As you may or may not know, I currently work in the advertising technology industry (ad tech for short) and have been for almost two years now. Last month, I attended Programmatic I/O – a major industry conference - for the first time. It was stocked full of amazing content and truly amazing food.
 
I’ve developed a Recap that covers a bit of what I learned over two extremely educational days.

For the sake of digestibility, I’ve broken up my Recap into three parts. This second part will focus on the overarching trends I picked up on. In Part 1, I covered new terminology and technology I was introduced to at the conference. You can find Part 1 here. Part 3 will cover session content.
 
Part 2: Trends
 
The format of the conference included break-out, track-based sessions on Day 1 and a Plenary Program on Day 2. I really enjoyed this approach. The first day provided highly specific content in tracks based on the major players in the ad tech ecosystem and the sessions provided time for Q&A. The second day provided guidance and insight for what’s to come in the industry. Across both days, there were three trends that particularly stood out to me in the sessions I attended.

Let's take a look at those!
 
In-Housing - A major trending topic that I noticed both days was the idea of advertisers "in-housing" their programmatic technology stack. While many of the in-housing conversations were focused specifically on data management tech, there were some conversations that touched on other needs of the advertiser including topics such as creative (i.e. banner ads, videos, etc.) development. Bringing a programmatic operation fully in-house is a major technical undertaking that can be daunting. With this in mind, many of the speakers, especially agency representatives, noted that perhaps a pseudo in-house approach is best where the advertisers can focus on both internal and partner expertise.

Data - Data and a focus on its proper curation, organization, and use was top of mind for numerous presenters. Given the upcoming General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), ad tech players are heightening their focus on audience data in every regard. Discussions ranged from improving how it's collected (permissions, notifications to consumers, etc.) to how it's used (fraud detection, more precise reach, logging, etc.).

Programmatic TV - A third trending topic was Programmatic TV. We as consumers are quickly shifting to a major "on-demand" type of consumption model when it comes to TV-viewing. This provides a great opportunity for advertisers to boost their cross-device efforts (mobile phone <-> tablet <-> connected TV <-> desktop computer <-> etc.). It also provides opportunities for major programming networks and cable providers to jump even deeper into the ad tech world.

What are your thoughts on the trends I noted above? Have you noticed any other major ad tech industry trends? Share them and let's keep the conversation going!

Until next time,
Jewel

As you may or may not know, I currently work in the advertising technology industry (ad tech for short) and have been for almost two years now. Earlier this month, I attended Programmatic I/O – a major industry conference - for the first time. It was stocked full of amazing content and truly amazing food.
 
I’ve developed a Recap that covers a bit of what I learned over two extremely educational days.
 
For the sake of digestibility, I’ve broken up my Recap into three parts. This first part will cover new terms and tech I was introduced to, the second part will cover major trends I noticed, and the third part part will cover session content.
 
Part 1: Terms and Tech
 
In most of the sessions I attended, I picked up on some new terms. Some of these were defined by the speakers and with others I did a bit of ad tech research to uncover the definitions. In two particular sessions, as you’ll see below, I learned more about “new tech” than “new terminology”.

​Let's jump in:

• Term: CPI -> Cost Per Install; Session: A Market Perspective on Apps
  • CPI is a key performance indicator used by app developers

 

• Term: Customer LTV -> Customer Lifetime Value; Session: Best Practices for Implementing a CDP (Customer Data Platform)
  • Customer LTV is an important metric used to measure and plan marketing strategies and also understand the value customers bring to a Brand.
  • Interestingly, there's a whole website dedicated to this metric: www.customerlifetimevalue.co/

 

• Term: Google UAC -> Google Universal App Campaigns; Session: Mobile Fraud
  • These campaigns are a good way for app developers to reach more users. Overview and implementation details are here: AdWords Help - About Universal App campaigns
  • Google offers a course on UAC and you can earn a course certificate after completion! More details here: Learn with Google - Introduction to Universal App Campaigns

 

• Tech: AWS Athena; Session: How to Build & Leverage a Unified Data Stack
  • The speaker that mentioned AWS Athena used it in a high-level/low-level comparison to Redshift.
  • Based on my research (Amazon Athena and When to Use Athena vs Other Big Data Services), it looks like Athena is the high-level option for running quick & easy queries compared to Redshift, the low-level, granular option for more complex querying.

 

• Term: GRP -> Gross Rating Point; Session:  Plenary Program, Digitization of TV
  • GRP is a measure of exposures based on a target market. It’s an important metric in the TV advertising space as it helps advertisers determine where to place their ads. Calculated GRPs can be used to both plan TV advertising campaigns and measure their reach.
  • Helpful Links:
    • Marketing Profs Definition
    • Digiday Definition and Discussion
    • Video Ad News Article on Nielsen bring GRP measurement to YouTube

 

• Term & Tech: Private Data Cloud; Session: How To Use Transparent Data to Reduce Programmatic Waste
  • With important topics like online privacy and data usage regulation rising in discussions lately, the focus on ensuring that your data cloud is secure is extremely heightened.

 
Are you also in the ad tech industry? Do you know of any new and emerging terms/tech? Feel free to share!!
 
Stay tuned for Part 2 – thanks for reading! :)
 
-Jewel Langevine

Helloooooo :)

If you read through some of my older posts, you'll see that I sometimes note "Jewel's Random Tidbits" at the end. If you like those and you're wondering where they went, today is your day! I have an entire post with some random tidbits around one-on-one meetings with your boss.

Note that these are my thoughts and these approaches to management may not work for everyone or every situation. I've implemented each of these strategies into my work life and I've observed great success in communicating with my leaders!

My thoughts on 1:1 Meetings with Your Boss:

• Go Prepared - Jot things down during the week (or timespan between 1:1s) and prioritize which things you want to bring up first
  • These can include highs/lows from the week, requests for time-off, requests for certain resources (i.e. time, access to things, etc.), thoughts on your career path, and more.
  • Some topics are more immediate but some can wait until you have dedicated time together.
    
  • Is any one topic a time-sensitive issues or an emergency? Request an additional 1:1 outside of your regular schedule.
• Be Status Ready - Have a running list of status on projects and any day to day duties that you can easily reference
• Take suggestions of new projects, new events, professional development - OWN your career.
• Ask for feedback as needed and Ask if your boss has anything to share on their end
• Remember the Nitty-Gritty - Don't be afraid to ask tactical questions or bring up a really tactical issue you're facing

Do you have any to add to the list? Have you tried any of the above? Let me know! :D

Enjoy your weekend!!
-Jewel

The Keynote Session Was Delivered By Steve Loughlin, CEO, SalesforceIQ

This session featured demonstrative customer stories from Mattel, Western Union, Tesoro, and Compassion International. Steve Loughlin discussed Salesforce’s “New Technology Model”, “New Business Model”, and “New Philanthropic Model”. Then, Ken Wilson from Compassion International spoke on how the nonprofit has benefited from using Salesforce. Wilson mentioned that they were able to take 800 applications and replace them with 21 of which Salesforce is the core. We were also able to hear from a beneficiary of Compassion International who shared her story and drove home the societal value of the nonprofit. Joshua Sladek, Senior Manager of Marketing Optimization at Tesoro, shared on his experience and how he came to learn about Salesforce through an acquisition.
 
The session also detailed some product and company features of Salesforce. One aspect of Salesforce that I definitely didn’t know about was their 1/1/1 Model regarding their approach to giving back to the community. The model consists of donating 1% of their time, 1% of their product, and 1% of their funds to serving others!

**Extra**
One session I really wanted to attend but couldn’t was Circles of Success: Drive Metrics Using Report and Dashboards. The Circles of Success series of breakout sessions were so popular that the line reached capacity over an hour before each round. Their popularity was definitely warranted as the series featured small group discussions on really exciting topics related to Customer Success. Though I wasn’t able to actually attend, I got my badge scanned which added me to the list to get the online version!

Happy Monday! :D
​Jewel

Attending Dreamforce has been a goal of mine since I first learned about Salesforce and started using it back in 2013. Salesforce delivers really cool products and Dreamforce sounds like a really cool event.
 
So, I was really happy when I learned of Salesforce’s World Tour! They essentially bring Dreamforce to you locally and give you a one-day taste of what the bigger event is like. Last week I attended the Salesforce World Tour in Houston, TX and it was SO GREAT!
 
It was held at The Westin Galleria and, if you’re familiar with the Houston Galleria, you already know how cool of a venue that is. The day’s agenda included morning breakout sessions, a keynote, lunch, afternoon breakout sessions, and a networking reception. The event was completely free AND they managed to serve a delish lunch, great Starbucks coffee plus sodas & water throughout the day, and heavy h’ourdurves plus wine & beer during the networking reception.
 
I was able to attend the keynote session and four breakout sessions. I got great notes which I will share with you here! :)

#Stay Tuned!

Happily,
Jewel

I am thankful for my new career.

After years of school and months of internships, it was such a great feeling to walk across the stage on May 22 (also my birthday!) as I graduated and received my Bachelor of Science degree! :)

Being an immigrant to this country, I can definitely say it was not easy but the ride was worth it. I am really happy that I chose The University of Texas at Austin for my undergraduate studies. My time there helped to launch me onto the career path I am on right now.

As my LinkedIn tagline says I am a "technology professional focused on maximizing client satisfaction and retention". Basically, I am driven by successful connections between clients/customers and products. I really love seeing a product delivered correctly and I really love when customers' expectations are exceeded by products. I am so thankful for the opportunities and experiences I have encountered that helped me develop these passions.

I am so excited to see where I go in my career! I have no idea what the future holds but I know it's going to be great with God on my side! :)

Happy Tuesday!
Jewel

There is a huge difference.

This past year has taught me many lessons on prioritizing my time. I learned more of what "Work/Life Balance" means and much more of what it means to choose the opportunities you pursue carefully.

Regardless of where you are in your career, there are opportunities available. With that, regardless of where you are in life, there are many things you could choose to spend your time on. While individually your options may be wonderful, when you have too much on your plate, wonderful may turn into dreadful.

I've learned that it is very much okay to say "no" to enticing open doors. It's not limiting. In fact, it's more freeing! When you choose to focus on a career path/major/etc., you are not stuck in that lane forever. Rather you're making the decision to press forward with something you're passionate about. You're giving yourself time and mental resources to excel at that special thing of yours. If that thing doesn't work out, at least you've tried and you can move onto the next chapter with your piece of mind!

A lot of the time we get too scared to "choose" or "focus" because we don't want to feel trapped. If you are ever in that situation, try to overcome your fear of entrapment by internalizing how 100% true to yourself you're being by choosing to pursue your passion wholeheartedly!

Love and Peace,
​Jewel :)

Close a tab or two!

It can be so tempting to have tens of tabs open but I'm here to warn you against it! Not only can you relieve stress by closing a tab or two, you can achieve more in shorter periods of time.

From my personal experiences, I would suggest having 5-7 tabs open at maximum. After 7, it's harder to stay focused. I know it's tempting to click on links and leave each tab open as your peruse through a website or catch up on the news but this practice is not effective.

Let's think about why you clicked on the link or opened the new tab in the first place. Perhaps something caught your eye that you wanted to learn more about or perhaps you remembered that you needed to look something up. In either case, it's more effective to stay on that tab, do what you need to do, gather your information, close the tab, and move on. There's a higher chance that you will get more things done effectively this way since your focus is more....focused!

So you're reading this and you're thinking, "Really Jewel, sometimes I don't think a maximum of 7 tabs is realisitic!". Well, I agree. Sometimes you want to have access to mulitple pieces of information located on different sites. In such cases I would suggest opening new windows and maintaining the 7 tab maximum in each window. You can even organize which tabs you place in which window to keep yourself on track. If the sites are something you want to access later but don't need immediately, bookmarking each page is always a great option!

Jewel's Random TidBits - There are extensions you can add to your internet browser to help you limit your number of open tabs. Currently xTab exists for Google Chrome and Max Tabs exists for Mozilla Firefox.

Image Source: popularpaleo.com

Working 8 hour shifts for an office job actually requires a lot more energy than it may seem. I mean, you're just sitting most of time so, in theory, you're conserving energy right?

Wrong.

As anyone who has worked a Monday through Friday, 40 hr/week job can tell you, it can get tiring very quickly. As an intern you may not have to work all 5 days but you may experience the same energy drain.

What can you do?

You can start munching on smart snacks throughout the day! I don't mean doughnuts, candy, or chips. I'm talking about dried fruits, pretzels, and nuts. These smart snacks will keep your metabolism up which helps you to remain focused and effective at work!

Create your own trail mix.

You don't need to go out and purchase a pre-packaged trail mix. Instead, just visit your favorite food store and buy the smart snacks you want individually, then you can go home and get creative! This way you can keep your personal trail mix experience exciting, changing up the ingredients each day or week!

Jewel's Random TidBits - My personal favorite mix includes pretzel sticks, craisins aka dried cranberries, and honey roasted cashews. Popcorn also works as a smart snack as long as it's not heavily buttered!

In my continuous pursuit to better myself and expand my technical knowledge base, I've decided to spend some time this summer to break into web programming! 

As an engineering student, I have been able to develop skills in several programming languages and I really do advocate choosing at least one and learning the basics. Even if you don't plan to program anything in the entire span of your career, programming helps you to sharpen your problem-solving skill set which is invaluable in any career!

Jewel's Random Tidbits - I'm starting with the lessons from www.codecademy.com. Check them out if you get a chance!