Zeta Global Holdings Corp.

Greetings and welcome to the Zeta first quarter 2023 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone should require operator assistance during the conference, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Scott Schmitz, Senior Vice President of Investor Relations. Thank you. You may begin.

Thank you, Operator. Hello, everyone, and thank you for joining us for Zeta's first quarter 2023 conference call. Today's presentation and earnings release are available on Zeta's investor relations website at investors.zetaglobal.com, where you will also find links to our SEC filings, along with other information about Zeta. Joining me on the call today are David Steinberg, Zeta's co-founder, chairman, and chief executive officer, and Chris Greiner, Zeta's chief financial officer. Before we begin, I'd like to remind everyone that statements made on this call, as well as in the presentation and earnings release, contain forward-looking statements regarding our financial outlook, business plans and objectives, and other future events and developments, including statements about the market potential of our products, potential competition, and revenues of our products and our goals and strategies. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those projected. These risks and uncertainties include those described in the company's earnings release and other filings with the SEC and speak only as of today's date. In addition, our discussion today will include references to certain supplemental non-GAAP financial measures which should be considered in addition to and not as a substitute for our GAAP results. We use these non-GAAP measures in managing the business and believe they provide useful information for our investors. Reconciliations of the non-GAAP measures to the corresponding GAAP measures, where appropriate, can be found in the earnings presentation available on our website, as well as our earnings release and our filings with the SEC. With that, I will now turn the call over to David.

Thank you, Scott. Good afternoon, everyone. And considering the date, may the 4th be with you. 2023 is off to a strong start. We continue to execute through a volatile macro backdrop producing our seventh consecutive quarter ahead of consensus and raising our outlook. In the first quarter of 2023, we delivered revenue of $158 million, up 25% year over year, with adjusted EBITDA of $24 million, up 28% year over year. Our adjusted EBITDA margin of 15.3% expanded 40 basis points year over year. Q1 was another proof point in our belief that the market is moving in Jada's direction. The proliferation of artificial intelligence and data-driven insights combined with the need to do more with less fits squarely within our sweet spot. Our execution against this enormous opportunity continues to drive strong new customer growth. In this volatile market, we continue to see organizations more willing to take risks with new partners and adopt new solutions in order to drive better outcomes. This has resulted in our new scaled customer count growing twice as fast as our Zeta 2025 model. Along these lines, I would like to start out by focusing on three topics that outline how we have achieved and what we believe is a long-term sustainable advantage in the marketplace. First, since our founding, we have held steadfast to our vision to reduce marketing complexity by eliminating point solutions, making data actionable, and realizing the promise of more accountability and ROI-driven marketing. Second, these guiding principles are embodied in our Zeta Marketing Platform, or ZMP, which brings together identity, intelligence, and activation into a single differentiated platform that delivers better experiences for consumers and better results for brands. And third, the market's embrace of our strategy during a time of technological change is evident through multiple Fortune 100 wins. In the first quarter, we signed one of our largest contracts ever as a company, which I will outline in detail. But first, let me expand on our vision and our platform differentiation. Over the last 15 years, we have invested and innovated to assemble one of the largest proprietary opt-in databases filed more than 100 patents tied to machine learning, AI, and other cutting edge technologies, and developed a next generation marketing cloud to help the world's most sophisticated marketers acquire, grow, and retain customers at a lower cost than they can without our data and our software. These early investments and innovations have strengthened our competitive position as the marketing technology sector continues to evolve. Our flexible and scalable data layer enhances and extends the investments that enterprises have made in modern data warehouses, such as Snowflake, and has a robust identity resolution capability built in. This makes it easier for marketers to target the right customers at the right time. Our modern intelligence layer leverages our proprietary AI and ingests trillions of behavioral signals to turn insights into action. And our activation layer delivers superior omnichannel reach and deterministic measurement by unifying around a single view of the customer and delivering more individualized experiences. By consolidating these elements, into one single platform, the ZMP increases accountability, reduces complexity, eliminates waste, and ultimately produces better outcomes at lower costs for enterprises versus competing solutions. Let me give you a detailed example. This past quarter, we signed a multi-year, eight-figure deal with one of the largest worldwide retailers. to become their marketing cloud. The requirements were very complex. First, they required a modern architecture that could scale globally across channels. Second, they needed localized expertise because decision-making was decentralized through regional representatives. Third, they required IT buy-in with the ability to leverage cloud partners such as Snowflake with optimized integration and data sharing capabilities. And fourth, they needed a solution that aligned with their mission to efficiently acquire new customers and grow their existing relationships while remaining laser-focused on measurable ROI. The RFP process started with over 10 vendors. All of the legacy marketing clouds we typically see were dismissed in the early round as their platforms did not meet the modern architecture and functionality requirements. And many of the smaller upstarts lacked the scale and enterprise sophistication. The ZMP stood out as it combines next-generation technology with enterprise-grade assets and know-how to win during the transition to a new era of marketing technology. Ultimately, we won because we brought a many-to-one solution to this retailer. There were many problems they were trying to solve and many decision makers involved, and we were the only one who came to them with an all-in-one solution. In a world of uncertainty, we provided accountability and delivered a compelling platform that both lowered the cost of ownership and laid a foundation for predictable, profitable, and scalable growth. In a world accelerating towards digital transformation and artificial intelligence, we provided a platform with these foundational elements embedded in the core of our platform. In a world of doing more with less, we were able to demonstrate our ability to provide better outcomes. We believe no other company had the ability to combine a marketing cloud with real-time intent signals like Zeta and activate to them in real time. We brought a unique ability to identify unknown customers and unlock hidden opportunities that they otherwise would not have known about. Our data and our artificial intelligence create a moat around our business. And that moat is only widening with the new generative AI capabilities embedded in the ZMP announced earlier this week from Zeta Labs. As with everything we do, we are approaching generative AI as part of our vision to make sophisticated marketing simple, with the goal to solve our clients' biggest business challenges and deliver better results on their marketing investments. Zeta's generative AI agents powered by Zoe or Zeta Opportunity Engine, which has evolved from chatbot Zeta technology, will behave, experience, and learn like humans within the ZMP, putting the power of AI directly into marketers' hands. With a simple question, Zoe will answer critical marketing questions such as, Who should I target? Which channels are most profitable for me? What are the most common journeys my customers take? We believe our generative AI will not only improve what marketers currently do, but also generate new ideas and strategies with speed and scale so they can deliver higher ROI and accelerate results. There is a lot more to come as we're incredibly focused on AI as we have been for many years. In summary, we are off to a strong start in 2023 as we continue to capitalize on the need for more efficient and effective marketing technology. And as always, I would like to sincerely thank our customers, our partners, Team Zeta, and all of our shareholders for the ongoing support of our vision. Now, let me turn it over to our young Jedi, Chris, to discuss our results in greater detail. Chris?