Interviews, insight & analysis on digital media & marketing

My Digital Hero: Sara Patel, Director of Fundraising, NABS

Sara Patel, Director of Fundraising at NABS, was chosen by Stevie Antonioni, Managing Partner at Dentsu Aegis as her digital hero. Now Sara passed on the honour by choosing her own digital hero.

Who is your digital hero?

Bradley Hill Managing Partner at the Dentsu Aegis Network. He previously worked at OMD and MEC specialising in digital and mobile media investment.

What has he done to win hero status in your eyes?

Bradley is a brilliant manager and colleague. He is always ready to support people and go the extra mile to ensure we deliver the right solutions for clients and their businesses. His enthusiasm for digital media helped the agency accelerate, particularly in mobile advertising.

In my eyes, he has won the hero status for genuinely being one of the most authentic and collaborative individuals I have ever worked with. His passion and hard work ethic are inspiring alongside his extensive in-depth experience.

Never shying away from a challenge; he is a true digital hero.

How has his heroism helped drive digital?

Bradley and I worked very closely together at Dentsu to spearhead mobile in-app activity into the wider network. By collaborating closely, we created a new opportunity to help clients explore and invest in this type of activation.

His heroism has helped drive digital by educating both internal teams and clients on new innovative digital solutions to help drive the overall digital agenda forward.

What are the biggest challenges in digital we need another hero to solve?

We need to solve the issue of user identity and compliance. We know we have to prepare for a cookieless world; however, wall gardens will make it difficult for us to provide useful and impactful advertising.

We need everyone across the industry to help drive a universal identifier across the different ecosystems. We also need to have more precise guidance around data and compliance to ensure we protect the consumer but also advertising.

What is your most heroic personal achievement so far in digital?

When I worked at My things, we created a brand-new revenue stream by creating a performance-based dynamic video product, which primarily used dynamic creative to sell multiple retail products based on a user’s search.

The productive was innovative, cost-efficient and helped drive significant sales revenue for one of the UK’s largest retailers. It was a tremendous personal achievement for me harnessing my agency, sales and adtech background to drive new product innovation and revenue.