Making better ads, on purpose
Most digital advertising fails in the first second. A person scrolls, a banner loads, an impression is counted, and nothing is remembered. Big Happy, a New York advertising-technology company founded in 2019, was built around the opposite premise: that the creative itself - the thing on the screen - is where attention is won or lost. Everything the company does follows from that idea.
Big Happy describes itself as an end-to-end platform. In practice that means it handles the full arc of a campaign, from creative development through media activation to measurement, rather than acting as a simple reseller of ad inventory. Its work lives in two arenas. The first is high-impact mobile: rich-media formats such as full-screen expandables, scroll-responsive units and QR-enabled ads that run across a network of more than 7,000 premium publishers. The second, added in 2025, is 3D digital out-of-home (DOOH) - cinematic, forced-perspective creative built for the large screens people pass on streets, in transit and in retail.
The company's own shorthand is plain enough: "Better Ads, Made Easy," and, more cheekily, "We Make Brands Happy." The logo is a red-and-navy smiley - a literal big, happy face. Behind the friendliness is a fairly hard-nosed thesis about where the advertising market is heading.
"DOOH has historically been static: one creative, one message, served to everyone regardless of context. We've changed that."
Jonathan Frohlinger, Founder & CEO, Big HappyFrom Coca-Cola to the U.S. Army
Big Happy's client roster reads like a Super Bowl ad break. More than 300 brands have run campaigns on the platform, among them Coca-Cola, Verizon, Samsung, Microsoft, Intel, Discover, Comcast, the NFL, IKEA, Uber, Best Buy, Walgreens, DirecTV and the U.S. Army. The buyers are typically brand marketers and the creative or media agencies working on their behalf - organizations with real budgets and a shared frustration: strong media plans undercut by forgettable creative.
That is the problem Big Happy positions itself to solve. High-impact formats are only as good as the assets that fill them, and producing genuinely immersive creative - 3D renders, interactive hotspots, scroll-triggered animation - has traditionally been slow and expensive. Big Happy's pitch is that it collapses that timeline. Mobile creative can ship in 24 to 36 hours; a full DOOH campaign in under 21 days. Speed, in this telling, is not a convenience but a competitive feature: creative that reaches the market faster, and that can be refreshed as conditions change.
Attention, measured
Figures are self-reported by Big Happy and should be read as directional.
One platform, every screen
High-Impact Mobile
Rich-media formats - full-screen Expandables, Big Scrollers, Sunrise units and QR-enabled ads - built for engagement across 7,000+ premium publishers, with turnaround in 24-36 hours.
3D DOOH
Cinematic, forced-perspective 3D creative activated across more than a million digital out-of-home screens throughout North America.
Connected Campaigns
A single creative idea running across immersive mobile and 3D DOOH, so brands reach people across the screens they move between.
DCO for 3D DOOH
Dynamic Creative Optimization that adapts 3D out-of-home creative and messaging in real time to weather, location and live conditions - without losing cinematic render fidelity.
Creative and media, under one roof
Adtech has spent much of the past decade optimizing for cheaper impressions - better bidding, tighter targeting, lower cost per thousand. Big Happy has largely gone the other way, arguing that the quality of attention matters more than the quantity of reach. That framing puts it in a distinct spot in a crowded market. On mobile, it competes with rich-media specialists like Kargo, GumGum, Celtra and Undertone. In out-of-home, it operates alongside programmatic DOOH networks and 3D creative studios. What Big Happy tries to fold into one platform - creative production, cross-channel activation and measurement - is often split across several vendors.
The 2026 launch of Dynamic Creative Optimization for 3D DOOH is the clearest expression of the strategy. Traditional out-of-home shows the same message to everyone; Big Happy's system tailors both copy and visuals to context - a rainy morning in one city, a warm evening in another - while keeping the 3D motion and render quality intact. It is a technical answer to a marketer's old complaint that out-of-home is powerful but blunt.
The move into DOOH was not casual. To lead the division, Big Happy hired Gabby Stoller, who had scaled Vistar Media's DOOH business and spent four years running Walmart's food-and-beverage digital and retail-media team. The signal to the industry was that Big Happy intends to treat out-of-home as a creative channel, not a commodity.
How it works
Big Happy earns revenue by building high-fidelity creative and activating it as paid media across its mobile publisher network and DOOH inventory, integrating with major demand-side platforms and measurement providers. The economics rest on a lean base: the company reported 120% revenue growth in 2023, raised a modest $2.5 million strategic investment from Infolinks Media in January 2024, and then grew revenue 132% year-over-year in 2025. In an industry where large rounds are common, the ratio of capital raised to growth achieved is itself part of the story.
Jonathan Frohlinger
Big Happy was founded and is led by Jonathan Frohlinger, who has served as CEO since 2019. He came to the company after a career largely spent on the buy side of advertising - roles at Starcom, the U.S. Open, kirshenbaum bond + partners, a stint as director of sales at Verve, and vice president of sales at COFFEE Labs. Over that career he has, by his own account, moved more than $100 million in media spend and brought in over $30 million in revenue from Fortune 500 advertisers including AT&T, Comcast, Verizon, Microsoft, Ford and BMW.
That vantage point - years of watching well-funded campaigns underperform on weak creative - is the origin of Big Happy's founding argument. Frohlinger is a member of the Forbes Business Development Council and a graduate of Hofstra University.
"We Make Brands Happy."
Big Happy company mantraA short history
Big Happy is founded
Jonathan Frohlinger and a team of media buyers launch the company in New York to fix advertising's creative problem.
120% revenue growth
The high-impact mobile business more than doubles revenue, setting up outside investment.
$2.5M strategic investment
Infolinks Media invests to accelerate growth in high-impact mobile advertising.
Launch of 3D DOOH
Big Happy expands into cinematic out-of-home, hiring a Walmart and Vistar veteran to lead it, and posts 132% YoY growth.
DCO for 3D DOOH & a Board of Advisors
The company forms a 2026 Board of Advisors and launches Dynamic Creative Optimization for 3D out-of-home.
Details
Demos & interviews
FAQ
What does Big Happy do?
Big Happy is an end-to-end advertising platform that builds high-impact mobile and 3D digital out-of-home (DOOH) ads, then activates and measures them - handling creative, media and measurement in one place.
Who founded Big Happy and when?
Big Happy was founded in 2019 by Jonathan Frohlinger, who serves as Founder and CEO, together with a team of media buyers and mobile adtech specialists.
Which brands work with Big Happy?
More than 300 brands, including Coca-Cola, Verizon, Samsung, Microsoft, Intel, Discover, Comcast, the NFL, IKEA, Uber and the U.S. Army.
What is DCO for 3D DOOH?
Launched in 2026, it is a Dynamic Creative Optimization system that automatically adapts 3D out-of-home creative and messaging in real time based on weather, location and live conditions while preserving cinematic quality.
How much funding has Big Happy raised?
Roughly $2.57M in total, including a $2.5M strategic investment from Infolinks Media in January 2024.