Social Media Portal

Country manager UK Graeme Finneberg on data marketing platform mediarithmics and what ahead for universal data platforms

Social Media Portal (SMP): What is your name and what do you do there for mediarithmics?

Graeme Finneberg (GF): I?m Graeme Finneberg, country manager, UK for mediarithmics. I?m responsible for the planning, execution and delivery of strategy across the UK. This includes growing the client base and revenues amongst large publishers, ecommerce brands and media alliances by providing them the best tools and technology they need to take control of their data.

SMP: Briefly, tell us about mediarithmics, what is it and what does company do?

GF: Mediarithmics is a data marketing platform (comprising DMP, DSP, CMP, marketing automation, and DCO technologies). Or, as we call it more succinctly, a universal data platform. Headquartered in Paris, we operate across 16 European countries and in the United States.

SMP: What services do you provide to clients and what?s your roadmap looking like for 2019?

GF: Our platform allows brands to launch personalised, cross-channel marketing campaigns in real time using programmatic technologies. For publishers and ecommerce sites, mediarithmics provides the tools to protect, structure and leverage the value of their data, helping them to create new, profitable business models.

SMP: Who are your target audience and why?

GF: The first is ecommerce companies. Mediarithmics can provide a solution to help with issues like customer acquisition and abandoned baskets. The second is publishers, who are losing revenue to the likes of Google and Facebook because they can?t compete with their advertising offerings. Mediarithmics helps publishers to pool their data in cross-publisher alliances, which create the scale and data richness they need to compete.

SMP: What are the challenges that you?ve encountered and how are you overcoming them in what you have been doing so far at mediarithmics?

GF: One of the biggest challenges is helping companies to understand how easy it can be to take control of their data.


SMP: What are the high moments of what you have been doing so far?

GF: One of our biggest achievements has been powering the Gravity Alliance, the largest data alliance in Europe consisting of 25 leading publishers, telecoms, search and ecommerce companies who are pooling their data. Mediarithmics empowers each member to combine their strengths to boost media reach whilst maintaining full ownership of its data assets and measuring its data contribution.

SMP: What do you see as your biggest challenges and opportunities for your sector and the competition that you have?

GF: While Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple (GAFA) continue to dominate the ad market, the big opportunity is in the creation of ?super alliances?. I mentioned the Gravity Alliance above. Along with large publishers like Le Parisien and Lagardere Active, it includes two telecom firms (SFR and Orange) and also search firms, content providers and sizeable retailers (e.g. Fnac-Darty). By adding non-media brands to the group, the alliance has been able to build not only scale, but a unique picture of consumers.

SMP: Why is data so important for marketers and how can they maximise its use ethically?

GF: Data presents a massive opportunity but marketers need to get smarter about leveraging their data assets. Post GDPR, they must rely less on third party data in favour of first and second party partnerships. They also need to focus on the quality of the data combined with how it?s being used within the contextual environment.

SMP: Data is in the doghouse due to privacy breaches from Facebook, Google and many others; how can the industry and brands immersed in this do better?

GF: Brands will demand more transparency across the supply chain and we?ll see an increase in businesses moving towards an in-house solution that gives them full control of the process and value chain. We?ll also see an increase in machine learning technology to upscale first party data by examining the usage patterns of existing known users versus unregistered users, to create an accurate, deterministic match.

SMP: What is the most challenging part of building upon your brand presence in digital environments (including social media)?

GF: One of the biggest challenges is highlighting the USPs of a relatively complex business, particularly in social media.

SMP: What do you think is going to be the most interesting aspect data and technology for the next 12 to 18-months and why?

GF: Super alliances! Collaborating to fight the GAFA threat will be essential, especially with the decline in print revenues and traditional TV audiences. As well as big organisations, we?ll start to see more niche companies coming together to pool their inventory and data to allow heightened targeting e.g. across the travel sector. For the right brands, the kind of data that a ?vertical? alliance would create would be extremely powerful.

SMP: What are your top five predictions for aspect data and technology for the next 12 to 18-months and why?

GF replies with:

• A year of surprising collaborations in an attempt to topple the GAFA monopoly.
• A move away from third-party data and an emphasis on the creation and use of first-party data.
• Data-driven trade marketing for etailers and e-commerce sites: using data to communicate with their own customers better but also offering the potential to allow targeted advertising on their websites.
• Full transparency across the advertising supply chain and an increase in in-house solutions that gives marketers full control of the process.
• A move away from separate DMP with a DSP, to combined DMP and DSP platforms to enable marketers to pipe data and actions out in true real-time, which can only be achieved if data collection and output is done within the same platform.

SMP: What are your top overall five aspect data, metrics and technology tips?

GF replies with:

• Be open to collaboration. Old competitors may well turn out to be your saviour if you play together nicely!
• Check your supply chain. If you?re using second or third party data sources to drive your business, ensure that they are fully GDPR compliant.
• Ensure you tech partners are transparent about where they are charging fees and what for.
• When picking your next tech partner try to think what your needs will be further down the road and build them in to your solution now; far easier than changing every 18-months.
• Always remember why you?re using tech - what?s it for? How does this benefit my customer? Does this improve their experience? Is it making me more efficient?

SMP: Is there anything else we should know, or is there anything that you?d like to share?

GF: I would urge everyone to have a closer look at what data they currently possess and ask themselves whether they?re truly maximising their opportunity to monetise it, whether that be through improved website performance, customer marketing or direct revenue generation. If not, then call me!

SMP: Best way to contact you and mediarithmics?

gfinneberg@mediarithmics.com, LinkedIn and the mediarithmics website.



SMP: What did you have for breakfast / lunch?

GF: Cornflakes with sliced banana and a slightly iffy home made salmon salad for lunch.

SMP: What?s the last good thing that you did for someone?

GF: Helped someone write a cracking CV for a new job.

SMP: If you weren?t working at mediarithmics what would you be doing?

GF: Trying to work out how to get paid as an average to poor drummer.

SMP: When / where did you go on your last holiday and why?

GF: We stayed in Annecy with my sister, giving all the cousins time for a good catch up.

SMP: What?s the first thing you do when you get into the office of a morning?

GF: Make a coffee and review/edit/write my plan for the day.

SMP: If you had a superpower what would it be and why?

GF: Ability to fly. Love the idea of being able to travel anywhere I like, whenever I like (assuming drones don?t ground me).

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