Mathletes from around the world joined forces for a frenetic and exhilarating Hackathon. Over 24 hours, teams hacked out projects that run the gamut from VR advertising to Programmatic TP.
Check out the highlights below!
The biggest mobile event of the year is just around the corner and, we at MediaMath will join more than 2,200 companies to exhibit at the Mobile World Congress 2017. Industry experts will be lining the floors of the Fira Gran Via in Barcelona, Spain to attend a series of lectures and keynote speakers, explore new products and build partnerships with key players from across the globe.
The theme for this year’s event is “the next element.” Unlike any other channel, mobile has really transformed the way we communicate, and since it plays such an elemental role in everything we do, how do marketers adapt and advance their ability to reach people wherever they are? Understanding the complicated path to conversion – the what, where and why of a consumer’s journey – can truly make the difference between good and bad “location-based” advertising.
I’ll be hosting a fireside chat on location-based advertising alongside Ilicco Elia, DigitasLBi International’s head of mobile, at #MWC17 to explain why mobile marketers have location on their mind. How do marketers deliver the right message, to the right person, at the right time? Cracking this code can be tricky since many factors come into play when selecting the right location-based tools to deploy — whether it’s push notifications, geofencing, SMS coupons or mobile banners.
With 100k+ attendees expected to attend the conference from February 27 to March 2, we are excited to be involved with Mobile World Congress for the third time to kick-start conversations about one-to-one marketing, network with peers and meet with clients to talk all things mobile.
If you’re attending MWC17, head down to Hall 8.0, Monday February 27 AT 4.05PM – 4.30PM as we help define what location-based advertising is, and share campaign examples across retail, automative and CPG.
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.
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.
This byline originally appeared on Recruiter.com
Over the past few years, millennials have developed a negative reputation as the lazy, self-indulgent “me-me-me generatiom.” However, when you look at the facts, that picture couldn’t be further from the truth. It turns out the majority of millennials are actually workaholics with no plans to “job hop” who don’t even take their allotted vacation time.
Millennials have moved past Gen. X to become the largest generation in the American workforce. According to a Pew Research Center analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data, the number of millennials in the workforce – currently 53.5 million – is only expected to grow as millennials currently enrolled in college graduate and begin working. Companies need to take notice of this generation and understand what it takes to not only recruit the best talent in the group, but keep them happy.
Throughout all industries – from tech and finance to hospitality and fashion – the traditional offerings of money and stability will no longer cut it when trying to attract the top millennial employees. Instead, organizations need to offer transparency, culture, and flexibility. To recruit elite talent, the entire company needs to be involved – not just the HR team.
If you’re looking for ways to attract young talent to your organization, check out the below tips on drawing and keeping their attention:
1. Write a Compelling Job Description
Now that it’s easier than ever to post jobs and search for positions online, a generic job description is no longer enough. The description of any open position should reflect the company and the team.
If culture is important, that needs to be clearly included in the job description to ensure the right person is applying for the right job. If the post is vague, it makes the applicant question if the job is right for them – and it wastes the time of the company when employees are stuck interviewing someone who isn’t right for the role.
If you are not looking for a typical job candidate, you need to consider the qualities that would make an applicant successful in your company, on your team, and in this specific role; then write a description based on them.
2. Don’t Be Afraid to Pivot People to Other Roles
Sometimes you interview a candidate who blows you away – but it turns out they aren’t the right fit for the specific position to which they applied. Rather than not hiring this impressive talent, try pivoting them to another team internally.
As much as you want the right person for the right role, sometimes you need to take a step back and recognize it’s important to have the top talent in your company in general. If you go this route, patience will be necessary as it can take several months to find the right fit. If you have the flexibility to pivot, millennial candidates will be excited by the opportunity to learn through experience until you ultimately find the perfect placement, and your company will benefit from obtaining a stellar employee.
3. Get Creative With Your Company Perks
Company perks that make the difference in retaining employees go far beyond a happy hour on Fridays or free meals. Millennials don’t expect excessive perks that aren’t sustainable for most companies, but they do want something tailored to them and their passions. Focus on creating the right perks for your ideal workforce.
If you find out what drives your applicants, you can alter the discussion around those specific perks. Do they have a family at home? Offer a flexible work schedule. Fitness buff? Provide free classes or allow them time to catch a midday workout when they don’t have meetings. Even internal professional development training can be valuable to someone just getting started in their career and help convince millennials to join – and stay at – your company.
By taking these steps, you can make your business much more attractive to millennial applicants, which should prove very beneficial to your organization: Millennials will represent nearly 75 percent of the workforce by 2030.
If 2015 was the year of adolescence for MediaMath, 2016 was accelerated maturity into the responsibilities of young adulthood.
This year, we evolved from an adtech company to an enterprise software and services provider, because the latter is what the market is demanding. Marketers are more sophisticated than ever. We are entering a “post-channel era” where CEOs, CMOs and CFOs are as obsessed as we are with data and outcomes.
With technology at their fingertips to enable 1:1 marketing at scale, with real-time execution, direct connection to consumers and the ability to measure business results over publisher inputs, marketers are increasingly motivated to “make it so.”
Those are our clients. MediaMath’s customers index toward the more sophisticated, and we’ve built our business to cater to them. This drive to move programmatic out of test budgets or a portion of their media investments sometimes requires new business models or team configurations to do so— our work with Coke and MediaCom out of Mexico is a great example of how this can be done with success. Marketers like the folks at MediaCrossing have moved from siloed channel approaches to true single platform allowing omnichannel execution. And with the pipes to hook together paid and owned media systems through great partners like IBM and Oracle, marketers are extending conversations they start with known customers in email across channels and the marketing funnel. From our founding, MediaMath has partnered with these most sophisticated marketers to push the boundaries of programmatic marketing. We want to continue to be seen as a leading “Visionary,” the category in which we were recognized in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Digital Marketing Hubs in January.
In the context of this growing client and market maturity, we made some changes internally that were both exciting and daunting.
Early in the year, we unveiled a new product business unit structure around our data, media and intelligence products, bringing our product teams closer to the client. Our data team, which successfully launched our proprietary data business, formerly known as Adroit, then Helix and now as part of MediaMath Audiences, in January and released into general availability our real-time DMP capabilities Adaptive Segments and IQ in November, is helping marketers leverage more of their first-, second- and third-party data sources (including deepened and new partnerships with data providers like Acxiom, PushSpring and Cuebiq) and shape the analytics around them.
Over top these new product business units, we’ve ramped up our professional services capabilities to enable clients to unlock the full potential of programmatic with talent and expertise. Our New Marketing Institute, which is now officially in all regions with its expansion into APAC earlier this year, continues to help clients close education and talent gaps through their certification and training offerings and the Marketing Engineer Program. We also revamped our technology organization, appointing Wilfried Schobeiri as Chief Technology Officer (CTO) and Steve Steir as our new SVP of Engineering. Wil will drive our technical vision, ensure scalable growth of our systems and push the productization of our API and technology platform while evangelizing our technology both inside the company and externally to the market. Steve will make sure our global engineering team is aligned on the goal of continuously improving people and products.
Coming out of this new product structure, we have the right people in key roles across teams to move the company and mission forward. And there’s a renewed commitment to ongoing evolution and mobility that should smooth the migration of people and resources to the focused set of initiatives that need them at various time periods, varied as needed across geographies. We continue to strive to be a place where people at all stages of their careers want to work, and also encourage those individuals to give back in meaningful ways through the launch of our philanthropic arm MediaMath.org.
From a financial health perspective, our enterprise business grew just over 20 percent in our most mature market of North America and to over 100 percent in LATAM, along with (a return to) overall profitability. And we did that while taking something really good—a fast-growing and high-contribution business unit in Adroit—and blowing it up to free up the amazing talent and differentiated data assets inside to accrue to the benefit of all of our clients, globally, to become something great. Even more intestinal fortitude was required to shift our buy strategy for “batch supply”—Upcast—to build, in order to position it to grow by triple digits in 2017 as mobile and video did this year.
Whew.
What else is to come in 2017? Here’s what I know: the market for what we are doing is getting bigger and the number of credible competitors is getting smaller. Smaller point solutions—from channels like video to standalone DMPs—are getting bought, validating the need for the integrated, transparent enterprise solution that we have been building for close to a decade. Audiences addressable through all forms of media, the centrality of machine learning—these ideas are being embraced after 10+ years to move from fringe notion to “obvious.” We are in the business of transforming marketing through tech and math, and we know where the market is going and are increasingly able to shape its direction.
And yet we will do more. The need for supply chain hygiene will cause some to call for a return to the halcyon days of advertiser, agency and publisher in the same way that the challenge of attribution had many retrench to engagement or reach metrics alone. Thankfully, we have truth on our side. In 2017, we as a company and as a catalyst for the cause must focus on belief and proof, and show it in the data and the results.
To do that, we will continue to invest in innovation and even more in scaled operations and infrastructure, partnering with the most sophisticated marketers and the diverse ecosystem that supports them. We have an amazing team and the industry’s most powerful platform—the table is set. Now it’s up to us.
If there’s one thing I’ve taken away from my experiences in the tech industry, it’s that fostering better technology for our clients and building a great environment for our people go hand-in-hand. Since my startup, tap.me, was acquired by MediaMath in 2012, I’ve dedicated myself to evolving the state of our technology while advocating for a “people first” culture by continually testing our level of comfort in the pursuit of continuous improvement.
Now, as MediaMath’s newly appointed Chief Technology Officer (CTO), I want to take it further by driving our technical vision, ensuring scalable growth of our systems, and pushing the productization of our API & Technology platform while evangelizing our technology both inside the company and externally to the market.
My focus has been on building teams with a culture driven to experiment, move quickly and communicate clearly while building the best technology products possible to our customers. But I won’t be doing this alone. I’m thrilled to have a partner in MediaMath’s new SVP of Engineering, Steve Steir, who values the idea of investing in people first, in order to build great technology. Steve comes from VCE with a long career leading engineering teams, and like me, he’s passionate about recruiting the brightest minds he can find and unleashing them on the technical problems at hand. His proudest accomplishments are the cultures that he has established that made work fun and invigorating.
Together, we are going to redouble our efforts to put people at the front of the software development lifecycle.
Our philosophy is simple: people are most productive when they are happy. We believe it’s the job of our managers and executives to make and keep our people happy by fostering an environment where the work is rewarding, impactful, and friction-free. To make sure that our global engineering team is aligned on the goal of continuously improving people and products, I’ve created a manifesto to achieve exactly that:
Now to the tech.
Over the last few years, we’ve refocused our approach to development by aligning ourselves into service oriented teams, each developing their own microservices, while investing in internal platform substrate to reduce friction and sprawl. We expect this approach to ultimately lead to a more flexible and interoperable API product, benefiting API and UI clients alike.
As CTO, I’ll be driving our technology forward with three main themes in mind:
With that said, a transformation of this scale for an engineering team of more than 230 people is a huge task for me and Steve but we share a relentless focus on assembling the best engineering talent in a culture that promotes creativity, efficiency and empowered decision-making.
From a philosophy and religion major, to touring the country following the Grateful Dead and even becoming a professional canoe guide, Michael Weaver, VP, Product Strategy, Growth Media at MediaMath, never thought he’d end up in the advertising field or digital economy while in college.
“In my dorm, there was one person who had a computer that we all tried to share to write papers on,” said Weaver. “But most of my papers were written on a typewriter!”
Now, Weaver is at the forefront of mobile.
He got his first taste of digital through a friend. “In 1993, a friend of mine who was very involved in the new age of computers was talking about the World Wide Web which we were just coming into familiarity with. So we started a little company out of our apartment where we would go to stores and restaurants offering to build a website for them.”
After his first exposure to the digital landscape, Weaver’s college roommate started his own company called BlueStreak. Here, Weaver was able to go to ad agencies and explain that there’s this thing called the internet.
“I’d have to explain to people that they’re going to need a website and, when that happens, they’re going to want to advertise. And when they advertise, they’re going to need to measure and deliver ads,” said Weaver. “So it was a lot of explaining the future to a lot of ad agencies in that role.”
After BlueStreak, Weaver started his own company Third Screen Media because, he says, “I saw mobile coming.” This was pre-iPhone days, pre-apps, pre-universal SMS, but he saw it coming because it was the future and advertisers were interested. Thereafter, it was sold to AOL, which was known as America Online at the time and after a stint at Microsoft, Weaver landed a job at MediaMath.
“Mobile is necessary. It’s 60 percent of the supply right now coming in to the bid stream, so six out of 10 hits on the internet are basically mobile-first. And if you start to skew towards millennials, its even higher,” said Weaver. “So it’s new and it’s exciting, but it’s not new because people are there. And its funny, I think back on talks and how positioning mobile has changed and it used to be messaging. Now it’s just ubiquitous, and it’s there and it’s the primary way people consume media, and that’s only going to increase.”
As 2016 is a coming to a close, the MediaMath team is looking back at the terrific year we’ve had. We’ve had the pleasure of making senior appointments in APAC, attending both Cannes Lions Festival and Dmexco and celebrating our 1 year anniversary at 4 World Trade Center!
We’ll be hosting a Twitter countdown to 2017 by highlighting our favorite moments and milestones of 2016 throughout the month of December, so follow along at @MediaMath, @MediaMathEMEA and @MediaMathAPAC or follow our hashtag, #MMLooksBack2016. You’ll be able to see our year in review and see predictions from our executive team and partners for 2017.
Thank you for continuing to support us in our journey and stay tuned for more to come in 2017!
This post is part of a four-part series around managing a training program, including recruiting, retaining and reviewing young talent.
As the newest generation hits the market, deemed “Millennials,” there has been a shift in what it takes to recruit top talent. Whether it’s the tech industry, finance, or fashion, the old drivers of money and stability aren’t the only things attracting top talent anymore. To stay current in todays market Millenials wants transparency, culture and flexibility.
After recruiting over four cohorts of MediaMath’s Marketing Engineer Program, we’ve interviewed talent from across the world. Recruiting them isn’t just for the HR team, it’s a full company effort. Whether you are a hiring manager or a recruiter, if you’re looking for ways to attract young talent to your company, check out our tips for drawing and keeping their attention.
• Write a compelling job description
Gone are the days of generic job descriptions. Write job descriptions that reflect your company and your team. Using unclear verbiage, leaving the applicant guessing if it’s the right fit won’t help them know if they’re applying for the right role (and will save you time when interviewing people who ARE right for the role). Consider their background and take into account what qualities makes someone successful in your company, on your team and in this role. Instead of writing “Analysis and research background,” think “Coursework or professional experience with data-driven problem solving and/or quantitative reasoning.” At MediaMath, being data-driven is in our mission so we look for people who have that passion.
• Don’t be afraid to pivot them to other roles
At MediaMath we want people to find the right role for themselves as much as we want top talent to join the company. If we have someone come in for an interview, and they’re a rock star, but not the right fit for the position, we’ll pivot them to other teams internally. While it might take us a few months to find the right fit, what matters is that we do. I work alongside many of these people each day, and they’ve found roles perfect for their skillset and interests. It’s just as important to interview based on their ability to get the job done as it is that they’ll be successful in the role and on the team. If you have someone who will be working alone a majority of the time, but they talk about being a great people manager and enjoy working with people, they likely aren’t going to be successful no matter their technical abilities.
• Get creative with your company perks and tailor your message
Perks come in all shapes and sizes – they don’t have to be excessive. While the Facebooks and Googles of the world can provide free meals, that’s often not sustainable for most companies. If the budget is tight, focus on creating the right perks for your ideal workforce. A flexible work schedule, casual dress code, a robust onboarding program and internal professional development trainings can add a lot of value to someone starting out their career. Focus on finding what drives your applicants and tailor the discussion to those. Do you they have a family at home? Tailor their schedule to something that works for them. Do they work out a lot? Talk about how they can leave when they don’t have meetings to catch a mid-day cycle class.
• Make the conversation a two-way street
Millennials want to know that their new role is going to help their career grow as much as the position will help the company grow. Ask where they see themselves in five years, if it’s in a manager role, talk to them about the transferable skills they will get in the position and how the role will help them get where they want to go. For our Marketing Engineers we even change the traditional cover letter to require research and an informative reaction to an industry trend. We want to see that they are not only interested in the role, but their impact on the industry. Make the conversation about more than their ability to complete the job.
• Train your team to interview for the right skills
All interviewers for our Marketing Engineer Program attend a mandatory training. The training doesn’t need to be long. Ours is 45 minutes. However, it’s important that each interviewer is familiar with the job description, knows the skills and/or competencies required for the position, and understands their role in the hiring process. This will ensure everyone is on the same page, and lead to a seamless and streamlined interview process. Remember to also include the basics like interview etiquette, applicable employment laws and the hiring process/timeline.
Young talent is important to the vitality of any organization. Whether it’s their drive for innovation, their openness to trying new things, or their exponential potential, Millennials provide a unique skill set and perspective. By utilizing these tools and collaborating with your recruiters, you’ll bring the right talent in at the right time.
