Driving Innovation to Smash Glass Ceilings. An Interview with Rubicon Projects’ Alex Smith

Being a woman in tech is both exciting and challenging. There is the fascination with creating innovations in the media field and sometimes there is the uncertainty that comes with being one of the few women in the room.  Alex Smith, Product Manager, Rubicon Projects, is mastering both technological developments and amplifying the female voice in tech as she not only manages product development for her company but also assumes the position of Chairperson at Prebid.org, an open source organization for coders and publishers.  

Smith has an interesting educational background, majoring in both math and philosophy at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. “People ask me why both math and philosophy and I tell them that I am a multi-disciplinary thinker. I went to college to learn cool stuff and both subjects were interesting to me.”  But upon graduating from school and focusing on a career, math took precedence. ”The philosophy factory down the street wasn’t hiring,” she deadpanned. Smith’s first job was with Liberty Mutual in the technological development program. She tried different areas before discovering product management which combined many areas that she liked. From there she went to Rubicon Projects where her blend of philosophy and math is the perfect combination to not only develop intuitive products but also bring technologists together. 

Being one of the few women in technology I wondered if progress has been made in integrating more women into the field. Smith hesitated when I asked that question. “Ah… It’s hard to say. I think that we are making a lot of progress in education right now in tech. I think it still hasn’t gotten to the workforce. When I was in college it was rare to see women in computer science classes. When you told people that you were going to get a job in tech they would look at you a little funny.”  Now there are many organizations, such as Girls Who Code and Coding with Klossy, who are making great strides in welcoming girls into the STEM disciplines. 

Of course, making educational advancements is an important first step. But it is also one that takes years to remedy within the workforce. “So while I haven’t seen many changes in the workforce yet,” Smith admitted, “I think we are about to see a great wave of women entering the technological workforce.” I myself would love to see this process expedited but this takes time. Smith is optimistic however that the great female wave is coming soon and the industry is ready to hire them. “We need to start with education,” she concluded, “The most important thing industries can do is to support education from middle school, up, to encourage girls to get into these technical fields. We will reap benefits years later.”

How did she manage to overcome workplace obstacles? “Something for me that was instrumental in tech was having a mentor who concentrated on my career growth.” Smith was lucky to meet a project manager at Liberty Mutual who was an advocate for women in tech and who developed into not only a mentor but a good friend. “Having her and her mentorship from the beginning greatly impacted my career and how I think about being a woman in tech and a person who cares about others in tech.” For Smith, mentorship is critical to develop a strong sense of belonging and confidence to take your career to the highest level it can go.” It can be a make it or break it factor,” she stated.

Navigating in the male dominated space is “intimidating,” she noted. “It can be hard to break in if you are different.” For Smith, not being a developer and not writing code presented a unique challenge with her participation in Prebid.org. “While I may not have an opinion about how to code, I do have an opinion about how we can grow this organization, get more scale and involve more publishers. I can bring value to this organization.” In fact, the organization has been very welcoming and she feels confident with her ability to add value to its mission. 

Within the workforce, men can help women progress by “not just giving them a seat at the table but inviting them to dance.” She suggests that men can make women feel more comfortable and part of the team by encouraging them to participate. “It is easy to feel like an outsider,” she said, adding, women, “need to have courage and just go for it even if you are a little afraid.” And, she reiterated, “Mentorship is critical.” 

This article first appeared in www.MediaVillage.com

 

Rubicon Project's Mari Kim Novak on Unifying Advertising Across All Platforms

Mari Kim Novak, Global CMO Rubicon Project, is in the center of the programmatic storm, overseeing a team that is charged with driving the adoption of a unified platform for advertising across all screens, devices and formats. "As CMO it's my job to make sure that buyers and sellers alike realize the power of our automated platform to execute against all levels of the marketing funnel," she says. 

Mari Kim has a deep and strong experience in the technical aspects of advertising sales with stints at Microsoft as their Global Head of Marketing, "I handled Microsoft's global marketing budget, industry outreach and sales enablement programs supporting brands including MSN, Xbox, Skype and Bing," she adds.

With programmatic being at once ubiquitous and still a bit mysterious, I asked her the following questions:

Charlene Weisler: What is your definition of programmatic? If there are more than one kind of programmatic can you tell me what they are?

Mari Kim Novak: Programmatic means the automation of ad buying and selling, based on data. Since its introduction, programmatic technology has radicalized the advertising industry. There are different kinds of programmatic advertising, yes. The first of these include Private Marketplace (PMP), which we'll get into later. Real Time Bidding (RTB), which is the real time buying and selling of ad impressions. Finally, Automated Guaranteed, which is the direct sale of reserved ad inventory. Ad buyers can use programmatic buying to fan ads across the web and then, mid-campaign, evaluate what's working best -- which geographies, times of day, audience segments, publishers -- to narrow their target accordingly, so they're paying only for highly effective ads. This is a radical change.

Charlene: What area of programmatic does Rubicon Project concentrate in?

Mari Kim: Rubicon Project offers a complete solution that allows buyers and sellers of advertising to achieve more effective results in an automated environment across all major inventory types, ad units and channels. Our technology enables the world's most respected publishers and application developers to monetize their business while also empowering buyers to target the exact audiences they seek as we reach approximately one billion consumers globally.  We look to continue our strong marketplace success, expand our global cross-company focus with our clients and ensure that we continue to invest in the right areas -- like mobile, where we are already one of the top three mobile exchanges in the world, and video. There are also tremendous programmatic opportunities in television and out-of-home, and we're already seizing on the early developments in those emerging market areas.

Charlene: What are the advantages of private marketplaces?

Mari Kim: For background, private marketplaces are invite-only Real Time Bidding Auctions. Meaning one publisher, or sometimes a select number of publishers, can invite a specific number of buyers to bid on that publisher's ad space or inventory. There are so many advantages for both buyers and sellers (brands and publishers) to leveraging a private marketplace. First and foremost, private marketplaces reduce many of the operational overheads that plague so much of this industry; essentially what makes display significantly less efficient than other media, including other digital channels. Private marketplaces make it more efficient for buyers but also allow sellers to fully leverage indirect sales channels. Because it's an exclusive auction, ultimately private marketplaces are making more premium placements.

Charlene: You recently quoted a Contexxt research study regarding the effectiveness of programmatic advertising. Can you tell me more about that?

Mari Kim:  Yes. Contexxt is a data firm that recently released a study that concluded that buying ads programmatically can increase return on investment by 20 percent and raise bottom line sales by 5 percent.  But you also need smart a thoughtful strategy with smart allocation across desktop, mobile and video. Brands that are thoughtful about their channel-specific investment are the ones that will maximize returns from their overall programmatic strategy. We at Rubicon Project believe that 1) the average brand should double its programmatic allocation, 2) advertisers should use private marketplaces to leverage first party data and 3) brands should be allocating for the future, especially in mobile and video.

This article first appeared in www.MediaBizBloggers.com

Rubicon Project Reveals the Secret of Programmatic Buying and Selling Success in Contexxt

Rubicon Project, a programmatic buying and selling firm, recently completed a study with data firm Contexxt that demonstrated the effectiveness of programmatic advertising. The study concluded that buying ads programmatically can increase return on investment by 20 percent, and raise bottom line sales by 5 percent.

The study, to be released this week, carefully noted that these results will not be realized unless there is a strategy at the onset of a campaign. Mari Kim Novak, Global CMO Rubicon Project, explained, “You also need smart a thoughtful strategy with smart allocation across desktop, mobile, and video. Brands that are thoughtful about their channel-specific investment are the ones that will maximize returns from their overall programmatic strategy.”

The study set out to understand the impact of programmatic across all channels, how properly executed programmatic campaigns could impact sales and the impact of marketing return on investment via programmatic. “Programmatic will continue to grow in revenue and importance to advertisers as we continue to increase the level of consumer response level data,” noted Shelly Zallis, CEO Contexxt.

The methodology included a focus on $20.0 Billion in spend analyzed across Fortune 500 companies in ten vertical categories. Multivariate data sets were created to determine the channel allocation, creative unit and sales impact. Included was competitive action and cost data in order to determine measurable business results. Additionally, comprehensive tactics included time decay, reach, frequency and flighting.

Here are the conclusions:

           The average brand should double their programmatic allocation
Doubling the percentage of programmatic media spend from 4 percent, which is the average for Fortune 500 brands, to 8 percent will yield the optimal return on investment and sales outcomes. Investing less, according to the study, means that brands are leaving sales and ROI on the table.

           Use private marketplaces to leverage first party data
Applying a brand’s own customer data and intelligence to campaigns is one of the most impactful ways a brand can leverage programmatic. More advanced tactics using customer data can present even more incremental efficiencies.

    Allocating for the future

      There are differences in media behavior between younger and older audiences. Younger audiences are more fragmented and their media consumption habits are more on-demand than appointment based. The younger your target, the greater the media budget allocation should be towards programmatic. Twelve percent is the optimal level for this audience, according to the study results.

          Mobile and video
Mobile and Video are two areas where programmatic buying can help brands reach consumers where they are and make the right decisions about what to show them and when. The study concludes that mobile should represent 33 percent of a brand’s programmatic investment, and video should represent 35 percent, keeping in mind that video and mobile can overlap.

“We at Rubicon Project believe that the average brand should double their programmatic allocation, advertisers should use private marketplaces to leverage first party data and brands should be allocating for the future, especially in Mobile and Video,” concluded Novak.

This article first appeared in www.MediaBizBloggers.com

 

Break Down Measurement Silos and Get with the Program-matic

Two hot topics swirling around in the media industry today - cross platform measurement and programmatic buying - were front and center at the ARF Measurement Mandate conference. Day one was a deep dive into programmatic and big data while day two covered cross platform measurement and ROI.

Gayle Fuguitt gave the industry a call-to-action, "We need the right insight with the right decision maker at the right time.” She believes that “research needs to keep up with the consumers today. We need to go from media to audience targets, from black box to behavioral convergent data, from ‘post-diction’ to predictive and from silos to collaboration. We also need to fund measurement initiatives and experiments to scale and grow.”  

See a short video of Gayle Fuguitt’s ideas and initiatives here:

TV Programmatic

I can easily understand why programmatic works in the digital realm. There is ample inventory of various levels of popularity and quality, the ads are easily placed dynamically and are measurable and posted against consumer segments. It is for these very reasons why I don’t see programmatic, under its current definition, being implemented in television any time soon.

But that doesn’t mean that a form of programmatic automation cannot be implemented in television ... and soon. Some believe that it will. AOL’s Bob Lord believes that “media, data and technology are the new palate that fuels brand experiences and creativity (which can come from anyone and anywhere).” “Convergence” he says, “is a journey. Programmatic is the mechanism that integrates humans into the process.”

Rubicon’s Greg Raifman doesn’t even like to use the term programmatic. He says it "only captures part of it; the trading and execution.” Even the basis of programmatic - to automate the selling of remnant inventory - doesn’t resonate anymore with Raifman. He explained that businesses that once started on the lower end eventually moved up in quality. “Nasdaq started automating with low cap stocks. Now you can trade any stock electronically. eBay started with a flea market environment like low cost Pez dispensers. Now eBay sells cars. Automation always starts on the lower end. Remnant or unsold advertising are now with private exchanges that are also selling mid-level inventory. One day we will even sell Super Bowl ads. The part that has grown the most is the part that has been automated the most.” Adam Gerber of ABC seems to disagree, “To us, automation is not programmatic. Programmatic is client data in real-time against inventory. It will not be 100% by 2020 as some predict. Big ideas such as sports are not programmable.”

Here is a short video showing a range of opinions on TV programmatic from attendees at the ARF:

Cross Platform Measurement

“We can now view TV on multiple screens,” says Fuguitt, “and our metrics have to keep up with the media.” There is a critical need for true, scalable and standardize-able cross platform measurement. But media measurement has always been and continues to be silo'ed by platforms and metrics. We get stuck in “legacy systems and legacy thinking” according to CRE’s Richard Zackon which holds us back from gaining progress in cross platform measurement.

The measurement mandate, according to Fuguitt can be built on our strength (MRC quality and historic TV measurement), grappling with our weaknesses (no centralized leadership, low innovation, lack of precision in mobile lacks precision and a low focus on advertisers) exploiting opportunities (maximize our industry leadership and invest in a cross platform measurement roadmap) and combating threats (inefficient dollar allocation, turf wars, privacy and fraud). Next steps should include “creating common GRPS that are measured across media, starting with video and then moving quickly to mobile. We also need to validate impression measurement and agreeing to common ROI effectiveness measurements” according to Fuguitt.

P&G’s Joan Lewis noted that we have "a measurement and leadership challenge as well as a growth challenge for dollars and business." How do we move forward? Lewis says that the “First step is developing common metrics - understandable, comparable and recombine-able across all media types and devices with no black boxes. Then we must be able to explain it to people and have them understand it. The success metric has to be sales.”

What is the biggest challenge to implementing cross platform measurement? View a range of opinions from attendees in this short video: