Zefr’s Richard Raddon is cleaning up social media for brands | AdAge May 2025

Under co-founder and co-CEO Richard Raddon, Zefr expanded its standing as a key brand safety and suitability provider for Meta, TikTok and beyond in 2024.

Zefr is now able to monitor Instagram’s feed and Reels, the short video formats, increasing its oversight of Meta properties, where brands want assurances they run in appropriate settings. Meanwhile, Zefr also scaled its TikTok capabilities globally, developing products tailored to new languages, regions and content types. For instance, Sony Pictures and Omnicom used Zefr‘s TikTok tools to deliver 35 million impressions with a 99% brand safety rating, according to the firm. 

Brand safety has become a sensitive subject in social media, as platforms have become more open to allowing a free flow of conversation among users, while marketers want to avoid running alongside objectionable material. Meanwhile, Zefr also avoids over-extending its remit — it doesn’t track the open internet, where there have been myriad issues with ads running on inappropriate websites. Zefr sticks to watching social media and major internet platforms, including YouTube, surveilling what videos and posts appear alongside ads.

To deal with some of the challenges, Zefr also launched a relationship with IPG Mediabrands to combat misinformation within the so-called ​“walled gardens,” using AI tools to align campaigns with fact-checked content in the run-up to the 2024 U.S. presidential election. That included campaigns by multinational marketers, including General Mills, according to Zefr.

Zefr made major inroads in the market starting in 2017, when a YouTube brand safety crisis coincided with advancements in machine learning, Raddon said.

“They were making a bunch of really smart moves to clean up their platform, but they definitely needed some third party validation,” the Ad Age Tech Power List honoree said.

What followed was two years of work to build a brand safety and suitability product that could be applied to YouTube and, ultimately, other platforms.

“We’re just seeing a lot of success in the market with brands recognizing they want a sophisticated, transparent, accurate safety and suitability provider in the walled gardens,” Raddon said. ​“It happens to coincide with them moving a lot of their investment from the open web to the walled gardens.”

What’s the boldest tech bet you made this year?

We made a huge bet on building our AI-powered multimodal search capabilities that process close to 500 million elements, allowing our customers to understand in real time what was happening on each of the walled garden platforms at a very molecular level.

What piece of technology could you absolutely not live without, besides your phone?

I couldn’t live without ChatGPT or Gemini at this point. These LLMs have dramatically changed the way I work and learn.

What’s your favorite blog, TikTok account, podcast or any must-follows in your media diet?

I watch a lot of TikTok and absolutely love the platform. I love the Cheeky Golf Club. Those three brothers trying to golf a scratch round is epic. I listen to a lot of podcasts about tech and venture-funded businesses. In terms of the advertising industry, I also enjoy ​“The Marketecture Podcast” [hosted by Ari Paparo and Eric Franchi].

Who is your technological hero, alive orfrom the past, who inspired you the most?

I consider Clayton Christensen my biggest tech hero. Not only was he one of the world’s great business and tech thinkers, but he was also a great man. He served as an adviser to my first company. The framework he unveiled in his book ​“Innovator‘s Dilemma” has influenced every great tech entrepreneur. He left an incredible legacy.