The world of digital advertising is evolving at a rapid pace, and few understand its intricacies better than today’s guest. With a background as an ex-Meta Ads Auction expert and a Master’s in Predictive Modeling, he has first-hand experience managing millions of dollars in ad spend across platforms like Facebook, TikTok, Snapchat, and Reddit.

Now, as the founder of BLKBOX.ai, Athar Zia is on a mission to revolutionize creative intelligence for gaming advertisers through AI-powered solutions. With Gamesforum Barcelona around the corner, we’re diving deep into the future of AI in marketing, creative iteration, and the strategies that help gaming companies—from indie studios to industry giants—thrive in a competitive landscape.

Thanks for joining me Z! For those who may not know, can you briefly introduce yourself?

My background is ex-Meta Ads Auction expert with a Masters in Predictive Modeling. I’ve personally spent millions of dollars in ad manager across Facebook, TikTok, Snapchat, Reddit etc so I have first hand experience of the challenges that our clients face to build innovative solutions.

I also led a Rugby Team to a National Championship in Canada, and built Stock Trading Investment algorithms for the past 10 years with 1,500% return in 2024. Highly competitive, very team oriented, and like to win.

Talk to us about your history in gaming

I was at Meta for around 4 years, helping the largest Gaming Advertisers grow their business by leveraging the inside information from the Ads Auction itself. In 2020, Ad Auction algorithms started prioritizing Creatives more than bidding, budgeting, targeting and creative became King.

This trend was true across Casino, Sports Betting, Match 3, Sports, and other Gaming Genres. At that time, I decided to leave Meta and start BLKBOX, with the goal of building the #1 AI-Powered Creative Intelligence platform for Gaming. 

As for BLKBOX, what is the company's MO?

BLKBOX operates like a Navy Seal team, highly experienced, tactical, and mission oriented. We are bootstrapped with 130+ people globally, and we obsess over the customer experience.

BLKBOX is uniquely differentiated because we are the only platform that provides end-to-end marketing solutions for Gaming Advertisers. Analyze, Ideate, Create, Test and Scale all in a single platform across Facebook, TikTok, Snapchat, Reddit, Moloco and more!

Creative iteration and ideation have presented as one of  our audiences biggest challenges in recent years, from your conversations with clients what do you see as being at the core of the creative challenge for marketers?

One of the biggest challenges in marketing is that advertisers are lacking a creative funnel. Meaning that X amount of creatives produced lead to Y amount of winners, which then translate into specific scaled spend. Having that in place turns your creative challenges into a math statement, where a predictable quantity of ads produced each month can generate winners, combat creative fatigue, and scale spend profitably.

We also need to free up Artist’s time away from iterations and towards new concepts. AI is perfectly suited to handle the majority of the iterations today. In 2025, we will see a high percentage of iterations being produced by AI, and Artists will have more time for new concept generation and break the copy-cat ecosystem.

Alongside iteration and ideation, testing has presented as a difficulty. Analysing competitors' creatives is an extensive task, how is Generative AI helping marketers unlock the key to success in a crowded market?

AI is going to serve as an Intelligent assistant to marketers in 2025, helping 10x your productivity. Today, our clients can clone their competitor’s ads instantly by deconstructing the winning elements and combining it with their IP via Storyboarding. It’s a massive breakthrough for the Gaming Industry!

Additionally, our Ideate pillar helps Artists come up with new ideas for Holidays, Key Events, Top Concepts, and Trending Topics around the world. It was built from the ground up to support our internal Creative Team. They love using it and we are now proud to share it with the industry at large. 

A historic challenge for smaller studios and pubs with more restricted budgets is competing against larger competitors, how is Generative AI levelling this playing field?

Our Technology was built to support the largest advertisers in Gaming, where some spent >$10M/month. We are now enabling the same solutions for smaller studios, with a robust blueprint and gameplan to compete and take market share against their larger competitors.

AI is enabling Smaller Studios to reduce their Go-To-Market from weeks (4-6) down to days. Additionally, AI is helping them increase their creative throughput, automate testing, intimately understanding their audience, and deploy systems and processes similar to the larger studios from day 1.

When your resources are limited, the only way to win is through execution and innovation. We know this first hand as we are bootstrapped and it’s built within our DNA

Looking forward to Gamesforum Barcelona, what can our audience expect to hear from you on stage?

The audience will be quite surprised on how Market-Ready and robust our AI-Powered Solutions are. We will be doing a live demo on 3 apps that we don’t work with to generate AI-Storyboards for ideation, and AI-Powered Video Ads live!

It’s truly groundbreaking on how AI is breaking silos, unifying teams, increasing productivity and driving value for advertisers.

This was the vision for 5 years, and I’m excited to share that vision brought to life with the broader audience at Gamesforum Barcelona! 

As for Barcelona itself, having joined in at previous Gamesforums in the city, do you have any advice on navigating the event? Or any restaurants or bars you would recommend?

I stopped drinking 5+ years ago, and spend the majority of my time working, working out, coffee shops, and connecting with nature. I know it's quite boring, but it’s my cup of tea! 

My final question, what is your go to mobile game?

Currently, Archero 2 is my go-to game!