The need for humans in sales isn’t going away, we just continually need to re-tool.
Adobe recently added Judith Hammerman as their Head of Audience Manager. Judith revealed her journey in digital media and how she leverages programmatic tools for sales at Adobe.
Tell us about your journey into media tech. What galvanized you to join Adobe?
I started my career in B2B Tech Media. I spent the first half of my career based in Silicon Valley, I did my MBA is from Haas School of Business at Berkeley. While I have held executive roles in media, my base has always been in tech. The ecosystem leadership role Adobe holds in media technology was what made the company so attractive to me.
How do you prepare for an AI-centric world as a media sales leader?
Great question!
I think you prepare the way you prepare for each new wave of technology. First, you learn, you read, you absorb. The exciting part of this industry is the constant change which forces continual learning. Next, you see where human interaction is needed for scale and you look for the people on your team who can continually change. The need for humans isn’t going away, we just continually need to re-tool.
What’s the most exciting part about leading Audience Manager in the programmatic ecosystem?
Data is the revenue fuel of the enterprise and of great customer experience. Audience Manager is the key product to ignite that fuel. Audience Manager allows a company to organize, connect, predict and use data in a privacy compliant way. Giving the customer a great personalized customer experience which is driven by data, is what makes this so exciting.
With LinkedIn and Twitter growing into formidable B2B communication models, do you see media sales teams surviving without email tools?
If you are asking if we can exist without email, yes, I can see a day where that could happen. But integrations will need to be much deeper. And security and privacy are to be considered as well. Nevertheless, the next wave of talent coming in to the market does not, by and large, use email. They use text, they use social platforms, they use voice. So yes, I can see email becoming less relevant not just for media sales teams but for the next generation of professionals as a whole.
Which industry leaders and women in tech do you follow and often interact with?
Anneka Gupta at LiveRamp, Susan Wojcicki at YouTube/Google and Kamakshi Sivaramakrishnan of Drawbridge. In media tech specifically, I am a big fan of Denise Colella, Senior Vice President, Advanced Advertising Products & Strategy and Nicole Pangis, CEO of NCC Media.
How do you see Adobe Audience Manager enhancing data commercialization and programmatic adoption in cross-channel sales mediums?
We’re at such nascent stages with the use of data today. I do believe data is a corporate asset, with the inherent opportunities and risks of any asset. Audience Manager and the Adobe Experience Cloud unlock that opportunity and help to mitigate risk for organizations today. As customer data weaves together, our ability to find and predict more about our consumer means more ways to reach them whether directly or in the programmatic landscape.
Which automation and intelligence tools do you use to stay on top of your media tech goals?
I couldn’t run my business without LinkedIn. It’s the fastest way to figure out people in this industry, who’s connected to whom, where people are coming from, etc…I also couldn’t run my business without eMarketer and Forrester (yes, Adobe is again in Forrester Wave.) It’s the fastest way to figure out trends and product in this industry.
Which events and webinars do you most occasionally attend and why?
For ad tech specific events, I am a fan of Programmatic I/O. I also see great events driven by specific SSPs and DSPs. As for advertising and marketer events, AdWeek and Cannes continue to be a place where you can get a tremendous amount of work done.
Thank you, Judith, for sharing your insights on Audience Manager and programmatic for digital sales!