Marc Guldimann
Founder & CEO at Adelaide
Pioneering attention-based advertising measurement through Adelaide and its AU metric, and making the intellectual and commercial case for replacing viewability with attention as the industry's standard for media quality.
Last updated May 30, 2026 by the ATDb Editorial Team
Marc Guldimann is best known as the founder and CEO of Adelaide, the attention measurement company that has become a central force in the industry's shift away from legacy metrics like viewability and clicks toward attention-based signals as a proxy for advertising effectiveness. Adelaide's AU (Attention Unit) metric has gained significant traction among major agencies and brands as a more meaningful indicator of media quality, and Guldimann has been instrumental in building the commercial and intellectual case for attention as an advertising currency. Before founding Adelaide, Guldimann co-founded Parsec, a time-based advertising platform that charged advertisers only for the time users actually spent with ads — an early and prescient challenge to impression-based buying. This work laid the conceptual groundwork for his later focus on attention metrics. His career reflects a consistent thread: questioning the foundational assumptions of how digital advertising is bought, sold, and measured, and building companies that operationalize better alternatives. Guldimann is a frequent speaker at industry conferences including Cannes Lions, Advertising Week, and ANA events, and is widely cited in trade press on topics of media quality, measurement reform, and the future of advertising effectiveness. He has contributed to industry working groups and standards discussions, helping to legitimize attention measurement as a discipline rather than a niche concept, and his advocacy has influenced how holding companies and independent agencies approach media planning and evaluation.
Co-Founder & CEO
Parsec (2015-2019)
Co-Founder
Swoop (2010-2015)
- BA, Yale University
- Founded Adelaide and developed the AU (Attention Unit) metric, now used by major global agencies and brands as a media quality signal
- Co-founded Parsec, one of the first platforms to commercialize time-based advertising buying as an alternative to impression-based models
- Helped catalyze industry-wide conversation on attention metrics, contributing to MRC and ARF working groups on measurement standards
- Secured partnerships with major holding companies and independent agencies to integrate attention metrics into media planning workflows
- Regular contributor to AdExchanger on attention metrics and media quality
- Bylines and op-eds in trade publications including Campaign and The Drum on advertising measurement reform