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Education

#TeamsWin: NMI Celebrates Five Successful Years

April 14, 2017 — by MediaMath

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As we look back at the past five years of the New Marketing Institute (NMI), it’s hard not to feel a sense of accomplishment and pride. When I first joined MediaMath and launched NMI, it was an exciting time filled with unknowns. As the education technology industry continues to evolve, we have progressed with the fast pace of innovation and we are eager to continue collaborating with bright minds. Five years later, I am thrilled with the work we achieved so far and can’t wait to see what’s ahead.

If our greatest achievements to date are any indication of what’s to come, the next five years will have big things in store for NMI. To celebrate our anniversary, let’s take a look back at our most exciting milestones:

The launch of the certification and training courses:

Launching our training courses is one of the proudest accomplishments for me because at its core, NMI aims to achieve a solid foundation for learning. We offer digital marketing certification courses, including “Intro to Digital Marketing” and “Programmatic 101” to help fill the skills gap in an ever-evolving industry. And as the space keeps growing and innovating at such a rapid pace, NMI understands that today’s marketers need to stay competitive.

It starts with having a best in class team who shares an enthusiasm to teach in the ad tech space. To date, we’ve trained more than 12,000 people and have grown our presence in over 16 countries. Being compassionate and understanding that not all people learn the same – some individuals may learn better through listening, while others learn more effectively through visuals. We “meet the learner where they are” by offering localized content and giving learners access to courses online or in-person because we want to be as flexible as we can to serve the education needs of all of our students.

The launch of our Marketing Engineer Program (MEP):

Another proud milestone was establishing MediaMath’s Marketing Engineer Program (MEP) – an immersive and dynamic training program we developed to give future marketers a unique opportunity to gain technical and professional skills needed to be successful within the digital marketing space. Since it’s launch in June 2014, we have seen the 12-week curriculum-based course grow into an international training program, launching MEP Berlin for the first time this year. Graduating more than 50 marketing engineers to date, MEP is about to graduate its sixth cohort at the end of this month!

The NMI Advisory Board launch:

Last August, we officially announced the launch of our NMI advisory board. The primary goal for the board is to provide insights and serve as a resource globally for new ideas and trends in digital marketing. On the board, we have members that come from retail, technology and education. This dynamic mix allows for the group to openly share ideas and best practices across industries.

The launch of NMI’s first podcast, Programmatic Untangled:

Here at NMI, discussions around launching a podcast had been taking place for quite some time. When we were able to host our first podcast, it was a huge accomplishment. I love the idea of working with new mediums for education and podcasts are a prime example. They’re collaborative and allow for learning to take place on the go. Over the next five years, NMI will certainly continue to utilize different forms of media for lessons, like podcasts.

Industry recognition in the form of award wins

 We are all extremely proud of the work that NMI has achieved, but seeing it recognized by industry professionals is the icing on the cake. NMI has won awards in education and innovation, winning two Brandon Hall Group gold awards for the best learning and development program and Marketing Engineer Program (MEP) getting recognition as the best certification program. Moreover, I was honored by Chief Learning Officer magazine at the 15th Annual Learning In Practice ceremony by receiving silver honors for the Innovation Award and gold for the Strategy Award. Seeing others in the industry acknowledge our growth and commitment to education is a remarkable feeling and serves as a testament to the power knowledge has in the digital marketing community.

As we look back at all of the progress we have made at NMI, we are excited for what’s next. If you’re looking for ways to explore the future of digital marketing and programmatic advertising, take a look at the programs NMI is currently offering.

EducationMedia

Taking Cool Technology and Making It Scale

April 5, 2017 — by MediaMath

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In the latest episode of Programmatic Untangled, MediaMath’s Michael Weaver, VP of Channel Solutions at MediaMath, breaks down all things mobile. Michael’s two decades of experience in digital marketing give him a unique perspective on how the industry has continued to innovate as new technologies and consumer behaviors come into the mix. In this podcast, we explore the challenge inherent in an environment where technology, devices and delivery platforms are ever evolving.

In this episode, Michael shines light on the following:

  • Defining mobile: is it a channel, a format, or a device?
  • How mobile and video are merging together
  • The three ways marketers measure location in relation to mobile
  • How to navigate these continually evolving technologies

Listen now to find out what Michael thinks absolutely will not work when it comes to marketing. Hint: it involves the words “creepy” and “intrusive.”

EducationIntelligenceMedia

Navigating the Brave New World

April 4, 2017 — by MediaMath

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As a part of a module I teach at the University of West London, Emerging Technology, Other Realities, I have students read a work of science fiction in addition to practical training about programmatic advertising and augmented/virtual reality campaigns. How do you prepare students to work in a world that often resembles classics in science fiction? How do experienced industry professionals manage to stay ahead of the game in which the “present” is often already too late? There’s one rather old-fashioned answer: training.

The digital skills gap is an equal opportunity employer

In the Government’s “Digital Skills for the UK Economy,” approximately 1 in 5 job vacancies relate to the digital skills gap. This is even more pronounced in creative industries, like advertising. Experienced industry professionals often fall hard into the digital skills gap; yesterday’s media planner is today’s statistician. Not that there’s anything wrong with statisticians, of course. However, as companies embrace the technological transformation of advertising, they fail to create a world that takes experienced staff along for the journey.

This comes at a business cost in addition to the obvious human one. Many companies making such technology shifts lose out on the deep knowledge that comes with experience. For example, I have worked with many media buyers who came up through radio and TV who would have been perfectly suited to more tech-centric media trading. In fact, they might have been better than the average entry-level employee, as they had years of experience negotiating and evaluating deals—something that’s hard to teach other than on the job. Those colleagues didn’t get the chance, however. No one trained them. The businesses in question lost out on all that knowledge, the people in question left wondering why they ever cared about their careers in the first place.

One might think that overlooking experience would lead employers to be overly satisfied with recent graduate hires, given that everyone always talks about tech-savvy Millennials. However, that is not the case. Both as an employer or an advisor to employers, I have found communications graduates woefully unprepared for the automated world we’re creating. While Millennials and Gen Z are adept at using their phones to use Snapchat filters, very few can tell you how Snapchat/Facebook/Instagram/display advertising might work to target them or be tailored to them.  As Accenture’s Mohini Rao wrote in The Digital Skills Gap in the UK, “This generation are consumers of digital technology, not creators.”

Creating opportunities to learn about machines vs. machine learning

Of course, we, as a society (with our industry strongly implicated in this), have created these consumers who lack context. But because we created that environment, we can also create a new one with opportunities to code, to use industry tools, and to understand how the machines in our lives work. (Note: This should probably start in pre-school, but since I teach university, I’ll focus on Uni students.)

This is where courses like our new Advertising & Public Relations course come in. At UWL, we are committed to ensuring that our students understand the basics of automation so that they can succeed in their careers. Even creatives need to know that programmatic ads are often certain standard sizes, much like we used to teach the dimensions of standard print. Admittedly, we have an uphill battle here. When you start diving into these topics with university students, responses like “WTF is programmatic advertising?” or “You can see all that data about me? Is that legal?” or “But making skyscraper banners is boring!” are common.

To help overcome such obstacles and to create a more positive environment for the next generation of professionals, our course is working with visionary organisations like the New Marketing Institute (NMI). A few weeks ago, the excellent instructor from NMI came in and managed to transform boredom and cynicism into excitement. Several students afterward came to me to express interest in knowing more about things like programmatic and in exploring ad tech as a career path. That’s both a testimonial to the quality of NMI’s instruction and also to the fact that, once this aspect of advertising is explained clearly, it doesn’t have to be a boring diet of acronym soup.

Would that more organisations like NMI visited universities. Would that more students were exposed to the advanced aspects of our practice. Would that my former colleagues had the chance to change with our industry, rather than outside of it. So let’s change all that, shall we?

EducationTrends

NMI Brings Programmatic Education to Dentsu Aegis Senior Leaders in APAC

March 23, 2017 — by MediaMath

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In the complex and ever-evolving world of programmatic, New Marketing Institute (NMI) believes that to engage, educate and empower today’s marketers, we need to meet the learners where they are.

In APAC, where markets are in different stages of programmatic adoption, this becomes even more crucial. You have mature markets like Australia and Japan where conversations on programmatic are highly sophisticated versus emerging markets like India and Korea where conversations can begin with explaining what programmatic and RTB are and why programmatic isn’t just a line item on the media plan.

Other than market nuisances, “meeting the learners where they are” is important because the industry has grown so rapidly that more people need to understand and be involved. People coming from different backgrounds find themselves in roles that require them to be experts in the field. Different roles in an organization require different levels of involvement in programmatic. For example, a trader, a media planner and a CEO will have different marketing priorities and motivations.

Dentsu Aegis’s programmatic agency, Amnet, also recognized this need to educate and wanted to train Dentsu Aegis senior leaders on programmatic to enable them to lead conversations internally and externally across their APAC agencies.

NMI offered to conduct an executive workshop. The Programmatic Leadership Workshop was specifically designed for senior leaders and aimed to go beyond definitions and trends and instead provide attendees with the right foundations in programmatic to help them with their overall business strategy.

Developing the curriculum and content for this workshop involved collaboration across teams, cultures and time zones. After the initial selection of topics, the NMI team worked very closely with internal SMEs and Amnet to customize the first session and then re-work the content based on participant feedback and review by the facilitators involved. Taking the time to figure out what we should include in the workshop to meet their needs enabled us to deliver relevant information to executives excited about offering their clients a way into programmatic marketing and a rationale for doing so. The reception our workshop received surprised and delighted the NMI team and we seek to continue to provide comprehensive Executive Education and support to more APAC executives and executives globally.

“The Programmatic Leadership Workshop helped us gain a very good understanding of the ever-evolving programmatic landscape and prepared us to have more sophisticated conversations both internally and with our clients,” said Nick Waters, CEO Dentsu Aegis Network APAC. “This serves as a great foundation of the upcoming education program that we plan to roll out within Dentsu Aegis Network.”

To read more about the workshop and the results, read the full case study here.

 


EducationMediaTrends

The Podcast Where the Ghost of Edna St. Vincent Millay Makes an Appearance

March 3, 2017 — by MediaMath

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In the latest episode of Programmatic Untangled, MediaMath’s CMO Joanna O’Connell talks about the current state of programmatic. She covers such wide-ranging topics as:

  • The growth of mobile and video advertising online
  • Brands bringing programmatic in-house
  • The impact of header bidding on the industry
  • The magic of data science and technology

She even digs into the influence of science fiction movies in digital advertising. Listen here now!

Education

Monthly Roundup: Top 5 Most Popular Blog Posts for February

March 1, 2017 — by MediaMath

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As we wrap up another month, we bring to you the best performing blogs for the month of February. From the top programmatic trends of 2017 to the launch of GDMA and Winterberry’s Global Review of Data-Driven Marketing and Advertising, here are the top five blogs:

• #1 17 Programmatic Trends For 2017 

• #2 Four Ways To Create A Unified Customer Experience In A Post-Channel World 

• #3 Insights From The Global Review Of Data-Driven Marketing and Advertising 2017

• #4 B2B Programmatic and Precise Targeting: The Truth 

• #5 Ad Blocking A Symptom of Disengaging Ads: MediaMath CMO

 

 

Education

Introducing Programmatic Untangled

February 14, 2017 — by MediaMath

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New Marketing Institute is excited to announce the launch of our new podcast, Programmatic Untangled, where we tackle digital advertising’s most talked-about topics.  As advertising becomes increasingly more effective and targeted, it has also become increasingly confusing to many, who often feel like they’ve been left behind.

In this podcast series, we will dive into topics ranging from programmatic education, big data, header bidding and much, much more. We will release episodes on the last Friday of every month, and will feature subject matter experts from a variety of backgrounds in the digital marketing realm.

In our first episode, we interview Elise James-Decruise, the founder of New Marketing Institute, who has led the charge in building a team of training professionals who are committed to educating marketers. Elise discusses the definition of programmatic marketing, and why it’s important for marketers from all walks of life. Listen now!

EducationTrends

Monthly Roundup: Top 5 Most Popular Blog Posts for January

February 10, 2017 — by MediaMath

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Kicking off 2017, our CMO Joanna O’Connell shared her thoughts on what this year will bring for the realm of programmatic marketing and our CEO, Joe Zawadzki, says 2017 will be the age of attribution. Check out our top performing blogs for the month of January:

• #1 Joanna O’Connell’s Programmatic Marketing Prediction for 2017

• #2 Joe Zawadzki’s Take on Attribution in 2017

• #3 Integrated DSP + DMP Approach Increases ROAS for Luxury Retailer Luisa Via Roma

• #4 Adtech: Predictions for 2017

• #5 The Changing Face of Audience Segmentation

EducationPeople

Why Buzz Lightyear Is the Ideal Coworker

February 9, 2017 — by MediaMath

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Imagine This.

If you can’t build a macro in excel with your eyes closed, you can’t get a job.

If you don’t understand the likes of data attribution or programming languages, you can’t get a job.

And above all, if you can’t effectively articulate how to do the above to others — well, good luck.

Truth is, you don’t have to imagine it. Transformation in technology and its inevitable reshaping of the job market is our modern-day reality. According to a 2013 Oxford University Study, nearly 47 percent of jobs will be replaced by technology in the next 20 years and beyond.

The relationship our society has developed with tech is truly paving the way for a newly defined view on human interaction and ultimate job security. The more you choose to become tech savvy, the greater your chance is of staying relevant and employed.

And so here’s a round of applause for the parents and academic institutions pushing STEM as a proactive education measure i.e., building it [the skill] before the world needs it [tomorrow].

Yet as tech continues to be an integral part of our lives, some may feel it may be over glorified. To beat out competition for job security by independently developing technical skills, are we losing our cognitive ability to communicate effectively with one another? Does technological advancement characteristically devalue the need for meaningful relationships and emotional intelligence?

I like to think that Buzz Lightyear did it right. He represents the right balance.

As an up-and-coming tech toy in the classic Pixar movie, Toy Story, Buzz never fell short of being a savvy visionary while maintaining a strong point of view on the importance of solid relationships.

I believe Buzz embodies the characteristics of the ideal modern day coworker. He recognized early on that while you can reach new heights on your own, the real joy is in reaching ‘to infinity and beyond’ with some of your most trusted companions [Woody] along the way.

As you reflect on the type of employee, leader or space ranger you want to be, I hope you consciously choose to never forget the importance of building meaningful relationships before you need them. You never know how many sequels you’ll create with some of your closest friends and colleagues on your lifelong journey and career in tech.

EducationPeopleTrends

The Real Reason Corporate America’s Diversity Initiatives Fail

January 26, 2017 — by MediaMath

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This article originally appeared in Fortune’s Leadership Insiders column, authored by Elise James DeCruise, VP, New Marketing Institute at MediaMath. 

The Leadership Insiders network is an online community where the most thoughtful and influential people in business contribute answers to timely questions about careers and leadership. Today’s answer to the question, “How can you play a role in advancing workplace equality?” is written by Elise James-Decruise, vice president of the New Marketing Institute at MediaMath.

I lead a diverse, global team of 29 people in 16 different countries, which brings me face-to-face with the importance of having an open dialogue about equality in the workplace. Here are a few tactics that can help open up the discussion and effect change at your organization:

Create equal opportunities

It’s important to remember that while the terms are often used interchangeably, diversity and equality mean different things. Diversity is recognizing our differences while embracing them, whether it’s at work or in society at large. Equality, on the other hand, refers to fairness and equal treatment, where everyone has the same opportunities.

Tell your staff that if everyone doesn’t have similar opportunities for professional development, career pathing, and access to resources, you’re not fostering equality. Thus, you are ticking the diversity box on paper, but not making a true effort to nurture and empower each individual to their best potential.

Effect organizational change

Most organizational change efforts fail, often because executives don’t get enough institutional buy-in for their initiatives and ideas. If you build relationships in advance and have a strong track record, executives are more likely to support you in making changes.

When I joined MediaMath in 2012, I made it my mission to foster a strong relationship with our CEO. What I was trying to build—a comprehensive training program for employees, clients, and partners that honored their differences in gender, culture, and career background—had never been done before at the company. Through sparking regular communication, building trust, and showing passion for my mission, the CEO became my biggest champion and was instrumental in helping me nurture the New Marketing Institute (NMI) into the global unit it is today.

It’s important to show your executive sponsors that being an equal workplace ultimately adds value to the business. It can ultimately help you innovate and bring in unique perspectives.

Initiate equality programs

Equality-based initiatives can foster and promote teamwork, compassion, inclusion, and respect both within your company and with business partners. At NMI, we created the Marketing Engineer Program in 2014 to provide career opportunities in the programmatic marketing space for individuals across all backgrounds. These individuals work with different teams and are then offered jobs within our own company or through partners and clients. This fosters equality by giving individuals equal access to job skills training in digital marketing, regardless of gender, ethnicity, race, or career background.

Other companies might consider internal initiatives such as having a high-performance program for talented employees of female or minority backgrounds, connecting women in leadership roles to younger female employees for mentorship, and holding on-site professional development trainings and team summits at times that accommodate working parents.

Meet each person where they are

We can’t approach equality with a broad brush. For instance, almost the same number of women without children opt out of promotions as working mothers—55% to 58%, respectively—according to findings from a study by LeanIn.Org and McKinsey & Co. This is an issue that goes beyond gender and parenthood to the very heart of what we expect out of leaders today.

At NMI, we talk about “meeting the learner where they are.” This means understanding each person’s needs and motivations based on their particular situation. Ask yourself questions like: Do employees in other regions have access to the same resources in their native languages? Are managers giving their employees access to opportunities in a way that is culturally relevant to their background? Is everyone in every office onboarded in the same way? Does everyone, from a junior coordinator to a C-level executive, have access to professional development opportunities fitting their particular career phase?

We live this idea of “meeting the learner where they are” at NMI by offering anyone who goes through our program—whether an employee or a client—localized content, the ability to tune into courses online or in-person, and different course levels to meet their specific area of expertise. There’s also a culture of information-sharing, whether via our internal wiki or email, or in person, so no one is being deprived of resources or learning opportunities.

Read the full article on Fortune here