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Insider conversation with: Josh Jacobs, SVP, brand advertising products and marketing, Glam Media

Josh Jacobs was appointed SVP of brand advertising products and marketing at Glam Media, a publisher and media network, on October 12. DMNews talks with Jacobs about the state of ad networks and how his experience as VP and general manager of Yahoo advertising technology platforms will help him in his new role.

Q. How did your responsibilities at Yahoo prepare you for the new role?

A. I worked on the publisher network and ad platforms and exchange at Yahoo. From that, I saw the challenges that publishers are facing in the current market. I was really close to both the technology and big network customers that are out there, and I saw at Glam a focus on digging deep into brand advertising as opposed to where the emphasis is now at most start-ups, which is performance marketing. The experience at Yahoo certainly helped me see how compelling Glam’s vision was and how unique their focus is.

Q. What will you work on in the new role?

A. I’ll be responsible for the network, the ad solutions and products that we build on top of the network, as well as for outbound marketing and communications. I’ll be bringing the overall story to the market about how Glam’s assets come together to deliver value for marketers.

Q. Can you describe Glam’s vertical model, and explain how it differs from a traditional network model?

A. What got me really excited about Glam is they’ve put together this huge audience, but they’ve done it through layering and putting ad products on top of that audience, in the channel model where we can go very deep into focused vertical areas like beauty or health. The technology across the whole network, such as behavioral targeting, allows us to find more granularly-defined audiences.

Q. What does the future hold for ad networks? 

A. There are a couple of things that are undeniable. People are spending more time online, and they’re living more of their lives online. What’s fundamental to the future is that advertising will always be with us and marketers need to spend their time where the audiences they’re trying to reach are spending their time, and that provides tremendous growth opportunity in digital marketing. I think there’s growth coming from more tradition channels like outdoor and print and television, but we’re just starting to scratch the surface on being able to deliver uniquely digital solutions that meet the needs of those budgets.

Q. What are your goals for the next 12 months?

A. I want to continue the momentum that the team has already built. The big reason I was brought in here was to partner with the sales team and scale up our solutions and deliver stronger and better ROI than competitive alternatives out there. I want to continue to see Glam being mentioned as the best and the brightest in the industry from the perspective of advertisers we’re partnered with.

Q. What will be your biggest challenge?

A. I think the digital advertising space is noisy, and the challenge that any smaller company has is growing mindshare and making sure they stand out in a crowd. To date, Glam has done a great job of that. For example, it has the largest female audience on the Web, and we have to continue to do those things that make us stand out from the hundreds of other pitches out there from less-differentiated competitors. The challenge is staying out in front of the innovation and opportunities, and making sure customers truly understand what Glam offers and why it’s more compelling than other noise in the market.

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