SalesTech Star Interview with Tom Glaszek, VP of Business Development at Waymark

Tell us about the journey into the Marketing and Advertising industry. What attracted you to join Waymark?

Well, I’m going to date myself here, but my very first job in the industry was in Web design and production for the newspapers here in Detroit back in 1995. Newspapers were just beginning to monetize content online, and my role was to hand-code splash pages – most local advertisers didn’t have websites at the time – and design GIF banner ads, among other things. So, I was actually developing Digital Advertising content and solutions for SMB’s as far back as the mid-1990s. My career then evolved into Sales and Business Development when I found a passion for going on “ride-alongs” with local ad Sales Executives. Helping SMB’s with innovative Digital Marketing solutions has been a continuing passion for over 20 years now.

Over my career at Comcast Spotlight, my primary focus was multi-channel video solutions for SMB’s, agencies and major brands. Through this experience I’ve witnessed, first-hand, the ongoing evolution of data-enabled Video Marketing. The explosion of digital video and OTT as well as innovation with addressable on-demand video and even linear television is changing the game. Combined with the beginnings of multi-touch attribution we have today, Video Advertising is truly the most powerful medium to reach and influence local audiences.

What attracted me to Waymark is the enablement, uncompromising creative and immediacy it provides any marketer in this video space. With all the ongoing innovation in Video Marketing, a means to overcome the traditional barriers of cost and time with video production was still missing until Waymark arrived on the scene. It’s an exciting moment in time to be here at Waymark.

What is Waymark and how do you differentiate from other Video Advertising companies?

Waymark is an art and technology company at its core. We provide an instant self-service Video Production solution for any video marketer. What differentiates Waymark, in my opinion, is an uncompromising approach to quality creative first and foremost, and instant gratification for TV commercials as well as any digital platform. And, we don’t really sell media, so we have an unbiased approach to working with our clients in a manner that best meets their creative objectives to tell their story effectively in any media campaign or platform they choose.

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How does Waymark fit into an advertiser’s tech stack?

We’ve had an elegantly simple subscription-based e-commerce solution for some time now, direct to thousands of SMB’s. So, first and foremost, any brand, agency or local ad sales organization can simply take advantage of our platform side-car to their own tech stack. It’s even an impactful platform to use in engaging clients for local sales organizations. We can also integrate into most all internal workflows or customer self-serve type portals.

How is Waymark driving transformation in Video Advertising?

I believe we’re giving power to the people. Small advertisers can now create agency-quality commercials and promotional videos, without the expensive cost of entry created by traditional video production. We also enable agencies and local ad sales organizations to better serve their clients. In today’s performance-based advertising world every dollar counts. Waymark helps achieve a much better return on investment to an overall Video Marketing plan.

Who is the target user for your product?

Any small business owner or small marketing agency looking to self-provision a video campaign. Local ad sales organizations who turnkey media campaigns for small, regional advertisers are also a relevant target for us. And we work with major brands with franchise rooftops on custom integrations and solutions to help them optimize their speed-to-market and ability to generate locally focused video creative.

What are the biggest trends you’re seeing in Video Advertising today?

The rapid growth of many virtual MVPD’s and ad-supported VOD services is amazing to see. And I’m also a big fan of the self-service portals that the cable companies are developing. It’s vitally important for TV to copy the ease of execution that’s been working for their digital competition (Facebook and Google) and remove the complexity of planning and buying for SMB’s.

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What are the pitfalls/challenges of Video Advertising today?

True cross-screen (tv and digital) reach and frequency for planning, buying and measurement is an exciting challenge that’s soon to be solved for most all video advertising today. And I believe TV is being under-valued a bit as most marketers are still not seeing the true full-funnel impact as easily as they can with digital.

What advice do you have for CMOs/Sales leaders operating in Digital Advertising?

As I described earlier, all the ongoing innovation has made the data-driven video (TV and OTT) truly the most powerful medium to reach and influence local audiences. And, I think we all agree that great creative still makes or breaks local ad sales and the performance of a good video campaign. We now have a solution to the traditional production time and costs that have put the video out of reach for many local marketers.

Tag a person whose answers to these questions you would like to read from the industry.

Jim Wilson, Founder/President of Premion at TEGNA.

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Thank You, Tom, for answering all our questions. We hope to see you again, soon.