Graeme Finneberg is the UK Country Manager at mediarithmics, a full-stack Data Marketing Platform.
Econsultancy caught up with him to find out about a day in his life, the skills and tools he needs to be effective in his role, and his favourite data-powered campaign.
Please describe your job: What do you do?
I’m responsible for the planning, execution and delivery of strategy across the UK. This includes growing the mediarithmics client base and revenues amongst large publishers, ecommerce brands and media alliances by providing them with the best tools and technology they need to take control of their data.
Whereabouts do you sit within the organisation? Who do you report to?
I head up the UK business and I report to Grégoire Fremiot, mediarithmics’ Chief Revenue Officer, who is based in France.
What kind of skills do you need to be effective in your role?
You definitely need to be a people person – I’m talking to potential clients all day about mediarithmics, so that’s important. The ability to explain a potentially complicated business in layman’s terms is also essential.
Part of my job is to help companies to understand how easy it can be to take control of their data. They worry about how long the transition will take and assume they’ll have to start from scratch, but I have to persuade them that it’s relatively quick and pain-free, even if a company has hundreds of data sources.
Tell us about a typical working day…
I start my day with a coffee and write/review my plan for the day. If I’m in the office then my day consists of client calls and meeting preparation along with internal meetings with our tech/product teams. When out of the office I’m generally either meeting clients directly or attending industry events.
What do you love about your job? What sucks?
I love working for a cutting edge tech company; it excites me that we are enabling businesses to create and generate new revenue opportunities with their data that simply didn’t exist a few years ago. What’s more challenging is communicating a relatively complex business in a simple way.
What kind of goals do you have? What are the most useful metrics and KPIs for measuring success?
My objectives are to educate ecommerce companies and publishers about how mediarithmics can improve their business. For ecommerce providers, we can help resolve issues like customer acquisition and abandoned baskets.
For publishers, the big issue is how they are losing revenue to the likes of Google and Facebook because they can’t compete with their advertising offerings. We can help them to pool their data in cross-publisher alliances, which create the scale and data richness that they need to compete. Success is all about the number of new publishers, brands and ecommerce partners I can bring to the platform.
One of our biggest success stories has been powering the Gravity Alliance, the largest Data Alliance in Europe consisting of 25 leading publishers, telecoms, search and ecommerce companies who are pooling their data. mediarithmics empowers each member to combine their strengths to boost media reach whilst maintaining full ownership of its data assets and measuring its data contribution.
What are your favourite tools to help you to get the job done?
First and foremost my MacBook Pro (although not so keen on the new keyboard!). I’m a regular user of LinkedIn; I find it a good source of information and contacts from my industry peers.
Jumpstart Series: Econsultancy’s LinkedIn Marketing 101
How did you end up at mediarithmics?
After working in publishing and spending increasing amounts of time selecting tech partners for the business, I found myself getting more excited about the technology than I was about the content.
When the opportunity with mediarithmics came along to set up their UK office it was serendipitous. They were looking for someone with strong grounding and connections in UK publishing, while I was blown away by their clever technology and the seriously smart people in the business. I hope it’s fair to say that neither of us has been disappointed!
What data-powered campaigns have you admired?
There are probably too many to name, but I really liked the Nike pop-up running track in Manila that was built in the shape of a shoe. It had full LED screens that paired with a tracker in your shoe and created an avatar of yourself that followed you as you ran, the shadow increasing or decreasing dependent on your pace. Brilliant!
Do you have any advice for marketers wrestling with data management?
Marketers need to get smarter about leveraging their data assets. Post-GDPR, they must rely less on third-party data in favour of first- and second-party partnerships. They also need to focus on the quality of the data combined with how it’s being used within the contextual environment.
The value and future of second-party data in the age of GDPR
I would urge everyone to have a closer look at what data they currently possess and ask themselves whether they’re truly maximising their opportunity to monetise it, whether that be through improved website performance, customer marketing or direct revenue generation.