Young Gun profiles takes a look at the young talent across the Australian advertising, adtech, marketing and media sector. Aiming to shed light on the varying roles, people and companies across the buzzing industry.
Andre Alday: senior account manager, client success APAC at Vistar Media
Time in current role/time at the company:
Two years, three months at Vistar Media.
How long have you been in the industry?
Five years, going on six.
How did you get here? Was this always the plan?
I never thought about working in the OOH industry, having studied an Economics and Maths degree I was certainly hoping to land a role at one of the big four consultancies or banks. As the grad roles dried up, I started looking elsewhere and landed a role as a programmatic coordinator and the rest is history.
I interviewed at a few agencies while I was in Uni but ended up at Ikon Communications (now Essence Mediacom) for one and a half years then at SpotX (now Magnite) for nearly two years where I managed to squeeze in some sales experience as well. I then discovered the emerging market of programmatic OOH and was lucky enough to land a client success role at Vistar. I really enjoyed the balance of DSP (demand side platform) knowledge and client-facing work.
When I started we were a team of seven and due to lockdowns I had not met anyone in person for the first six months. Since then the team has grown to 20+ across APAC and I have loved being part of the growth!
Who is your right-hand person/who guides you day to day?
At home it’s our family dog, Brandy. At work, it’s no one in particular but the whole Vistar team is an amazing bunch and I never hesitate to reach out for guidance.
What’s the best thing about the industry you work in?
I love that the OOH industry is always evolving, and as a result every day looks different, so much so that if I was to look back two months ago it’s amazing to see how much it has changed. We see such a swing in topics, ideas and opportunities so much so what was the talk of the town six months ago has taken a backseat to new and changing concepts such as dynamic creative.
In my role specifically I enjoy the opportunity to work across all the pillars of the industry from tactical, programmatic campaigns to the ever-evolving data and measurement offerings and now working on dynamic creative based campaigns.
And the biggest challenge?
For me I find the biggest challenge (and not that it’s a bad thing) is having to adapt campaigns across various international and cultural markets. Understanding that each country is at a different stage and on a different journey regarding their pDOOH capabilities can be challenging but is also interesting.
I am constantly learning and understanding how each market approaches pDOOH and then using that knowledge to integrate into Vistar’s tactics for our clients. I put this to use regularly when providing a platform demonstration as I’ll focus on certain market points depending on where the campaign or client is based.
Whose job have you set your sights on in the future?
No one’s job in particular. Maybe I’ll start a food truck.
Where do you turn for inspiration?
Tik Tok, but also my mum. The Tik Tok algorithm has sorted me out, gives me recipes to try, sports highlights to get up on the big screen, a local spot to eat and every now and then a good old chuckle. And mum is a great listener, she always gives me direction. I don’t always agree but she’s always there when I need her.
Tell us one thing people at work don’t know about you?
They haven’t seen me play the piano yet.
In five years' time, I'll be…
Managing a team of my own. We’ll see how big this client success function grows!
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