33Across Blog | Programmatic News & Trends

Not many of us can say that we have been in programmatic since the beginning. Since graduating college, James Forrester, our Director of Channel Sales has worked in a number of sales positions and built up his knowledge of programmatic. For this edition of Friday Fives, James explains how being a millenial has its advantages in ad tech, the best part about his job, and why he’s an “expert” with programmatic sales.

Anyone who starts their career in tech without a computer is pretty much destined for success. Anita Pollert, our general manager of publisher solutions experienced this firsthand. Starting her career at one of the most renowned publishing companies, Anita has grasped the inner workings of both the traditional and digital sides of publishing. Check out her responsibilities in the early days of publishing, advice she has for women in tech, and how she invests in self-care.

The best products are a result of a team who knows project management well. Alison Connard, our Director of Product Management is no exception to this rule. Bringing a wealth of experience, Alison works closely with a number of teams including our Engineering and Marketing teams to ensure that 33Across’ product offerings are competitive and commercialized successfully. For this edition of Friday Fives, Alison gives us insight on how she got into product management, the skills needed for the role, and where her last vacation was.

Welcome to Friday! This week we’re featuring a member of our incredible sales team, Alex Ratajczyk. Recently promoted to Channel Sales Director, Alex is responsible for servicing our demand side platforms. He’s been with 33Across for over four years and a lot has changed within the industry since his start. Check out his thoughts on how programmatic advertising has changed, awesome qualities within great salespeople, and his skills behind the camera.

Welcome to Friday! As with most tech companies, our engineers play a major role in our company's success. One of our Senior Software Engineers Aparna Hegde, is no exception to that rule. Serving as a member of our high-performing engineering team, Aparna is responsible keeping 33Across’ technology at its very best. Learn more about her including why she decided to become an engineer, how a non-technical person can learn engineering, and what her favorite weekend day is!

As a publisher monetization company, our Publisher Acquisition team is committed to ensuring a smooth on-boarding process as well as manage all of our publisher relationships. For this edition of Friday Fives we’re featuring Lauren Hollinger, Director of Publisher Acquisition. Read more to learn about Lauren’s take on the Facebook/Google Duopoly, challenges for publishers, and of course the most fun she’s had recently.

What are the top three things that publishers are looking for in 2018? 
With regards to brand safety, publishers are looking for accountability from buyers. They're also looking to expand and improve their video monetization strategy, and to also remove ad clutter while increasing revenue.

Cheers to the weekend! For this edition of Friday Fives we’re chatting with Adam Kadet, our Senior Director of Demand Development. Check out how Adam serves his clients and what he thinks brands are looking for in Q4. He also dishes on the future of ad tech, which buzzwords should retire, and which weekend day he considers to be the best.

No risk, no reward - that’s the theme of this Friday Fives. Blair Pecka shares her career journey into product management and how determination and hard work led to her recent promotion to vice president of product. We’ll also learn about product management misconceptions and one of her all-time favorite movies. 

Summer may be over, but we’re keeping the good times rolling with our Friday Fives. For this edition we’re featuring Kaitlin Griffin, an Account Executive on our Sales team. Having been with 33Across for over 3 years, she works closely with 33Across’ agency clients. Check out Kaitlin as she describes the top things that agencies are looking for and the role data will play in the future. 

Today we celebrate Foster Day! You may ask yourself, “What’s that?” Foster Day marks the anniversary of our longest employee Mike Foster, our Principal Engineer. This edition of Friday Fives (as well as the entire day here at 33Across) is in celebration of Mike’s service and commitment to the company. Learn more about how 33Across has grown, Mike's views on artificial intelligence, and the multiple instruments he plays.

How has engineering changed since you’ve been in the industry?
The industry has changed immensely. Software engineers now have access to a number of packages that can be integrated to form larger systems. This has influenced the way engineers think about software development. Computers and the way that they are manufactured have also advanced. Much more can be done now with less hardware and for less money.

What engineering project proved to be your most challenging?
During the early years of 33Across, everything was a challenge because we had very few people and we were starting from scratch. More recently we replaced Chukwa with Flume. We’re also upgrading our Hadoop application software to CDH5. All of these have been challenging projects.