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 Arshiya Nazir, Programmatic Strategy Director at Dentsu International.
Arshiya Nazir, Programmatic Strategy Director at Dentsu International
Why did you join the Women in Programmatic network and what do you hope to get out of it?
To connect with other women in programmatic, while learning, developing, and keeping up to date with our craft.
I’m excited to witness and benefit from how they pioneer, empower, and promote programmatic women into established spaces.
What are the biggest challenges, and opportunities for women in the programmatic industry today?
A misconception is that there aren’t many of us:
At The Telegraph I had the pleasure of calling some prominent programmatic women my peers, people like Karen Eccles, Mindy Basra, Harmony Murphy, Shabana Chowdhury and Elsa Bezhani.
As clients, I’ve had the pleasure of working with Ruchita Nathalal, Jessica Reid, Maria Kasselouri, Anna Chadderton and Jaleh Bahri-Esfahani to name a few.
Nevertheless, there are plenty more successful and inspiring women whose work, thought leadership and achievements I should be aware of; this network is helping me do just that.
What does the industry need to do to champion women in the programmatic industry better?
There are more initiatives now than ever before to champion women in this space. Not only through TWIPN but also through initiatives like The Female Lead, IAA 21 women of 2021 and ‘She Has No Limits’.
Positive strides are being made with the number of women present on panels nowadays – evidence is in the number of podcasts with leading female voices recently. A positive sign this will be reflected in real life, as ‘media land’ opens its doors with more events again.
What are the biggest challenges, and opportunities overall for programmatic advertising this year?
The use of data in a clean, safe, and privacy-compliant way has been a challenge long before and after GDPR, creating more challenges for measurement.
The open web believes focusing on contextual is the way around this. Publishers believe using their own siloed data is the solution and clients believe the answer is in-housing programmatic.
The opportunities for next year are in data rooms, marketplaces and emerging media like connected TV and programmatic OOH.
What is your biggest achievement in programmatic to date?
A few personal wins spring to mind; my nomination for 30 under 30, being part of the winning team in the international Programmatic Buyers Academy by Google challenge and being under the mentorship of Gareth Cross for the last two years.
My latest role is also an achievement, as I will be working with Martin Roberts at the forefront of one of the strongest programmatic agency groups in media.
