The Women In Programmatic Network was set up to represent women in the programmatic industry. To celebrate its work and its members, NDA is running a series of interviews with its members. Next up is Katerina Koutsosimou, Director of Trading, EMEA, MediaMath.
Why did you join the Women in Programmatic network and what do you hope to get out of it?
I joined the Women in Programmatic network to meet passionate and inspiring women who work in different areas of the industry that I could learn from them and share my knowledge.
In a male-oriented industry, connecting with other women is empowering and motivating. In the early years of my career in Ad Tech I had only male leaders around me to look up to and joining TWIPN is an opportunity for me to connect with inspiring female leaders and become one of them for my team and other women out there.
What are the biggest challenges, and opportunities for women in the programmatic industry today?
The programmatic industry is a dynamic and evolving environment in which to succeed someone needs to be curious, stay relevant and think creatively. Standards of working have changed, and women have the opportunity to expand their knowledge and combine it with problem-solving and organisational skills to drive change in the industry without jeopardising their personal life or second-guessing their abilities.
The biggest challenge for females is to build their confidence in a male-oriented industry and get the opportunities they deserve to succeed.
What does the industry need to do to champion women in the programmatic industry better?
Creating safe spaces for women to build their confidence, share their fears and gain knowledge is the first step to boost female power in the industry. Networks such as TWIPN and mentoring programs are a great industry support for women and we need to see more of those, on a small scale within organisations but also industry wide. Increasing options and awareness around these initiatives will activate women. Also, as in every other industry, to champion women we need to give them the same opportunities and treat them equally to men for management and leadership roles. We often see women getting junior level positions but not being supported and empowered to step-up to the next level while often performing better in these positions.
What are the biggest challenges, and opportunities overall for programmatic advertising this year?
Challenges and opportunities go hand in hand when it comes to programmatic advertising. Emerging channel adoption and measurement, brand safety, viewability and fraud, ad creativity for user engagement to name a few. The most exciting for me is data, Identity and new ways of measurement. Data collection has been a focus for most brands with the deprecation of first-party data approaching and activating data through different ID solutions to drive results is the next step. All industry players need to evaluate their identity strategies, test solutions and choose the one that solves their problems, which will differ from one company to another and will affect all activations and measurement. Exciting and creative times are ahead.
What is your biggest achievement in programmatic to date?
As a Trader I have always been passionate about leveraging product innovation and technology to drive growth for brands and build client relationships. One of my biggest achievements was to support a retail client activate their precision marketing strategy programmatically while sifting 80% of their investment on customised behavioural segments and driving 400% more engaged users on their site. The successful execution of this strategy across 15+ EMEA markets involved a lot of testing and learning, client education and personal growth and created opportunities for identity solution testing and future measurement discussions.
