What do you do at Adara?
I am the Sales Director for the UK, Ireland and Netherlands, based in London. I look after Adara’s media business, representing it to a selection of media agencies and clients in the region. I think that our sales team, the chief job is being able to distil effectively what Adara can do and how it can clearly help a business. And we need to do this regardless of how much experience that business has in the data field. Aside from that I also have responsibilities of turning on the radio in the morning and complaining about people eating lunch in the office.
What is the biggest day to day challenge you face in your role, and how do you try to overcome that?
We operate in an incredibly crowded marketplace, particularly here in the UK, so keeping Adara’s profile high is probably the chief challenge. There are lots of companies in the space shouting very loudly, often louder than us, so for me it’s about working more strategically in identifying partners who would genuinely benefit from what we do and building advocacy that way.
What is the biggest challenge you face in the next 12 months and how are you preparing to face it?
I think for me it has to be winning the Adara Fantasy Premier League and wrestling the title away from our Marketing Director. Aside from that I think that the move away from reliance on cookie based targeting will prove an interesting next chapter in the advertising technology story. This, plus everyone’s least favorite topic, the GDPR legislation and how that affects what we do will be good to watch. I am pleased to say that Adara is taking strong steps to be prepared for both.
What do you love about working in the travel sector?
Generally, people enjoy talking about travel. It’s something that makes people happy and positive, and so working for an organization that is associated with that makes people receptive to what you have to say. My last role before travel was working for a sports broadcaster and I used to think that nothing would be more fun than talking to people about sport all day. This was sort of true, but travel supersedes it now for me.
What is your favorite holiday destination?
I’m contractually bound to say Tuscany as that is where I got married. Aside from that, we had a brilliant Christmas in Barbados two years ago, which runs it pretty close. Father Christmas arrived on a catamaran on Christmas morning which totally blew our kids’ minds
What is your #1 Bucket list travel destination?
There are two really. Japan was always the place that my wife and I said that we would go before she trapped me into having children. So now we agree that it will be the first place we go as soon as the kids don’t fancy holidaying with us anymore. And second would be Chile. My grandmother was born and raised there, as you can probably tell from my South American appearance, yet none of the family have been there as she moved to Canada after the war. I’d love to see where life started for her.
What are the three things you would take with you to a deserted island?
- A piano. I can’t play, but I’d like to teach myself. It’s less of a cliché than a guitar and potentially more firewood if I was no good.
- An infinite supply of single malt whisky. Nothing less than 15 years old. I’m not an animal.
- A life size cut out of Tom Denton, my office mate and fellow seller, so I’d have someone to talk to.