Q&A with Diane Perlman, CMO at Blis

Media 7 | February 5, 2021

Diane Perlman, CMO at Blis, is an established marketing leader with various brand experiences at Microsoft, as well as startup, scaleup, and agency-side experience. She is adept at creative problem solving with an agility to learn. She holds a track record in delivering results in structured and unstructured environments. You can follow her on Twitter here.

B2B marketers need to get ever-more creative about how to reach customers and get in front of them with exciting new developments. 



MEDIA 7: What inspired you to get into marketing? Please take us through your journey.
DIANE PERLMAN:
I always knew that I had a talent for words and creativity, and marketing was an area of interest for me. At university, I studied mass communications, and this solidified my path in the direction of marketing. Later, I got a Master's in business as well, which I thought would help me to more deeply understand all aspects of business and management. I wanted to be a stronger leader and a better partner in finance and sales, which are crucial to marketing success.

Right out of university, I started as a writer for a small independent agency and moved through most of the marketing disciplines, from PR to advertising to digital, both agency and client-side as well as large corporates like Microsoft, startups, and AdTech scaleups like Unruly and Blis more recently in my career. I got introduced to the entrepreneurial world of tech and, what was then called, ‘new media’ and I think it’s safe to say, I was hooked! I made the jump from a strategic PR agency to a startup tech company, and my life changed forever. It was that role that took me from the US across to the UK, where I’ve been living now for over 20 years. I’ve never looked back since then.

M7: How do you focus on demand generation as well as long-term brand building at Blis?
DP:
At a smaller company, it’s always a fine balance, because the focus is usually on driving leads vs long-term brand building. But both are important. I recently read some research conducted by LinkedIn in 2019, which found B2B brands that invest at least 50% of their budget in long-term brand building deliver the best financial returns in terms of market share growth, profitability, and revenue. Not only that, brand building does drive short-term sales – if you think about it, you’re much more likely to buy today from a brand that you know and like. So, for me and my team, it’s about finding that balance and having the right strategies and tactics, from awareness through to lead gen and sales.


Brand building drives short-term sales – if you think about it, you’re much more likely to buy today from a brand you know and like.



M7: How do you target content to your audience, and what are the challenges that you face while producing effective content?
DP:
Over the past year, we’ve had a content-heavy marketing strategy. When COVID-19 hit, we didn’t want to be just part of the noise. We knew we had to be as useful as possible to our clients, and that became our mantra. Blis operates in the AdTech industry and specifically, we are the leading privacy-first, location-powered programmatic partner. Our insights team produces an abundance of interesting insights using movement data across a variety of verticals. This gave the marketing team plenty to work with, as clients and our sellers alike were crying out for clues as to movement patterns and changing consumer behaviors. 
We produced several interactive ‘white papers’ and a regular ‘changing behaviors’ blog series and, given the budget constraints, we relied on our blog and social channels as well as direct email marketing to clients to distribute this exciting insights content. We also leveraged partner co-marketing with allied companies to expand our circle and drive reach.

One of the recurring challenges in a global business is that the local markets want local content, which makes driving a global content more challenging. But during the height of COVID-19 in 2020, all our markets were interested in learning from each other, especially from regions that were further along in the COVID-19 journey towards recovery. As a result, we were able to produce meaningful global content pieces. We also created a consumer confidence pulse for several key markets so that we could have an ongoing insights feed, to inspire our clients. 

M7: What do you believe are the top three product marketing challenges in the post COVID-19 era?
DP:
For Blis, our offering has traditionally been about working with the world’s largest brands and media agencies to drive foot traffic in stores. As the COVID-19 era has accelerated the move toward online and e-commerce, so one of the first challenges was to pivot to develop new tracking and measurement solutions and partnerships that enable us to drive consumers to a landing page or a shopping cart and measure that activity vs primarily in-store footfall.

The second challenge for any company operating in the AdTech industry, or indeed any brand that is doing advertising, is to develop and market products that reach consumers in a privacy-first way due to changing regulations, the death of the cookie, and the reduction of personal identifiers across Apple devices. While Blis has a heritage of privacy-first technologies, we have been working hard to future proof our offerings and innovate at this historic inflection point for the industry.

Thirdly, and what is hopefully a more transient challenge, is the limitations on face-to-face interactions with clients that are typically part and parcel of B2B marketing, from product roadshows to events. This means that B2B marketers need to get ever-more creative about how to reach customers and get in front of them with exciting new developments.


You don’t need to be a ‘techy’ or an engineer to work in tech. Be brave and avoid self-limiting beliefs when entering tech or any other career. 



M7: How are promotional tactics changing for products and services launching during these periods?
DP:
As marketers, we need to keep innovating, testing, and learning to try to breakthrough. As an example, I’ve been receiving and seeing more and more personalized video messages in emails that are really compelling and make you want to click. Even ‘old fashioned’ personalized gifting is taking on even more importance in this COVID-19 era as well, to create memorable moments and experiences for clients. ‘Zoom fatigue’ is real, so we also need to innovate from the standard webinar, moving to more on-demand content, where customers can view in their own time, or other more interactive formats, designed to engage and entertain.

M7: Your advice for young women considering a career in high tech?
DP:
The most important thing for young women to consider is that you don’t need to be a ‘techy’ or an engineer to work in tech. I’ve worked in and around tech almost my whole career, and as a marketer, what attracts me is the pace of the industry and also the challenge of simplifying complex messages and making them understandable and compelling. I also encourage young women to be brave and avoid self-limiting beliefs when entering tech or any other career. Self-belief and not being afraid to fail will go a long way to inspire the bravery needed to try new things, build credibility and make your mark. Just go for it!

ABOUT BLIS

Blis is the leading privacy-first, location-powered programmatic advertising partner. We deliver accurate targeting at scale without reliance on personal data, helping the world’s largest brands and media agencies drive key business outcomes through personalised and high-performing digital advertising. Established in the UK in 2004, Blis now operates in more than 40 offices across five continents and works with the world’s largest and most customer-driven companies across all verticals.

More C-Suite on deck

Q&A with Brendan Gahan, Partner & Chief Social Officer at Mekanism

Media 7 | March 2, 2021

Brendan Gahan, Partner & Chief Social Officer at Mekanism, has been at the forefront of social & influencer marketing since 2006, developing social campaigns for brands such as Mountain Dew, Unilever, Amazon, 20th Century Fox, and The Olympics. Brendan was named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 list in 2012 and his agency was recognized as Digiday’s Digital Video Agency of the year in 2017. Gahan is a regular contributor to Entrepreneur and has been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Fast Company, The Guardian, Ad Age, and CNBC for his expertise in social media and influencer marketing expertise.

Read More

Q&A with Jessica Hawthorne-Castro, CEO of Hawthorne Advertising

Media 7 | September 9, 2021

Jessica Hawthorne-Castro, CEO of Hawthorne Advertising, fosters long-standing client relationships with the company's expansive base of Fortune 500 brands to develop highly strategic and measurable advertising campaigns, designed to ignite immediate consumer response. From strategy, creative and production to media and analytics, Jessica is committed to premium quality and innovation throughout all agency disciplines. Jessica is a contributor for various industry publications and speaks on panels offering insights on key industry trends. She has published hundreds of articles with Forbes, AdAge, AdWeek, The Wall Street Journal, The Huffington Post, and many more. She has received many awards for her career accomplishments including the Ernst & Young “Entrepreneur Of The Year” in the Transformational Leader category, and Los Angeles Times B2B Publishing “CEO Leadership Award” Winner. Prior to joining Hawthorne Advertising, Hawthorne-Castro was a successful TV literary agent with William Morris Endeavor (formerly Endeavor), one of Hollywood's top, full-service talent agencies representing writers, directors and producers for television. Jessica is the Chapter Chair for YPO Los Angeles and on the YPO Pacific U.S Regional Executive Board and YPO Global Editorial Advisory Board. In addition, Jessica is on the Board of the ANA/Association of National Advertisers ECHO Awards, the L.A. Chamber of Commerce’s CEO Council and social justice Boards including Dignity Moves Homelessness Board and is a Climate Change Reality Ambassador.

Read More

Q&A with Fred Pike, Managing Director/CFO at Northwoods

Media 7 | August 23, 2021

Fred Pike, Managing Director/CFO at Northwoods, is an experienced presenter, teacher, and blogger on GA, GA4, and GTM topics. He is a GA/GTM Practice Lead at Northwoods, DataDrivenU (Jeffalytics) Community Expert and CXL Institute Instructor in three courses: Google Analytics Audit, Excel and Sheets for Marketers and Using the GA API add-on for Sheets. He is certified in both Google AdWords and Google Analytics (GAIQ). Through ConversionXL, he is certified in CRO (Conversion Rate Optimization). He is also an active pit musician, playing guitar, bass, or mandolin for various musical venues around Milwaukee.

Read More

Q&A with Brendan Gahan, Partner & Chief Social Officer at Mekanism

Media 7 | March 2, 2021

Brendan Gahan, Partner & Chief Social Officer at Mekanism, has been at the forefront of social & influencer marketing since 2006, developing social campaigns for brands such as Mountain Dew, Unilever, Amazon, 20th Century Fox, and The Olympics. Brendan was named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 list in 2012 and his agency was recognized as Digiday’s Digital Video Agency of the year in 2017. Gahan is a regular contributor to Entrepreneur and has been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Fast Company, The Guardian, Ad Age, and CNBC for his expertise in social media and influencer marketing expertise.

Read More

Q&A with Jessica Hawthorne-Castro, CEO of Hawthorne Advertising

Media 7 | September 9, 2021

Jessica Hawthorne-Castro, CEO of Hawthorne Advertising, fosters long-standing client relationships with the company's expansive base of Fortune 500 brands to develop highly strategic and measurable advertising campaigns, designed to ignite immediate consumer response. From strategy, creative and production to media and analytics, Jessica is committed to premium quality and innovation throughout all agency disciplines. Jessica is a contributor for various industry publications and speaks on panels offering insights on key industry trends. She has published hundreds of articles with Forbes, AdAge, AdWeek, The Wall Street Journal, The Huffington Post, and many more. She has received many awards for her career accomplishments including the Ernst & Young “Entrepreneur Of The Year” in the Transformational Leader category, and Los Angeles Times B2B Publishing “CEO Leadership Award” Winner. Prior to joining Hawthorne Advertising, Hawthorne-Castro was a successful TV literary agent with William Morris Endeavor (formerly Endeavor), one of Hollywood's top, full-service talent agencies representing writers, directors and producers for television. Jessica is the Chapter Chair for YPO Los Angeles and on the YPO Pacific U.S Regional Executive Board and YPO Global Editorial Advisory Board. In addition, Jessica is on the Board of the ANA/Association of National Advertisers ECHO Awards, the L.A. Chamber of Commerce’s CEO Council and social justice Boards including Dignity Moves Homelessness Board and is a Climate Change Reality Ambassador.

Read More

Q&A with Fred Pike, Managing Director/CFO at Northwoods

Media 7 | August 23, 2021

Fred Pike, Managing Director/CFO at Northwoods, is an experienced presenter, teacher, and blogger on GA, GA4, and GTM topics. He is a GA/GTM Practice Lead at Northwoods, DataDrivenU (Jeffalytics) Community Expert and CXL Institute Instructor in three courses: Google Analytics Audit, Excel and Sheets for Marketers and Using the GA API add-on for Sheets. He is certified in both Google AdWords and Google Analytics (GAIQ). Through ConversionXL, he is certified in CRO (Conversion Rate Optimization). He is also an active pit musician, playing guitar, bass, or mandolin for various musical venues around Milwaukee.

Read More

Related News

AD TECH AND MARTECH

Equativ Renews Partnership with Seedtag & the Extension of Their Contextual AI Solution

ExchangeWire | March 23, 2023

Equativ, the leading independent ad tech platform, and Seedtag, the leader in contextual advertising, announce today (March 21st, 2023) the extension of their global strategic partnership into Equativ’s curation offering. Seedtag has selected Equativ’s curation platform to enrich its contextual targeting solution with the power of Equativ’s targeting capabilities and premium ecosystem. The common goal of this partnership is to empower buyers to engage with relevant audiences across brand-suitable premium content with full respect to their data privacy. Building on Equativ’s curation offering, advertisers will benefit from Seedtag’s contextual AI solution LIZ© that leverages the power of machine learning to provide a human-like understanding of content to deliver precise targeting in a cookieless environment. This is an important advantage as third-party cookies and identifiers are set to disappear. Through this integration into Equativ’s curation platform, Seedtag will be able to create a 100% cookieless contextual marketplace enabling advertisers to drive campaign performance and brand recognition through brand-suitable ad placement across high-quality cross-publisher inventory. This partnership also allows buyers to run private marketplace (PMP), programmatic guaranteed (PG), and direct deals via Equativ with access to Seedtag’s exclusive inventory to deliver ads in the right place. In addition, Seedtag is renewing its existing partnership with Equativ as its primary SSP after a successful four-year collaboration spanning several European markets specifically in Spain which saw a more than 100% revenue increase in Q1 2022 compared to Q1 2021. Ingrid Couasnon, EVP EMEA at Equativ, comments: “We are pleased to extend our global strategic partnership with Seedtag. The integration of their unique contextual AI capabilities into our curation platform will support the creation of closer relationships between buyers and sellers. In the face of the end of third-party cookies, it is critical that we offer privacy-first, transparent, and effective solutions to media buyers everywhere." Grego Martínez, VP of product at Seedtag, states: "Over the past few months, we have been working on developing a tool that would allow us to connect our contextual capabilities with Equativ's curation platform. As a result, we have established a solid partnership and have made our contextual signals, created by Seedtag's contextual AI LIZ©, available in a 100% cookieless contextual marketplace. We are excited about this partnership and will continue to work to deliver a scalable, efficient, and privacy-first solution that enables advertisers and publishers to expand their business" About Equativ Equativ is the new single name for Smart Adserver, DynAdmic, and LiquidM — three proven innovators in advertising technology. The vertically integrated company provides brand and privacy-safe solutions that empower its clients to achieve maximum impact while respecting the rights of consumers. The union combines client expertise and engineering excellence to serve the interests of both the supply-side and demand-side with equal professionalism and technical sophistication. Headquartered in Paris and New York, Equativ operates globally. Equativ offers the market its own independent ad server, SSP, buyer tools, and media services to fulfill the promise of advertising technology.

Read More

ADVERTISER PLATFORMS

System1 Wins Microsoft Advertising’s Supply Partner of the Year Award for Second Consecutive Year

Business Wire | March 24, 2023

System1, Inc. (NYSE: SST), an omnichannel customer acquisition marketing platform, announced today that it has been named Microsoft Advertising’s 2023 Supply Partner of the Year Americas for the second year in a row. The highly coveted award is given to the supply partner who has shown excellence in partnership with Microsoft Advertising across the board. System1 has a longstanding relationship with Microsoft spanning over 8 years, and in 2022 worked closely with the Microsoft Bing team to implement telemetry across our network to help pave the way for future feature adoption as Microsoft continues to innovate. “Winning the supply partner of the year award two years in a row is a validation of our team's commitment to excellence, innovation, and delivering exceptional value to our customers. We couldn't do this without the collaboration of our Microsoft partnership,” said Kerstin Gibson, Senior Vice President Strategic Partnerships, System1. “Microsoft Advertising is delighted to show our appreciation and acknowledge System1’s deserved win with the Supply Partner of the Year, Americas award. The caliber of nominations this year was the best we have ever seen, and this makes our winners’ achievements all the more significant,” added Katherine Eills, Global Partner and Awards Lead, Microsoft Advertising. About System1, Inc. System1 combines best-in-class technology & data science to operate its advanced Responsive Acquisition Marketing Platform (RAMP). System1’s RAMP is omnichannel and omnivertical, and built for a privacy-centric world. RAMP enables the building of powerful brands across multiple consumer verticals, the development & growth of a suite of privacy-focused products, and the delivery of high-intent customers to advertising partners. For more information, visit www.system1.com.

Read More

AD TECH AND MARTECH

Smartly.io CEO Drives Company Momentum Towards The Next Generation of AdTech with The Smartly Digital Advertising Platform

Smartly.io | March 17, 2023

Smartly.io, one of the world’s largest SaaS digital advertising platforms, today announces significant company advancements, stemming from months of strategic moves—including two acquisitions, a new platform release and strategic hires to senior leadership—under the guidance and vision of industry veteran Laura Desmond. The company, which holds certified partnerships with media leaders Meta, TikTok and Google, among others, brings dynamic integrations to the digital and social space, successfully “redefining social and creativity,” according to Nikhil Lai, Senior Analyst at Forrester. Desmond, the former Global CEO of Starcom Mediavest Group and senior executive of Publicis Groupe, has a seasoned track record for creating symbiotic relationships between advertising and technology—influencing opportunities that reshape entire industry categories. As was the case in 2021, where Desmond, a member of DoubleVerify’s Board of Directors and operating partner at Providence Equity, played an integral role in leading its IPO—one of the most successful in the media and technology sector that year. “When Providence acquired Smartly in 2019 and I became Chair of The Board, the company’s potential was clear from the start. Smartly is uniquely solving real problems that brands and marketers need to have solved: agile creative and media management at the same time; rapid intelligence around performance—what's working and what's not; the ability to execute personalization at scale. The steady updates we’ve been making are unlocking a depth and breadth to the technology that’s affording brands the ability to move across channels as fluidly as the consumers they aim to engage do,” commented Desmond. “Coupled with the additions of Brett Wein as Chief Sales Officer, and Oli Marlow-Thomas as Chief Innovation Officer, I am confident that our vision for Smartly.io will effectively redefine the future of digital advertising for brands and marketers alike.” Smartly.io’s continuous releases to Workspaces has created a unique full-funnel, multi-channel approach to social advertising, integrating creative, media buying and intelligence at scale, in one platform. Specifically, the company’s creative-focused adtech enables marketers to: Reach Smartly: Automate campaign workflows across all major platforms, reaching audiences quickly, easily and cost effectively. Engage Smartly: Create beautiful, cohesive, and effective creative across the funnel that drives action. Learn Smartly: Extract consolidated actionable insights to respond to audience behaviors in real-time to maximize return on investment (ROI). "The depth of knowledge [Smartly.io] brings across verticals is really impressive,” said Merry Morud, Lead, Global Creative Optimization for Consumer Products at Uber. “On top of that, they have a fantastic creative team, which is very mobile-first, which is what we, as digital marketers, in a mobile space and mobile-first world look for.” Uber, a longtime client of Smartly.io, has used the company’s platform to execute iterative creative approaches at scale as part of their global media buying practice. Smartly.io, now managing upwards of $5B in media spend, is unlocking the ability for true multi-platform brand building that exceeds both customer expectations and drives engagement across platforms, at scale. As a result, platform partners like Meta have leveraged Smartly’s Advantage+ Shopping solution to deliver upwards of 150 creative variations across all creative placements, expanding consistent brand reach and personalization in a privacy-safe way. “Reinvention tends not to come from large scale companies, so we are using our nimble size and strong influence to create real movement in the industry,” said Oli Marlow-Thomas, Chief Innovation Officer, Smartly.io. ABOUT YOU, one of Europe’s fastest growing fashion platforms, leverages Smartly’s TikTok Shopping Ads across markets. Since implementation, it's seen a near 30% uplift in ROAS for catalog sales, compared to the business-as-usual catalog sales campaigns, and greater than 100% uplift for "add to cart” actions compared to TikTok’s data. “The Smartly Digital Advertising Platform is the result of years of collaborations, acquisitions and continuous innovation that’s allowing us the ability to really push the limits of what’s been possible, up until now that is. We’re working on some exciting new builds with partners that will hit the market in the coming months, that will take dynamic creative and media optimization to new heights,” continued Marlow-Thomas. To learn more about the Smartly Digital Advertising Platform and how it’s revolutionizing the industry, please go to https://www.smartly.io. About Smartly.io Smartly.io is one of the world’s largest SaaS digital advertising platforms, managing nearly $5B in ad spend with 700+ brands worldwide. Our leading end-to-end technology and outstanding customer service help brands such as Walmart, FanDuel, L’Oreal, Warner Bros. Discovery, Nestle, and Disney/ESPN to better reach audiences, engage creatives and learn what performs best—consistently driving scale for brand and performance across the largest media platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, Snap, Pinterest, TikTok, and Google. Visit Smartly.io to learn more.

Read More

AD TECH AND MARTECH

Equativ Renews Partnership with Seedtag & the Extension of Their Contextual AI Solution

ExchangeWire | March 23, 2023

Equativ, the leading independent ad tech platform, and Seedtag, the leader in contextual advertising, announce today (March 21st, 2023) the extension of their global strategic partnership into Equativ’s curation offering. Seedtag has selected Equativ’s curation platform to enrich its contextual targeting solution with the power of Equativ’s targeting capabilities and premium ecosystem. The common goal of this partnership is to empower buyers to engage with relevant audiences across brand-suitable premium content with full respect to their data privacy. Building on Equativ’s curation offering, advertisers will benefit from Seedtag’s contextual AI solution LIZ© that leverages the power of machine learning to provide a human-like understanding of content to deliver precise targeting in a cookieless environment. This is an important advantage as third-party cookies and identifiers are set to disappear. Through this integration into Equativ’s curation platform, Seedtag will be able to create a 100% cookieless contextual marketplace enabling advertisers to drive campaign performance and brand recognition through brand-suitable ad placement across high-quality cross-publisher inventory. This partnership also allows buyers to run private marketplace (PMP), programmatic guaranteed (PG), and direct deals via Equativ with access to Seedtag’s exclusive inventory to deliver ads in the right place. In addition, Seedtag is renewing its existing partnership with Equativ as its primary SSP after a successful four-year collaboration spanning several European markets specifically in Spain which saw a more than 100% revenue increase in Q1 2022 compared to Q1 2021. Ingrid Couasnon, EVP EMEA at Equativ, comments: “We are pleased to extend our global strategic partnership with Seedtag. The integration of their unique contextual AI capabilities into our curation platform will support the creation of closer relationships between buyers and sellers. In the face of the end of third-party cookies, it is critical that we offer privacy-first, transparent, and effective solutions to media buyers everywhere." Grego Martínez, VP of product at Seedtag, states: "Over the past few months, we have been working on developing a tool that would allow us to connect our contextual capabilities with Equativ's curation platform. As a result, we have established a solid partnership and have made our contextual signals, created by Seedtag's contextual AI LIZ©, available in a 100% cookieless contextual marketplace. We are excited about this partnership and will continue to work to deliver a scalable, efficient, and privacy-first solution that enables advertisers and publishers to expand their business" About Equativ Equativ is the new single name for Smart Adserver, DynAdmic, and LiquidM — three proven innovators in advertising technology. The vertically integrated company provides brand and privacy-safe solutions that empower its clients to achieve maximum impact while respecting the rights of consumers. The union combines client expertise and engineering excellence to serve the interests of both the supply-side and demand-side with equal professionalism and technical sophistication. Headquartered in Paris and New York, Equativ operates globally. Equativ offers the market its own independent ad server, SSP, buyer tools, and media services to fulfill the promise of advertising technology.

Read More

ADVERTISER PLATFORMS

System1 Wins Microsoft Advertising’s Supply Partner of the Year Award for Second Consecutive Year

Business Wire | March 24, 2023

System1, Inc. (NYSE: SST), an omnichannel customer acquisition marketing platform, announced today that it has been named Microsoft Advertising’s 2023 Supply Partner of the Year Americas for the second year in a row. The highly coveted award is given to the supply partner who has shown excellence in partnership with Microsoft Advertising across the board. System1 has a longstanding relationship with Microsoft spanning over 8 years, and in 2022 worked closely with the Microsoft Bing team to implement telemetry across our network to help pave the way for future feature adoption as Microsoft continues to innovate. “Winning the supply partner of the year award two years in a row is a validation of our team's commitment to excellence, innovation, and delivering exceptional value to our customers. We couldn't do this without the collaboration of our Microsoft partnership,” said Kerstin Gibson, Senior Vice President Strategic Partnerships, System1. “Microsoft Advertising is delighted to show our appreciation and acknowledge System1’s deserved win with the Supply Partner of the Year, Americas award. The caliber of nominations this year was the best we have ever seen, and this makes our winners’ achievements all the more significant,” added Katherine Eills, Global Partner and Awards Lead, Microsoft Advertising. About System1, Inc. System1 combines best-in-class technology & data science to operate its advanced Responsive Acquisition Marketing Platform (RAMP). System1’s RAMP is omnichannel and omnivertical, and built for a privacy-centric world. RAMP enables the building of powerful brands across multiple consumer verticals, the development & growth of a suite of privacy-focused products, and the delivery of high-intent customers to advertising partners. For more information, visit www.system1.com.

Read More

AD TECH AND MARTECH

Smartly.io CEO Drives Company Momentum Towards The Next Generation of AdTech with The Smartly Digital Advertising Platform

Smartly.io | March 17, 2023

Smartly.io, one of the world’s largest SaaS digital advertising platforms, today announces significant company advancements, stemming from months of strategic moves—including two acquisitions, a new platform release and strategic hires to senior leadership—under the guidance and vision of industry veteran Laura Desmond. The company, which holds certified partnerships with media leaders Meta, TikTok and Google, among others, brings dynamic integrations to the digital and social space, successfully “redefining social and creativity,” according to Nikhil Lai, Senior Analyst at Forrester. Desmond, the former Global CEO of Starcom Mediavest Group and senior executive of Publicis Groupe, has a seasoned track record for creating symbiotic relationships between advertising and technology—influencing opportunities that reshape entire industry categories. As was the case in 2021, where Desmond, a member of DoubleVerify’s Board of Directors and operating partner at Providence Equity, played an integral role in leading its IPO—one of the most successful in the media and technology sector that year. “When Providence acquired Smartly in 2019 and I became Chair of The Board, the company’s potential was clear from the start. Smartly is uniquely solving real problems that brands and marketers need to have solved: agile creative and media management at the same time; rapid intelligence around performance—what's working and what's not; the ability to execute personalization at scale. The steady updates we’ve been making are unlocking a depth and breadth to the technology that’s affording brands the ability to move across channels as fluidly as the consumers they aim to engage do,” commented Desmond. “Coupled with the additions of Brett Wein as Chief Sales Officer, and Oli Marlow-Thomas as Chief Innovation Officer, I am confident that our vision for Smartly.io will effectively redefine the future of digital advertising for brands and marketers alike.” Smartly.io’s continuous releases to Workspaces has created a unique full-funnel, multi-channel approach to social advertising, integrating creative, media buying and intelligence at scale, in one platform. Specifically, the company’s creative-focused adtech enables marketers to: Reach Smartly: Automate campaign workflows across all major platforms, reaching audiences quickly, easily and cost effectively. Engage Smartly: Create beautiful, cohesive, and effective creative across the funnel that drives action. Learn Smartly: Extract consolidated actionable insights to respond to audience behaviors in real-time to maximize return on investment (ROI). "The depth of knowledge [Smartly.io] brings across verticals is really impressive,” said Merry Morud, Lead, Global Creative Optimization for Consumer Products at Uber. “On top of that, they have a fantastic creative team, which is very mobile-first, which is what we, as digital marketers, in a mobile space and mobile-first world look for.” Uber, a longtime client of Smartly.io, has used the company’s platform to execute iterative creative approaches at scale as part of their global media buying practice. Smartly.io, now managing upwards of $5B in media spend, is unlocking the ability for true multi-platform brand building that exceeds both customer expectations and drives engagement across platforms, at scale. As a result, platform partners like Meta have leveraged Smartly’s Advantage+ Shopping solution to deliver upwards of 150 creative variations across all creative placements, expanding consistent brand reach and personalization in a privacy-safe way. “Reinvention tends not to come from large scale companies, so we are using our nimble size and strong influence to create real movement in the industry,” said Oli Marlow-Thomas, Chief Innovation Officer, Smartly.io. ABOUT YOU, one of Europe’s fastest growing fashion platforms, leverages Smartly’s TikTok Shopping Ads across markets. Since implementation, it's seen a near 30% uplift in ROAS for catalog sales, compared to the business-as-usual catalog sales campaigns, and greater than 100% uplift for "add to cart” actions compared to TikTok’s data. “The Smartly Digital Advertising Platform is the result of years of collaborations, acquisitions and continuous innovation that’s allowing us the ability to really push the limits of what’s been possible, up until now that is. We’re working on some exciting new builds with partners that will hit the market in the coming months, that will take dynamic creative and media optimization to new heights,” continued Marlow-Thomas. To learn more about the Smartly Digital Advertising Platform and how it’s revolutionizing the industry, please go to https://www.smartly.io. About Smartly.io Smartly.io is one of the world’s largest SaaS digital advertising platforms, managing nearly $5B in ad spend with 700+ brands worldwide. Our leading end-to-end technology and outstanding customer service help brands such as Walmart, FanDuel, L’Oreal, Warner Bros. Discovery, Nestle, and Disney/ESPN to better reach audiences, engage creatives and learn what performs best—consistently driving scale for brand and performance across the largest media platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, Snap, Pinterest, TikTok, and Google. Visit Smartly.io to learn more.

Read More

Spotlight

Blis

Blis

Blis is the leading privacy-first, location-powered programmatic advertising partner. We deliver accurate targeting at scale without reliance on personal data, helping the world’s largest brands and media agencies drive key business outcomes through personalised and high-performing digital advertisi...

Events

Resources