Our Industry Profile takes a weekly look at some of the professionals working across the advertising, ad tech, marketing and media sector in Australia. It aims to shed light on the varying roles and companies across the buzzing industry.
This week we speak to Eyeota general manager for Australia-New Zealand, Peter Hunter.
Job title:
General manager Eyeota Australia and New Zealand
Time in current role/time at the company:
Eight months
How would you describe what the company does?
We are the global leaders in audience data. We onboard, connect and distribute quality privacy compliant data, to enable addressable advertising both on and offline.
What do you do day-to-day?
Ensure outstanding customer service whilst walking the fine line between the needs of our partners on both data supply and data buying and a good dose of recruitment to build the team.
Define your job in one word:
Truffle-Hound
I got into advertising/ad tech/marketing etc because:
What I realised early on as a creative was that media often topped expenditure items in most clients' P&L so if I wanted to change the way clients do business then the media agency had the best chance to do it. So, I moved out of creative and into media and I've been trying to move the dial for clients ever since.
What’s the biggest challenge you face in your role?
Finding the right talent as it's our biggest asset.
What’s the biggest industry-wide challenge you’d like to see tackled?
Short-term thinking. If I’m honest, together with most of the industry, including clients, I will do anything I can to hit this week’s target, because if I have four good weeks I can hit the month, and if I can do that we should hit the quarter and with luck on our side deliver on the annual target.
This mentality has simply bred very short-term thinking. Media is now a lot faster and lead times shorter particularly via technology such as real-time bidding, all of which has simply enabled more short-term thinking and fixes.
As an industry It’s time to take a long-term view and put a few of the bigger issues we face into perspective and fix them at the root cause instead of patching things up to hit next week’s target.
Previous industry related companies you have worked at:
Quantcast, PHD Media, InLink, iProspect, Touchpoint and TBWA.
Who is/has been a great mentor to you and why?
A CFO I worked with - Peter Rose - suggested that as a new manager of people my success was now in fact measured by the success of my team and little to do with trumpeting my own individual contribution.
Words of advice for someone wanting a job like yours?
Return to when you were three years old and ask why as much as you can. Learn how to get to the root cause or a real insight that will lead you to far more informed decisions and give you the chance to challenge the status quo.
If I wasn't doing this for a living, I'd be:
A truck driver.
My mantra / philosophy is:
Keep it simple and honest.
My favourite advert is (and why):
The Lionel Richie Tap King ad, it’s the last ad that made me go out immediately and buy something.
Music and TV streaming habits. What do you subscribe to?
Spotify, Netfix, Stan, Amazon Prime, youtube. I seem to spend most of my time on Stan at the moment.
Tell us one thing people at work don’t know about you?
I have performed an emergency c- section on a cow.
In five years' time I'll be:
Cashing in my tech options to buy a truck.
Have something to say on this? Share your views in the comments section below. Or if you have a news story or tip-off, drop us a line at adnews@yaffa.com.au
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