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 Anam Amin, Senior Supply and Product Manager – Programmatic, Publicis Groupe.
Why did you join the Women in Programmatic network and what do you hope to get out of it?
My journey in Adtech has been fascinating. Whoever joins this industry finds out soon that there is always something new to learn within this space.
I joined the Women in Programmatic (WIP) network to get inspired by the great work women are currently doing. I hope someday I will also encourage women to excel in the industry.
Despite having valuable skills and experiences, women often don’t feel comfortable speaking up and voicing their opinions. I want to find ways in which we can change that. Industry-specific networks like WIP only help empower those voices that need to be heard and allowed to showcase their talent.
What are the biggest challenges, and opportunities for women in the programmatic industry today?
I was hired by a woman. Seeing a woman in a leadership role influenced me very early on in my career. I’ve had male mentors, too. However, seeing a WOC in a leadership role meant I could grow in the industry.
There has been growth in women with different roles within the tech space in the last few years. Having female leaders from diverse backgrounds in leadership roles has categorically seen great success across industries. However, female representation in leadership roles within the tech space is still low. This is a challenge and an opportunity for more women to enter this space who might have otherwise felt discouraged from pursuing a career in Adtech.
What does the industry need to do to champion women in the programmatic industry better?
Diversity and Representation are essential in any industry. Creating equal opportunities considering there is no formal education to become a programmatic trader. We need to increase the number of women hired, mentored, and trained to excel in the field. This will pave the path for them to become innovative leaders in the programmatic space in the future.
Encouraging the team to upskill continuously is vital. Based on experience within agencies, when individuals are given space to own a product/discussion, it allows them to become specialists who can confidently carry out end-to-end conversations on the product/solution. We carry this approach out already within the Publicis MENA trading desk. We have individuals (Product champions) who are not only exceptional programmatic traders but also experts on specific subject matters within the industry. They are proactively given opportunities to showcase their expertise whenever the opportunity presents itself.
Furthermore, we can benefit from having more women published or part of discussions to talk about important topics, more women on panels, and recognizing women in leadership roles.
What are the biggest challenges, and opportunities overall for programmatic advertising this year?
Programmatic industry is constantly evolving. Challenges and effective solutions are a regular part of the job.
With the growth in programmatic spending across clients, there is a more significant challenge in finding qualified talent and resources. User data permissions and privacy is causing a lot of uncertainty. The inevitable death of third-party cookies is another area shaking up the advertising world. Consolidation is not as simple anymore. Multiple players in the DSP space are making it tougher to unify client strategy. In depth brand safety and suitability discussion needs to happen before we jump on the Web 3.0 bandwagon. Additionally, there needs to be more discussion on supply path optimization.
There are definite opportunities for a more robust and secure solution(s) to audience data measurement. While there are more excellent DSP options, it will hopefully drive innovation and move away from a duopoly of the extensive walled garden players.
New Media/Emerging channels have a lot of opportunities to grow in the MENA market. We’re already seeing integrated solution partners actively introduce their product/services to the market and equally seeing clients becoming responsive to it.
What is your biggest achievement in programmatic to date?
On top of being recognized as Campaign ME’s ‘under-30 faces to watch in media’ last year, I have had a few notable achievements in my career so far. I was responsible for building a programmatic strategy from scratch for one of the largest tourism clients in MENA. This has progressively grown over the last 5 years by the adoption of newer channels within programmatic. Having this experience lead me to my current role, where I’m the first to lead on programmatic product and supply strategy in Publicis Media MENA. This involves the ability to influence a larger clientele by partnering up with local and global data, media, and tech solutions that bring the best out of any brand’s programmatic strategy across the marketing funnel.
I’ve also had the opportunity to work with an exceptional team throughout my career and an equally wonderful experience with partners regionally and globally. Maintaining those relationships in a way that we come together to grow as an industry in the market has been instrumental in the work we deliver for our clients.
