Lightly edited for readability. Speaker 1: Welcome to The Business Marketing. My name's John Horsley, I'm the host of the show today. Um, I have the absolute pleasure of being joined by Travis Clinger, who's Chief Connectivity Ecosystem Officer and General Manager for International Business at LiveRamp. Welcome to the show.
Speaker 2: Thank you for having me. Good to be here.
Speaker 1: One of the reasons that I invited Travis onto the show was that, uh, he sits in a very rare position, so has a, a viewpoint over international business, which believes roundabout 29 markets now. And, you know, he's also responsible for building links between brands, publishers, platforms, data partners, cloud systems, you know, yada, yada. Um, and today, I feel that we're gonna have a conversation ar- around, uh, identity, which is obviously strong for LiveRamp, measurement, clean rooms, uh, and also new AI tools and, and where they're going and how they're transforming the world of marketing.
Speaker 2: No, excited for it. It's gonna be a fun conversation, I hope.
Speaker 1: Um, normally ask this question as a, as a starter for ten, but, uh, what was it in the first place that attracted you to this world, you know, the world of media, marketing, advertising, tech? What was that entry point?
Speaker 2: Yeah, so if we go back, I've been at LiveRamp now just over a decade. So I, I joined LiveRamp in 2016 and, you know, before that, I worked in the healthcare industry. And, you know, in the healthcare industry, our goal was to help hospitals and healthcare systems take all of the different data points they have. So, you know, okay, imagine all of the lab tests a patient has, all of the, the vital signs, all of the different billing information, the surgical notes, and we wanted to help, uh, connect all of that data so that a hospital could better manage patient outcomes. And so we were, uh, you know, with hospitals, helping them kind of build out those systems, manage those. Uh, and I think what's interesting there is we were really connecting data to outcomes. And so for me, when I started looking at what's next, I was based in Madison, Wisconsin. I joked I survived four winters. I'm a Floridian, so the cold was not good. Still don't know how to drive on the ice. Uh, so, uh, it was time for me to find a warmer place. And so looking towards San Francisco, I think what was super exciting about LiveRamp was they were all about the same thing. How do you connect data to outcomes? Now, it's true, LiveRamp, less focused in the healthcare space, but LiveRamp is all about how do you take many disparate types of data for an enterprise and connect it to all of the different consumer touchpoints and drive an outcome? And so being based in California made it even better. Made the move 10 years ago. Uh, you know, LiveRamp, much smaller company back then, about 140 people. Still had an, uh, you know, had an incredible culture, how to get stuff done, how to move fast. Still has that culture today. Uh, and so it's been an incredible, uh, 10-year journey. Um, but I think, you know, ultimately what attracted me was less the, the marketing piece. I mean, marketing's amazing. I've learned a lot about it. I had no idea what marketing was when I joined LiveRamp, but I knew about data, and I think what was exciting is like, how do we take all of the, uh, outcomes of data and the ability to collaborate with it and apply it to the marketing world?
Speaker 1: Yeah. So I imagine that earlier job was about the convergence of, well, voice data, you know, et cetera. Was... Would that be right?
Speaker 2: It was really about all of the different inputs from the system. So you can imagine, like, the lab would have all of your lab results, and so in the past you would actually have paper charts. Uh, but we... One example, for example, that we did there was we actually took the different data team and they said, "Hey, okay, if you have these vitals plus these lab results, we can understand when this medical crisis might happen."
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 2: So you're in the hospital, and we know that, like, we know that, like, on an outcome basis, if you can get intervention in X hours, your outcome's a lot better. Uh, and so by understanding, like, whoa, patient's showing these vitals, these are the lab results, the team was actually able to build a protocol with that hospital, implement it. Uh, I believe that protocol, when I left Epic, it was saving about the equivalent of a 747 crashing every week of patient lives, and so that was pretty incredible. Uh, and so our mission at Epic was to enable our hospitals to be able to take all that data they already had, right? It was sitting there on the chart, but was putting it in an integrated system where they were able to better use it. Uh, and I think LiveRamp is, in fact, doing much the similar thing.
Speaker 1: Mm.
Speaker 2: It's enabling a marketer to take all the data they've always had, the CRM data, the email data, the transaction data, but to bring it all together and then actually use it to improve the marketing outcome.
Speaker 1: Yeah. No, that's great. I can see the parallels there, for sure. Um, and, and in terms of where you're at within the business as well, I mean, you've got a, a fascinating viewpoint, frankly. So, um, you know, to an extent, you- you're dealing with brands, publishers, platforms, tech partners, et cetera, that whole ecosystem. Uh, you also run international business as well. Um, what does that viewpoint, uh, give you versus perhaps, you know, a, a product leader or, um, you know, a, a sales lead, for instance? Uh, you know, there's... I think there's something a bit more holistic there.
Speaker 2: It, it's the breadth of the conversations I think I'm able to have. So for me, what, what's really the best part of being at LiveRamp is that we sit at the center of the ecosystem, and so I'm able to talk to all of the different destinations. We work with over 300 partners to activate, optimize, and measure our brands' data. And so folks like TikTok and Meta and Netflix and OpenAI, is we're able to have these conversations and kind of see where the ecosystem is going, see what's on the horizon in consumer innovation and a horizon of marketing innovation. And I think the international lens just adds a depth, um, that is so valuable, um, because it's completely different to talk to a retailer in Australia versus a retailer in the United States versus a retailer in the UK. There's cultural nuances. Um, there's privacy nuances, you know? It's a lot different on how you get consent here in the UK under GDPR versus in the US, uh, versus in, for example, Japan. Uh, there's the business nuances of the size of the markets. Um, and there's also the speed of innovation. You learn that some markets want to go really fast, and then some markets wanna wait and see how other markets innovate and go from there. So, uh, I think at LiveRamp we're really at the center. We're that neutral connectivity layer for the ecosystem, uh, and it's created a really fun opportunity.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I mean, I love the idea of sort of c- culture nuance and, and difference between markets. Data privacy, yeah, 100%. I mean, it's GDPR is very different than, um, California law, as it were.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Absolutely.
Speaker 1: Uh, and interestingly, you also referenced Japan. Um, you also touched on innovation as well, which is kind of interesting. So, uh, in terms of those markets, is, is there much difference in terms of how clients are, are innovating and, and what they're, they're building and how they're connecting with you?
Speaker 2: There is and there isn't. It's one of those things, every market is different. Um, so I took the international role about 18, 19 months ago. And one of the first things you go when you meet all of the markets, uh, and you spend time on it, and I'd- I'd spent a lot of time internationally, um, you know, leading the ecosystem, that's a global role. Um, but one of the things you hear from every market is how different that market is from all the other markets. And what I learned is, yes, but. Uh, and the answer was yes. Every single market is different. There are some who move really fast. I look at Australia. It's a small, nimble market. They love to run with new technology. They have a lot of, uh, global tech in their market, so it's easy for them to innovate. I look at the UK. They're right up there with Australia. There are other markets who are more conservative, who are gonna say, "Hey, you know, just culturally, we want to go a little bit slow. We wanna make sure that things are successful." Uh, but then I look at, okay, so that's the differences, but they're all trying to solve the same thing. When you talk to a marketer in Australia or the UK or Japan or Germany or Brazil, they're all talking about, how do we influence the consumer journey? They all have current consumers and prospective consumers, and how do they connect with them? How do they do so in a way that feels genuine, that feels trusted? How do they then optimize those connections? And then ultimately, how do they measure? Every single marketer I've met with has said, "Hey, at the end of the day, we're throwing money into the marketing ecosystem. We need to know what is performing, what is not, and what's delivering the best outcomes."
Speaker 1: Mm. And when, when people talk about, you know, the idea of fragmentation or, or signal loss, what's the real business problem there that, uh, you know, that marketers are trying to solve?
Speaker 2: So to me, it's ultimately how do you guide the consumer journey, and how do you influence the consumer journey? And so fragmentation and signal loss just refers to the fact that consumers have tons of different touchpoints from a marketer. So if you think about it, if you are a retailer here in the UK, your consumer is interacting with you perhaps on YouTube, seeing a YouTube ad. They are interacting with your CPG brands, maybe on an out of home ad. They are seeing you in digital display ads. They're seeing you on TikTok. They're now asking OpenAI, asking ChatGPT, "Hey, I'm making dinner tomorrow night. What's a great recipe?" Well, that's an experience that's gonna tie to you because whatever ChatGPT says to make, I may have to go to the store and then buy it.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: And so as a retailer or as a brand, it's like, how do we take all these touchpoints and tie them together? And of course, each of these touchpoints is operating in their own world of identity. And this is where LiveRamp comes in as a Rosetta Stone. We can connect the TikTok ID to the Ramp ID, which is then connected to the OpenAI ID, which is connected to the YouTube ID, and enable a marketer to take their audience and their conversion data and connect it across that. Uh, all with the purpose of personalizing those messages, bringing it together so they can understand the holistic measurement. The truth is, it's very rare that a consumer sees a single ad and is like, "That's the ad. I buy right now." It's a sequence of events and a series of events, and you have to be able to connect those touchpoints together. And that's why having unified identity is so critical, but also doing it across all of those different channels.
Speaker 1: Yeah. So where are brands perhaps, yeah, and also publishers still, still getting that wrong?
Speaker 2: Where are brands get- Well, I think there's been a lot of improvement. So I think the death of the cookie that never happened, uh, really has spurred a lot of innovation.
Speaker 1: Sure.
Speaker 2: So if we go back to 2018, the industry was incredibly fragmented. You had cookies that were happening in display world. You had the rise of mobile. I, I remember we had, like, the year of mobile. I, I think it was like there were four or five years of mobile. So the year of mobile lasted more than a year. Uh, still very much lasting. Uh, and then you had CTV, and CTV was completely unmeasurable, and you had linear TV. And then the idea of these OpenAIs, it was still like this was very much on the horizon. Uh, and so today though, you look at it, and it's like, okay, we've seen all of these platforms embrace connectivity. So you have OpenAI connected into the LiveRamp ecosystem where marketers can send their conversion data in there. You have Netflix. Well, that's CTV. Uh, Netflix, Disney Plus, Amazon Prime, all of these CTV providers have become addressable. They have been connected. So you can take an audience and activate it on the Financial Times using the same identity that you're activating on Netflix, that you're activating on TikTok, that you're activating on OpenAI. And so I think the death of the cookie that ultimately never came, cookies are still here, the death of the cookie spurred the industry to interoperable identity. Uh, you know, we came out with Ramp ID, our Authenticated Traffic Solution. You had The Trade Desk with UID2. Those two IDs are interoperable. You had other IDs out there. Uh, and it really spurred this innovation, and now I think this innovation is being carried on. There's marketers like, "Who cares about the cookie? I don't do only display advertising. I connect on CTV and social, and now I connect on this new wave of AI interfaces."
Speaker 1: Mm. Yeah. I mean, the, the customer journey's fu- fundamentally changing, isn't it-
Speaker 2: Exactly
Speaker 1: ... at this point in time. Um, how ahead do you think the brands are? Or how ready are they for, for this disruption, this change?
Speaker 2: You know, I, I think it, of course, varies by brand, uh, and I think it varies by industry. I think we're seeing some incredibly innovative marketers. So, you know, OpenAI started advertising only a few months ago.
Speaker 1: Mm.
Speaker 2: And yet thousands of brands have now start- taken advantage and started to advertise for them. Have all of those brands gotten it perfectly right? I'm going to guess probably not. But you know what's really cool about that? Is they've all jumped in and they have all innovated. We launched our partnership with Netflix, um, in the spring of last year, and so Netflix, of course, premiers CTV inventory and it was a global partnership. We have never seen as many brands sign up as fast for a destination as we saw with Netflix. It quickly become one of our fastest-growing destinations for brands to send data to, and I think OpenAI is gonna have that same effect. So to answer your question, I think are all the brands ready for it? I think undoubtedly the answer's probably no, they're not all ready. But every single brand understands now that the pace of change and the pace of innovation has forever changed. And it is, so fast, and they're all leaning in and testing and trying. And so I think for that, that makes it a pretty exciting moment to be in this industry.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I mean, I think there's two sides to it. One is obviously the, the customer journey changing, but two is also the power of innovation as well that the AI's putting in the hands of the business. Um-
Speaker 2: 100%, yeah.
Speaker 1: Are you, are you seeing, um, partners, hey, that could be, you know, that could be tech partners, that could be the brands. Um, are you seeing pace of innovation change? Um, and what kinds of tools and technologies? I mean, my assumption is, is that they'd be building orchestration-type technologies. Um, but yeah, what's proliferating at the moment?
Speaker 2: No, I think you're 100% right, and there's been this wave of innovation and, and again, like you can see the smile on my face, there's so much excitement about it. Uh, all of these startups are coming up in the AI space, uh, and they're coming up in the ad tech space, and they're saying all of these workflows that we're doing, they can be made agentic. We can make them more efficient.
Speaker 1: Mm.
Speaker 2: We are gonna put humans at control, but we can uplevel humans to higher-level tasks. And so we launched at Cannes this year LiveRamp Agent Builders, or LAB, and LAB is a partnersh- uh, program that is entirely designed to bring folks to the ecosystem who have built a really cool agent. And so I'll call out Newton research. So, uh, Newton is actually some, uh, ex-LiveRampers who went and they said, "You know what? Everyone wants to do measurement, right? And you want to do measurement in a clean room. It's a safe, it's an effective way to do it." But many people don't necessarily know how to build those queries, and so you have to have data science spend hours and hours. What happens if we build a really hyper-specialized agent that could run on a clean room, help the brands do their measurement easier, and make it easier on the data science, and enable the data scientists to go up to a higher-level task? That's exactly what they did, and they're one of our first partners of the LAB program, and it's all about making the workflows more efficient and more useful. And so for us, as we look at, and we have four founding members of the LAB program, we're doing a demo day at Adweek in New York in about four weeks here. Uh, and everything we're doing in LAB is about how do we take the marketing workflows of today and get them ready for tomorrow, where it's mostly an agent-led world, and we enable all of the humans in marketings to uplevel their thinking and uplevel the time they're spending to higher order tasks.
Speaker 1: Mm. Yeah, I mean, that's, that's, that's fantastic. I, I frankly myself, I wanna learn more about that.
Speaker 2: It's... No, it's super exciting. I mean, you see also across the workforce, like we've released Claude CoWork to every team member at LiveRamp. And so it's now how do you read emails with Claude? How do you draft emails with Claude? How do you get your daily calendar briefing built by Claude? How do you do better pre-reads, better prep notes? And so everyone is learning how AI can make them more effective, and I think the ad tech world has always been at the forefront of innovation, uh, and I'm really excited to see it continue to do that.
Speaker 1: Yeah. That's really interesting. Um, I've been speaking a little bit via LinkedIn with Dan, who's the CEO at, uh, at Brainlabs.
Speaker 2: Yep.
Speaker 1: And, uh, he's very much empowering his, his team, his staff, colleagues, et cetera, um, to innovate, to build their own agents, to, to build tech, um, and to collaborate with one another so people aren't trying all to build the same agent or the same workflow-
Speaker 2: Yes
Speaker 1: ... and so on. Are you guys doing something similar internally?
Speaker 2: We are, yeah. So we have rolled out our whole AI certification program, so every one of our team members is able to get AI certified. We have a host of AI tools also. You can use, you know, Claude CoWork is probably one of our most popular ones. Uh, we work with Glean, which is great for kind of combing all the internal resources. You know, it's... I, I remember like five years ago, it's like, oh, you know there's that deck, and you've seen it once, and you're like, "It's the perfect deck for this presentation." How do you find it? And you would spend an hour searching through the different drives looking for it. Well, now an agent can go and find that for you. And so when people build an agent, what's really cool is you can actually then share that agent with others. Uh, and so then people can come in and they can tweak the agent, make their own version, share that. Um, but it enables kind of that collaboration. Uh, and I think we're really encouraging our team members to experiment and test with AI. Uh, and so, you know, I, I think, uh, a shout-out to our business technology team, uh, and our finance team who have really enabled this, um, because it's created a lot of efficiencies across the org. Like, if you were to walk around this office, every single person in this office is probably using CoWork today for some element of their work.
Speaker 1: That's also making me think in terms of your technology, like, you know, how it works, the clients, the earlier part of our conversation where we're talking about, I'm gonna say the convergence of data, but having data in one place, um, which is obviously e- essential. Have you been looking at things in a similar way internally? So you talked about, uh, well, the data might reside on someone's drive. Um, naturally there's gonna be sort of clusters or, or pockets or, you know, silos, of course, in every business. Um, so have you been treating your business in a similar way in terms of, um, the use of AI, um, and to being able to access the knowledge and information and start unlocking it a bit more?
Speaker 2: So I think this is core to kind of the product capabilities that we are really investing in. So, you know, when you look at LiveRamp, um, it's this all about connecting data to enable it to make useful collaboration. And so if we think about an enterprise, they are going to have data potentially in one cloud, potentially in many clouds, and then they're gonna wanna collaborate with brands who have data in their own clouds. And so we have built a product from the get-go that is cloud agnostic. It can work across the clouds. And as I think about all of the innovation happening with AI, to your point, it's just like in an enterprise where you have disparate data, you want to be able to tie it all together, but in a permission and safe way, enable the AI to use it. That's where LiveRamp comes in. We sit as the AI infrastructure on top of all of the disparate data to enable brands to bring their data together, to collaborate, and then connect that into either agentic use cases or AI consumer experiences like OpenAI.
Speaker 1: Yeah. And I would assume that you'd be agnostic of AI and agents as well, so, um, on the client side, they could, in essence, plug and play, put in their own AI.
Speaker 2: No, you're exactly right. And so everything that we're building in our product is designed to make it where clients can bring their own agents, and then we also recognize that many clients want to bring their own agents, but they're not quite yet ready for that. And so that's where we developed the LiveRamp Agent Builder, the LAB ecosystem, which is solely around enabling a marketplace of clients... or sorry, marketplace of agents for our clients to be able to tap into. Uh, and so for that, we are completely neutral and agnostic. Anyone can be part of LAB. All you have to do is show that you can make it work for better for our clients, and then you build to it, and it's all MCP native. And that's actually, uh, being led by our product team right out of our London office here. So yeah.
Speaker 1: That's brilliant. That's, that's super cool. Um, is there any sort of live example that you could quote, perhaps a client or brand or publisher that's, that's done something particularly neat?
Speaker 2: Yes. So, uh, I think Newen I mentioned earlier, they are doing kind of the, um, agentic measurement. Uh, and so, uh, I can't quote a client yet, but I can tell you at Adweek New York in five, I believe it's five weeks, uh, we will be unveiling, uh, a number of case studies there. Uh, and so expect to see more in five weeks. But yes, we have clients who are actively working with agents in our platforms today.
Speaker 1: Cool.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you have to come to our demo day on, uh-
Speaker 1: I'd love to
Speaker 2: ... the Wednesday, I believe. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah. So perhaps we'll get a live update, which is really exciting.
Speaker 2: That'd be great.
Speaker 1: Um, in terms of the, the teams that you work with, what, what's the makeup of the team? How, how's that, you know, how's that look? You know, how's, how's it structured?
Speaker 2: Uh, here internationally? Or-
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah. 'Cause you're working across so many markets. I'm just wondering how, um, from a leadership perspective that you're able to, to lead those teams and, and what those teams look like.
Speaker 2: You know, it's a great question. So I think anytime you look internationally, there's two models that you can go after. You can do a country model where you, you appoint someone to country lead and they own everything in that country: operations, sales, customer success, go to market. Or you can do a verticalized approach where you say there's a head of international operations, there's a head of international marketing, you know, different sales leads. So we went with a vertical approach. We had previously done a country approach, we moved to a vertical approach. And so we have a head of international operations. We've got heads of, uh, our solutions teams who are SAs who are out there working with our sales teams. We've got our different sales leaders, and then those are verticalized as well, uh, and then regionalized. Uh, and so we've got a, an amazing international leadership team that's scattered globally, but comes together once a quarter. One of the things that was really important for me is that we work as one team. And so I think always a risk when you have a number of markets internationally is that you get that one market over here that does its own thing, and then there's a market over here that does something differently. And at first it's like, "Oh, okay, we tolerate that. It kind of makes sense." And then suddenly two years later you're like, "Whoa, they are running different businesses." And we didn't wanna have that. We wanna sell one global product with regional nuances. And so once a quarter, the entire international leadership team comes together, usually here in London, for about three days, and goes through what's working in each market, what's not, and how do we give consolidated feedback to products. So we work- the product team is run, um, you know, globally, uh, based in, in the US under Matt, our chief product officer. Uh, and you know, our goal is to con- deliver consistent feedback to them so that they can deliver amazing products to us. And so I think it takes a lot of work to keep the international team all collaborative and pull them all together, but it's made an incredible, uh, impact on our business and our ability to deliver a consistent experience for clients. 'Cause many of our clients come to us and they don't say, "Hey, I want to work at with you in the UK." They're like, "Hey, I want to work with you in the EU five, Australia, Japan, Brazil, and the US." And we need to be there able to deliver them a seamless and consistent experience.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I mean, that's exactly what I was thinking in terms of the approach, that it means that you're better able to serve, I know, let's just take a particular account, um, and be able to help them grow into other, into other markets-
Speaker 2: Exactly
Speaker 1: ... um, and mature, I guess, uh, within some of those markets as well.
Speaker 2: No, exactly right. Yes.
Speaker 1: Do you, do you notice that the, you know, in terms of sort of ch- trends or sort of maturity, um, is there much difference in terms of markets that you serve?
Speaker 2: Uh, I think in terms of market maturity, certainly varies by size and kind of what the global tech adoption looks like. So markets like the UK and Australia I think are at the forefront, and continental Europe a little, uh, behind that. Um, you have markets like MENA, they're looking at leapfrogging. So I think these markets are so clever, um, 'cause they've come in and they've said, "Well, maybe we, we missed some of the cookie-based advertising world, but we're just gonna leapfrog into this new world." Um, and then you have markets who are always gonna be slower moving, who are gonna be a little more conservative, uh, who maybe wanna take their time, make sure things work. And so, um, for us, it's all about offering the same product to all those markets, and then being ready as soon as a brand is trying to innovate. And I think also- You know, when you talk about markets, there are local brands, but most of the brands we work with are multinational brands. They might be a European brand or a UK brand, but they're working across markets, and so for them it's, uh, really important to have the same capabilities across all the different markets.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Um, earlier on you talked about Dubai, uh, and your event. You know, you've obviously got a key event happening there. Um, most of the big tech companies are obviously trying to move into that market at, at, at this point in time. Um, it's obviously one of the fastest-growing globally. Um, what differences do you notice when, when doing business there?
Speaker 2: So I think, um, as, as you mentioned, we have our Ramp Up Middle East event, uh, next week in Dubai. We are incredibly excited about it. It's, it's funny, it started as a event where we were like, "Well, we'll see if we can hit the registration. It's our first-ever Ramp Up in the Middle East." Uh, we exceeded the registration. Just last week had to double the size of the venue to be able to fit even more people in. Super exciting. We're now p- capped at that. We were like, "Well, there's no more, there's no more space in the walls." We're like, "We are, we are capped at max size." Um, and I think when I see the Middle East, you have a region that is one of the fastest-growing, to your point. It's a region with tons of media spend, with a large consumer population. Like, we don't just look at UAE. We are present across all of kind of the Gulf Coast regions. So we are helping clients in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the UAE and the other markets. Um, and for me, it's a super innovative region, and it's a region that's willing to move fast, and I think those two things are really cool. Uh, I think it's gonna be one of the fastest-growing regions in ad tech and, and it's an area that we're really focused on scaling over the next few years.
Speaker 1: Mm. And commerce works differently there as well.
Speaker 2: Commerce does work differently. Uh, you definitely have, uh, sometimes different structures. You have a lot of conglomerates in there, um, you know, who are maybe bringing a global brand to that market, and the conglomerate owns the rights to that brand. Uh, I think you also have a very, uh, digital, uh, population, very digitally active population. You have different social channels there. Um, so you know, we find that, for example, uh, Snap is incredibly popular in the Middle East. It's one of the, the main partners that we work with over there. Uh, and you have a, a population also, um, that has really leaned into, uh, high expectations around the technological experience they have, right? So, uh, you have a, a really cool opportunity to help, uh, transform the consumer journey over there. Uh, and I think the brands have high expectations, I think the publishers have high expectations, uh, and I think that creates a really innovative market. So, um, yeah, again, it's, it's one of the... You know, it's, it's very different to, to work with. Um, uh, but I think it's one of the more fun markets we get to work in.
Speaker 1: Yeah. And there, there's obviously huge investment going in there as well, uh, at all, at all ends. You know, from startups through to obviously enterprise.
Speaker 2: Oh, yeah, yeah. Every time I drive there, something new is under construction.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So it's, uh... I, I feel like Dubai is, is just always growing and expanding. Uh, and they really created an environment that allows business to thrive.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Um, changing the, the subject slightly, um, what would I be interested in? Yeah, I, I, I've normally asked this question. Um, are there brands, uh, that are out there at the moment that, uh, you admire, that are innovating in a particular way?
Speaker 2: Ooh, that's a really good question. Um, I think I'm really excited about what some of the airlines are doing, uh, where as they build out their commerce media network. Uh, I'll take United Airlines as an example. Uh, and so United Airlines, of course their primary business is to take people from point A to point B and to help fuel the international economy and to help fuel, you know, people's lives and make them more transformative. Um, but United Airlines also said, "Hey, in addition to being an airline, we have all these consumers who are on our app looking at when their flight is, booking a flight. We have these consumers who are sitting in our planes looking at these TVs. We can help create incredible, uh, media experiences for them." And so they built out the Connected Media Network, and I think, you know, their rollout of that media network has been incredibly fast and, and really innovative. Uh, and they are offering marketers the ability to connect with consumers in a really unique way. It's like when you are on a plane and you are watching the TV, you're going to be focused on those ads. So I think that's a really cool, uh, you know, brand who's taken a commerce media opportunity, run fast with it, made it a global offering, uh, and really seeing some amazing success for brands.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Um, I think one brand that we, we absolutely love working with is L'Oréal. Uh, they have a huge focus here in Europe for us. Uh, obviously a, a French brand. We work closely with them. Um, but we do it around the world, and what they are great at doing is they enable their local markets to innovate fast. So you might have a market like Spain say, "Hey, we've got a use case. We wanna run fast with it. It fits the global mandate." And that local market can do some local innovation. So they are another brand we're really happy with.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I mean, that's, that's fantastic. Um, are there any go-to resources that you would like to share? So, um, that could be a podcast, could be s- books, could be something else, or it could just be a place that you like to go to that, you know, kind of inspires and sparks something in you.
Speaker 2: For me, uh, I think it's all about coffee conversations with partners and people in the industry. Um, so I feel like I learn best, uh, in having conversations and being able to ask questions. Um, I, uh, in a conversation will be the first person to, um, lo- ask lots of questions and pepper the person with questions. Um, but I think it's like, as an industry, you know, obviously we had COVID happen, and we all went onto Zoom, but we've been out of COVID for a while now and back to in-person, and I think the more we can encourage, particularly people who are younger, uh, who are just starting their careers, have those in-person conversations and have the casual, informal conversations. I learn the most from the 30-minute coffee chats or walking around London. I love to... You'll often find me walking around this area, particularly on days like today when it's super nice, and it's like, have those walk and, and conversations. Um, that to me is where people can learn the best. You know, it's amazing to be able to read, of course, all of the resources and the podcasts and go to the events, but you learn the best in the most informal chats.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Um, and then last, I always ask this question, but advice you'd provide to a, a younger individual perhaps looking to enter the world of marketing, advertising, tech, et cetera.
Speaker 2: So, uh, there's two pieces of advice that I would say, um, that have helped me in my career. Um, one is show up. Uh, I think showing up, uh, and working hard, uh, is one of the things that you can do that helps propel you more than anything else. If I was to advise someone, I would say be in the office five days a week, even if it's not required. Show up to that. Go to as many of the events as possible. And then the second part I would say is take on whatever challenge the company needs. Uh, I got this advice a, a long time ago of if someone brings you a problem, never say, "It's not my problem." Be like, "Hey, if you can help solve it, help run with it." The solving that problem gets you another problem, and gets you another problem, and those problems are the path to career development and success. So even if it's not in your scope, if someone is like, "Hey, we need someone to do this," volunteer. It's tightly connected to showing up. Uh, I think those two things are, are a great, um, you know, rocket fuel to make your career a massive success, so.
Speaker 1: Brilliant. Yeah. I, I, I totally agree. That's, that's tremendous advice. Well, look, Travis, thanks so much for joining us on the show today. Really appreciate your time and, um, the, the little pearls of wisdom, nuggets, bits of information you've shared have been exceptional.
Speaker 2: No, thank you so much for having me. Great to be here.
Speaker 1: You're welcome.