← AdTechGod Pod
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- [00:01]
AdTech God
A word from our sponsors. Advertisers. Are you ready to become a certified converged linear CTV and digital Video Media master? Introducing Nexen U, the online educational program dedicated to helping you better plan, buy, optimize and measure your converged campaigns. Taught by industry leaders from both the buy and sell side, Nexon U experts tackle the challenging topics like data analysis, identity, creative optimization, and more. So whether you're looking to fine tune your existing skill set or dive deep into new concepts, Nexen U is the place to be. Enroll today@you.nexen.com Again, that's u n e xxen.com welcome to the AdTech Godpod, your window into the world of advertising technology and the people behind it. I'm your host, AdTech God. Welcome to the AdTech God Pod, your go to for conversations with people who lead in streaming television. Joining us today is Kelly McMahon, SVP and head of global operations at LG AD Solutions. Kelly is a seasoned leader in the CTV and programmatic space with a track record of driving innovation and operational excellence. With deep expertise in ad tech and a passion for shaping the future of TV advertising. She's here to share insights on her career and where the industry is headed. Kelly, welcome to the ADTech Godpod.
- [01:33]
Kelly McMahon
Thank you so much for having me. I'm very excited to be here.
- [01:35]
AdTech God
Thank you. Kelly and I witnessed you speaking on the panel at the Market Tecture Live and Magnite event. That was great. What a great list of panelists up there. So it was a great conversation.
- [01:46]
Kelly McMahon
Very fun to be a part of. Great way to kick off the year at CES.
- [01:49]
AdTech God
As always, I love CES. I think everybody who complains on LinkedIn is just complaining for the sake of complaining. Like, it is probably the best way to start the year with getting together and resetting for, you know, new goals and targets and partnerships.
- [02:02]
Kelly McMahon
I definitely complain about it just because traveling to Vegas, but I agree, it's a great way to kick off the year. A lot of energy, a lot of partnerships. So I like that it's ingrained in the routine now.
- [02:13]
AdTech God
Totally. And it's like ripping off a band aid after two weeks of kind of doing nothing. You know, everybody really slows down and then you're like, right back in it, just sprinting. Thank you for being here. I know I've looked at your LinkedIn. I've heard your name, obviously saw you speak at the. At the panel. I'd love to hear about how you got into the industry and how you ended up at lg.
- [02:33]
Kelly McMahon
Yeah, Absolutely. So I started my career not in. AT tech. So I started working in the marketing department for a large multifamily housing company. I actually started as an intern the summer before my senior year in college, maintained the role throughout my senior year, and then converted to the company's first marketing Internet analyst when I graduated. Our goal as a marketing department as a company was just to lease as many apartments as possible, so drive up the occupancy rate across a very diverse portfolio of properties across the United States. And while this wasn't ad tech, it was also during a time where media was really changing significantly. And so when I was actually thinking about this, I felt really old. But at the time, people were changing the way they got information on where they wanted to live, right? So traditionally they would go to a local retailer, pick up a industry trade, and look at the apartments that were available for lease in their area. Well, that was actually shifting away. So as I entered into this role, I was part of a team that was shifting and modernizing and aligning the company's marketing strategy to where the consumer actually was. So instead of putting those ads and apartment guides, we were posting ads on Craigslist or on other digital trade outlets, heavily focusing on sel, building out robust websites with relevant information like price photos, floor plans, stuff that would allow people to consume the content, self qualify, and then, you know, visit a property and potentially convert into a lease if they were interested, if they were qualified. So this was a really interesting experience for me because reflecting back, this was a more established company. They were a publicly traded company. And I think one of the things is there was a lot of change happening. And because of this kind of large, established company, there was a lot of resistance to change. And for me, being new, that's my first job out of college, it was like, I'm trying to drive change, and it really showed me that change is inevitable and it's easier to embrace change versus resist it. And it also taught me to, like, look around the corner. You have to continue to look ahead or you're going to be passed by your competition. So I spent about four years in this role, ending my last year where I was able to manage a small team, which was great and helped me dip my toes into leadership. And I left because I wanted to expand beyond just this industry focus. I kind of looked at my colleagues around, and you had people that were in this industry for 30 years, but it. I mean, yes, we were in a time of change, but it wasn't exactly what I envisioned myself doing. So from there I went on to a regional independent ad agency. I took a role as an integrated media planner for the agency's largest account. Integrated at that point meant I was planning across all media, which is print, out of home, linear radio and then digital. But I truly got my butt kicked in that role. I learned so much. And I also knew even though I was planning media across all these different mediums and in a lot of cases digital was this add on because was new, wasn't totally figured out, you didn't know how to track, was really, really interesting and I could tell there was an opportunity to be really creative. So that's where I knew digital is what I wanted to build my career around. So from there I went to National Cine Media where I helped them build out an ad network to compliment their cinema advertising offering and worked at other ad networks which really just helped me build kind of my technical acumen learning about connectivity of ad tech. I also worked with a lot of developers and product folks, so again just really focused on the technology piece of the business as I was working directly with publishers building up ad networks. So it was really, really interesting to me.
- [06:44]
AdTech God
I hear so many similarities too. Like, you know, you were talking about the consumer behavior shifts from, you know, like print to digital. You were talking about, I know it's funny, but supply and demand of rental locations and how, how to balance that out based on, you know, obviously rent rates. And then I think the biggest part for me is just following the consumer and how their behaviors are changing. And that's something that we're currently going through now in, in the TV space, right? Like everybody is moving from linear to streaming and, and how's that impact advertisers and how does that impact supply and demand? So it's interesting how something that you started off at sounds very similar to what you're going through now at lg.
- [07:26]
Kelly McMahon
So many similarities. But on the surface I'm like working at a large multifamily company and working at ad tech startups seems polar opposite. And speaking of startups, so in 2013 I took a role at SpotX, which is now magnate. And I'd say this was a very pivotal role for me in my career. So, so I was there for over eight years and at SpotX I leaned heavily into the operations and customer success side of the business, both on the supply and the demand sides of the business. And SpotX at its core was programmatic. And as the company matured and we saw the changing landscape for TV very early on, innovators in the CTV space. The other thing is we were a global company so there was a lot to do and a lot to learn. So my first role at SpotX was leading client services which meant partnering with our sales team to execute all of the managed service business. So pre sales execution, post sale. And I said SpotX was a programmatic company. They did have managed service because early, early days of programmatic video buyers weren't ready. Right. So we still offered that managed service option to execute. So my team was responsible for that execution. And actually right when I joined the company SpotX had decided we that they were going to be more focused on being a supply side company and building technology for the supply side which meant all of the product and engineering attention was shifted to the supply side away from the buy side which I was part of. So that meant I learned a lot and executing through duct tape band aids and really taught me and my team that there's always a solution. Right. You just in a lot of cases have to look a lot harder. So if your customers like you and they trust you, it's easier to rebound maybe when your tech has issues. So within a year was promoted, started working on the DSP side again, started to see more, more and more buyers moving through programmatic pipes and after years of focusing just on the demand side my role expanded to the supply side and inventory quality. So looking at operations through all lenses of our customers and it really helped me develop a more macro view of the ecosystem and certainly made me a, a better leader being able to see both sides of our business and help me make more strategic decisions. So it was a, a very diverse experience and one experience, you know that certainly helped shape where I am today at LG Ad Solutions.
- [10:11]
AdTech God
It's interesting your, your, your career path which, which was I mean pretty, pretty linear in, in one aspect but started off in a totally different industry. But those foundations obviously helped you grow into where you are today. For, for LG ads things are changing a lot and obviously the, the consumer behavior is changing a ton. The competitive like landscape is changing a ton and it's, it's quite the like battle royale for who can capture the user on their screens. Right. So whether you're, you're dongle, if you want to call it that, you're a Roku device or Amazon Fire Stick, whether you're an OEM like LG or, or Vizio or anyone else, do you feel that your learnings you have, you know, from the past and understanding both the supply and the demand side really helps you have the right types of conversations and strategies. Do you feel that, you know, your SpotX experience and prior helps you today?
- [11:03]
Kelly McMahon
It absolutely does. I think being at a publisher, it's opened up a lot more. I'll call it partnerships because you know, whether I think the buy side partnerships are more expanded. We have our data which drives activation and measurement. But being a platform, you work with publishers, you work with buyers, you work with partners. But being in this role, it's like we're able to work with more partners, which has been really interesting for me. So I do think taking the programmatic expertise that I learned at SpotX, taking the buy side relationships with the platforms and the agencies and brands has been really beneficial. But then there's been a lot more doors open because we have our data and measurement solutions that are very unique to our business.
- [11:53]
AdTech God
Do you feel like, I mean having come from both the working both the buy side and the sell side and hearing how much connected television spend is increasing year over year, do you feel like the and this might be not a group people you interact with today, but do you feel like the buyers themselves and the media buyers themselves understand how buying television is different than the traditional linear or even traditional display and mobile app inventory because it can be very, very different.
- [12:23]
Kelly McMahon
Well, I would say the education on buying CTV has it's like the buyers are a lot more knowledgeable on why CTV is different than linear and why reporting or sometimes the level of transparency that you get is different. So I do think that we're over some of those educational humps, although I don't think it's changing what they want to say like, hey, I always traditionally bought linear in this way. I get these metrics. I'm buying the big screen and tv. I want the same exact metric. So I think there's still a lot of while buyers know there's still a lot of education of like what can actually be delivered and also pivoting the expectation of like, hey, maybe we can't deliver the same level of granularity, but you can actually add on measurement to look at outcomes in a different way. There's still more education to be had. I think we're in better. We've come a long way, I'll call it in the last five years now it's how do we continue that education when it comes to reporting and measurement?
- [13:34]
AdTech God
So measurements, big outcomes is obviously big and a big topic that seems to be floating around. I feel like it goes through its ebbs and flows of is connected television a performance channel or not? How do you see connected television? And do you think it's a performance channel or is it not a performance channel?
- [13:53]
Kelly McMahon
I'd say the one thing that I hear over and over again from the market is I just need measurement and insights and they need to tie back to some sort of outcome, whether it be a brand lift or actually somebody going to a website and taking action. And in our case as an oem, we actually do a lot of direct, call it direct response. We have a lot of apps, right. Apps on the television and a lot of partners on the media and entertainment side are running media to drive more downloads into those apps or more usage into those apps. So I think depending on your level of capabilities, it definitely can be a doctor solution. And I think it's going to move more and more that way because buyers need to prove out what's working and what's not. And we do. CTV is a measurable environment where you can show the effectiveness of your ad spend.
- [14:53]
AdTech God
So like coming off of the, you know, IAB alm, something that David Cohen at IAB said was, you know, everything we do is focused on measurement. Like that should be our ultimate goal. But another topic that was talked about was obviously the, the AI topic. And the AI topic just seems to be flooding the Internet everywhere. Like you can't get away from it. It doesn't matter if you're an ad tech or you're in farming. Like AI is just all over the place. How do you feel AI is going to benefit? I guess the streaming space either for the advertiser or for the measurement solutions or even for the consumer and how they discover inventory. But I'd love to hear your view on it.
- [15:36]
Kelly McMahon
Yeah. So for LG, AI is certainly very important. I call it LGE. So the TV manufacturer, the WebOS and then LG ONS. Right. We have the ACR data and are owning the monetization piece of the business. But when we think of AI, we're really focused on the consumer experience on the television. So it's better content recommendations. So really looking at the user's flow, their history to deliver a better content rich experience. So you know, today what do we say? Like people spend 11 minutes on the home screen trying to figure out what they want to watch. How do we optimize that experience? And then with that optimized experience through AI, how do we deliver more relevant ads based on the content that the user is watching? So our focus on AI right now is really user experience and putting the right content in front of users. And then I Think next is complementary. How do we marry the advertising to that recommendation or that contextually relevant experience?
- [16:46]
AdTech God
That was great by the way, because I think a lot of times I view AI more on the optimization capabilities or gen AI for creative. But the amount of data that you're able to collect, obviously in a compliant way, in terms of what's being viewed and what content they're interested in, whether it's category or any other signals that you see, is really important to keep the user there. Just making it sticky. Right? Like offering the right content makes them watch more, they watch more, you serve more ads and then you make more money. I mean it's like common, common sense kind of cycle of that. But do you think that AI in particular could be like the biggest opportunity for lg? Is this something that you feel over the next year or so is really going to drive the growth for, for streaming television?
- [17:35]
Kelly McMahon
I feel like I, yes, there's going to be some advancements made this year, but I would, I say it's the most impactful. I feel like it's a longer term ever evolving strategy. When I think about this year, I think we're, you know, we're focused on really like the ad experience too. So how do we make the ad experience more creative, more engaging for the user, especially when they're on our home screen. When we also think about just kind of the advertising access, we're thinking about how to see. TV is kind of everywhere now. So how do we activate with more customers? So really focus on like the small business sector and ensuring that our inventory is available to those buyers. Actually when you talk about AI, they have the capabilities, you know, not necessarily something we're building, but there's AI tools that kind of remove the barriers that some small businesses add to say like hey, I might only be able to do social or I'm only gonna have one linear now with AI tools you can build your own creative that's custom to the user in a specific market and place that on ctv.
- [18:48]
AdTech God
Do you guys have a user facing, I guess UI to buy media or do you have to go?
- [18:55]
Kelly McMahon
We do not. Sorry. We do not. We do not. No.
- [18:57]
AdTech God
Yeah, because I think like is it Universal ads is announced? Yes.
- [19:02]
Kelly McMahon
From Free Will. Yeah. Launched universal ads. I know other OEMs have consumer facing products to log into and that's something we've considered but for now we're leaning in more to the programmatic channels to connect with those consumers.
- [19:17]
AdTech God
It's not easy working. I mean you guys are already working with consumers on the Consumption content side, I would think that, you know, working with, I guess consumers on the media buying side is like a whole different ball game. Like if I would do the same, I'd say I'd leave it up to somebody else. Let them create the UI and the dashboard and the capabilities and I'll focus on my inventory quality.
- [19:38]
Kelly McMahon
Exactly. Inventory quality and data strategy is what we're focused on. And I think it's one thing to build a platform. You have to have an entire activation strategy to support that.
- [19:47]
AdTech God
That sounds miserable.
- [19:49]
Kelly McMahon
Yeah, yeah.
- [19:50]
AdTech God
I think like Roku does it, I think Universal Ads does it. A company called Vibe does it. I'll let them figure it out.
- [19:57]
Kelly McMahon
Well at that. Yeah, exactly.
- [19:59]
AdTech God
What kind of keeps you in the industry you've now worked in, in advertising or ad tech for quite some time. What do you think is really the most compelling thing about it that that keeps you here and keeps you working in the space?
- [20:10]
Kelly McMahon
I love the change and I love the pace. I feel like I get the opportunity to do a lot work in a lot of different aspects of the business. Operations, working with clients, the technical back end, working with product and engineering. So I don't feel that I'm just segmented into one specific discipline. I have the opportunity to work across a lot of the business and that's been really fun. And then change, I, you know, change is hard, but change is growth. And so I embrace change because that gives me or people on my team or the company the opportunity to grow. And so personally I like being comfortable and routines but professionally I like the growth. Right. I like that things are changing and that I have to help adapt to that change or embrace that change. And those are really the two things that make me, you know, allow me to enjoy my job at a very high level. Like I'd say I, most days I give myself like an A minus on my work life enjoyment.
- [21:21]
AdTech God
I love routine. Like I'm totally a creature of habit. So in my day to day I definitely know what I'm doing every single day and every hour. Especially with a family, I feel like 100, I know exactly what I'm doing at 4:30pm and what I'm doing at 7:15. And it's, it's a nice way for me personally, like a nice way to live. I like, I just like the consistency. And then I flipped to this industry and I'm like, my God, it changed again. So it's really hard to keep up. So I, I definitely like that balance where like my personal life is very steady but then my Work life is often challenging and there's so much new information being thrown around that I have to be on my toes to just, you know, read and learn.
- [22:03]
Kelly McMahon
Same thing. My routine, my personal life, very, very strict and stringent. But work kind of counterbalances that and I appreciate it and it certainly drives me and is giving me the motivation to continue to be part of this industry. The other thing I would just say is the people and the relationships in this industry are also. There's so many opportunities to collaborate and there's so many relationships that you can build from that. It makes the work also really special, even when it's extremely challenging.
- [22:33]
AdTech God
It's funny, I have like outside industry friends, but they're all linked to my kids. So it's like my kids activities, parents and I see them and you know, they're fine. Like I have nothing to talk about except for whatever the kids activities are. But a majority of my friends are now in this industry. Like it has become a part of my life. That makes sense.
- [22:53]
Kelly McMahon
It makes total sense.
- [22:55]
AdTech God
My past clients and past partners are now, you know, clients and partners here. It really does turn into like a pretty great community of people that you work with and then you learn about on a personal level too. So if you weren't working in ad tech, what do you think you'd be doing?
- [23:11]
Kelly McMahon
Well, I love, I feel like I'd be a travel agent. I love planning trips and experiences. So most recently I just went to wine country and planned out every aspect of our trip and had a lot of very fun, unique experiences. So I love doing that for me and my, for my family. And I feel like that's something. If I wasn't doing ad tech that I'd love to do that as maybe my second career.
- [23:41]
AdTech God
What's just out of curiosity, what's your favorite place that you've been to that you love?
- [23:47]
Kelly McMahon
I guess Florence. I love it.
- [23:51]
AdTech God
Yeah, traveling is fun. I, I feel like I don't have as much energy as I used to. I used to travel a lot more when I was a little younger. It was something I enjoyed. Now I think it's a little more complicated because it's not just me.
- [24:03]
Kelly McMahon
I, I'm with you on that. So my, my favorite experiences are usually my childless experiences when I'm traveling. Yeah.
- [24:11]
AdTech God
Oh yeah. I mean, hopping on a plane with kids and dealing with that as you're, you know, traveling six, seven hours or 10 hours, it's. It's brutal. So tiring. Awesome. Well, Kelly, thank you, thank you so much for being here and thank you to LG Ad Solutions for having you.
- [24:25]
Kelly McMahon
Thank you. I appreciate you having me.
- [24:26]
AdTech God
Of course. Thank you. Speak soon thanks for tuning in to another episode of the AdTech Godpod, a podcast for the people about the people. Stay connected with me for more insights, trends and interviews in the realm of ad tech. Don't miss out on the latest updates, so follow me on X Instagram and connect with me on LinkedIn. Don't forget ATG Slack community has insights, networking opportunities and jobs. Keep the conversation going and stay at the forefront of ad tech innovation.