Connie del Bono is the newest addition to our Croud US team, joining as an Associate Programmatic Director. We spent five minutes with Connie, asking her about her career path to date, what attracted her to Croud, and where she sees the programmatic industry going in the next 12 months.
How did you get into Programmatic?
I started working in advertising just under seven years ago. My first role was working in the sales team for a small shop, where we would work with agencies, helping them run their third-party business. At this point, Programmatic was not yet a fully fledged digital channel, however it was just around the corner.
My final role before moving into Programmatic was in Italy, where although the company’s activity was mainly programmatic, I was more involved with the account management and client-facing side. Fast forward, and I started working in Programmatic for a demand side platform primarily focused on video pre roll. This move enabled me to transfer to New York where most of their revenue and clients were based.
Why Croud?
My experience has primarily been in display and video and Croud’s full digital offering will allow me to further expand my spectrum of understanding of the different channels – which I am always keen to do. I have also never worked for an agency, rather third-party vendors, so am looking forward to working across a variety of clients and forming relationships with them all. I was very attracted to Croud due to how transparent you are, this was a key factor. I am also a massive fan of the Croudie network!
What are you most looking forward to?
Getting stuck in! It’s an exciting time for Croud in the US and I am looking forward to joining the fast-growing team. Croud is a performance agency, however programmatic isn’t necessarily just performance-based; it can be much more focused on branding and viewability. Therefore I am looking forward to working with clients, from both points of view and helping their brands grow with Croud’s bespoke and unique marketing strategies.
What are the biggest challenges that you think are facing programmatic?
It is easy to overcomplicate programmatic but I think it has come a long way in the past few years – I think transparency is vital, and people do need to be careful that they are being treated fairly. Anti-fraud in programmatic is very important to me, and I think it will become an even greater focus in the next year – we all need to be up to speed as there are so many fraud mechanisms and bot vehicles out there.
Another challenge is the discrepancy between different third party ad auditors, such as the viewability. One has to question which one is most accurate. How can one be correct and the other be incorrect? I think there needs to be, and will be, a greater focus on alignment.
A challenge I face from working in the industry, a one that disrupts me as a consumer, is that a number of premium sites go ‘over the top’, I was recently on a site that had a homepage takeover, then a 300×250 MPU halfway down the page, a pre roll video before the video content, a native unit embedded in the content and, search related advertisements at the bottom of the page. This site in question is considered premium, yet it’s slow and the content, which as a consumer I wanted to read, is practically impossible – resulting in me clicking away. I think that publishers need to be very careful about how much they push adverts onto their site without pushing away their user base.
Finally, what is your favourite city?
I have been incredibly lucky in the last few years and travelled lots for work. My favourite city, however, is still Milan, I’m obsessed with it! Geographically, if London was where Milan was, it would be the most incredible city. Croud has a number of Italian clients and I hope to have an excuse to visit there soon!
If you want to find out more about Connie, the programmatic team, or Croud, contact us.
