1. Tell us about your role in Lytics?
I’m the CEO and co-founder of Lytics.
Today we’re helping over half of the top 100 brand advertisers in the world such as Unilever, BBVA and Mercedes-Benz.
2. Can you tell us about your journey into this market?
I met my co-founder, Aaron Raddon, at Webtrends, a Portland, Oregon based analytics
and optimization company. He was running research and development and I was running
Business Development. We were interviewing customers, over 50, and learned that they were
all having similar problems around wanting to use the data they were collecting to run
campaigns based on an individual’s data. Traditional analytics tools aggregate data for
reporting and the companies we talked to wanted the data aggregated at an individual user
level so they could target people based on interest, activities, and where they were in the
lifecycle. That was the beginning of Customer Data Platforms (CDP). We wanted to build a
profile with online and offline data so marketers could use that aggregated view to deliver
personalized experiences. The companies we interviewed described this as wanting
“actionable insights”. We recognized a huge opportunity in the market to deliver a new kind of
data platform that marketers could use to derive insights about people and then execute
individualized or personalized marketing campaigns at scale.
3. How do you think technology is upgrading marketing Sector?
Data is becoming more available through new tools which means marketers have access
to richer insights and more complete data sets. Google Cloud is making data storage and
access really inexpensive for enterprise companies which has democratized access to data.
The challenge now is how do companies take that data and use it to improve experiences
and drive customer lifetime value.
The legacy approach for marketing technology is to solve a
specific problem in a specific channel with a specific tool.
Today there is a proliferation of
over 7,000 marketing tools to execute one-off campaigns in a single channel. This has made
the aggregated unified profile really challenging. A CDP is part of a new innovative stack that
starts with the aggregated unified profile and then enables execution based on that individual
consumer, their changing interests, and their changing needs. We still see companies
struggling to retrofit legacy tools with innovative approaches and the chasm between those
legacy tools and new innovative approaches is where a lot of companies find themselves
struggling.
4. How has data-driven approach enhanced the methods of marketing?
If marketers are able to understand what targeted campaigns will perform for specific
audiences based on the outcomes they are looking for, the ability to improve marketing ROI
and drive customer lifetime value will finally be possible. Predictive modeling enables
marketers to understand what optimal experiences look like and then deliver that to the
individual. Marketers are finally moving out of the static reporting that provides a rear-view
understanding of what happened to embracing new data-driven techniques that empower
them to use foresight or predictive capabilities to take action and improve experiences.
5. Can you explain how automation has contributed in the faster growth of marketing sector?
Traditional marketing automation enables companies to set up rules that automatically
trigger responses to improve a company’s ability to deliver specific content or campaigns
based on those rules. The next generation of marketing automation enables companies to
automate the delivery of personalized experiences based on changes in people’s behaviors,
interests, likelihood to purchase and more, so ultimately the next generation of marketing
automation incorporates automated triggers and personalization creating the optimal
experience for each individual consumer.
6. How do you define your Intelligence platform?
Lytics enables marketers to derive insights about their customers and prospects that can
be used to change experiences in real-time to optimize campaigns at scale.
7. What features of your Customer Data Platform helped you in being named as #1 CDP in
2019 Adweek Readers’ Choice Awards?
Lytics pioneered the CDP category and we have the most complete CDP platform which
includes the core CDP, the intelligence and insights that marketers need, and the ability to
automate and execute personalized marketing programs across channels at scale based on
those insights. Lytics has focused on the value data can provide which is the activation of
campaigns and experiences based on insights.
8. What advice would you like to give to the technology Start Ups?
The most important thing is to deeply understand the problem, the users, and their needs
before creating software or technology.
Start with the problem and then build the solution.
9. What is the Digital innovation in sales technology according to you that will mark 2019?
For the first time, marketers have access to a complete user profile and the ability to
understand and execute marketing programs that truly deliver what the consumer expects
and wants while also meeting corporate goals and objectives at the same time.
10. How do you prepare for an AI-Centric world?
AI is going to enable us to do more things at once and at scale which is a good thing but
it’s important to understand the outcomes that we’re striving for and make sure they are
aligned with our goals and values. If AI takes over the automation, then the workforce/people
will focus on the creative aspects of the experience which should enable more interesting
experimentation and creatively around what types of experiences consumers will receive.
11. What are the major developments you are planning, in recent time?
We will continue to focus on providing marketers the best and most actionable insights
possible to enable them to leverage the data they have to deliver the outcomes that the
business requires.
12. What movie inspires you the most?
Dr. Stangelove – it’s hilarious and a satire on politics.
13. We have heard that you have a very joyful work culture, so can you share with us some
of the fun pictures of your workplace?
1. We have a monthly themed happy hour sponsored by a different department each
month. Here you can see some of our employees embraced Halloween.
2. A lunch bunch photo of several of our ‘foodies’
3. A group of employees at the Daytona International Speedway
4. A custom made bobblehead as an award for one of our many outstanding employees
14. Can you give us a glance of the applications you use on your phone?
Evernote, Spotify, Lyft, Bleacherreport, Alaska Airlines, LinkedIn, Youtube TV, Slack, Google,
Arsenal soccer club app
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