What do you think helped you prepare to become a CTO of a media agency?
I consider myself a polymath. I enjoy learning new and different things. I went to college when I was 25 in London, previously I lived and worked in Spain for three years, but I grew up originally in Greece where I was raised. I believe in gaining a lot of diverse experiences instead of focusing only on one professional aim from an early age, which is limiting and constraining. Having options and knowledge of various fields provided this universality to me; it helped me understand the world and people better. Ultimately it makes me a better technologist that can extend my expertise across categories and disciplines. I believe this mindset prepared me to take on the challenge of using technology to improve the delivery of marketing and advertising solutions. Skills and experience in one field are essential but trying different things throughout my professional career perhaps allowed me to reach this level.
When people think of FinTech, they do not typically think about marketing companies; why do you think they should start including Assembly in the FinTech ecosystem?
Similar to Fintech startups that have revolutionized the financial industry, Assembly is a very innovative company that intends to subvert the marketing and media industry. We try to do things differently here. Marketing has evolved, and it is no longer only about advertising or getting the message out there. Marketing is about change; change in the perception of the brand in the minds of consumers, but also change in society (just look at Apple). At Assembly, and throughout MDC Media Partners, we do our best to embrace change for our clients and ourselves, and there are more similarities to FinTech than differences.
What is it like to market a FinTech company, especially one that may have acquired new FinTech company/companies?
It is a challenging process but also rewarding for anyone involved, irrespective of the outcome. Fintech is a fast-paced field with incredible growth, and we are excited to be part of it. We have to anticipate almost every data point we can collect, and take into consideration market volatility, political landscape, and ever-changing consumer tastes, behaviors, and habits. But most importantly, our primary goal is to understand the client, their brand, and what they want to achieve in the short and long term.
What technology and data points do you think are most important to pay attention to as you monitor campaign success?
The ones that can fuel how we innovate toward better outcomes. Micro- and macro-level data are quite significant to the success of a campaign. Anyone at this stage can use data to monitor campaigns; however, our goal is creating technological advantages that fuel better creative assets, and a far more advanced measurement strategy, that accelerates business growth for us and our clients.
What kind of marketing technology is the most valuable for FinTech companies?
Banks have used voice technology to provide customer service support for quite some time now. I think we will see a lot more innovation in the financial security space - i.e., Biometrics and authentication. I do believe that voice assistants will play a more critical role in supporting customers. We will be moving away from the phone but to the smart-home device to conduct our banking through voice interaction.
You are on the board of Voxion which is a voice technology company; how is voice technology being used in financial services to date and what potential role may it have in the future? What are future applications? Any good examples today of FinTech companies innovating with voice?
Banks have used voice technology to provide customer service support for quite some time now. I think we will see a lot more innovation in the financial security space - i.e., Biometrics and authentication. I do believe that voice assistants will play a more critical role in supporting customers. We will be moving away from the phone but to the smart-home device to conduct our banking through voice interaction.
You are also on the board of Centro, which is a digital marketing company; what new successful strategies are you seeing that are getting results and adding value?
The innovation of companies like Centro lies in the workflow management and centralization of operations for an agency or brand. Consolidation is not a novel concept, it is a widespread industry problem, but companies such as Centro have managed to tackle it. I am hoping to see more advancement and competition in the space.
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