Audion Names Mike Villalobos CRO as It Scales in the US

Audion, the AI-powered performance audio advertising technology company, today named Mike Villalobos, Chief Revenue Officer. Villalobos will lead Audion’s revenue strategy and commercial organization as the company builds its U.S. business.

The hire follows Audion’s $15 million Series B and the company’s U.S. launch in April, when Co-founder and CEO Arthur Larrey announced his relocation to New York to lead the effort. Audion has since added Jake Cameron as Head of Marketing, Andy Munro-Lott as Senior Director of Sales, and Caroline Maher as Sales Director bringing the U.S. team to five with an aggressive expansion plan ahead.

Villalobos will own revenue across Audion’s demand and supply business and report to Arthur Larrey. His mandate is the U.S. first, with responsibility for the company’s global commercial organization as it scales.

Villalobos joins Audion from Seedtag where he was SVP, Global Go-to-Market and Commercial Operations, overseeing demand and supply revenue, commercial operations, analytics, measurement and client services across 17 markets. He previously ran the company’s North America business. Earlier in his career he held roles at PubMatic and #Paid, led new business for Teads’ performance advertising division, and was a founding member and SVP of sales at FuelX, where he built the sales organization and opened multiple offices nationally.

“Mike has built commercial teams in this market before,” said Larrey. “That’s the piece you can’t import from Europe, and it’s the reason we went after him.”

The U.S. opportunity Audion is chasing is a gap between attention and spend. Audio accounts for roughly 21% of daily media time in the U.S.—more than connected TV—but takes about 5% of ad spend, according to eMarketer. Digital audio’s share is smaller still, at under 2%. Audion’s argument is that the gap persists because audio has lacked the targeting, optimization and outcome measurement advertisers expect elsewhere, and that closing it requires making audio buyable on performance rather than reach.

That is the category Audion calls Performance Audio, where campaigns are planned, activated and optimized against business outcomes. Using proprietary contextual and AI technology, Audion analyzes audio and video content to understand what audiences are actually hearing and watching, enabling advertisers to activate campaigns across premium audio and video environments and optimize toward measurable outcomes.

“Audio is still bought largely on reach and good intentions,” said Villalobos. “Audion has the technology to make it accountable, and leverage the business success built in Europe to earn the right to succeed in other markets. Doing that in the U.S. first from the ground up is the challenge I wanted.”

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About Audion

Founded in 2018 by Arthur Larrey and Kamel El Hadef, Audion has established itself as the go-to partner for digital audio solutions for brands and their media agencies. With a technology-driven and AI-powered approach, Audion transforms audio into a high-performing, controllable, and measurable media lever across the entire marketing funnel.

Leveraging proprietary technologies integrated with artificial intelligence, Audion designs, activates, and optimizes results-oriented audio campaigns capable of delivering tangible outcomes - from brand awareness to business performance.

With offices in Paris, New York, London, Milan, Brussels, Amsterdam, and Hamburg, Audion brings together a team of 50 experts dedicated to helping advertisers unlock the full strategic and operational potential of digital audio.

Website: www.audion.ai

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