Stevie Antonioni is Managing Partner at Dentsu Aegis and is Co-Chair of ONE (Dentsu’s Gender Diversity Network). A fifteen-year career in media has included roles at ITV and Heart.
Who is your digital hero?
Sara Patel, who was recently ‘nabbed’ by Nabs to take on the vital role of Director of Fundraising.
This is a crucial time for Nabs, the industry’s charity; revenue will inevitably be declining as companies scale back on charitable giving and fundraising events are cancelled whilst demand for their service will be surging higher than ever due to the Covid crisis and the onslaught of redundancies, pay cut requests etc.
What has she done to win hero status in your eyes?
Everyone working for Nabs to help support the people of our industry are heroes in my eyes.
It’s not always easy to stand up and fight for others for fear of retribution and Sara is a force for good and I personally wish there were more like her.
How has her heroism helped drive digital?
Sara will no doubt be calling on her extensive digital experience and contacts to help drive the Nabs mission.
I look forward to hearing about all of the great digital initiatives launched in the wake of this crisis instead of the negativity around GDPR, brand safety and transparency that we have become accustomed to.
It’s time for digital to reassert itself as the pioneer of adland.
What the biggest challenges in digital we need another hero to solve?
How digital can deliver effectively against an attention economy. The market for our attention is still growing and its increasingly hard to cut-through.
Who else is currently dedicating 50% or more of their online evening browsing to watching Tik Tok videos?
Hopefully not just me, can I blame lock-down? Those who solve this in a measurable way will win out.
What is your most heroic personal achievement so far in digital?
Launching the first native specialist DSP into one of the UK’s leading ad agency groups.
We were able to gain 95%+ client adoption within three years and delivered some fantastic campaigns for brands such as Diageo, UK Government and The Very Group.
