Outsourcing or AI? | Todd Handy

Ann Kraus: Hello, and welcome to Simpli.fi TV, the web series and podcast for agencies, brands, marketers and media buyers. I'm Ann Kraus. Our guest today is Todd Handy, the Chief Revenue Officer of SEBPO, a global outsourcing partner for many of the world's most prominent advertising media and technology companies. Before joining SEBPO, Todd was Beasley Media Group's first Chief Digital Officer, where he led the company's fast-growing digital media business, realizing a 165% increase in digital revenue over three years, with a primary focus on transforming a traditional broadcast radio company into a powerful digital media company. In addition to his role at SEBPO, Todd is a member of the Local Media Association's board of directors, serves on various sales and digital marketing advisory boards, and is a former member of the Local Media Consortium's executive committee. Todd, welcome to Simpli.fi TV. Todd Handy: Ann, thanks. I appreciate it. Ann Kraus: Now, I want to dive right in and ask you. When does an agency or a publisher, an ad tech platform, know that it's time to engage an outsourcing company like SEBPO? Are there signs that people need to be looking for? Todd Handy: There could be signs. Maybe you are struggling to find qualified candidates or perhaps attrition is increasing, but really the overarching reasons our clients engage with us is really to reduce expenses, increase revenues and improve performance. We refer to that as scale, save and succeed. Any one of those or a combination of those is when an agency or a publisher or an ad tech platform really knows that they might want to consider working with someone like SEBPO. Ann Kraus: As someone with background and experience in sales and digital media and now outsourcing, what would you say that your superpower is now, that you've gained throughout all of this experience? Todd Handy: It's interesting, because the first half of my career was in outsourcing and then I came into the media space, and now it's a confluence of the two. I don't know that I have any specific superpowers, but I think that I've learned to be adaptable and resilient. If you think about sales, digital media, outsourcing, they're all very dynamic. They're ever-changing. They can be fraught with difficulties. They've got a lot of ebbs and flows and a good amount of hearing the word no. I think I've become pretty good at rolling with all of that and really looking for solutions, no matter what the outside forces may be. I think that's helped me in sales. It's helped me certainly in digital media, and I think it certainly helps from an outsourcing standpoint as well. Ann Kraus: As an outsourcing company, how do you keep employees engaged in SEBPO and in many of the organizations they're working for? I would imagine they might feel pulled in many directions. Are there any tips that you can share with agencies? Todd Handy: Absolutely. We really want our employees to engage with and identify with our clients' brands. The truth is, the client pays SEBPO, SEBPO pays the employee, so the employees really do work for that client. Of course, the check has the SEBPO name on it, but what they're doing really is key to those clients of ours, so we don't want them to feel pulled in multiple directions. We want them to do the things that the clients need them to do. Again, our clients come to us to scale, save and succeed, so whatever it is that they're doing for them, we want them to be very engaged. I'll be honest. With most outsourcing employees, they love to have a piece of swag, for example a hat, a t-shirt, a pin, something that helps them identify with the brand that they support and so forth, be it a publisher, an ad tech platform or an agency. We don't want them to feel that way at all, and we want our agencies, our clients, our advertisers, our brands, whoever's working with us, to know that we want them to engage with those employees. We want them to identify with their brand, with their logo, with their name. We want them to wear that as a badge in what they do, so we don't see any dissonance between that. We know that we want them to support what the client needs out of them, and by doing that, they're supporting what SEBPO needs as well. Ann Kraus: It always comes down to the swag, doesn't it? There's always nothing that a good hat or a T-shirt can't help out, right? Todd Handy: We'll jump through hoops for those things, won't we? Ann Kraus: How do you advise other agencies to balance the use of people versus the use of technology like AI, for instance, or other sources that could help in an outsourcing area? Todd Handy: It's a great question and very timely, because we're dealing a lot now with discussions around AI and around automation and so forth. The truth is, when you outsource, you can put a lot of people towards the problem, and a lot of times that is sufficient. Maybe you don't need to expend a lot of time, energy, expenses and so forth on technology, or maybe you need to have some of that technology, the automation, the AI and so forth. Perfect example, on a recent call with a client of ours, they're looking to automate some of the things that we're currently doing for them, and they said, "Okay, we're going to automate this piece of the business, but we want to take those folks and reassign them over here to work on something new that they could do for us that we're currently not addressing." We look at that and we say they should be addressing all of those opportunities, and embracing AI and automation. We want to work with them on that. The truth is, at the end of the day, people aren't going to be completely replaced in any of this. There's always a role for people, in some way or somehow. It could be in processes or delivering training or building out SOPs or whatever. We would advise them to absolutely look into all of that from an AI and automation standpoint, but let people be part of that as well, because people are really the key to ensuring that it all gets delivered. Ann Kraus: With AI being such a topical force right now, have you come across anything in which you were like, "Oh, I'm nervous about the litigation that could be associated with that"? Todd Handy: That's interesting, because most or all of our clients have some type of a data protection agreement in place with them and so we are accessing their systems, but it's their systems. It's not on our premises or anything else. We really feel like we are helping our clients to remain as safe as they can from a data access standpoint and not violate anything from a PII or a regulatory standpoint. When you think about AI and what's going on, certainly there's a lot around just where was all of that information harvested from, what were the LLMs trained on and so forth. We don't see any concern on our part with our clients for that, but I recognize that in general, in the AI moment, there's a lot of that that may happen. Ann Kraus: Yeah. It's interesting, especially with your outsourcing, that you've got this extra layer, which is smart and something that people should actually do. That's great. In your career, in your current position or wherever you want to place yourself, is there a podcast or a book or something that has been really instrumental in your success? Todd Handy: That's a bad question, because I am an information junkie. I read way too much. I listen to too many podcasts and read way too many articles. The first two that come to my mind would be two books, The Innovator's Dilemma, with regard to what we've been doing in the digital space for years now, both traditional media and digital media, but then just a general business book that's been one of mine for years, and that is Good to Great. I'd say those two are some that I draw on regularly and have for most of my career. Ann Kraus: Good to Great comes up quite frequently, so I think you're in good company there. If anybody wanted to get ahold of you or learn anything more about you, what would be the best way for viewers to find out a little bit more about Todd? Todd Handy: Yep. If they want to reach me, LinkedIn is great. They can reach out to me on LinkedIn, no problem at all. They can take a look at our website, SEBPO.com, that's S-E-B-P-O, .com, or reach out at an event or any other thing else that we're out there together in. We want to make sure that those who have questions, who'd like to know more about us, that we are very able for them to reach us and able for them to ask the questions and so forth. Come to me, come to the website, submit a form, whatever works best for you, and we'd love to engage with you. Ann Kraus: Great. Todd, thank you so much for being my guest on Simpli.fi TV. Todd Handy: Thanks, Ann. I really appreciate it. Ann Kraus: 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 simply.fi. I'm Ann Kraus. Thanks for joining us, and I will see you next time.