Our Industry Profile takes a look at some of the professionals working across the advertising, adtech, marketing and media sector in Australia. It aims to shed light on the varying roles and companies across the buzzing industry.
Nicola Ayan: Director of technology and growth, Asia-Pacific at Optimizely.
Time in current role/time at the company:
I started working at Optimizely in February 2021, although I have been a partner of the company since 2018 and a customer since 2015.
How would you describe what the company does?
Think of a website, mobile app, or any digital touchpoint right now. That website can be both created and optimised using Optimizely’s leading Digital Experience Platform (DXP) to ultimately support the goals of a business. To some businesses, digital is the sole revenue channel, to others, it may just be one of many. Regardless, what makes us unique in the market is that our platform not only helps businesses increase revenue, reduce costs and streamline business operations; it also helps improve the experience of employees when managing their digital channels. This includes solutions for marketing planning, content management, eCommerce (B2B and B2C), customer data, personalisation, and experimentation.
What do you do day-to-day?
Every day is different and it’s one of the reasons I love my job. In a day, I may be presenting a webinar in partnership with marketing, jumping on a call with a prospective customer to support our sales team, educating our solution partners and forming new ones in the field, presenting to partners to support our partner managers, visiting a customer at their offices in partnership with our Customer Success team, and doing planning sessions with the leadership team.
Define your job in one word:
Rewarding
I got into martech because:
I started purely in tech as I was exposed to programming at such a young age and loved it. Fast forward seven years, I landed a job that needed my technical skills in a digital team that was part of the wider marketing team. Since then, the jobs I took were in digital as I found the space super interesting, very relevant and fast-paced.
What’s the biggest challenge you face in your role?
Setting priorities that are based on your own values. When you deal with so many stakeholders and work on many projects, it’s easy to fall back and prioritise the customer/prospect/project by their dollar value or dollar potential. However, value isn’t always measured through the financial lens. I feel the most rewarded when your work makes an impact on people’s lives and this is difficult to measure.
What’s the biggest industry-wide challenge you’d like to see tackled?
Encouraging more women in STEM. I love that within the STEM industry, there are so many opportunities to choose from and in my field specifically, that includes business analysis, data and analytics, strategy, marketing, product, presales, sales, partnerships and services. I wish more females felt encouraged to work in the space and I’d love to see more done to encourage females in the industry. It’s so important to be part of a diverse team that could use lots of different viewpoints and inputs to everything that we do in digital and technology, which is crucial for success in the space.
Who has been a great mentor to you and why?
My dad. He probably doesn’t know that he is but is the perfect example of someone who leads by doing. He strives for excellence, and instilled that in us, his children, yet also taught us values such as integrity, being humble, and selflessness.
Words of advice for someone wanting a job like yours?
You’ve got to be inquisitive, a good listener, and enjoy working with people and customers. You don’t just love technology for the sake of it, but you are always seeking how problems today can be truly solved through technology and more importantly, people.
If I wasn't doing this for a living, I'd be:
If it’s not in martech or tech, I’d be playing the piano and try make a career out of it.
My mantra/philosophy is:
When you face a problem, you are being taught something you don’t yet have a full comprehension of. Persevere and you’ll come out more experienced and mature. One never stops learning!
My favourite advert is;
The New Zealand running man challenge advert from several years ago.
Music and TV streaming habits. What do you subscribe to?
My profile on Netflix has recommendations in two categories: movies based on real-life or
documentaries.
Tell us one thing people at work don’t know about you?
I sing and talk in the shower!
In five years' time I'll be:
Hopefully, by then, I’ll be a mum and have visited Antarctica, seen the Northern Lights and authored a
book.
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