UM, the global media agency network of IPG Mediabrands, is launching an entirely new role—U.S. chief marketplace officer. Stacey Stewart, who is taking on the new position, was previously executive VP, managing partner and integrated investment. In this interview, Stewart outlines the logic behind the position and describes how she plans to drive greater media responsibility and marketplace equity, which Stewart says is “critical to the success of our industry.” 

This conversation is lightly edited for length and clarity.

See Ad Age's 2021 Marketers of the Year here.
 

What is a chief marketplace officer?

We've had an investment team for a lot of years and it's been kind of status quo. We've evolved–we've obviously been more integrated, negotiating across different channels: TV, digital, print–but we're still largely negotiating within those channels. The “marketplace” is looking across channels. So if you think of the media landscape as how an audience consumes media, I think of the marketplace as to how I’d buy media and how you consume media and realizing that they are different. The marketplace is really looking at how you buy that media in this fragmented landscape. 

What will be your responsibilities?

It's really looking across the media plan and finding ways to invest based on the totality of that media plan, versus looking within each channel. The media partners are not just selling one thing these days, we're dealing in a world where Google sells TV and NBC sells social and all media is becoming shoppable. So [the goal is to] look across a client’s media plan and come up with a marketplace investment strategy that addresses the complexities of the market across the channels rather than looking at one channel at a time.

How is this a unique role?

We think that it kind of flips traditional investment on its head a little bit, moving past looking at investment strategies on an individual channel, and really looking at investment channels across the port, the media plans across those channels in a more meaningful way. Having technology that really allows us to identify our audiences in a more clean way and optimize across the media partners portfolios, optimize more across the different platforms is really what we're looking for. And I'm excited about it.

Why is this role necessary now?

The fragmentation of the video landscape, in particular, has gotten so big right now, and you have to think of social in that same area, but nothing lives in that one bucket anymore. All those lines have blurred. So I think the time's right, based on the fact that if I ask a 22-year-old what TV is, they have a very different answer than my mother, for example. And if you think of, in the world of “cord-cutters,” and “cord-nevers,” how can I better reach these audiences, because it is a really fragmented world. And those lines have blurred regarding what they consider entertainment and how they're consuming content.

Obviously, given all the changes in measurement that are going on right now, it allows us to look at things more cross-channel as well. A lot of what we're working on is setting up the tools, which will be in the tech, which will be crucial to help us navigate this. That’s really been my focus over the last few weeks: technology.

Will you have a specific team?

We are working on what the team will look like. We will have a specific group of people that are very skilled in a marketplace strategy type role. And ideally, we will have some people that are focused on media partners across specific areas as well as activation. 

Ideally, we’d like to hire from inside. We have amazing talent. So my first choice is always to look from within. But of course, diversifying our talent is also a key goal for us—I want to make sure that we're staffing as we think of the audiences that we want to reach. Having a diverse workforce is key.

What are some goals you have for this role?

Media responsibility is a huge goal of ours. It's certainly something that I'm passionate about in particular. We're holding our media partners accountable. And secondly, I really want to make sure that we're getting the most for our clients in the marketplace from a negotiation perspective, so making sure that we’re getting the most value and their return for their dollar. 

Our media partners have been evolving their offerings beyond one thing and one channel for the last few years. The partners I'm excited to work with are willing to push the envelope on how we're looking at things and how we're measuring things. It’s changing the currency of the way we do business.

See Ad Age's 2021 Marketers of the Year here.

What do you foresee as challenges?

Well, measurement is catching up, but the measurement isn't quite there yet. It's definitely evolving at a quick rate, but it's not perfect and will continue to evolve. So as that keeps changing, it makes it a little bit difficult. I think the other challenge is that we are really changing our mindset to break ourselves out of some of the walls set up in the silo setup that have been there historically.