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NMI Facilitator Interview: Trevor Miranda

November 7, 2016 — by MediaMath    

We profile our New Marketing Institute facilitators, who are responsible for leading trainings for clients, partners and colleagues around the globe. Trevor Miranda, Manager, Training & Certification for EMEA, is interviewed by Ohi Oni-Eseleh, Business Analyst for NMI. 

1. Tell us about your previous work experience prior to starting at MediaMath.

I’ve worked in a few different industries before starting in advertising, starting out supporting journalists on a massive news application and even moving into public service at my local council. Most recently I worked at an ad tech company called Mediaocean, which focused on facilitating the direct media buying process across all media channels. This was hugely beneficial for starting at a company like MediaMath because I truly understand the efficiencies programmatic marketing brings to the buying process.

2. How did you first get involved in adtech?

I’d always had an interest in technology and had no idea about the ad tech world, which is predominantly hidden from the consumer. My last role was my first introduction to this world and I was immediately captivated by the amount of work involved in actually delivering an ad. I saw budgets start moving towards digital and the next step for me seemed to be clear, programmatic.

3. When did you realize that you wanted to go into training?

Pretty much as soon as I started my first job. I really enjoyed training new hires when I worked at the Associated Press and got more and more focused on training as I changed roles. I realized I enjoyed helping people get the most of out a system and understand complex ideas. I love helping clients learn how to do new things with systems that make their jobs easier.

4. Why do you feel education is important in the adtech space?

Education in a lot of organizations can sometimes be an afterthought. In this industry especially, it’s hugely important to ensure that everyone can be brought up to speed as quickly as possible. Just look at the Display Lumascape and you can see how confusing this industry looks, not only to a newcomer but to someone who has been working in one of these areas for a while. Programmatic has become one of these words that’s thrown around and a lot of people don’t understand what it actually means. This misunderstanding causes resistance to change and potential opposition to something that could be a real value add to everyday business. It’s important to break down those barriers and create a space where people feel comfortable enough to learn.

5. What courses do you currently facilitate?

I currently teach pretty much every course NMI offers. The majority of my time is focused on training clients on our platform, TerminalOne, and I love helping clients learn how to optimize their campaigns in particular. I also run our functional marketing courses and I recently created a new ‘workshop’ format for our Programmatic 101 course.

6. What is a new topic you hope to learn about? (industry related or not)

The technology around attribution is something I feel I could spend a lot of time on. We have just launched a session called Understanding Attribution which gives a good introduction to the topic, but I could definitely take a deeper dive into this topic and learn more. Online to offline attribution in particular is like the holy grail right now and I’d love to know more about how we’re getting there as an industry.

7. How do you stay up to date/current on what’s going on in the industry

I read a lot. I follow various industry blogs and sites and LinkedIn is also a great source of information. I also try and attend IAB and DMA events wherever possible. It’s also important to talk to colleagues and clients too because knowing what they’re dealing with is hugely beneficial.

8. Do you have an industry leader you look up to?

There are a few, but Karen Blackett (Chairperson, MediaCom UK) is one person that always comes to mind. She was once named the most influential black person in Britain and has achieved a huge amount of success in her career. Despite this, she would always socialize around the MediaCom London office and seemed like a great leader.

9. Tell us your secret talent.

I guess this isn’t really a secret if you’ve hung out with me, but I love singing. Karaoke is one of my favorite things, so if you can duet ‘Easy Lover’ with me, we’ll be friends.