In your own words, can you tell me what you do?
I run Vistar’s US demand sales team. Most of my days consist of creating partnerships with brands and agencies, and crafting stories to show clients the value of programmatic OOH. Often I am deep-diving into a brand or agency’s business to understand what our clients truly care about as we build products and services that have evolved with the expertise and growth of the space.
How long have you been in this position and what led you to your career?
I’ve been with Vistar 6 years. I was the second seller at the company and later transitioned to leading the US Demand sales team which I’ve been heading up since 2016. I had previously worked at Goldman Sachs and then moved to Dataminr, a Twitter based start-up working with hedge funds and investment banks. I was ready for a change and was introduced to Michael (our CEO) by a friend. With some former Goldman alumni on the lean team of 12 at Vistar, I was given the opportunity to show off my sales chops in exchange for a full run down of the advertising industry and never looked back.
What is something you wish more brands and advertisers knew about out-of-home?
While OOH isn’t a one-to-one medium, and usually doesn’t allow for a click or engagement feature, OOH IS measurable and brings real impact to a brand’s business. I wish clients considered that measurability and impact on full-funnel KPIs more when exploring the channel.
What’s your top 3 favorite Podcasts/Books?
Podcast
Armchair Expert (Dax is the best!)
Books - Need a new one, so please send any recommendations my way!
The Circle - David Eggers; Becoming - Michelle Obama
What is a fun fact about yourself?
I grew up doing back competitive horseback riding - and yes, I have the embarrassing photos to prove it.
If you could time travel, where would you go?
I think I would need to spend some time in the 1970s. I usually have to tame my curly wild hair so I think I could fit in well with the crazy colors and the big hair vibes.
What is the most interesting campaign you’ve worked on?
One of my favorite brands campaigns I worked on is more relevant now than ever, as they are a large independent non-toxic cleaning product company (hopefully helping us keep clean and healthy in these wild times). They worked to target different audiences across a number of DMAs and many formats including billboards, transit, malls and more. They had some of the coolest creative I’ve seen - appearing static but with small movements like ice cream dripping or laundry detergent being poured to make consumers do a double take. To me this was using OOH as a canvas while also ensuring messages were actually making their way to the most relevant users with the power of data behind the campaign. When you combine the contextual relevance in your creative with data to reach audiences across a variety of venues, you can really see the impact of programmatic OOH.
Tell me about your experience working with Lamar?
Lamar is one of the best media owner partners we work with. From the top of the organization down, Lamar understands the value of programmatic OOH and its complementary nature to their direct business. They are incredible partners in how they work to co-pitch and brainstorm ideas with clients. They are transparent on all fronts, creative in their offerings and overall just really good people.