needs to do more than generate demand. It also needs to build the value and reputation of the company.

Amit explains what category creation really means. Sometimes customers are not actively searching for your solution. You first need to show them why the category matters before explaining why your company does it better.

Peter and Amit also explore the evolution of TV advertising. TV is becoming more measurable, targeted and accessible. Connected TV, retargeting and new advertising formats are bringing it closer to the performance marketing world.

They also discuss the growing role of AI in marketing. This includes how brands appear in LLMs, AI-powered media planning and AI-generated advertising. Amit shares why AI can reduce production costs, but also raises questions around consumer trust, synthetic talent and regulation.

Finally, Amit explains why he believes TV remains one of the most powerful brand-building channels available. Social media might amplify cultural moments, but many of those moments still begin on television.

• Why Amit prefers building businesses from zero to one

• Lessons from scaling LiveRail and working at Meta

• Why clear positioning can create a competitive advantage

• The difference between demand generation and category creation

• Why digital-first brands eventually need new channels to grow

• How connected TV is changing television advertising

• The opportunity for TV retargeting in B2B marketing

• How AI is changing search, media planning and advertising creative

• Consumer trust and regulation around AI-generated talent

• Why TV and social media can be stronger together

• Why leaders should give people problems to solve, not just tasks to complete

Great marketing is not only about capturing existing demand. Sometimes you need to create the market first.

That means educating customers, establishing the category and building trust before someone is ready to buy.

For Amit, the same thinking applies to leadership. Give talented people a meaningful problem to solve and the space to work out how to solve it.