In practice, that means adtech combined with measurement software, offline location and sales data and even in-store sensor tech. So, let’s find out what Paul does with his day (and remember, if you’re looking for new opportunities yourself, head to the Econsultancy jobs board).
Econsultancy: Please describe your job: What do you do? And who do you report to?
Paul Maraviglia: As general manager of MaxPoint Europe, I report to our COO, Gretchen Joyce, who is based in the US. I work in London where I manage MaxPoint’s European operations, with a team of twelve sales, account management and data insights consultants supporting me.
We work together to elevate our client’s success, focusing on optimising data to offer a complete view of the consumer, their location and interests, as well purchase intent.
E: What kind of skills do you need to be effective in your role?
PM: I rely on having a good understanding of the digital ecosystem, as well as the retail and FMCG landscapes. Although knowledge of retail technology is vital, it is not valuable unless it is communicated clearly to clients, to ensure they understand the multiple opportunities our data can provide.
Networking skills are also imperative to success; the ability to leverage strong relationships with key agencies and retail clients is a must.
E: Tell us about a typical working day…
PM: The first thing I do every morning is read the trade press and MaxPoint’s internal insights so I am up to date with the relevant news for the day ahead. The first half of my day usually consists of a number of meetings with our partner tech vendors as well as external meetings with my sales team.
At 2pm, my US colleagues come online, so my afternoon is spent on conference calls with various teams, such as business analytics, marketing, insights and financial management.
E: What do you love about your job? What sucks?
PM: There are many things I love about my job, so I won’t list them all! But mainly, it is that no two conversations are ever the same due to our diverse group of clientele, which ranges from FMCG to beauty.
I love the fast-paced excitement of being a startup here in the UK. At MaxPoint, innovation and experimentation is always encouraged with the support of an established PLC in the US. Overall, building the UK team has been an amazing journey and seeing our incredible growth over the years has been extremely gratifying.
The agency world has gradually moved towards trading agreements, which sometimes restricts opportunities with potential clients, so missing business opportunities definitely sucks!
Also my expenses submission every month: need I say more?
E: What kind of goals do you have? What are the most useful metrics and KPIs for measuring success?
PM: Obvious goals consist of a mixture of short-term revenue goals and longer-term growth. A key metric for me at the moment is ensuring our data sets from MaxPoint Audience Segments are in as many places as possible in the FMCG and retail industries.
E: What are your favourite tools to help you to get the job done?
PM: I use Salesforce to manage our client base and sales pipeline, as well as Zoom for all of my video conferences.
We also have an internal tool, which we call MIP, that allows us to create detailed heat maps of where audiences and target profiles are most likely to be across the country, making our retail technology much more efficient.
E: How did you get into location-based tech, and where might you go from here?
PM: I began my career in print and international television with a focus on business, luxury goods, and finance, however I soon realised digital and mobile were quickly expanding.
In 2013 my digital journey began at Undertone, a leader in high impact digital advertising, where I headed up the European sales team. In 2015, I was approached by MaxPoint to manage their European operations, an amazing opportunity to help build a business that already had strong foundations in FMCG and retail technology.
MaxPoint has some great opportunities coming up and its acquisition by Valassis has just been announced, so I’m extremely excited to see what the future holds.
E: Which brands have you been impressed by recently when it comes to online-offline marketing?
PM: Any brand that has adopted hyper-local execution into their strategy is on the right tracks, but Asda, Lloyds and Danone are definitely at the top of my list. They have demonstrated the power of combining on and offline data to gain efficient consumer insights, and use these to great effect.
E: Do you have any advice for people who want to work in retail tech?
PM: Always be one step ahead of the consumer. Retail tech is a very competitive industry, so you need to be dynamic and understand the space to succeed.
As well as holding knowledge of the space, you must ensure that you are always present in the retail tech market to keep this insight up-to-date. Attend events and network with relevant names in the industry wherever possible to stay on top of trends.
Retail tech is always developing and your job is all about making that technology more accessible to retail brands. So my advice would be to demystify technology at every opportunity and continue to demonstrate the multiple possibilities of audience insights to retailers.
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