Generative AI in Advertising Hackathon
The perfect warm-up weekend before Advertising Week NY 2025
Hosted by TwelveLabs in partnership with NEA
Sponsors: ElevenLabs, AWS, Swayable
Join us for an exclusive weekend hackathon designed for the Advertising Week community. As over 1,200 speakers and thousands of marketing leaders converge on Manhattan for four days of innovation at THE PENN DISTRICT, we're kicking off the week with hands-on AI development that addresses the real challenges facing today's advertising industry.
This hackathon brings together the technical talent and marketing expertise needed to build the next generation of advertising solutions – perfect for brands, agencies, and AdTech companies looking to stay ahead of the AI revolution.
Apply below to join!
The Challenge: Enterprise-Ready AI Solutions
With 28 content tracks and 500+ sessions at Advertising Week, the industry's priorities are clear: AI transformation, creator economy integration, and measurable ROI. Build solutions that enterprise marketing leaders can actually implement:
📊 The Content Intelligence Engine targets the massive workflow inefficiency problem – transforming the creative production process into something manageable while providing insights that actually help creative teams make better decisions.
🛡️ The Context Guardian goes after the brand safety challenge by building systems that understand nuance and cultural context, not just keyword filtering. This addresses the misclassification problem that makes inventory "unsellable."
🚀 The Moment Matcher tackles contextual advertising with true video understanding, moving beyond the primitive keyword-based targeting that's leaving money on the table for publishers.
🎯 The Creative Intelligence Lab focuses on attribution and analytics, helping marketers finally understand what creative elements actually drive results.
Built for Enterprise Implementation
You'll have access to enterprise-grade AI capabilities from our host and sponsors:
Video Understanding APIs: Analyze creative content, brand safety, and audience engagement at scale
Multimodal AI Models: Process text, image, audio, and video simultaneously for comprehensive insights
Fast Processing: Build systems that can handle enterprise-level data volumes and response times
Integration-Ready: Develop solutions that can plug into existing marketing tech stacks
These aren't just demos – they're production-ready tools that marketing leaders can envision deploying across their organizations.
Perfect for Advertising Week Attendees
Brand Marketing Leaders: Bring your strategic challenges and see them solved with cutting-edge AI
Agency Executives: Discover new service offerings and competitive advantages for your clients
AdTech Professionals: Build the next generation of programmatic and measurement solutions
Marketing Technologists: Apply AI to solve the complex challenges facing modern marketing organizations
Event Agenda
Saturday, October 4, 2025
9:00 AM - 10:00 AM: Registration & Welcome Breakfast Arrive at the venue, check in, and network over coffee and breakfast. Meet fellow participants, sponsors, and the organizing team. Light networking encouraged as teams begin forming organically.
10:00 AM - 10:30 AM: Opening Keynote & Challenge Introduction Welcome from TwelveLabs leadership, event sponsors, and NEA partners. Overview of the four challenge categories with real-world context from industry experts. Introduction of judging panel and evaluation criteria.
10:30 AM - 11:00 AM: Team Formation & Challenge Selection Structured networking session to form diverse teams combining technical talent with advertising expertise. Teams select their primary challenge focus and register for technical resources and API access.
11:00 AM - 1:00 PM: Development Sprint #1 Teams begin intensive development work. Technical mentors available for API guidance, architecture questions, and troubleshooting. Focus on problem definition, solution architecture, and initial prototyping.
1:00 PM - 2:00 PM: Networking Lunch Catered lunch with continued networking opportunities. Informal discussions with sponsors, judges, and industry experts. Teams can use this time to refine their approach based on early feedback.
2:00 PM - 3:30 PM: Technical Workshops & Sponsor Showcases Four parallel workshop sessions rotating every 20-25 minutes:
TwelveLabs: Advanced Video Understanding APIs and Best Practices
ElevenLabs: Voice AI Integration for Multimodal Advertising Solutions
AWS: Scaling AI Applications with Bedrock and Enterprise Infrastructure
Swayable: Measuring Creative Impact and Performance Attribution
3:30 PM - 7:00 PM: Development Sprint #2 & Working Dinner Extended development time (dinner not provided so you can grab your own meals). Teams deep-dive into implementation, data integration, and user interface development. Technical support continues throughout the evening.
7:00 PM: Venue Secured for Evening Official programming concludes, but teams may continue working off-site if desired.
Sunday, October 5, 2025
9:00 AM - 10:00 AM: Final Development & Breakfast Last opportunity for code refinement, demo preparation, and presentation rehearsal. Light breakfast available as teams put finishing touches on their solutions.
10:00 AM - 12:00 PM: Development Sprint #3 Final intensive development period. Focus shifts to demo preparation, presentation materials, and ensuring solutions showcase enterprise readiness and business impact.
12:00 PM: Project Submissions Deadline All technical submissions must be completed, including code repositories, demo videos, and presentation materials. Teams prepare for live presentations to the judging panel.
12:00 PM - 1:00 PM: Lunch & Presentation Setup Teams enjoy lunch while presentation technology is configured. Final preparation time for the afternoon showcase sessions.
1:00 PM - 4:00 PM: Team Presentations & Live Demos Each team presents their solution to the judging panel in 8-minute slots (5 minutes presentation, 3 minutes Q&A). Presentations focus on business impact, technical innovation, and enterprise applicability. Audience includes sponsors, industry experts, and potential customers.
4:00 PM - 4:30 PM: Judging Deliberation & Winner Selection Judges evaluate submissions across all four challenge categories. Participants network and discuss potential collaboration opportunities while deliberation occurs.
4:30 PM - 5:00 PM: Awards Ceremony & Closing Remarks Announcement of winners across all challenge categories, recognition of outstanding contributions, and information about Advertising Week NY showcase opportunities for winning teams.
5:00 PM: Event Conclusion & Continued Networking Official programming ends with opportunities for continued networking, potential partnership discussions, and follow-up conversations between participants and industry representatives.
What to Expect
Technical Support: Engineering teams from TwelveLabs, ElevenLabs, and AWS will be available throughout the weekend to assist with API integration, troubleshooting, and architectural guidance.
Networking Opportunities: Structured and informal networking sessions with advertising industry executives, marketing technology leaders, and potential collaborators attending Advertising Week NY.
Industry Context: Real-world challenge definitions provided by practitioners currently facing these problems at major brands, agencies, and advertising technology companies.
Prizes & Recognition
Prizes: Up to $2,500 for the top 3 winning teams!
Judges: We have a well-respected list of industry veterans:
Alex Sherman (CEO @ Bluefish AI)
Michael Santana (Lead Solutions Architect, Advertising & Marketing Technology @ AWS)
Anshuk Gandhi (VP of Product @ Swayable)
Ari Paparo (Founder @ Marketecture Media)
Jonathan Meyers (CTO & Co-Founder @ Agentio)
Michael Bishop (CTO & Co-Founder @ OpenAds)
Why This Weekend Matters
As thousands of marketing leaders gather for Advertising Week NY, the conversation will center on AI's role in the future of advertising. The tools you build this weekend could become the solutions those leaders implement in their organizations.
The advertising industry is ready for Generative AI transformation. The question is: will you build the technology that defines it?
Registration: Ongoing until October 3rd, 2025!
Contact: [email protected]
Updates: Follow @twelve_labs
Space limited to 150 participants for optimal mentorship and networking