Problem/Challenge

Media companies struggled to benchmark ad pricing across platforms, while advertisers lacked transparent, standardized pricing data to optimize spend. Inconsistent labeling and fragmented data from various agencies complicated efforts to gain clear insights. The need was for a reliable, standardized solution that provided competitive pricing intelligence across TV and digital media for better decision-making.

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My Role

• Product Vision: Conceptualized product vision, aligning requirements with media companies’ and agency needs for competitive ad pricing insights.

• Algorithm Development: Collaborated with data science teams to create stable algorithms for accurate, consistent ad pricing data.

• Taxonomy Standardization: Worked with agencies to develop a standardized advertising taxonomy for consistent data labeling across platforms.

• Fuzzy Logic Implementation: Implemented fuzzy logic rules to accurately label fragmented and inconsistent ad spend data.

• Dashboard UX: Scoped dashboards and tools for easy price discovery and comparison across various media and brand categories.

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Impact & Results

• New Client Wins: The product played a key role in securing major clients such as Disney and Hearst Magazines. 

• Agency Savings: Agencies were able to renegotiate upfronts and spot buying, enabling the investment and buying teams to improve ROI

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Lessons Learned

• Data Standardization is Crucial: Standardizing and harmonizing ad spend data across various agency holding companies was key to the product's success. Ensuring accurate and consistent data labeling made the platform more reliable and valuable for all stakeholders.

• Experimentation with KPIs: Continuously running experiments and tracking KPIs like price stability was essential to refine algorithms, ensuring data accuracy and minimizing volatility before product launch.

Problem/Challenge

Advertisers faced a fragmented process when targeting OTT audiences, as each media company provided separate audience data. Managing creative variants required new ads for each media platform, increasing complexity. This lack of unified audience execution made targeting and campaign management inefficient, particularly for dynamic and personalized ad campaigns across mobile, desktop, and connected TV platforms.

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My Role

• Household Graphing: Conceptualized and implemented a household graphing strategy to unify OTT, desktop, and mobile audiences under shared household identities.

• Data Integration: Integrated Nielsen Marketing Cloud data with BrightLine OTT graphing and DMP to enhance audience targeting and segmentation.

• Ad Performance Tracking: Developed and implemented an event tracking system to measure ad performance and ensure data-driven optimization.

• DMP Creation: Built a Data Management Platform capable of handling first, second, and third-party audience data for enhanced targeting and personalization.

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Impact & Results

• Increased Ads: Achieved a 75% increase in interactive ads during the first year, empowering advertisers to run personalized A/B testing and campaign optimizations.

• Programmatic Adoption: Increased connected TV programmatic ad buys compared to direct buys with media companies, streamlining the buying process and improving efficiency.

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Lessons Learned

• Experience Translation: Leveraged addressable TV ad experience from Cablevision, accelerating the development of household targeting for CTV.

• Optimization Balance: Balanced client-side vs. server-side logic for identity resolution, minimizing latency on devices with limited memory/storage.

• Partnership Strategy: Negotiated give-to-get agreements, leveraging audience data at no cost in exchange for jointly building and empowering household graphs for data partner.

Problem/Challenge

In the early 2000s, game publishers sought new revenue streams through in-game advertising. While companies like Massive and IGA focused on the U.S., there was a gap in the European market. JOGO Media was created to address this need, backed by a lead investor who was formerly the CEO of Falk AG, Europe’s leading ad server before its acquisition by Doubleclick.

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My Role

• Market Research: Conducted due diligence on the in-game market, researching competitors, assessing the addressable market, and learning game technologies and business models.

• Product Roadmap: Scoped product requirements, devised the GamePlan roadmap, and led the development of the platform and its companion SDK.

• Third-Party Integrations: Integrated third-party audience data and campaign validation tools to enhance targeting and measurement.

• Industry Representation: Represented JOGO Media in industry organizations, contributing to the establishment of standardized in-game measurement and guidelines.

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Impact & Results

• European Market Expansion: Signed multiple European PC game publishers, expanding in-game advertising across the region.

• Award-Winning Integration: Integrated into BMW's "BMW M3 Challenge," which won the 2008 IAB MIXX gold award for in-game advertising.

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Lessons Learned

• Investor Roadshow Experience: Gained valuable experience pitching to investors, successfully securing over $3 million in Series A funding.

• IAB Standards Leadership: Worked alongside industry peers on the IAB measurement committee to define the first in-game impression standard for the industry.

Problem/Challenge

With programmatic ads offering advanced targeting and measurement, media partners sought ways to differentiate CTV from linear TV. Traditional advertisers, especially brick-and-mortar stores, relied on TV for awareness but wanted more personalization. The challenge was to create an ad format that combined TV’s broad reach with digital’s ability to personalize, using location-based insights to measure real-world impact.

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My Role

• Partner Interviews: Interviewed media partners to understand their objectives and challenges in driving store traffic via CTV ads.

• Product Ideation: Researched digital ad trends and proposed the interactive Store Locator ad format for better engagement.

• Product Development: Scoped product requirements and collaborated with design and development teams to implement the Store Locator functionality.

• Measurement Integration: Worked with Cuebiq to provide foot traffic insights, enabling data-driven optimization of ad performance.

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Impact & Results

• New Advertiser Acquisition: Attracted new advertisers like Benjamin Moore, Jack in the Box, and Target, driving increased engagement and store visits.

• Personalization Pioneer: Became the first of many CTV ads to leverage geo-data for personalized ad experiences, setting a new standard in interactive advertising.

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Lessons Learned

• Balancing Personalization and Scale: Learned the importance of balancing personalized experiences with CTV’s broad reach, ensuring both high engagement and wide visibility without sacrificing user experience.

• Foot Traffic Insights: Realized that integrating real-world data, like foot traffic, added measurable value for advertisers, making CTV a more attractive platform for performance-based campaigns.

Problem/Challenge

Traditional interactive video ads were labor-intensive, requiring partial screen video wrapped by interactive elements and sometimes custom-produced videos. This complicated the production process, making it costly and inefficient for media partners. The challenge was to create a scalable ad format that could be easily added to existing videos, eliminating the friction and enabling partners to integrate interactivity without extensive redesign or rework.

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My Role

• Business Case Development: Advocated for this new ad type after gathering feedback about the complexity of creating traditional interactive ads.

• Product Requirements: Wrote detailed product requirements and user stories for the development and launch of the Engageable Overlay ad format.

• Marketing and Sales Support: Developed marketing materials and a capability matrix to support sales efforts and communicate the ad’s benefits to partners.

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Impact & Results

• Foundation for Future Formats: This ad format became the foundation for future innovations, including the Store Locator and other functionality.

• Programmatic Adoption: Became the dominant format for programmatic ad buys, driving widespread adoption due to its scalability and ease of use.

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Lessons Learned

• Understanding Technical Impact: Realized the importance of understanding the technical implications of new initiatives on existing systems, leading to better planning, risk mitigation, and backward compatibility.

• Framework Shifts: Learned that paradigm shifts, while necessary, require careful consideration of implementation complexity and impact on legacy systems.