Interview with Michael Kahn, CEO Performics Worldwide
ZO dmexco reporter Lucia Ilie, Digital Communications Planner Zenith Romania, interviewed Michael Kahn, CEO Performics Worldwide at the #dmexco2015
1. What did you like most at dmexco this year?
I’m amazed by the amount of energy here at dmexco, the attendance only seems to go up and up. I've been coming here for three years, and there are more people here than ever before, there’s more dialogue going on, the conversations seems to have more energy than ever before, and it seems like really serious business is going on here.
So it’s great to see all these digital marketers coming together with so much enthusiasm. Also, alongside businesses like Google, Twitter, Facebook, Performics, AKM3 and ZenithOptimedia, there are so many other types of businesses that come here, like Mediamath – emerging businesses trying to make a difference in programmatic, video or content. It’s an entrepreneurial environment, one that's great for big business.
2. What is the main opportunity for Performics AKM3 on the market?
So much of media and marketing is becoming machine-based and machine-driven. We need to design systems to leverage the data we have, to make smarter buys and investments in optimization and connecting with the consumer. So programmatic is huge to Performics. They say that search was the original programmatic media, because it was all biddable, so I think that is got to be at the core of what we do. But Performics is not about optimizing to eyeballs, it’s not about being programmatic against clicks, it’s about being programmatic to meaningful actions on behalf of the brand.
We are moving in a world where advertisers expect that marketing of all kinds, including content marketing, will be programmatic driven, so we are using tools to connect with the consumer in the right way, in the right moment, at the right time.
3. And what are the main things to look out for?
We can never be good enough. If you are a performance marketing agency, the client’s expectations are that you will deliver better results today than you did yesterday, and better results tomorrow, that you have roadmaps that will help them innovate and lead the market.
So we can never sit still, we have got to get better and expand what we do. We also have to be aware that we face direct competition – consultancies that want to get into the advertising marketplace, clients that can take work in-house – so we have to be very good at what we do to compete.
4. Is this a real threat, clients taking work in-house from agencies?
Yes, it’s always been there, I think it ebbs and flows. Sometimes clients take more in-house, sometimes less. There’s a hell of a lot of business that’s under review right now in the world, and that business is under review because clients are saying: should I host that in-house, should I work with an outside agency, who’s the right agency to work with? I think in-house is always an option and a threat.
5. Please give us short guidelines on how to launch Performics AKM3 locally:
You got to say to yourself,
- What platform, technology or partners am I going to use for this going forward?
- How am I going to build up, with what DSP? Do I have capability in-house, within my agency, do I have to work outside with a DSP?
- What kind of data can I get access to, and what DMP can I use to inform the demand-side platform?
- What kind of talent do I need to drive all that?
So I think you need to discuss technology, capability and talent. We ultimately set up a model where, even though you start small, you’ve got the right people leveraging the right data against the right platforms to make it all work.
6. SEO influence in Performics AKM3 business:
I look at SEO differently. Programmatic is today about paid media and optimizing your search, social, mobile and display campaigns. SEO is about leveraging content and owned assets and search discoverability.
SEO is really in demand right now, because brands are realizing that, “great, I can do all this stuff with my paid media, but what I can really have impact on is my owned and earned media”.
SEO is different from the media business, you can build a foundation quickly and get some pretty amazing results.
I’ve read a great book about the entrepreneurial culture in Israel called Start-up Nation: a fantastic read, all about how you really drive innovation and scale, and how a whole society did it. My second book is very motivational if you are a runner, and one of the best books I’ve ever read, called Born to Run: all about a tribe of Native Mexicans who run hundred miles just for sheer joy.
