Technology Spotlight
A conversation with Blake Seabrook, Country Manager, UK at Readpeak brought to you by Ultimate Asset
Blake Seabrook, Country Manager at Readpeak
“Premium content, quality environments, meaningful attention.“
What is Readpeak’s elevator pitch?
Readpeak was created to drive meaningful engagement for users in a world where attention is scarce. We are a premium-to-premium platform that helps brands show up in quality environments, with formats that hold people rather than interrupt them.
At our core, we let brands plan and buy directly with premium publishers, running content-led campaigns on outcome-based models. The learnings from those campaigns then feed directly into future creative and content strategies. We want brands to be part of real content experiences, not just another noise-making ad squeezed around the content.
What business or industry problem are you trying to solve?
We tackle a few big issues at once. Wasted CPM spend that delivers little outcome, users who are numb to low effort ads, and the lack of transparency in programmatic buying. The industry has become far too comfortable counting impressions and calling it success.
Our job is to bring the focus back to outcomes, quality environments, and content that people actually want to spend time with. If you give someone something worth reading or watching, engagement naturally follows.
What sets Readpeak apart from competitors? What is your unique selling proposition?
Our biggest differentiator is how we work with publishers. Every format is built to match each publisher’s design, so the ad sits naturally within their editorial environment. That is the true definition of native, and it is something most platforms simply do not do.
Beyond that:
- We built our own tech from the ground up, focusing only on premium content advertising
- We let brands bid and pay on CPC and CPCV, not CPMs
- We give full control over where you appear and who you work with
- We prioritise user experience and publisher integrity
- We are not a network. We are a focused platform that brings together premium formats, clear buying mechanics, and a respect for the environments we appear in.
Who is your primary target audience? What are their needs and pain points?
We work closely with three groups, who often share similar frustrations.
Clients and brands need:
- Real engagement, not inflated metrics
- Cost-efficient buying tied to outcomes
- Transparency and less programmatic wastage
- Content that supports long-term brand building
Agencies need:
- Better value for their clients
- More clarity and control
- Clean reporting that is easy to explain
- Partners who do not create extra admin
“See how Space & Time achieved quality traffic with hyper-local targeting in the United Kingdom.”
Publishers need:
- Better user experiences on site
- Incremental high-yielding revenue
- Premium delivery
- Partners that respect their editorial standards
How does Readpeak solve these need states of the audience and fill the gap in the market? What is the value you bring to them?
- For clients and agencies:
We let you bid on outcomes right, which instantly makes campaigns more efficient. You only pay when someone actually engages. You can also hand-pick the exact publishers you want to work/support inside the platform, giving you genuine control.
- For publishers:
We bring premium demand in a format that we design with them, not for them. The result is a natural fit within their domain that protects the reading experience and supports long-term trust.
- For users:
We prioritise content and context. If a brand appears in a premium environment, the creative should respect that. Our format and AI content tool helps brands give users something worth their attention. It sounds simple, but the industry has drifted away from it.
Describe Readpeak’s company culture.
In one word. Banging.
We are a Finnish business working across eleven markets, and somehow that culture carries beautifully across all of them. If you know Nordic people you will know this much: they are straight talkers. There is no BS, and in this case, that does not stand for Blake Seabrook 😉
There is a genuine sense of graft, ownership and support. Everyone pulls in the same direction and everyone cares about getting it right. We also have two company trips each year, which helps us all connect as humans, not just faces on screens.
What are the most common misconceptions about Readpeak or sector you operate in?
The biggest one in the UK is the word “native”.
Over time, native has picked up a reputation for cheap clicks, low-quality environments and bottom-of-the-funnel tactics. But if you look back at why premium publishers created native formats originally, it was to offer deeper engagement and better experiences.
That is exactly the space Readpeak sits in. Premium content, quality environments, meaningful attention. We are a platform that connects advertisers directly to great publishers through clean, transparent pipes. The team in Finland would probably give me a proper Scandinavian word for that level of focus if I asked them.
What are some of the key consumer and industry macro and micro economic trends impacting your business Readpeak?
Attention has become a serious planning currency. Agencies can see the link between attention, brand lift and business results, so they are moving budgets into formats and environments that hold people for longer.
Privacy pressure and the decline of cookies have also pushed the industry back towards contextual relevance, quality environments and strong creatives. These fundamentals now matter more than ever.
And with economic uncertainty still hanging around, every pound is expected to work harder. That is why outcome based buying is growing fast.
What are your predictions for next year?
Part of me hopes advertisers start to rebalance their spend and question whether certain platforms deserve the level of dominance they have. There are brilliant specialists in this industry who can add real value. I hope next year gives more of them the chance.
Prediction wise, attention will stay front and centre, and outcomes will become a standard expectation in planning. “What did this line on the plan actually deliver?” will be asked far more often than “How many impressions did we buy?”
You can also read Readpeak’s article on The shift in the UK market
One statement, piece of advice that the industry should be thinking about going into 2026?
Back in the day, when media felt a bit simpler, I was told to test as much as you can. It is the only way to form a real opinion.
You cannot have a credible view on a partner or a format if you have never actually run anything with them. That is when the old saying comes in that presumption is the mother of all… And you know the rest. Einstein also summed it up nicely: If you keep doing the same thing again and again and expect different results, you might be on the wrong track.
So test more. Try new partners. Measure properly. Build your own view. It is the easiest way to cut through the noise.
Technology spotlight is a series brought you by the team at Ultimate Asset. Our aim is to highlight brilliant adtech across industry. From their elevator pitch, to the problem they are trying to solve, we hope you can take something new away from each interview. With over 50,000 new technology businesses incorporated in the UK each year, there will be something for everybody.
Ultimate Asset are a boutique global digital recruitment consultancy, specialising in hires in adtech, martech, media owners, brands and media agencies. With over 20 years of recruitment heritage in media, we support businesses across the UK, Europe, Asia & North America.
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