Yasser Hussain is Chief Revenue Officer, Exit Bee. He has over 20 years’ experience in media, 15 in digital, across major blue chip media owners and media agencies. He was a company founder of Mapp Media. A well-loved industry figure, we asked who his digital hero is.
Who is your digital hero?
Sergio Tallon, Country Manager, UK, Vidoomy
What has he done to win hero status in your eyes?
I first met Sergio when we arrived in the UK from Spain (with some dodgy English!). Sergio then went on to join Essence when it was still a small independent agency, immediately raising the level of planning and diligence in the agency covering the Google account.
How has his heroism helped drive digital?
His actions at Essence raised the bar for the industry before terms such as brand safety, viewability and SSPs were buzzwords.
Not bad in the middle of a pandemic!
He promoted programmatic as the standard for display. After leaving when Essence sold to WPP and a few agency stints, Sergio then went on to help establish Seedtag within the UK and EMEA agency landscape, the company going on to become a major player in adtech and raising £30 million for expansion.
What are the biggest challenges in digital we need another hero to solve?
Digital advertising is now dominated by companies which have made millions if not billions at the expense of publishers and content curators.
There is minimum empathy for publishers out there who are losing their audiences to social media platforms and ad revenue to the programmatic ecosystem. We need a hero who not only helps publishers in monetisation but also brings actionable intelligence which helps them in retaining and increasing audiences while improving their content experience.
What is your most heroic achievement in digital so far?
Helping to establish and grow Exit Bee as the leader in micro-moment advertising over the last two years has to be it for me so far, but, and I really mean this, anyone who has kept kept going, trying to grow and motivate themselves and others during the toughest times the industry has faced can call themselves a hero in my book.
