May 4 2021
Kristin Furjanic

Brand Innovators Media Buying Summit 2021 Takeaways

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At the Brand Innovators 2021 Media Buying Summit last week, experts from across the industry discussed how the media buying landscape is evolving. They shared, learned, and connected—and covered a lot of ground on topics such as cost constraints, pain points in ad tech, creative messaging in the media world, media plans post-pandemic, the cookieless future, and more.

Centro was proud to sponsor at the event, which was highlighted by our CEO & Founder, Shawn Riegsecker, who led three fireside chats with senior-level marketers hailing from the likes of Hilton, Facebook, and HBO Max.

Check out the key takeaways from each fireside chat below—the sessions are available on-demand, and worth a listen:

Fireside Chat #1

Featuring Rebecca Panico, Sr. Director, Media Strategy & Planning, Hilton

Shawn and Rebecca chatted through media planning from a business/leisure travel, as well as global, perspective and what that looks like in terms of creative messaging post-pandemic. Rebecca shared insights on the cost constraints that have come with the heightened complexity within the media space and what it was like to shift from the agency to the brand side, "In terms of advice, I try to over-communicate as best as I can. Context is king – giving the rationale and explanation for what we’re trying to solve for; I invite my agency to be a part of those discussions. I give them permission to ask more questions and work through problems together. It’s more of a partnership."

Fireside Chat #2

Featuring Christine Lustig, Media Investment Lead – North America, Facebook

Shawn and Christine talked through her transition from Mastercard to Facebook and how that presented interesting challenges and a shift in perspective along the way. She spoke about the emotional tie to Facebook and its products, and how the brand is pivoting from an overarching/high-level umbrella brand perspective. Christine talked about how Facebook aims to use the platform for good and shared more details on their promotional initiatives through 2021 and highlighted the most important tactical media and marketing KPIs. Ultimately, Christine stated, “It’s all about the consumer at the end of the day. So if this is a consumer-driven initiative that will improve brand trust, then we’re all about that."

Fireside Chat #3

Featuring Su Kwon Kelsay, SVP Marketing Technology and Operations, HBO Max, Warner Media

Shawn and Su chatted through her career journey within Warner Brothers and the exciting opportunities and challenges that presented themselves throughout her time there. They also discussed an omnichannel approach to reaching consumers from a media perspective, how first-party data should be defined, the biggest struggles of advertising technology, and what releases are coming down the pipe for HBO Max. What's Su's number one piece of advice on to best reach consumers? "Start with your goals and requirements. If you start with the data and just start doing things, there is so much that can be done—a never-ending list of things that you could do or try to track, etc. That’s why I think every company has a slightly different MarTech or Ad Tech stack—each one is different based on the goals of the company."

Click the links above to catch up on all of the fireside chats from Brand Innovators Media Buying Summit 2021 - you definitely don't want to miss these! For more on how to add automation to your current MarTech or Ad Tech stack, check out our comprehensive tech solution, Basis.