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

 

Collecting New Data Points in Advertising. An Interview with KERV’s Marika Roque

Marika Roque, EVP Media and Technology, KERV Interactive has spent years on the agency side, working on brands in technical, media, production, operational and senior leadership roles. 

“I have worked in digital from its beginning,” she explained, “My understanding of the inner workings of the digital ecosystem help me understand how to quickly filter through the clutter and get to what is real. The goal is to never build a team that you can automate. Build one that will help you along the path to automation and actually get there.”

I spoke with her regarding the programmatic infrastructure side of adtech. 

Charlene Weisler: Tell me about KERV, where does it sit in the media ecosystem?

Marika Roque: KERV is a video technology company with proprietary, patent-protected technology that represents a new genre of advertising; One in which images and objects within entertainment properties, video advertising assets and other forms of display technologies are optimized and made interactive.  This technology offers consumers a deeper, more personalized experience. Consumers can click on a featured object in midstream to obtain information about that particular object. KERV is the only technology available that recognizes images by their pixel edges to create a real-time, interactive in-video experience in every scene. Every object within an in-stream ad or piece of content can be interactive, clicked on and linked out to a unique page.

In addition to the entertainment value delivered to a consumer’s fingertips and the resulting monetization opportunities, the same platform has the ability to collect substantial data points that others aren’t collecting regarding consumers’ behavior – data that goes far beyond industry standards.

Weisler: What TV services can use your technology? Connected TVs? Linear? Streaming services?

Roque: In Distribution we can currently connect to any content that can accept a VPAID tag from a distribution perspective. In Content we are in the integration stages with several content-heavy companies which will allow custom integrations with their consumption infrastructures, while users are watching any 10 foot device. We plan on taking advantage of the multi-screen consumption behaviors that exist on the consumption side. We are agnostic, as long as the streaming service can accept a VPAID tag. This will be a different story when we get into next year. 

Weisler: Is this technology added in production or post? Can it be added to legacy content?

Roque: No production costs! It can be added to legacy content. We simply need access to the raw file, such as an MP4. It is very turnkey to work with us and we provide unique, creative data points. We are a data-driven video lab, from one angle. 

Weisler: Do you direct viewers to websites?

Roque: Yes, we can direct viewers to websites. Currently, most in-stream and pre-roll ads only allow
one click out. Some technologies allow for customizable buttons, but those only add one link out. Most longer-form content doesn't click out at all! Our technology allows for an infinite amount of link outs per frame of any asset which is KERVd. When a user is consuming content/ads wrapped with our technology, any object (down to the pixel level), can be identified and linked out to a unique landing page/website/app/Google Map (the customer can drive the experience of their choice through the link out story). Visualize an ad for a retailer that has a frame with several models in it. All of the models are wearing different clothes that the retailer sells. Every item on each model can be uniquely clicked out to its unique landing page or we can click out to a pre-populated map which locates stores near you! For instance, a Michael Kors dress can be linked out to that SKUs product page uniquely, as well as the necklace, the earrings, the shoes, etc. This not only allows a layer of shop ability and data collection, but can also allow the brand/advertiser to provide additional information, right in the experience, without having the user leave the page.

Weisler: Do you collect any data and if so what? And if you collect data how do you use it to gain insights?

Roque: We currently collect all of our unique interaction points throughout the experience, down to the object, frame, user and device level. We are able to analyze certain interactions, first, second, third, down to the object level, of any scene, within any KERVd video asset. This allows us to provide unique insight on the creative, from a true interaction perspective, and also allows us to add data points to current attribution or lifetime value models. 

Weisler: How do you manage privacy?

Roque: We currently anatomize groups of unique users, when modeling internally. When passing along PII insights to license/MSAAS customers, we have established very strict “Terms and Conditions” within our MSA and take protecting our users' data very seriously. On the distribution side, we work with technologies and content/sites, which are all GDPR compliant and are on the front of data trends.  

Weisler: What are the challenges in your form of ad tech and how to overcome?

Roque: For one, there are multiple configurations for the many different video players (literally the players that host content on websites) across the programmatic ecosystem. Every publisher has their own custom configuration of 1 of 5 or so, video players (ex: JW Player, Brightcove), if they don't have a proprietary player. We are addressing this by gaining partnerships and integrations with all of the premium content creators and are asking questions, which are not standard practice within the RTB, Video Player, SSP, etc., spaces. Definitely trail blazing.  We are also modeling user behavior based on new/patented interactions, within a time where data is becoming more and more private. We are not currently defining the users from their cookies but instead by their behaviors within our patented technology. 

This article first appeared in www.Mediapost.com

Military-Grade Ad Verification. Interview with Daniel Avital, CSO CHEQ

With all of the industry talk about ad verification, it may take a former Israeli intelligence officer to develop a military-grade protocol to detect and prevent ad fraud. 

CHEQ, founded by Guy Tytunovich, is positioning itself as “a cyber-security company looking to replace traditional ad-verification platforms with a fully autonomous and pre-emptive solution.” It is certainly an area of importance for agencies and advertisers who are concerned about brand safety, ad viewability and fraud prevention.

I sat down with CHEQ’s Chief Strategy Officer, Daniel Avital, to find out more:

Charlene Weisler: How does CHEQ prevent ad fraud?

Daniel Avital: Every time a user is about to be served an ad, our system rapidly analyzes almost 700 parameters and sets multiple honeypots (bot traps) to determine the authenticity of that user and ensure that only human traffic gets served. The name of the game is speed – after analyzing all of that data and making a decision, we need to prevent that impression from being acquired by our client. All of that needs to happen in record speed.

Charlene Weisler: Does it protect privacy?

Daniel Avital: Ultimately, our mission is to protect the digital ecosystem and privacy is a big part of that effort. To that end, we are fully compliant with the new GDPR regulations and have brought on board designated personnel to ensure that our privacy practices continue to be protective of user privacy, which we believe to be a basic right.

Charlene Weisler: How does CHEQ work in real time?

Daniel Avital: To enable real-time prevention, our engineering teams have had to continuously optimize our algorithms to ensure all our fraud prevention and brand-safety NLP (natural processing language) modules run simultaneously, cost-efficiently and at great speed. This allows CHEQ to make an accurate decision before an ad is ever served.

Charlene Weisler: Could it be said that it is in the programmatic space or works with programmatic in some form?

Daniel Avital: We cover all digital advertising environments, including programmatic, whether it be display or video - where we are introducing unique and cutting-edge capabilities to the industry.

Charlene Weisler: Can CHEQ be used for other media applications?

Daniel Avital: Absolutely. At this point in time, CHEQ’s focus is on transforming the ad-verification space (ad fraud, brands safety and viewability), but our ultimate goal is to help advertisers take back control of their digital media, a goal that transcends ad verification. Our R&D teams are developing exciting applications for our tech which will give advertisers new tools like Autonomous PR (crisis management, reacting to competitors, breaking stories).

Charlene Weisler: How does the technology work?

Daniel Avital: For fraud prevention, CHEQ's platform applies various proprietary modules to detect suspicious non-human activity, data discrepancies and behavioral anomalies. On the brand safety side, we apply advanced NLP (Natural Language Processing) modules to intelligently analyze content at page level and ensure advertisers only serve ads alongside brand-safe content.

Charlene Weisler: What advice would you give a digital advertiser?

Daniel Avital: Stress-test your ad-verification vendors and don’t blindly trust the accuracy of their measurement and reporting. Do not put up with a vendor who offers a “black-box” solution. Always ask them to provide you with raw data (flagged IP’s, flagged “unsafe” URL’s, traffic sources etc.) so that you can assess their work with an external party.

Charlene Weisler: Where do you see your part of the business going in the next 3-5 years?

Daniel Avital: We want to put the control back in the hands of advertisers. Today the hottest issues are brand safety, ad fraud and viewability but in the next few years we plan on transcending the verification space and launching innovative products which will help advertisers get an even stronger grip on their digital presence.

This article first appeared in www.Mediapost.com

Revenue is a Byproduct of Great Customer Experience. The Wisdom of Viacom’s Bryson Gordon

“My career is weird,” confessed Bryson Gordon, Executive VP Advanced Advertising Group, Viacom. After starting his career “designing an ad blocker,” he is now responsible for expanding Viacom’s arsenal of cross media ad inventory by creating a great customer experience for targeting ads. “But”, he adds, “Business transformation has been a thread throughout.”

Gordon’s first job out of college was for a computer security company, where “we were the first to do software as a service (SAAS) before it was even called software as a service. We fundamentally changed the business model for that industry.” Then at Microsoft, where in a variety of roles, he grew the company’s then tiny direct-to-consumer business into a multi-billion dollar enterprise. “It was a fundamental shift for a gigantic company to reshape how it took its product to market,” he noted. Now at Viacom, he has found his calling. “Here I have the opportunity to work with an amazing set of people and transform the television business. I love that.” 

I sat down with Gordon to find out more about how he will transform television:

Charlene Weisler: Give me a short overview of your department initiatives. 

Bryson Gordon: When we first started Vantage (Viacom’s Data-Driven and Predictive Ad Solution Advertiser Service) it was very much about developing ad capabilities that focused on targeting, measurement, attribution, advanced audience modeling, etc. I ask myself this question: What is going to feel different? Not just some corporate mandate, but when we start to think about the North Star of the organization, what will feel different between our capabilities and where we are going in this new advanced advertising organization. The fundamental pivot is to shift from capabilities to the customer experience of advertising. Customer experience is a loaded term. But when we think about Viacom in creating formats, ad experiences, cross platforms, what are the specific audiences that really drive impact? What can we do as an organization of data scientists, information specialists, researchers, product development people, to fundamentally evolve the customer experience with advertising so that it is incredible for our customers and for our partners? 

Charlene: How will you achieve that?

Bryson: Our team has historically been made up of product managers and data scientists. Now the team spans product management, data science, developers, designers, people who are specialists in the launch of multi-platform environments where content ends up – the social and digital environment. Then we focus on creating not just traditional advertising but also branded marketing content to create the optimal advertising and marketing experiences for our fans in that environment. Then, what can we do to actually orchestrate that in a very thoughtful and methodical way around advanced audience targets that we develop within the organization.

Charlene: How will your work influence or impact OpenAP?

Bryson: OpenAP is foundational to what we are doing within advanced advertising. The focus that Sean Moran, Head of Sales, Viacom, has given us is the opportunity to go across all the different ad formats – from digital to social to linear television to OTT to addressable television – in our portfolio. As we continue to evolve with OpenAP, which launches in the fall, we are taking this notion of consistent advanced audience targeting beyond just the traditional linear television screen into the multi-platform environment. 

Charlene: What are the overall goals that you want to achieve now and over the next three years?

Bryson: I start from the position of the customer. My odd principle that has stuck with me over the years is: Revenue is a byproduct of great customer experience. It is simple but if we use that as a lens through which to assess the set of investments we make in the advanced advertising organization, it gives us tremendous focus. It helps us understand what we need to do to make the ad experience in traditional linear television even better. How do we do that through better targeting and through better formats? We think about the customer journey in Viacom content that cuts across platforms. What can we do, not just to connect, but actually orchestrate that? That is the thing that a year from now, I would like to look back and say that is the fundamental thing I wanted to achieve and I have achieved that.

Charlene: Are you developing attribution models to help you do that?

Bryson: We have been developing attribution models for a couple of years. Interestingly, our ability to drive precise measurement against advanced advertising on television and across multi-channels has facilitated the scaling of adoption of this new currency of TV. An example – a large automotive client who has done a number of campaigns with us, we have that ability to take their target, connect that target back to an addressable set top box, connect that to mobile phone Geo location data, and actually show them not only the physical list of people going to the auto dealership in a specific window after the campaign but also show them which specific dealers have the best local marketing investment on top of the national that was driving the highest lift for their specific region.

Charlene: Can you influence the ad market with your work? 

Bryson: I do because I have already seen that with the reception of Vantage and OpenAP.  We continue to see significant year to year growth in both the number of advertisers who are adopting advanced currencies and the amount of dollars flowing through advanced advertising currencies. 

Charlene: Your team comes from many different areas. How do you get them to strategize together?

Bryson: I deliberately try to not place them together. One of the things we found is that is super interesting is that I have hired a lot of people who don’t know anything about television. I hired a PhD in neuroscience from Toronto whose PhD was about how deep memories get formed in the brain. He doesn’t know the first thing about GRPs or Nielsen demos. What he does know is how you actually influence people and how you drive deep persuade-ability. We have people who bring perspective and expertise to our team that doesn’t look anything like how the TV industry looked like over the past 20 years. It makes for an environment where we can have hackathon style meetings and have people from industry, academia, science, economics, anthropology mixed with people with deep expertise in television. Great things happen. 

Charlene: How are you measuring results for advertisers and campaigns?

Bryson: There is a lot of customization depending on who is behind it and what the campaign is. One of the first conversations we have with an advertiser is: What are the KPIs that are important to you? Do you want to see a higher density of people within the segment? Do you want to see more de-duplicated reach within a segment? Do you want to measure physical lift to a restaurant, auto dealership or a retailer? We give them all of the normal measurements such as impressions delivered against your custom audience, but we also do a lot of custom reporting for clients, depending on what they are trying to achieve. These buys are guaranteed as a currency with in-target delivery. It makes people really comfortable.

This article first appeared in www.MediaVillage.com