Spotify’s Julie Clark on building business without a road map

Julie Clark is into podcasts—she has to be at Spotify, which is deeply invested in them—and it’s her job to drive revenue from podcasts (and other audio) advertising. The only thing is, there is not enough time in the day, so “sometimes I do listen at 1.2x or 1.5x speed,” she says. Clark notes that she’s a fan of the podcasts “Armchair Expert” and “The Rewatchables,” as well as “Call Her Daddy,” which is newly exclusive to Spotify. Investing in shows and technology (e.g., Spotify acquired Megaphone, the audio ad tech company, last November) is paying off for Spotify advertising, which grew 46% year-over-year in the first quarter to $262 million. Spotify also just launched an audience network, which will help serve audio ads to podcasts owned by Spotify and third-party companies. “I always love to work on new parts of the business,” Clark says. “I typically operate in areas that don’t have a road map yet.” See all of Ad Age's 2021 Leading Women U.S. and Europe here. What advice would you give your younger self? Don’t be afraid to take a risk. What’s the biggest risk you’ve ever taken? Every single role that I’ve taken, I’ve never necessarily known 100% what was expected of me before getting into that role. So that’s kind of it: The biggest one was moving from broadcast TV and national cable into the network, digital-audience world. If you weren’t doing your current job what would you be doing and why? In a non-parallel universe, I would love to be a professor of marketing or sociology, or maybe a mix of both. And in a parallel universe I’d be on Broadway. What should the industry do to encourage more women and people of color into its ranks? This comes down to mentorship and allyship across the board. That has to be from the top-down and the bottom-up. It’s really about how we extract all of the goodness that we can from every employee, and also being able to find opportunities for diverse employees to be able to excel. Equality is so important and it goes beyond homogeneous networks. Which campaign or other piece of work have you seen in the last year that you wish you had done? I loved the Match.com COVID dating one. See all of Ad Age's 2021 Leading Women U.S. and Europe here.

Spotify’s Julie Clark on building business without a road map

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