{"id":297324,"date":"2020-08-31T19:17:00","date_gmt":"2020-08-31T19:17:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/integralads.com\/insider\/masters-of-media-nathan-brown-fonterra-2\/"},"modified":"2024-06-21T06:39:02","modified_gmt":"2024-06-21T06:39:02","slug":"masters-of-media-nathan-brown-fonterra-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/integralads.com\/apac\/insider\/masters-of-media-nathan-brown-fonterra-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Masters of Media: Nathan Brown, Fonterra"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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In this exclusive \u201cMasters of Media<\/a>\u201d series, Integral Ad Science (IAS) speaks to the Movers and Shakers of the ANZ advertising industry, on all matters digital.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nathan Brown<\/a> is the Global Paid Media Manager at Fonterra.  Nathan is responsible for relationships with media agency, vendor and technology partners to drive efficiency and effectiveness of marketing spend across the global Fonterra business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Integral Ad Science (IAS): Nathan, tell us more about your digital advertising journey.<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Nathan Brown, F<\/strong>onterra (Nathan): I\u2019ve always loved advertising from a young age, but to be fair my journey has been determined more by fate than design. I stumbled into digital advertising, back when we were hard coding ads into our sites and \u2018measurement\u2019 was how long it had been up for and an estimate made for site traffic. Yeah, those days!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

My day job included managing client websites so it was a pretty steep learning curve and adding to it was the complexity of an ad server. This was followed by a move to the media agency world and was marked by both the sophistication of the AdOps function as well as stepping through the planning and client service hierarchy, which on reflection make me feel quite old now! One of my highlights was running an amazing team of AdOps and programmatic specialists building and growing the Publicis trading desk in New Zealand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the years since, I made a move towards the client side to help guide organisations transform their digital media strategy, tackling issues such as in-housing, agency transparency, and Adtech\/Martech investment and infrastructure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IAS: In your experience, how has the digital advertising industry changed in the recent past and what does the industry of the future look like?<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Nathan: <\/strong>At times I dislike the catchall \u2018Digital\u2019 term, particularly as we see more traditional or offline channels become digitised too. I hope the future sees the retirement of the term \u2018digital\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The recent past has really shone a light on the murkier areas of our industry and I think it\u2019s brilliant. Transparency and honesty in the way we operate from all sides of the equation are critical for the continued growth of \u2018digital\u2019. Whilst I\u2019m not convinced (yet) of the \u2018blockchain\u2019 (or whatever buzzword is current) will solve transparency, I am convinced that we\u2019re moving in the right direction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Regarding the future, these are challenging times for everyone in the industry right now it\u2019s sometimes hard to look beyond the short term, however, the future is exciting! I feel the consumer behavioural shifts happening during lockdowns will have an unknown long term effect on media consumption, commerce, and interaction. Digital media practitioners have always had to learn and adapt rapidly so we\u2019re all very well placed to ride this wave of cultural evolution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IAS: What are the key initiatives pertaining to digital media quality your company is prioritising right now? E.g. ad fraud, viewability, brand suitability<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Nathan: Being in a globally focussed role we certainly have some very different priorities in different regions and markets. We\u2019ve been doing a good job with the quantitative measures like viewability and brand safety that when we\u2019ve agreed on the appropriate parameters we\u2019ve been able to get things locked in. Our focus will be in defining what is suitable for our brands from a global perspective with subtle variances in local definitions. It certainly starts to introduce qualitative measures to advance efforts in this space. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

IAS: What are some of the key innovations your team at Fonterra is spearheading to keep ahead of the digital transformation?<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Nathan: <\/strong>The single biggest change for Fonterra has been taking a lead in the ownership of our marketing data and platforms. We\u2019ve been working closely with internal stakeholders and our agency partners on the approach, design, platforms and required outputs. Brands need to take ownership of data and not leave it up to a single partner to own or define your approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n