Hey everyone! In today’s episode, I share the mic with Kerry Bianchi, President and CEO of Visto, a company dedicated to bringing transparency and accountability to digital advertising.
Tune in to hear about how Kerry started from the agency side which set her up for success, what spurred Visto’s desire to democratize the process of trading media and marketing, why marketers are freaking out about transparency, and how she helped enact a major change in the company by enhancing the internal communication.
Time-Stamped Show Notes:
- [00:45] Before we jump into today’s interview, please rate, review, and subscribe to the Growth Everywhere Podcast!
- [01:45] Kerry came up through the agency side of the business.
- [02:25] Seeing it from the other side has set her up for success.
- [02:40] Visto is a command center for management programmatic ad buying.
- [03:10] Plug everything in, use all the partners you want, and track how your money is being spent in a very transparent way.
- [03:45] She loves that there is a robust marketplace.
- [03:59] It’s her job to bring great tools together into one place.
- [04:20] Visto came from Collective, an ad network.
- [04:50] Visto thought they could democratize the process of trading media and marketing.
- [05:30] They split the Collective into two divisions: one for Visto, one for a legacy managed services business, which was later sold off.
- [07:41] There are three core channels to which Visto is selling: ad agencies, media companies, and marketers/brands.
- [09:25] Visto has a subscription fee that runs in the multiple thousands per month.
- [09:56] Marketers are freaking out about transparency.
- [11:05] Transparency in pricing, but also ad fraud and viewability.
- [12:15] At the end of the day, whether you call it “performance” or not, there is a focus on having a KPI at the end of the day.
- [12:45] There is a greater focus on measurable steps and proof that the advertising is working.
- [13:30] The legacy business already had great relationships, which gave Visto access to clients.
- [14:40] Referral streams are really helpful.
- [15:15] The Visto business model is completely different from that of a SaaS company.
- [16:10] Some people had to move into new roles, while they also had to bring on new people.
- [17:15] Communication is key.
- [17:30] Change is unsettling, so make sure people always understand what is going on (internally).
- [18:30] They have a quarterly all-hands and share info from board meetings.
- [18:50] They also have bi-weekly meetings where they update everyone on the sales cycle.
- [19:06] The Visto teams also have a lot of one-on-one’s.
- [20:00] When Collective was transitioning, Kerry was brought on to help implement the change.
- [20:30] The company wanted to put their existing business on the Visto platform.
- [21:05] By the time that they launched Visto, they were ahead of all the potential questions that could be asked.
- [21:25] Visto was a complete product when they launched.
- [21:38] The sales team has been key to customer acquisition.
- [22:06] Content and thought leadership has also been great for marketing and outreach.
- [22:55] Unlike a pure start-up, they had to make sure they didn’t drop the ball on the existing business.
- [23:15] They had to make sure one side of the business didn’t suffer at the hand of the other.
- [24:05] They had a lot of employees who were dual-focused for a long time.
- [25:25] The older business became a client of the new business.
- [26:33] Make sure you build in rest/recuperation time so you don’t burn out.
- [27:15] If an email is not urgent, write it out and schedule it to send later, so you don’t interrupt people after work hours.
- [28:40] Tools Kerry thinks has added value to her life are the connection tools (LinkedIn, etc.).
- [29:20[ Kerry recommends the book Catch: A Fishmonger’s Guide to Greatness.
Resources from the interview:
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