Bhumika Dadbhawala, Senior Director of Business Development and Partnerships, Drawbridge
It’s not just Dadbhawala’s love of DIY projects that make her a crafty marketer. Before working at Drawbridge she held various media positions at Yahoo, where she received the “You Rock” Award for delivering a significant amount of revenue in a short time frame. Her penchant for taking risks drove Drawbridge’s first foray into serving ads via connected TV and led Dadbhawala to a promotion after one idea launched an initiative that brought in guaranteed buys for premium ad inventory.
Defining moment: While I was at Yahoo I had an opportunity to lead a team…. It was a challenge because I had to learn how to gain respect while managing people who were more seasoned than I was, earn my authority through understanding a little bit more about the business that they were operating, and gain their trust—all the while learning how to manage up, as well as manage down.
Words to live by: Don’t complain if you don’t have a solution for it.
Strategy shift: About a year ago we realized that the data we were leveraging to build our identity platform was potentially more useful than [our] media business…I was tasked with exploring new partnerships and strategies and developing the market outside of the scope of our current business.
Up next: Connectivity in our world is no longer limited to a laptop and mobile phone. Technology is evolving into smart watches, smart TVs, and now even smart cars. This presents Drawbridge and our industry [with opportunities] to integrate not just across the standard mediums, but also across newer-evolving platforms and formats. When I think about this, I think about [how] individualization and personalization across these platforms will lead to the success of our company and will also give marketers some new strategies in terms of how they should [target] the key audiences that they need to deliver their messaging toward.
Advice to young marketers: Learn the value of relationships.
–Elyse Dupré
