Speaker 1:

From the New York Stock Exchange at the corner of Wall and Broad Streets in New York City, welcome inside the ICE House. Our podcast from Intercontinental Exchange is your go-to for the latest on markets, leadership, vision, and business. For over 230 years, the NYSE has been the beating heart of global growth. Each week, we bring you inspiring stories of innovators, job creators, and the movers and shakers of capitalism here at the NYSE and ICE's exchanges around the world. Now, let's go inside the ICE House. Here's your host, Lance Glinn.

Lance Glinn:

Welcome into another episode of the Inside the ICE House podcast. Our guest today, Robert Wheeler, is founder/CEO and editor-in-chief of ATM Media. Founding ATM earlier this year, the media company is revolutionizing how brands tell their stories in today's fast-paced digital landscape. By putting innovators at the forefront, ATM empowers companies to showcase their vision, celebrate their achievements, and amplify their message.

Robert, thanks so much for joining us inside the ICE House.

Robert Wheeler:

Yeah, thrilled to be here.

Lance Glinn:

So let's begin with the story behind ATM, At The Moment Media. Was there a specific moment in your career when you realized that ATM needed to be more than just an idea? What inspired you to launch the company earlier in 2025?

Robert Wheeler:

Yeah, Lance, it's a great question. I've always been in media advertising and some in technology as well too, but I've always started... I'm a proud NBC page, so I still have the Peacock tie for any fans of 30 Rock. I was Kenneth, the page. I actually got to work the pilot of 30 Rock when I was a page as well too. That was shot in Studio 8H, which is the Saturday Night Live studio. Since then, from college, I really have been in media and then advertising and tech as well too, and I really enjoyed the intrapreneurship, so working in a really large company to get things done for the executives that I was working with at the time. And then I got to do a lot of great, exciting things within those companies as well too. But as media started to change, news started to change, and me working within communications and marketing, I felt there was an opportunity to spotlight more of the people, more of the things that are going on, and the culture of the business of what we call now advertising, tech, and media, ATM.

It was kind of this funny little thing that, "Oh, hey, guys, I'm going to launch this thing and I want my friends in the industry. You're going to have to sponsor it," and I was like, "Ha, ha, ha, ha ha. All right. Now, back to work to our large billion-dollar global companies." And then when things would happen, you'd be like, "Oh, ATM should have covered this. That would've been great for ATM." So it was really more of a joke because I never thought, "Oh, this is what I wanted to do." And then when the ringing in my head continued to grow about like, "This is an opportunity. This is not being met right now in the industry," I decided, "Okay, I'm going to do this." So I was working, I was the CMO of GroupM, now it's WPP Media, one of the largest media buying companies in the world.

I said toward the end of that summer of last year, 2024, "Okay, I'm going to do this." And then one of my mentors, Brian Lesser, took the global job as CEO of now WPP Media, and I was like, "Well, I can't leave. He's one of my closest friends, mentors. I want to help him," but I couldn't get it out of my head truthfully. So I went to him and said, "Hey, Brian, I need to talk to my friend Brian, not the global CEO right now," and I said, "I'll dedicate six months to you. I want you to get up on your feet, but then I want you to let me do this opportunity." He had already known I had been thinking of things like that, and he was super supportive. They're one of our sponsors when I left, and I then just started talking to my industry contacts and letting them know what's going on.

What I wanted to know was like, "Yes, tell me about what's happening in business, but also tell me what it's like to be a working mother. Tell me what it's like when you're planning travel for your five-person family." Finding the US Weekly or the People Magazine side of this industry, I found that's really kind of grew our audience and really what we hone in now. We launched May 20th, the week after traditional upfronts week, which is the big kind of dog and pony show of all the media networks. And then we kind of really went public then at Cannes as well too, a lot of great content. But I've been so thrilled and touched by not only does the industry understand this and wants to be a part of it, but how sponsorship dollars have come up from very large media companies to be like, "We need a different way to tell stories and a different way to help cut through clutter that is not the traditional ways," which sometimes through journalism, sometimes through brand marketing, and we provide that media publishing that not only talks about the people but also the culture.

Lance Glinn:

You bring up an interesting point there, cutting through the clutter, because media as a whole is such a saturated environment. There's media companies, all over the place, covering things in different ways. Here at the NYC, as we're obviously doing right now, we have a media wing inside the ICE House, a part of it, other short form areas, a part of it as well. It's a really saturated environment as well as an environment that's constantly changing and constantly evolving as well. Everyone is competing ultimately for clicks, for views, for those sponsorship dollars, those advertising dollars. So how does ATM now differ from that traditional journalism? That influenced-driven storytelling, how does ATM differ itself and really cut through the clutter, as you mentioned before?

Robert Wheeler:

When someone comes to ATM, they know that they're in a safe environment. That's not to say I don't want fun, spicy, interesting content. I do. That's not to say, if you want to say, "Hey, I've got a word for the industry and I want to use your platform to do it," I beg of you, please come onto our platform. But what I have found and what I found interesting that has really driven now almost 4 million views of our content across all of our social platforms as well as atm.media, our website here, is that people, when they feel safe that there's not going to be a quote taken out of context, they start to relax a little bit, they start to open up a little bit more, and they want to tell those stories. For instance, I will use his name, you guys can cut it if you need to, I don't know the permissions, there's an industry luminary who has been a part of the industry, his name is Michael Kassan, and he was kind enough to give me an interview even before I launched.

What I told him, I was like, "Everyone knows who Michael Kassan is, at least in the advertising media industry, but I don't know how Michael Kassan became Michael Kassan, if you will. So tell me what was your first job. Take me through that." And when you have the power of the edit too, we can talk for 30 minutes and then we put something down for five minutes that makes it really punchy, really interesting, and can really drive viewership. He started talking to me about... he was a tax lawyer for an entertainment company. He saw that home video was growing, and so he went to go work for this guy, Jose Menendez, who was working in home video. I go, "Whoa, whoa, whoa. Like murdered by his two sons Jose Menendez?" I go, "Who knows this in the industry? This is fascinating." He goes, "Well, I don't know. I don't really talk about it," and I go, "Well, that's what I want to talk about."

When people kind of lean back and just start talking, and because of my experience the last 20 years working in comms and media, I feel like I can find those interesting nuggets that I haven't heard before and then really amplify those and then really using the network of the people on our platform to then champion out, because it's something they're proud of. It's something maybe someone hasn't heard before. It's not just about the new mousetrap that some company is launching. It's about a little bit about the mousetrap, a little bit about them, but a little bit more about just leadership and their thoughts on that.

I find that there isn't an outlet right now as cluttered as it is in traditional media or brand marketing. If it comes from a brand, sometimes people are like... For instance, I love Delta, but I don't know how often I'm going to their Instagram page. But if I had an influencer who was passionate about Delta to tell me what they're doing, I'd probably listen to them. I consider, in some ways, for a company, I'm an influencer for them because I'm going to shout out what I think is cool and interesting and I'm going to champion you in a safe environment, but I'm also going to shout out maybe things that people don't know you about from just an outside perspective.

Lance Glinn:

You would say that your platform and what you provide to these people, it really allows them to bring out that authenticity, right?

Robert Wheeler:

Right.

Lance Glinn:

You're essentially trying to tell the story or, in some way, trying to tell the story not of them as a CEO or as a business leader, but who they were prior to or how they got to where they are now.

Robert Wheeler:

Yeah. One of my favorite questions we ask right now is... If I'm interviewing Lance right now, I said, "Lance, take me back to the first day you were about to get on that elevator and you're about to do on your first day of work. You're able to have a cup of coffee with him right before he gets up there. Tell me now having hindsight, what advice would you give them?" and it's really fascinating and... A spoiler alert, we're working on a Thanksgiving series of just asking one question like, "What are you thankful for both personally and professionally?" And the things that people have opened up about suicide in their family, about sobriety, just because they felt safe in an environment and they know they're going to be supported by the industry via a platform that's very supportive, has been incredible and that's not anything I could predict it.

Lance Glinn:

Yeah, that's incredible. I'm excited to see it once Thanksgiving rolls around. Let me ask you this. When you're developing content, how do you really strike that balance then of that compelling storytelling as well as that effective brand messaging? Is there sort of a philosophy that you follow to ensure that the content obviously is remaining engaging? You want the clicks, you want the views, you want the downloads, you want people to want to watch it or want to read it while also still remaining credible and still serving those strategic goals that you have?

Robert Wheeler:

Right, yeah. No, it's an excellent question because we come at it as every story has to be compelling. There have been plenty of times that people have given us money and sat us down, and it's like, "No, no, we need to go into..." insert gobbledygook here. It's like, "That's not this platform. We will refund the cash. We're not looking to tell eight-minute video stories about your next ad tech mouse trap." It's important. It moves the industry forward, I'm sure. But if it's not something that I can really sink my teeth in, it gets me excited, then we look to tell a different story that way and, to the credit of our sponsors, they're like, "Okay, we get it." And then when they see a finished product and an edit of it, they're like, "Oh, okay, this is interesting to watch." If I want to know more, then we link out to how they can find more information.

One of the biggest questions I get is like, "Well, which one's an editorial one that you just select because you thought they were interesting? And then also which one is paying you?" I go, "Well, that's kind of the point." In our website, we feature our sponsors and that kind of stuff so people know who are sponsoring our content. But I think some of the biggest influencers in our industry are journalists. I always make a point to say, "I'm not a journalist. I don't do journalism. I tell stories, and it is different." There are similarities, but it is very different in my mind. My favorite thing is... Today, we're shooting two different journalists and one from the Journal and then one from Axios. I find they drive the most amount of traffic because no one ever ask their opinion about how things are happening.

I always use this example. It's not like Variety is going to cover what Hollywood Reporter is doing and Hollywood Reporter is going to cover what Variety is doing, their competitors by nature. But they have a lot of information, and a lot of people want to know what they think. And also, a lot of people think journalists are around hiding behind bushes, looking to get that next story, but it turns out they're people, it turns out they're mothers, it turns out they have goals.

Lance Glinn:

They have lives.

Robert Wheeler:

They have lives. For people to see that, I think it's really interesting. That's one of the cool things we're doing too.

Lance Glinn:

So your career spanned large global media companies before ATM, NBCUniversal. You mentioned you were page, AT&T, AdWorks, TiVo, WarnerMedia. You mentioned most recently with GroupM, WPP now. How have these experiences just shaped your vision at this still very young venture as you are continuing to obviously build it out now only really months into it?

Robert Wheeler:

Yeah, I like to say we're babies. We're still very young. Now, four months into. It's completely influenced. Every boss I've had, every mentor I've had is, in my head, on how to guide this company. I'm a communications and marketer by trade, the 20 years that I've done this, 20 years more now, but I'm not necessarily your traditional business school guy. Leading this and knowing how companies work and knowing how storytelling works within the industry has really helped me on like, "Look, they're going through a merger. They can't say much." How about we focus on the things they can say? "Hey, look, right now, they're going through a lot of tough times, but they just launched this thing six months ago. Let's just focus on that." I don't have to ask questions about all the things that people know that they have read in the trades and through journalism and that kind of stuff too, which is still important. That goes into it.

But the reason why I left, I left an amazing job with an amazing, I should say, bosses as well too, is because I felt there was such a need. I wasn't being served as someone who could spend money on content, who had great relationships with journalists. I couldn't get the stories out that I needed to, and I wanted an outlet that told it, not only just in an interesting way, but in a beautiful way, like, "I'm so proud of the production quality that the team puts together. It's a three-camera setup, some's on a slider. It's dynamic, using use of B-roll." Because we have editors globally who are the best editors in town, if you're listening, we're able to, I've learned this term, follow the sun so we can edit.

Lance, I'm interviewing you today on ATM. If Lance needed to get that message out tomorrow, I could do that. We really can be at the moment, which is really important to me. Because we do it in a very succinct, quick, tight way, because we shoot in 4K, we shoot in log video, for those nerds out there, it shoots beautifully, but we're able to do it quickly as well too.

Lance Glinn:

As a founder, you're not just building a company, you're kind of shaping a culture and a vision that others obviously have to buy in to. It can't just be yourself. You need a team around you. Compared to the leadership roles you've been in over the last 20 years or so years, how do you think about leadership now compared to those large organizations, and how does it influence really the culture that you're building at ATM?

Robert Wheeler:

Wow. I don't think anything has fundamentally changed. I put people into roles and responsibilities that I know are better than me at those particular things. My partner, she's our COO, her name's Christine Roeder. Shout out Christine. She's incredible on getting all of the details done that need to be done that sometimes I don't think about, right? We worked at AT&T together. When I told her I was doing this, she got it. She understood it immediately and this kind of stuff. And then I was looking for... Look, I've been to a million different photo shoots, video shoots, and that kind of stuff, but I didn't know what the cameras were.

One of my closest friends, Lisa Berg, who's a photographer, I went and kind of showed her my vision, and she was like, "Oh, you need this guy. You need this person to help you. You need this person to help you." So you go to those people who you've worked with and trust but that know way more than you in a specific area, and that's what I look to do. I look to find people that tell me while I'm wrong. I think about ATM always. It's a child of mine. I've never had children, but I want to grow it. I want to make it bigger. I want to challenge it. I want to protect it. I'm thinking about it all the time, but I could be clouded in something because I'm being too myopic probably.

I want someone who can intelligently stand up and say, "Hey, you're wrong because of this reason," and know that they have my best interest at heart. I did that for the same companies that I worked for, and now we just move a lot faster. But my philosophy on management is put people around you who can challenge you, who can make you better, and who really want to see you succeed, and then I think we all get to succeed that way.

Lance Glinn:

Absolutely. So I want to quickly pivot the conversation just to the overall media landscape because we talked earlier about how it's constantly evolving, it's constantly changing, it's moving just so fast, faster than really it ever has before. I think it's certainly become a lot more democratized than it obviously was in the past. Thanks to the rise of, I think, various platforms, obviously the great increase of short-form content as well. But just looking at the media landscape holistically, what are the most significant trends to you shaping the consumption of media today, and how is ATM going about addressing those so that you stay ahead of the curve?

Robert Wheeler:

Everything has to be topical now, and so that's why it was called At The Moment. The quick story behind the name is my niece, I got her an iPad for her birthday because I had to be the best uncle in the world. And then she was like, "Hey, Uncle Rob, I have a question about my iPad. What are you doing ATM?" And I was like, "She wants money now? I just gave her an iPad. What does she want?" Then looked it up to not look all uncool. And then I was like, "At the moment, oh, of course." And then that kind of hit me of like, "Oh, well, everything is news-related and news-driven." And also, why do people go to the Cannes Film Festival or Cannes Lions? It's because they want to be a part of that moment. So it's aspirational to a certain degree. And then also, like I said at the beginning of the podcast, it's ATM. That's what we cover, advertising, technology and media.

Because coming from an NBC page world, I like the three letters, ATM, and you're used to saying those together as well. That is what drives the call to the industry is being at the moment, whether it's at an event that is really important or talking about something that's really relevant right now. Sure, we will film people in advance and run them a week or so, afterwards maybe, sometimes if it's more evergreen. But then sometimes, we turn around things immediately. We were just at an Axios media conference led by Sara Fischer, one of the best reporters in the industry, and we turned around our coverage of that event and who came and that kind of stuff the very next day because, once the event is over, then the moment is over, if you will. It's really important. So the immediacy of what we're able to do, I think, is really important.

And also, my former team can always recite this, I always say, "You eat with your eyes first." If it's not well-produced, unlike this beautiful place right here... If it's not well-produced, if it doesn't look great, if it's very jump cutty and this kind of stuff, I'm probably not going to want to watch it. That's why I want it to be beautiful. That's why I want it to be fun. That's why I want it to be funny. That's why I want it to be heartwarming, to engage you into watching. So far, like I said, we're still babies, it is working and people are really watching and, now, want to be a part of ATM.

Lance Glinn:

You eat with your eyes first. You're right. It needs to be visually appealing before you even think about the actual content. You want to make sure that people actually enjoy what they're watching. So this I think is, on paper, a simple question, but I think it could provoke a pretty deep answer. What in your view does it mean to really be a media company in 2025 during a time where, in my opinion, it isn't enough just to produce content, you have to sort of be more than that?

Robert Wheeler:

Oh, absolutely. Look, this is what we're dealing with right now, because in some ways all of our problems are the good problems, or at least that's what consultants would tell you, I'm sure, is that we grew really fast. We got a lot of sponsors on board who believe in us and who want to tell stories with us. We're able to buy a camera. Now, it's like, "What does it mean to be a media company?" I was listening recently to an interview that the Pod Save America guys from the Obama administration did and he was like, "We called ourselves a media company, but we were really just guys recording ourselves and then pushing it out and asking our friends to listen." Now, they're events, now they're huge, now they're top 10, and this kind of stuff too, but they believed in becoming a media company. So that's what we are now too.

I think we have excellent production chops. But just like when I was at NBCU, that was a media company, but they also had Peacock Productions, which produced stuff for NBCU, but also for other companies and that kind of stuff. Also, same thing with Warner Bros. television I think of too. I'm okay to produce stuff for our clients that is for their specific things, and we can do it in a beautiful way, but I want to become a destination that people can either lean forward to listen to to find out about that new TV show or product or their favorite influencer.

A friend of mine who is a Peloton instructor, he has a huge Instagram, social TikTok following, but I wanted to talk to him about the business of being Matty Maggiacomo, the business of, when he talks to his followers, what goes into that. I think that's something interesting that we're working with on some of the social media companies on is the business of being yourself in that kind of stuff. I don't want to just talk to executives. I don't want to just talk to influencers or companies and that kind of stuff. I think the executives bring a gravitas and I think the influencers bring a cool factor, and then that kind of brings the industry along. And I think with our sponsors being different media companies, we already represent a large ecosystem of traditional media.

Lance Glinn:

So I want to move now to just the conversation on collaboration. The media landscape, I think, has become increasingly collaborative where companies are finding new ways to partner across platforms, audiences, sometimes even with people they may, in the past, have considered competitors. How do you approach partnership at ATM? To you, what makes a media collaboration really truly successful?

Robert Wheeler:

Well, you're both able to provide something that probably the other partner can't do or doesn't want to do, quite frankly. We partner. We don't produce events. We don't have ATM-produced events. Maybe in the future, that's something interesting, maybe award shows. I'm looking to build a media company here, Lance, and so that's possible. But right now, I just want to produce the best content and the best videos possible. So it's why looking to produce... Even, I think, NYSE and ICE do such a great job of bringing in so many different media partners. But you yourself as part of a content studio, media company within here, I think that's really interesting. But you bring in others for different reasons and values and that kind of stuff too, and hopefully ATM as well.

What is really exciting is working with those events to not only... For instance, Axios, way bigger media company than an ATM, but we have a specific audience that is interested in this type of content, and we're able to celebrate what that media company is doing. So they give us a lot of access. That's really great. Advertising week is coming up, we're partnering with them, and we're partnering on what they're doing, so we're talking to them. We're also working with the ANA and the Paley Center on promoting them and promoting their events and promoting the things that they're doing, but then that also gives us access to create cool content, because I'm not interested in talking to, with all due respect, manager of product, whatever. I'm not interested in doing that.

I want to talk to decision makers. I want to talk to people who have influence. By doing that and because of our sponsors have been so great to afford us the opportunity to be able to do that, we're able to get great content and not only then shines the light on that media company or that particular event and makes them create FOMO and have moments, they're also giving us access too. So far, we've had only open arms to some of those partnerships.

Lance Glinn:

Amazing. So as we begin to wrap up our conversation, Robert, what does success look like for ATM beyond just the views, the likes, the engagement metrics? What kind of long-term impact are you hoping ATM will have on the media and storytelling space?

Robert Wheeler:

I think we don't celebrate our successes today, and that is one thing that I want to change, and that's what I want ATM to do, and rightfully so. Look, I watch CNBC that's here in New York Stock Exchange right now all the time. Great, you beat your quarter, but it fell 5% because the guidance is maybe we won't do as well in the fourth quarter or something like that too. Not only are you beating double digits on whatever bottom line. It went down because who cares about that? We're looking forward. I just think to myself, 20 years ago when I started as a page, there was not social media here. There was nothing like that. Now, those were the predominant drivers of advertising right now. So there's a lot of success just in my 20 year span of when I started in the industry and what is driving it now, and I don't think we celebrate that enough.

That's what I see success as, is ATM shining a light on those people, on those things, on those groups, of those companies, on those influencers, maybe even just slowly, but really kind of changing the industry. People want to go to ATM to hear to those stories and learn more about those people and companies not only for what they're doing, but just also for people and like, "Oh, how did you figure out a work-life balance and that kind of stuff too?" I think that's really fascinating.

Lance Glinn:

Absolutely. So Robert, we obviously talked earlier about building a media company or what it means to be a media company here in 2025. As you build ATM, you said only four months right now, you mentioned it, you're just babies, still continuing to grow. When you look ahead to the next few years, both creatively, strategically, what excites you most about the future of ATM and where do you see this really going when we speak again in 2026, '27, '28 and beyond?

Robert Wheeler:

What was really exciting to me when I went to Cannes as Robert Wheeler, CEO/founder of ATM, it was a struggle to kind of explain it quickly. I've gotten a little better on my little stump speech, if you will.

Lance Glinn:

The little elevator pitch?

Robert Wheeler:

Yeah, my little elevator pitch there. But there were two or three times where people were like, "Oh, you're ATM? Oh, I get their newsletter. Oh, yeah, yeah," so that was really cool. What I want to do is create an environment which... it was full of success. So I would love to be able to have events. I would love to be able to have awards and promote the successes of the industry of what they're doing there too.

Love to always have a place where when you would go... Still today, you can go to the Hudson newsstand in the airport and see like, "Oh, People Magazine," and just know that you're going to flip through there, find interesting things. It's never going to be super doom and gloom and depressing. It's going to be interesting. I want the virtual Hudson newsstand people to come to atm.media or get our newsletter, your ATM Withdrawal, you're welcome, and just know that you're going to see a colleague that you did a business deal with and hear about their struggles and how they're trying to figure out that balance, hear about the amazing vacation that the CEO planned himself because he's so obsessed with planning vacations, those type of things. And then also hear about what they think the industry is going and, during Thanksgiving, what they're thankful for.

I want people to experience the brand on kind of all sides, but then hopefully also we can start licensing the content out so you don't just have to come to atm.media, or you don't just have to go to our Instagram or LinkedIn pages. You can experience all over and get that content, and it has that look and feel of ATM, which hopefully people will know over time.

Lance Glinn:

Well, Robert, we are so excited to see where ATM goes in the near and long-term future. Thanks so much for joining us inside the ICE House.

Robert Wheeler:

Yeah. Thanks, Lance. I appreciate it.

Speaker 1:

That's our conversation for this week. Remember to rate, review, and subscribe wherever you listen and follow us on X, @ICEHousePodcast. From the New York Stock Exchange, we'll talk to you again next week inside the ICE House.

Information contained in this podcast was obtained in part from publicly available sources and not independently verified. Neither ICE nor its affiliates make any representations or warranties expressed or implied as to the accuracy or completeness of the information and do not sponsor, approve, or endorse any of the content herein, all of which is presented solely for informational and educational purposes. Nothing herein constitutes an offer to sell a solicitation of an offer to buy any security or a recommendation of any security or trading practice. Some portions of the preceding conversation may have been edited for the purpose of length or clarity.