Andrew Buckman is CEO at Sublime. He has a career in the digital industry spanning over two decades, which has included senior roles at OpenX, Tradedoubler, Yahoo and Criteo.
Who is your digital hero?
Victoria Usher, CEO and Founder of Ginger May PR.
What has she done to win hero status in your eyes?
Victoria’s attitude to doing business, accommodating her team and generally having a positive impact on the world at large is inspirational. Over the last 10 years she has built a PR business that produces some of the highest levels of service and quality that I have seen in that sector, with a team of people that come across as fulfilled and genuine.
This is because she was quick to realise that human beings juggle all sorts of priorities and that none of them should be sacrificed.
From eliminating daily commutes by having a head office near people’s homes and encouraging flexible working so that parents can nurture kids as well as clients; to creating an office culture which has resulted in one of the best staff retention rates in the business; Victoria often prompts me to ask myself what I could be doing better for my teams.
How has her heroism helped drive digital?
For a PR professional, Victoria is remarkably discreet about the clients that she has represented but she has helped a ton of tech start-ups, scale-ups and international deployments to build their reputation and make it known.
Good PR has such a positive impact on a business and Victoria has been a significant influence on the success of 2 businesses that I have been directly involved with as well as many more.
What are the biggest challenges in digital we need another hero to solve?
We need to be seen by the average consumer as a positive influence and an enabler of the media they are there to see. Digital audiences don’t enjoy advertising as much as TV or Print audiences do. When was the last time anyone talked about getting caught up in the story related by a series of display ads?
If we don’t delight consumers with catchy and engaging ads then we have nothing to counterbalance the negative stories about data, privacy, disruption and intrusion. We have to hold ourselves to a higher standard of creativity and respect for the consumer.
We are a sector that is all about money though; and where there’s money there’s greed and self interest. A selfless hero needs to step in and show us the way.
What is your most heroic personal achievement so far in digital?
I think I’m right in saying that I launched the first digital unit trust investment site back in 1996. When I say site… there was a link on our corporate site to a form that you could download and send us by post (you know, using an envelope and a stamp).
Beyond that, I try to emulate my heroes by making my company a place where people want to invest their energy & enthusiasm and giving some of my time to others that need help in navigating the world today.
