All things programmatic, ad tech & digital with Jennifer Snell, Head of Digital Marketing, Finder
A creative, customer-centric digital guru with experience in telco, not-for-profit and fintech, Jennifer Snell has worked through myriad changes in the digital sphere, and she looks forward to what lies ahead. We caught up to ask her a few questions in the lead up to her participation at the Programmatic Summits 2020, Melbourne & Sydney.
AM: Welcome Jennifer. Thanks for joining us. I wanted to start by learning a bit about your digital marketing journey and the stand-out moments that have kept you excited about the industry over the past ten years.
DR: Thank you. I’ve been in digital for over ten years, in really varied organisations, from telco to not-for-profit to fintech. What’s kept me excited about the industry has been the pace of change and innovation. Truly excellent digital work involves creativity, data and customer-centricity coming together,which I believe has attracted many curious and passionate people to the field.
Key moments often stick with me because they mirror broader changes in society, particularly with regards to the role technology plays in our lives. For example, when ‘mobile’ stopped being a separate line item on media plans, or when ‘digital products’ became a term, as a digital experience could be a brand’s product. This is what will keep me in the digital industry moving forward. As a society, change is rapid, constant and exciting; being in digital allows me to stay at the forefront of that.
Q: As Head of Digital Marketing, Australia, at award-winning fintech company, Finder, you & your team are responsible for all media buying (digital & ATL), creative production and CRM. In the face of impending ACCC compliance regulations, what adjustments will you and your team make to ensure you’re sending the right message to the right audience at the right time?
A: Over recent years, societal expectations on data ownership and privacy have evolved. GDPR and CCPA legislation, among other things, mean that transparency regarding data collection and data use is now a must.
At Finder, our mission is to help the world make better decisions. To succeed in that, earning the trust of our audience is paramount. We take privacy and data security very seriously.
The adjustments we’ve made broadly fall into three buckets:
1. Developing compelling reasons for members to share data with us
2. Further developing our ad and martech stacks to allow for better data connectivity
3. Internal training regarding the importance of meeting the public’s expectations and our legal requirements regarding privacy and security
Over the last few years we have been developing our Members’ offering, allowing us to have a deeper relationship with users and offer them more value. For example, we’ve recently soft-launched the Finder app (public launch is coming in mid-March). With the app, members can get a consolidated view of their bank and credit accounts, monitor their credit score and get tips based on their spending patterns on how they could save and earn more. At their core, initiatives like this are about delivering genuine value by meeting a customer need, and in the case of the app, literally delivering Finder Members with the right message, at the right time.
We’ve been working on several tech stack projects to improve data connectivity too, such as migrating our data warehouse, our CRM and adopting a CDP. We’re still on this journey, but these changes are a step towards ensuring that in the future we’re able to provide a compelling customer experience while meeting our legal obligations and business needs.
With the industry moving away from cookies, increasingly there will be times when declared data isn’t available. In those instances, contextual advertising, and audiences built on contextual signals, will be increasingly important. With over 2.5 million Australians using Finder each month, we’re a high-reach, high-intent platform; as such, I believe we’re in a solid position both in terms of our offering to the brands we work with and our offering to Australians.
Q: With new ad channels like podcasts, CTV and smart speakers breaking new ground in the industry, which of these have you explored through programmatic, and which do you think will be the next big thing in 2020?
A: Running CTV to complement a TV buy is a must-do in my view, given how audience viewing behaviours have evolved over recent years. We’re currently exploring a programmatic podcast trial. I’m very interested to see how the podcast trial goes. In my opinion, one of the strengths of podcast sponsorships is host reads, which can build trust via the association between your brand and the host. I’m interested to see how the results of programmatic podcast ads differ.
Rather than the next ‘big thing’ in programmatic being access to a new channel or ad format, I believe it’s the industry working together on evolving past targeting that’s reliant on cookies. When looking at the presentations coming up at the Programmatic Summit, this topic is hot on the agenda too.
Q: Considering the validity of managed programmatic services has been questioned in the past regarding distribution of budgets compared to ROI, if you were to give advice on a managed service versus self-service programmatic solutions, what tips would you serve up?
A: I think this comes down to a business’ objectives and scale. Self-service programmatic solutions could be right for businesses once they’ve got enough scale to be able to resource it properly, but for many companies with smaller investment levels, this might not make sense.
Q: As you mentioned, this year’s Programmatic Summits promise to be an exciting one with lots to cover. Can you give us a sneak peek into what you’ll be presenting?
A: Finder is one of Australia’s largest digital media buyers, with digital media bought and optimised by our in-house team. We run activity covering many of the most competitive verticals in the country, ranging from credit cards and home loans to travel insurance and money transfers.
Prior to Finder, I’d worked in marketing roles across telco and fintech. I’ll be presenting on my journey from working with agencies to leading an in-house digital media buying team. I’ll go into what I thought the challenges and opportunities would be, what they were in reality and what I learnt along the way.
Whether you buy media in-house, are thinking of it or work in an agency or supply-side role, I hope that some of this session will resonate and provide you with practical tips you can use in your organisation.
Q: Thanks Jennifer. It’s been a pleasure. We look forward to seeing you at the summit.
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More hot topics in programmatic will be discussed at the Programmatic Summit on Tuesday March 3rd in Melbourne and Thursday March 5th in Sydney.
Check out the agenda here and buy your tickets here.