Darr Gerscovich
VP Marketing, Ensighten
Winning ways: Gerscovich graduated business school in 2005, joined Yahoo, and has been leaving his mark all over the digital world since. He took Advertising Analytics, Yahoo’s platform for Fortune 500 advertisers, from a skunk works project to an industry mainstay. On the marketing solutions team at LinkedIn, he developed advertising solutions for enterprises that helped double ad revenues. Landing at Ensighten, he helped reposition the company as a leader in tag management, culminating in the acquisition of competitor TagMan in March.
Defining moment: Joining Yahoo in its heyday. “In 2005 it was a media powerhouse with extremely talented individuals,” Gerscovich says. “In 2008 when things started to go south, many of my colleagues went off to start or join soon-to-be hot companies. It was a sad time for Yahoo, but the exodus led to an instant network of top talent working across Silicon Valley and New York, and the continuing bond of the Yahoo diaspora is impressive. Every position I’ve held since then was the result of the Yahoo network.”
Words to live by: “Say it like a human. We layer too many concepts onto our messaging to out-differentiate the competition. The result is overly dense language that no one understands.”
Head swivel: “The ever-growing Internet of Things is incredibly challenging for marketers. More digital touchpoints and more data in more silos mean less x-channel actionability. The easiest solution is for marketers to start using a single technology everywhere.”
Good advice: “Chase the job that’s beyond your reach. It will stretch you, make you work harder, force you to grow and open new doors.”
First job: “As a tour guide at the University of California, San Diego. The college applicants hid in the back while their parents bombarded me with questions in the front. It taught me about communicating with different audiences that had disparate interests. It also taught me to walk backwards, which hasn’t served me as well.”
On your nightstand: “I’m a prolific reader. On any given night I’ll consume three to five books. I’ll even read the same book several times. Most of the books are in English, but I always read them out loud in Spanish. I gravitate toward the classics, such as Goodnight Moon, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, and Green Eggs and Ham. If it’s not readily apparent, I have two adorable young children.”
Favorite app: “Concur. Filing and approving expense reports used to be massively tedious and involve hours of effort. The Concur app has made this much easier. Life’s simple pleasures!”
Click or tap here to read the stories behind the successes of the other Direct Marketing News 2014 40 Under 40 winners.
