New Digital Age (NDA) in association with LiveRamp is spotlighting the men and women championing a data-led revolution in the marketing industry. The ‘Meet the Revolutionaries’ interviews focus on the efforts of the industry executives helping to drive digital marketing forward into a new era of data collaboration.
Here, Mario Lamaa, Director of Revenue Operations at Immediate, discusses the most common barriers to innovation and explains why data collaboration will be key to the future of personalisation and customer experience…
Tell me about your current role.
I’m Director of Revenue Operations at Immediate. I’ve been here nearly ten years, and my role has evolved significantly in that time. Today, I oversee functions like commercial data, analytics and insight, programmatic monetisation including ad tech, ad product innovation including our native offering, ad delivery, and sales operations – including how we use Salesforce to support the sales team achieving their goals. What I love about it is the variety. I get to work across a broad range of stakeholders and play a role not only in revenue generation but also in shaping broader strategic priorities for the business.
Can you give an example of a time when you personally helped to drive innovation?
One of the more recent projects was thinking more strategically around how we can improve the commercial opportunities of our growing subscriber base in the Good Food app. These are our most loyal users, but they weren’t being engaged commercially and we had to be really careful that any proposition wasn’t impacting the core value of the product, rather adding to this. I worked with cross-functional teams across subscriptions, ads, brand, product, and data to introduce a premium sponsorship opportunity —starting with Lidl Deluxe at Christmas, offering exclusive festive recipes. It was a win-win: more value for users, great alignment for the brand, and a new revenue stream for us.
Another small example involved analysing how users interact with our content, proving that innovation can also come in smaller incremental ways. We noticed that on Good Food, the UK’s biggest food website, a lot of time was spent moving between two distinct sections on our most regularly visited pages. I pitched a new ad unit to sit between those sections – something natural to the user experience, and that can be adapted into our core native proposition. It’s now one of our best-performing units in terms of viewability and engagement, delivering 3–5x higher CTR than similar formats.
What are the most common challenges to innovation?
Resistance to change is a big one – especially in environments where people are more comfortable sticking with what they know. Cultural factors also play a huge role. I’m fortunate to work in an organisation that fosters creativity, encourages experimentation, and even has an internal innovation fund to back new ideas. The final challenge is resource. Time and budget constraints can make it hard for people to step outside of day-to-day operations and think innovatively. It’s about carving out that space – physically and mentally – for new ideas to emerge.
What tips would you offer others hoping to drive innovation?
Create a platform for innovation. That could be dedicated time each week, internal working groups, or even an innovation fund. But the biggest tip? Embrace failure. Make it safe for people to get things wrong and focus on what they learn from it. That builds psychological safety – essential for innovation.
And stay curious. The industry’s always evolving – new behaviors, new regulations, new tech. Network, keep learning, and look for inspiration outside your bubble. Sometimes a spark from another part of the market is exactly what your team needs.
How do you think digital marketing will evolve over the next few years?
We’ve talked about personalisation for years, but now the tools – especially AI – are finally there to deliver it in a truly meaningful way. Predicting user needs quickly and accurately means we can serve content and experiences in formats that are highly relevant, which increases stickiness and drives commercial value.
I also think attribution will be huge. With ongoing economic uncertainty, there’s more pressure than ever to prove ROI. Platforms make it simple to measure value. Publishers need to offer the same clarity if we want to stay competitive.
Do you think data collaboration will become more important to marketers?
Absolutely. We’ve made good progress, but there’s still more to do. Our push to grow known users and subscribers is partly about setting the stage for richer data collaboration. We know our audience really well, but imagine what we could do by connecting insights with other brands or publishers that also know their audiences intimately.
What’s great now is that the tech has caught up. Clean room environments and privacy-first protocols make data collaboration not only possible but safe and ethical. It’s a far cry from the days of bombarding people with retargeting ads weeks after they’ve already made a purchase. It’s now about understanding user journeys in a smarter, more relevant, and respectful way.
