Kelly Wenzel is the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) for
Centro, which is a firm that is on a mission to reinvent the media industry
through programmatic solutions. Wenzel is also on a mission. In addition to
helping advance Centro’s programmatic offerings, she is also deeply committed
to mentoring and promoting women in the media technology field and in advancing
work / life balance for working mothers. In short, she is making a difference
both in how our industry works and in how we work in our industry. Her
efforts have contributed to Centro’s reputation as the top place to work in
advertising and media (according to both Fortune and Advertising Age).
In
this inspiring interview, Wenzel talks about her career, the advance of
programmatic, how she achieves life and work balance and how, as an industry,
we can help the advancement and achievement of young talented women. She also offers
some ideas as to how the media landscape will trend over the next few years.
There are four videos in this interview:
Video Length in minutes
Background 5:45
Centro and Ad Tech 5:34
Mentoring and Life Balance 7:39
Predictions 4:03
Background 5:45
Centro and Ad Tech 5:34
Mentoring and Life Balance 7:39
Predictions 4:03
Charlene Weisler interviews Centro CMO Kelly Wenzel who talks about her background in the 5:45 minute video:
CW: How has digital media changed since you first entered it in 2009?
KW:
Just a few years ago it was an RFP (request for proposal) game. RFPs rolled in
and as a marketer you didn’t need to focus on lead generation – everybody knew
who you were. It was more about branding and exposure in the ad tech sector.
Now it is much more about a holistic brand strategy, being very on-purpose with
your brand and producing relevant, meaningful content that your customers want
to consume. You still need to think about lead generation – how I am going to
distribute and promote that content - but ad tech is now such a confusing and cluttered
space that, as a marketer, we spend a lot more time on thought leadership, on
education and on demystifying this space.
CW:
I know that Programmatic is part of your business. How do you define
Programmatic?
KW:
There are people who think that Programmatic is synonymous with real time
bidding (RTB) – buying inventory through an exchange based on an auction. That’s
an older, slightly outdated definition. More folks are ascribing to the broader
view which is Programmatic is about automation – anything that can be automated
in the life cycle of a media campaign will be automated. By that definition,
everything that Centro does is Programmatic because every campaign runs through
the Centro Platform; nothing is done manually. Unfortunately, too many people still
believe that Programmatic means that bidding on lower quality or remnant
impressions from lower quality publishers or an exchange. That is also an
outdated view but it takes time to change perceptions.
CW:
I know that you are deeply involved in mentorship. Can you talk about that?
KW:
Yes. I was blessed to have a mentor very early in my career. My first job out
of college I was a copywriter at an agency and one of the creative directors
took me under her wing. It made a world of difference for a green 22 year old,
fresh out of school, trying to navigate her first corporate environment. It
made such a tremendous impact on me that I resolved to do the same for others
down the line when I was in a position to do so. I have made that my mission.
It is something that I make a priority.
I mentor women within Centro and I also mentor women via industry organizations
like Women Advancing and Advertising Women of New York (AWNY).
Mentorship can be pivotal to a young person's career. In this 7:39 minute video, Kelly Wenzel talks to Charlene Weisler about her efforts mentoring the next generation and her abilities in life balance.
CW:
How can more women get involved? How can one get started?
KW:
First, look around. There are probably women surrounding you in the workplace
today that would benefit from a piece of wisdom, a boost, an affirmation. Start
there. What Sheryl Sandberg wrote in “Lean In” was very true in that mentors
find you. When I think of the women I mentor inside Centro, many of those
relationships have been initiated by me. You see something as a leader, some
spark or skill that you want to cultivate and nurture. Another fantastic
benefit of “Lean In” is how proactive women now are about asking for mentorship
or guidance.
CW: You are the mother of young children and also
have a high powered job. How do you maintain work / life balance?
KW: Look, I struggle with this. I have two young
children – twins who are five. I travel a lot right now, which takes a toll.
Here is some of the best pieces advice I have gotten and implemented: Don’t
think that it is ever a balance. It is more about work / life integration. Like
a scale, it is going to go up and down and you have to be ready to be on that
seesaw. There will be times when work is getting a little bit more of your
attention and there will be times when your family is getting a little bit more
of your attention. Just be conscious of riding that wave and managing it as
best as you can. Don’t expect many times of perfect balance – I might get that
for half an hour at a time!
The other thing that is helpful to me is purely
mental. It is a mindset shift where I have a new relationship with my guilt. I
was feeling guilt a lot about being away and the time I wasn’t spending with my
children. Now, I try to just own my choices. If I am choosing to have a career,
choosing to be a CMO at a thriving growing software company, well that is my
choice. And with it comes compromise that I have to make on the home front. As
soon as you own your choice, work is not a “have to” or a “must” or an
“obligation” and that reframes everything. It’s a much more empowered way to
move through the world.
In this final video, Kelly Wenzel shares some of her predictions about the media landscape with Charlene Weisler. This video is 4:03 minutes:
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