Alex Glover, Managing Director, Programmatic at Brainlabs: What Nobody Tells You About Making It in Marketing
My Duvet Flip by Jack Parsons
Jack Parsons
4.2 • 8 Ratings
🗓️ 27 January 2026
⏱️ 46 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Episode Guest
Alex Glover is Managing Director of Programmatic at Brainlabs, where he leads global innovation in data-driven advertising. His passion for programmatic strategy and graduate development is helping shape the next generation of media talent.
Episode Timestamps:
0:00 Introduction
0:12 Meet Alex Glover, MD of Programmatic at Brainlabs
0:40 The job Alex nearly took (and why he didn’t)
1:48 Discovering advertising through curiosity
3:04 Early experiments with websites and Google Ads
4:16 The career-changing advice Alex got from his dad
5:06 Startup grind: no playbook, just problem solving
6:10 From tiny clients to Mediacom’s biggest accounts
7:33 Why Alex couldn’t stay away from programmatic
8:48 Taking a bet on himself at Brainlabs
10:00 The truth about programmatic advertising
12:05 Advertising’s future: Netflix, Spotify, and beyond
13:42 Inside the Brainlabs grad scheme in Buenos Aires
15:37 How moving to Argentina can kickstart your career
17:23 What makes someone thrive in programmatic?
19:08 Building confidence, then passion
21:07 Jack and Alex on being obsessed with your craft
22:45 Getting promoted: it’s not just about extra projects
24:10 How to stand out in your first job in media
26:04 Why reporting taught Alex the most about marketing
27:18 When Alex felt like a fraud (and what happened next)
29:12 What it’s really like working at Brainlabs
31:20 Why Brainlabs refuses to sell to a holding company
32:46 The culture of innovation and automation at Brainlabs
34:05 How AI is being used by grads at Brainlabs
35:24 “If you do it three times, automate it”
36:48 The one mindset shift every grad needs to hear
38:04 Chapter 1 of Alex’s career: “Working it out”
39:02 Most unexpected lesson from a ‘boring’ task
40:00 When Alex truly felt imposter syndrome
41:12 The job that led to Patagonia
42:00 Jack’s final question: What’s your duvet flip?
43:38 Why achievement, not titles, gets Alex up in the morning
44:30 Final reflections and thank yous
Episode Partners
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | If my dad hadn't give me that push, I definitely would have taken the job that pays the most money. There's a lesson there, isn't there? If you have got options on the table, just ask them how do they see it? 100%. Hello, my name's Alex Glover, Managing Director of Programmatic at Brain Labs, where we employ over a thousand people, and this is my duvet flip. How do I get a job like you on a nice title like you? I just love it. Like, you can see that. You can't fake passion, but you can build your way to being passionate about something. The more confidence you build in a situation where something might go wrong, confidence leads to genuine care and that care leads to passion. Have you ever had a moment in your career that you just thought, what am I doing? Is this for me? From start-up environment to big agency and I got in there and I just didn't understand what was going on. |
| 0:44.3 | And I was like, I'm supposed to be managing these people. |
| 0:48.3 | Is that that imposter syndrome? |
| 0:49.3 | Yeah, 100% and I was like, I'm going to get fired. |
| 0:53.3 | Are you ready for my final, final question? |
| 0:56.3 | Yes. |
| 0:56.8 | What's your dovet flip? |
| 0:57.9 | What gets you out of bed in the morning to flip the dover? |
| 1:01.0 | I was thinking about this. |
| 1:02.3 | I think it's... |
| 1:05.9 | Hello, my name's Alex Glover, |
| 1:08.1 | managing director of programmatic at Brain Labs. |
| 1:10.8 | Before seeing down with Jack, I'm feeling great. |
| 1:12.7 | Yeah, really excited. The thing I'm most excited to talk about is our grad scheme in Buenos Aires. Jack was a big part of why I wanted to come on my duvet flip. Just get a chance to chat with him. It seems lovely. So there's one thing people can take away from my episode. I think it's that being passionate about what you do is amazing, but you can really work towards being passionate and really caring about what you do. Are you ready, Jack? Alex, welcome to my duvet, Flip. How are we? Yeah, really good, thank you. Thank you for having me. I've been excited for this one. So have I. |
| 2:00.6 | As soon as Leon said, he had a chat with you. I was like, right, I can't wait. This is going to be one big lesson for me today. You sure? What I was promised by Leon was we found someone to match your energy and that's Jack. Cole. So I'm really looking for this with you. Let's do it. Yeah. |
| 2:02.3 | I bought a bigger table in in case I annoy you |
| 2:03.6 | so you can kick me under the table. |
| 2:04.7 | Okay. I'm you to go down memory lane, young Alex, what would you be telling him now? |
| 2:18.6 | Okay. I'm going to start before my first job, actually, which hopefully when we come back to it will make a bit more sense. |
| 2:29.8 | But before I started working, when I was at school, I remember one of my friends came up to me when I was in year seven and he was like, Alex, you know, if you build a website and you reach out to Google, they can put ads on it and you can earn one P for everyone that clicks on one of your ads. |
| 2:47.2 | So we did it. I made five or six websites. One was like, AlexGaVorg, code.com, |
| 2:51.7 | or whatever, like, something about the rugby team I supported or whatever. And I was like, nailed it. I was like, so many people are going to read this and click on my ads. No one clicked on them. I spent my lunchtime's clicking on them. I think I made about 40p. Wow. Yeah, I think you got paid 0.1p for each click, right? |
... |
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