Consumer psychology, attribution technology, and rehydrating with wine
Editor's Note: "Meet a Media Planner" is our ongoing series of Q&As where we find out what's on the minds of media planners at agencies across the country. Today we hear from Jessica Claus, a senior digital strategist for OMD in Los Angeles. Jessica has been with OMD---which was named Adweek's Media Agency of the Year in 2011---for two years, with an additional two years of work under her belt from a smaller boutique agency. Her current media-planning role is dedicated exclusively to Visa.
Yahoo! Ad Blog: What's the best part of your job with OMD?
Jessica Claus: It's definitely fun to work on campaigns from start to finish and see everything come to life, but I really like the psychological aspect of media planning. There's more to it than people realize, because you really have to dive into consumer behavior and understand who your target is, how they think, and what they do.
YAB: Was that something that drew you to the job in the first place?
JC: I didn't realize how big a part of the job it would be. I was interested in that sort of thing in college---I took a couple of consumer behavior classes---but it's definitely more interesting putting it into practice. It's something I've really grown to like about my job.
YAB: What has surprised you the most about your work as a media planner?
JC: To be honest, I kind of fell into advertising on accident. I was a business major, and I knew finance and accounting weren't for me and that I wanted to do marketing. Then, as part of a mentorship I did in college, I toured an advertising agency and everyone was walking around in flip-flops and jeans. It was a really cool environment, so I thought, "This looks like a place I'd like to work!"
On kind of a whim, I started applying to agencies and got involved in media, and it has ended up being something I really love---which I wasn't expecting at all. I was kind of just getting into it because I thought it would be interesting and it looked like fun, but I'm surprised by how much I enjoy it.
YAB: What's the most challenging part of the job?
JC: Those Friday afternoon fire drills. Things happen so fast, especially in the digital world. Everybody always needs something right away and that can get a little stressful.
YAB: How do you de-stress after a fire drill?
JC: I go on a long run---I just did my first half-marathon---and then I rehydrate with a glass of wine. That's pretty much the standard process.
YAB: I love it. Without giving away your client's secret sauce, can you share what's top of mind for Visa right now?
JC: Probably attribution technology, which is based on the whole idea of giving credit where credit is due. Traditional analytics seem to attribute everything to the last click or the last impression, but it's really a lot bigger than that. It's a challenge to figure out how every single media channel is working together to ultimately drive the action we're looking for, but we want to make sure we're optimizing on what's actually working instead of just the last click or impression.
YAB: Are there any campaigns you've seen recently outside of OMD that really impressed you?
JC: One campaign I followed this month was for an album release for the band The XX. They sent one fan a link to a website that had the whole album on it, and then encouraged that person to listen and share it. The website tracked how it spread from there, and two weeks later it was around the entire world. I thought that was really cool. It shows the power of social media and sharing.
