The Importance of an Integrated Media Lead | Sammy Rubin

Ann Kraus: Hello and welcome to Simpli.fi TV. I'm Ann Kraus. Our guest today is Sammy Rubin, Vice President of Integrated Media at Wpromote, a leading independent agency focused on driving business outcomes for their clients through full funnel media creative and measurement solutions. Sammy leads Wpromote's approach to integrated marketing strategy, overseeing creative and media departments in the ongoing evolution of strategy and agency solutions. In addition to launching the agency's media strategy and converged TV practices, Sammy is the executive media lead on some of the agency's largest, most complex businesses, leaning into her media experience across integrated media planning, activation, and measurement for well-known entertainment, retail CPG and consumer app brands. Welcome to Simpli.fi TV, Sammy. Sammy Rubin: Hi. Thanks for having me. Ann Kraus: Of course. And I do want to talk to you about that title of Integrated media here in just a second, but I know you received some very good advice that you wanted to share with us. Sammy Rubin: Yeah, of course. So you had asked what the best advice is that I received throughout my career, and while I've had incredible mentors and managers who have really coached me, and I'm forever grateful. In terms of a specific piece of advice. The best thing actually came from a Fortune cookie, which I read when I was early on in my career. And it said, "Leadership is action not position," which I later found was a quote from an early broadcast TV exec, Donald McGannon. But the mantra really drove me to follow my curiosities and really mentor those around me, proving that you can be a leader at any stage, at any title within an organization, regardless of what was on your business card. And that mentality has really helped accelerate my career and continues to push me today. Ann Kraus: That is awesome. That's great. Great advice. And I got the same type of advice when I was graduating from college where the speaker said, "Do what you want to do and not what you want to be called." So I think it's the same type of strategy there, and it does stick with me this many years later. So let's get to that title of VP of Integrated Media. How did you become an integrated media lead? Sammy Rubin: I've personally planned and managed as well as managed teams who have planned and managed all forms of media from search, social, programmatic, retail, media, tv, influencer, you name it. And have had the opportunity to build really successful media strategies across a variety of different brands and different industries with different objectives, whether it be brand awareness or new customer acquisition, achieving a revenue target. And because of that, I've been able to establish that 360 view of how media should be planned, what investment strategy should look like, how should the creative experience come to life, and how should marketing impact be evaluated? And I absolutely love it because while the fundamentals of what makes a strong marketing strategy continue to hold true, how is always changing within our industry, which keeps things interesting. Ann Kraus: How would you define an integrated marketing lead? Sammy Rubin: Yeah. I'd say the integrated marketing lead is that strategic singular point, overseeing all media investment decisions, really to prevent teams from operating in silos, which we all know leads to poor decisioning and subpar outcomes. And to make sure that marketing strategy ladders up to an overarching business objective. What's that North Star goal that everybody's driving towards. In terms of responsibilities? I'd say an integrated media lead to be effective should be owning everything from holistic audience strategy, media mix development and optimization, investment strategy, marketing strategy, or I'm sorry, measurement strategy in partnership with data science counterparts to really quantify the impact of the media and market and running point on all things testing and working with cross-functional teams in order to bring that to life. And it sounds like it could be a pretty long laundry list of responsibilities, and there's a lot that this person can and should be responsible for, but if you have the right person with the right skillset, you get a really powerful singular view of everything that's happening across a media program for a given brand. And to see how all the pieces come together to drive success regardless of how that success is defined for a given brand or a given campaign. Ann Kraus: So Sammy, why is it important that marketing organizations take this approach of having an integrated media lead? Sammy Rubin: Yeah. I mean, the media and measurement landscapes are ever changing, as we all know, and we have more options to engage with media than ever before. I think the latest stat is US adults are spending over 13 hours a day with media, which the ecosystem is so fragmented, and consumers have more choices than ever before, which means that brands have more opportunities to engage with consumers than ever before, which makes it a bit easier, but it also makes it more challenging because brands need to really consider what are all the places and spaces to come to life, and how do we prioritize all of those opportunities? So I would say having that integrated lead can really help guide that investment strategy in terms of where investment should be made. Because the last thing that we want to do is test into all of these environments with low budgets, not be able to get a read. So having an integrated lead can really be that steward of budget, running point on what are the places that we want to make big bets? What are the opportunities to test? And it's especially critical for larger marketing programs, larger investment sizes, to have an integrated media lead. I've personally overseen the investment of anywhere from a few million dollars on an annual basis to over a billion dollars on an annual basis. And there's no way an organization should be directing funds at that level of scale without having that singular point. And I'd say another output of having this integrated lead is having a holistic measurement plan that's privacy resilient, which we hear a ton about. But I firmly believe that all marketing should be measured to some level of incrementality. And I have an amazing partner that I work with at Wpromote who leads up our data strategy and analytics practice, and we work together to continue to refine what does best in class measurement look like as the dynamics at play continue to change. So I'd say the cross-channel incrementality testing to understand how different channels perform in isolation, but also in concert with each other is critical because what's old is new again, and if channel teams or investment teams are just operating in silos, you lack that holistic view of what is really driving performance and what are the relationships between the media and market. And then the last thing I'd say on this topic, which is something that doesn't get discussed as often is how teams are incentivized. I've worked with brands where even senior level employees have been reluctant to test, because if a test goes wrong, it could mean job security. Or if they relinquish budget and share that with another department internally or another media channel internally, maybe the headcount on their team gets reduced. And these are unfortunate realities that exist, but organizations need to be motivated to do what's in the best interest of the organization. So having this integrated lead who's really overseeing all of the media investment, there's no bias and no territorialism in terms of what gets funded and what doesn't. This person is really orchestrating the relationships with all of the media teams, all of the investment opportunities internally to make decisions on behalf of the company in the company's best interest. Ann Kraus: Have you ever been just called the glue? It just seems like you just have you so much knowledge up here. They're just, "Well, she's our glue. She just keeps it together." Sammy Rubin: 100%. And at Wpromote, we've built out an integrated media strategy team, which serves as that glue across, again, really large, complex businesses because you need a conductor, so to speak, that can orchestrate cross channel audience, media mix, investment measurement strategy, and be able to bubble up executive level soundbites of what are the drivers and barriers of performance, what are the next step things that we're doing in order to drive towards our goals? How are we, gain, doing everything in service of driving towards that North Star objective? And it's been a really exciting journey to help grow that department. Now, I think we sit at 30 or 35 on the Media Strat team up from two in 2020. Ann Kraus: Wow. I mean, I like the idea of the conductor. I think that will create a visual for a lot of people. Speaking of, I know that you had your Fortune cookie story earlier, but is there something, a podcast or a book that has been instrumental in your success? Sammy Rubin: I am a huge podcast listener, so there's probably seven or eight on rotation that I listen to on a weekly basis. But one that's relevant in the media space is the Pivot Podcast, which I absolutely love with Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway. I don't know if I'd say if it's instrumental in my success, but it's definitely a part of my weekly routine, getting into the right head space before I start my day and starting the day, listening to different perspectives on what's happening in media and tech, and bringing that into my conversations with my teams, with clients when relevant. Ann Kraus: Okay. Awesome. I'm going to take a listen to that one. And what would be the best way for any of our Simpli.fi TV viewers to learn more about you? Is there like a LinkedIn profile or your website or something that they can check out? Sammy Rubin: Yeah, I'd say find me on LinkedIn, Sammy Rubin. Ann Kraus: Perfect. Sounds good. Sammy, thank you so much. This was a great conversation, and thank you for being my guest on Simpli.fi TV. Sammy Rubin: Thanks for having me, Ann Kraus: And thank you all for watching. Simpli.fi TV is sponsored by Simpli.fi, helping you to maximize relevance and multiply results with our industry leading media buying and workflow solutions. For more information, visit simpli.fi. Thanks for joining us today. I'm Ann Kraus, and we'll see you next time.