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AdTechGod Pod
Ep. 69 Streaming Success & Human Connection: Meagan Myers on AdTech, AMC, and Partnerships
00:26:29
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- [00:01]
Adtech God
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- [01:30]
Megan Myers
Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited to be here.
- [01:33]
Adtech God
Yeah, I'm, I'm excited to have you here. We have some mutual friends, so I, I love it when people are referred to me because then I know that they're like really good people. And based on our prior chat, you're awesome. So I'm super happy to have you here.
- [01:44]
Megan Myers
Insane. I'm excited.
- [01:46]
Adtech God
Megan, you've been at AMC for a while now. Do you mind just giving the audience some insight as to how you reached where you're at today at AMC and what you're doing there?
- [01:56]
Megan Myers
Yeah, absolutely. So my programmatic journey is it's, you know, it's been programmatic the whole time and it's been quite the journey. So coming out of college, I knew that I wanted to get into advertising. I have kind of a, a CPG and a marketing family, but I had no idea where to go from there. But I actually ended up starting with SpotX right out of college in their headquarters in Denver, which was really exciting. You know those moments kind of when you look back at your early career and you kind of look at how far you've come? I always think about the question that I asked my account manager at the time of can you tell me the difference between vast and V paid? And sometimes today I still kind of think about that and you're like, wow, I've come pretty far. So it's nice to look back on, on those days and see what you've learned from there. I actually, you know, at I was probably 24 and had the opportunity to help set up the SpotX Paris office. And you know, at that point in my career it was the right age, the right time, the right opportunity and I didn't want to be faced with, you know, any what ifs. So I remember meeting I and I actually minored in French in college and I met with Sebastian Robin who was going to open up the office. And you know, I'm over here thinking I'd love to help you guys train. I would love to, you know, be over there and live this great life. And he goes, yeah, so two to three years, right? You're good with that. But, but what do you do? You know, it was like the Emily in Paris before there was Emily in Paris. And I had to think about it and it was like, it was like Megan in ad tech. The ad tech version, it was really exciting and it was cool. But it took me from being an account manager for publishers and just being focused fully on that to having to look at how do you start an office. Like truly a startup mentality. There were only four of us so I was speaking to publishers, speaking to DSPs, talking to AD tech partners, helping the demand team figure out how to use the system and start a campaign. And you know, we built this business and it was really exciting and I learned a lot and I actually used Julian who is the solutions engineer. I consider him one of my all time mentors. But, but he and I sat right next to each other and I would roll over and ask him all these ideas about building things and I think that that really helped me dig into the deeper tech portions of Programmatic. And I've always been an outgoing person and focus on relationships and sales but I think that that really helped me build a lot of that tech background and understanding which has really helped me today just be a more well rounded person and know what I'm selling. I guess when it comes to the actual advertising behind it.
- [04:32]
Adtech God
Yeah, like the understanding of the technical aspect of it is there. I mean you, you started off at SpotX as, as really like an inventory specialist and then you moved up over a period of almost five years and now you're obviously leading all of account management and partnerships at amc. How much do you think those foundational pieces play in, in how you work with clients today?
- [04:54]
Megan Myers
Yeah, I think it played A huge role. I just. Even from the aspect of. Of moving to different places, but then also thinking about dealing with different markets, different impacts, gpr, and then coming back to the New York market and figuring out how all these things fit. I think it really took me from a one size all fits kind of style of business to having to get creative and having to be a little bit more flexible just because things don't always work. Whether it's a different market, it could even be like an east coast or a west coast company and the industries and people, things like that. You just have to be flexible and kind of look at things across the board. And I think that moving to a few different countries helped, which is awesome, by the way. It was. It was cool. After Paris, I moved to London. That was very, very cool. And I helped them, like, move the French business to London. The only downside was that Covid happened to occur when I was in London, and I thought living in central London would be so cool. And I had this, like, you know, very nice studio apartment. But if it's a studio, you're never gonna be there, then you're there all the time.
- [06:02]
Adtech God
That's gotta be tough. Yeah. Without having the space.
- [06:05]
Megan Myers
And I loved the London team. They were great. But that, you know, that one got kind of cut short, but it ended up being okay, I think. I know. I knew that I wanted to come to the pub side, and There was the SpotX Magnite merger, plus Covid. It was the right time for me to make the move and come. Pub side.
- [06:21]
Adtech God
You've obviously worked in this space for quite some time, and. And I feel like, you know, SpotX was probably a big part of filling and, like, building those foundations of knowledge that you have now that you're working on the pub side. Like you said, there's so many different types of publishers in this space, but AMC in particular is really kind of considered like a premium publisher in the CTV space. Right. Like, they've been known for storytelling, They've been known for great content. How do you feel AMC can differentiate or how do they differentiate their type of content? Which I like and my wife absolutely loves.
- [06:57]
Megan Myers
Yes.
- [06:58]
Adtech God
From. From what is, you know, like a pretty crowded streaming world.
- [07:02]
Megan Myers
AMC Networks took a really unique approach. There's a lot of streaming apps out there, and, you know, everybody's content is good. All the apps are great. But AMC just took a different strategy in that way. What we had found out is that, I mean, just like you had mentioned about you and your wife, people are really into the Content. And, you know, I think that that even reflects looking at Comic Con and some of these things. The audiences are borderline, you know, obsessed and like want to be a part of it. And so when we looked at making sure that we're hitting all of that audience and giving them the content that they want, we decided to put our content on as many apps as possible, rather than kind of putting it under exclusively the AMC space. Just because everybody has a lot of streaming apps today and, you know, there can only be so many. And I think we wanted to make sure that nobody is missing out on watching the AMC content that they love. And that has really had a great effect. We have taken it from, you know, being a few fast channels on one space to now being across, I'd say majority of all streaming services. We have fast channels and we've even kind of moved to when our in season premieres happen. We're also premiering those on fast as well. So we just want to make sure that we're getting that content in front of people, no matter how they want to watch it. And we've gotten a really positive response with that.
- [08:23]
Adtech God
Yeah, I mean, I would think that, you know, being on every possible endpoint is, is a goal and a focus until you figure out which endpoints are the ones that perform the best or, you know, drive the most user base or generate the most ad inventory possible. But I know that, that there's been companies I've spoken to also that, you know, did that same strategy initially. They were, you know, really focused on one or two distribution channels. And then they decided like, we're going everywhere, we're casting a really wide net because we, our users are very wide net and so we want to be able to catch them on their Roku tv, on our owned app, on Firestick, wherever they're at, we need to be there or else we're just not capturing their attention, in essence, not bringing our content to them. So it's a, it's a smart play.
- [09:06]
Megan Myers
Yeah, exactly. And it's, and it's worked out for us. And I think TV continues to change and the way people watch continues to change. And I think making sure that we're meeting people in the current state has just, I think, prepared us for what it looks like tomorrow or two years from now.
- [09:24]
Adtech God
How has that changed for you? So, you know, distributing your content across different endpoints or different vmvts or fast channels or your owned and operated app, or is that what we call it now? Is it an Odin operated app? I don't even know what we would call it anymore at this point.
- [09:41]
Megan Myers
Yeah.
- [09:41]
Adtech God
Your own app. Do you feel like that changes the way your ad strategy is with your potential advertisers? Like, is it reaching the right audiences in the right way that you want it to?
- [09:52]
Megan Myers
I would say yes and no and no in a positive way. Right. I would say that it hasn't really adapted things and it's adapted things at the same time. We're still looking to hit everybody. I think that there's a few things that we can do with sponsorship, which is really exciting when it comes to kind of looking within amc. There's, you know, new exciting formats that come and that's just our bread and butter. Right. So we can get the new stuff in there and kind of the bright shiny ad formats and exciting things on that app. But I think that if you look at only advertising to your own and operated app, that you're missing out. I kind of like what we had just spoken about. You're missing out on, on a big amount of your audience. And so we have a really big data and research team that kind of makes sure that we are hitting our audience across every device, across every streaming platform, just however they're doing it. We are pretty much just selling cross platform and cross streaming services and it's been really successful. But of course, obviously you have a little bit of tech advancement, I think when it comes to your own app that you get to kind of play around with and do some cool things with, which has been really exciting, I think, especially for the partnerships team.
- [11:00]
Adtech God
So how is your role in particular with working with, you know, these potential partners? Are you working with more on the monetization side? Like who are your monetization partners or are you working on the, you know, distribution partnerships side of the business?
- [11:15]
Megan Myers
I would say it's mainly on the kind of ssp, third party demand kind of side of things. Recently we had a few new responsibilities get added to our team, which has been really exciting. So we actually do now look at some of the distribution partners and work on the sales side of those agreements, which has been really exciting. I think that that's a big growing space for us. As mentioned, we wanted to meet our audience. So we work with a large number of partners and that side of the business is just continuing to grow, which is really exciting. And I think that there's partnerships that we haven't even scratched the surface on for potential. And I think that's the cool kind of one year plan. Even looking forward about kind of the new Things that we can do together.
- [12:00]
Adtech God
I feel like the monetization part is important. Picking your partners are right. There's a lot of SSPs in the space. There's a lot of DSPs in this space. But picking those partners, the right partners, is really the right strategy. Like, years ago, it used to be just plug everyone in. Yeah. And it was like, just plug them in. And then that really changed fast when people started to go belly up and stop paying everyone. And that became a big issue. So now it's like really picking the partners that are bringing not only punctual payments, but also bringing in, like, unique demand becomes a real core focus, I'm sure.
- [12:33]
Megan Myers
And I think for anybody who's been in the ad tech space for, you know, the past 10 years and beyond, the amount of consolidation is. Is quite a lot. Yeah, yeah.
- [12:44]
Adtech God
No, it's insane. There's, like, five really good partners that you can work with, and you need to really cherish them and take good care of them and vice versa.
- [12:53]
Megan Myers
Yeah. And it is really nice to be able to have, you know, five separate conversations with people and say, okay, what's the unique opportunities today? And I think that that's really helped us. I, you know, want to give credit to our partners as well, that that's been helpful just to kind of bounce ideas off, sit down, get a brainstorming session in, say, here's where we want to take our business. How can you guys help us? And we've actually built tech around that, which has been really cool. We built this programmatic live linear product last year that runs through free will, and that's actually then inserting programmatic ads into our linear stream. And so things like that, you go, well, what should we do next? That's where I like to lean on partners and say, all right, what's next? What do we do?
- [13:35]
Adtech God
You know what? I feel like that is the definition of a partnership. The people who treat their partners like their vendors is really the wrong strategy, because then people don't share ideas because they're scared that they're going to get yelled at or they're going to say something they don't like. But, you know, building that relationship and trust and just being able to have the right conversation to brainstorm and come up with, you know, whether it's carving out your inventory in a specific way or something more advanced, like, you know, custom ad solutions and units that you can offer and how that works. I mean, all of that comes down to just having the right conversations with your partners.
- [14:07]
Megan Myers
It's so Important. And I think for me, the business is great and I love it. You know, it's really great to be able to love what you do. And I definitely do feel very lucky for that. But I think for me, one of the most important things is just the human connection. I think that's why partnerships really suits me. It's more than just an email, it's more than just a budget. It's. To me, it's a lot of the human connection, the like authentic human connection that's behind that, that completely changes the business and changes like it feels like it changes the flow of ideas that even come out of that partnership.
- [14:40]
Adtech God
It absolutely does. I mean, the open conversation is what really matters. Being able to just brainstorm and chat and even sometimes have a conversation that's. That's tough. Like whether there's a particular weakness in what you're doing or a weakness in what they're doing. That relationship and that trust to be able to say what that is and try to resolve it. Way more important than here's just money. I think it goes well beyond that and the right partners and the people working together with the right relationship, you can really work through it. It's like a marriage. It's not just a contract.
- [15:12]
Megan Myers
Yeah, absolutely. And listen, every day is not sunshine and rainbows. That's there's a few rain clouds, but it's about, you know, how do you work through those and how do we get back to sunshine and rainbows. And I think, yeah, having that human connection and not just calling up somebody for a favor every time, I think that's what makes our business great is I feel like a lot of people share that mindset too, which is great.
- [15:33]
Adtech God
We're a pretty tight knit community.
- [15:34]
Megan Myers
Yeah, I love it.
- [15:36]
Adtech God
Yeah, no, it's awesome. It's awesome. So in terms of, you know, I've spoken to people from Roku, I've spoken to people from other OEMs, LG. When it comes to AMC in particular and the content piece and the content recommendation, are you guys focused on more today, like distribution of that content and being able to make it available everywhere? Is there a play for you guys where content recommendation is a big core focus in order to keep them, you know, sticky and on your channels?
- [16:09]
Megan Myers
Yeah, so we actually came up, I believe that we came up with this in last year's upfront, but it's that we are not something for everybody, but we are everything to somebody.
- [16:18]
Adtech God
I actually like that.
- [16:20]
Megan Myers
So with content recommendation and figuring out how we're getting these titles out There it comes down to who, right? Who are we looking at and what do people want to watch? And so we have a lot of content, period. But there's everything from the Breaking Bads and the Mad Men, so these really good, intense, scripted dramas. There's things like Walking Dead and Mayfair Witches, which gets into a little bit of, like, gritty and fantasy. And then we get into BBC America where we have nature programming and then we have anime here. So it's a little bit like, truly, everybody can find something. So I think when it comes to keeping people engaged with AMC networks, across all of our networks and fast channels, I think you're going to find things that you want to watch. And I think that that's been really nice just to continue to build those libraries and continue to find things that people want to kind of say, okay, all right, I got some time. I'm gonna. I'm gonna go down this track. You know, when we look at putting our fast channels on these platforms, we have a reality channel, we have a nature channel, we have the kind of, like, one with the scripted dramas. So we keep people within that AMC engagement, but we keep them in kind of that niche that they wanna live in. And if you wanna try something new, perfect. We've also got something for you there.
- [17:39]
Adtech God
You could put me in the Breaking Bad bucket. I'm not big on zombies. I tried. I couldn't do it.
- [17:45]
Megan Myers
That's. You know what? We've got something for you too, if that's not your thing.
- [17:49]
Adtech God
Yeah, no, it's amazing. But, like, I. I know that some people I'm. I'm friends with love it. There's, like, an obsession and there's such a big market for that. Like, for me, like, Breaking Bad is pretty awesome.
- [18:00]
Megan Myers
That's. That's one of the tops. I think for me, it's the David Attenborough nature documentaries. Just to put it on the exact opposite of Breaking Bad, you know, like the Blue Planets and things like that. Just something about.
- [18:12]
Adtech God
Those are awesome.
- [18:13]
Megan Myers
Oh, so good.
- [18:14]
Adtech God
See, I forgot that was even content that you carried.
- [18:17]
Megan Myers
See, that's.
- [18:18]
Adtech God
I need to go discover. Yeah, I need to go discover more. It's incredible when you look at, you know, a company like AMC and how much content they have and how diverse it is. Like, I'm sure if I go look now and search through, I'm like, oh, my God, wait, that's AMC property. Like, yeah, seen that. And in years or I haven't watched that in a while, I'm going to go watch it.
- [18:36]
Megan Myers
Yeah. And it's funny because we, we say, you know, we're not something for everybody, but we're everything to somebody. But then when you start unraveling the library, you're like, wait, there actually is actually truly something for everybody here. Like my parents love Hell on Wheels. Like, that's amazing. You know, so everybody finds something, but we truly are like everything to the people that are really, really engaged. And that's really cool, I think.
- [19:01]
Adtech God
What do you feel is, is one of your, you know, biggest challenges working at AMC or working in the space in general that you feel either needs to be addressed overall for the industry or just something for you that you, you have challenges doing in the space?
- [19:18]
Megan Myers
I think something that we're moving into, to combat, I would say that there's a few challenges that we're looking at across the board. So of course, you know, we're seeing an increase in streaming and with people moving into streaming from linear and then with people looking into more, just different types of watching, it's becoming a little bit more about having segregated buying paths. So we're trying to look at that by tracking audiences and looking at more of like a holistic approach to cross platform buying. And I think that that's been something that we've been building out. We released Audience plus last year at our upfront, which is just saying, you know, if you're buying via set top box, if you're buying via tv, if you're buying via mobile, however you're looking to reach your audience, we can follow them and we could also follow them kind of as they're watching across AMC properties. So if you bought in one show, we can show you kind of what that whole model looks like for that person. And so I think that it's really cool looking at what TV is going to be in a year or five years from now. And I think AMC's done a really good job about launching the programmatic live linear product launching audience. Plus, just to say, let's make sure that we're staying up to date with trends, we're making sure that we're focusing on digital still keeping linear at a top priority as well. But let's just make sure that we're tracking your audience and helping you buy across everything rather than just making somebody, you know, a CTV deal and enjoy. So I think that that's been something really nice is just staying ahead of trends and beating a few of the challenges that are popping up.
- [20:51]
Adtech God
Yeah, I mean, I would think that, you know, like you mentioned data technology innovation, ad format innovation, is really a core focus. And then those pretty much all require understanding your audience and the content that they're consuming and then making that available to advertisers to target.
- [21:07]
Megan Myers
Yeah. And we have a huge first party data strategy. And I think looking at digital, there's always things that pop up, you know, different identifiers and feels like when you come around to a new upfront, people are asking, are you using this? And you're like, so I think just making sure that, you know, our data team is also being really nimble. I think with the new things that are popping up at market.
- [21:31]
Adtech God
You almost have to be at this point. It, it moves so fast and the more endpoints you have too, the more complicated it becomes because the signals are different. Like the, the Roku signals are very different than the LG that are very different than the Samsung devices that are different than the Fire Stick. Like everybody passes their own data set. Yes. A lot of them will match and they're what you want. But having the right data team and the right data strategies, beyond important.
- [21:56]
Megan Myers
Yeah. And working with all those distributors too. It's, you know, it's. It's like a different family dinner every single time. Right. You go and you have different conversations. Everything's a little different. The house is a little different.
- [22:06]
Adtech God
Yeah. You know, but the process is different.
- [22:09]
Megan Myers
Exactly. Do I have to take my shoes off here? Do I not at this place? You know, it's good though. I like it. It keeps things exciting. And those are also really good partners as well.
- [22:18]
Adtech God
You know, brand loyalty is something that I'm, I'm big on. Like, I'm pretty loyal to a few brands that I will never switch off of. And it's something that annoys, I guess, like my wife sometimes because. Because those brands are like brands that like, look, I just like it. That's what I buy. Like, I'm not going to change. And people are genuinely loyal to even a brand like AMC or a brand like anyone else in the market. But what are, what are you loyal to? Is there a, is there a brand in particular that you're like, okay, I love this brand. Like, I won't live without it.
- [22:50]
Megan Myers
That is a fantastic question. I don't know if there is a brand in particular. I will always say I am always stuck with a swell water bottle. You'll always see me out with that. And something about it. It's dented, but it has the mountains on it. Reminds me of Colorado. I am just kind of a ride or die for that one. For slow. I have to say that sounds so cliche.
- [23:13]
Adtech God
It's funny. It could be the simplest things. Like for me, it's a. It's a particular T shirt brand. Like, I will not move away from that brand. I've tried a couple others. Nothing fits the same, Nothing feels the same. It is what I buy. I have like 50 of them and I rotate through them. People think I wear the same shirt every day, but I don't.
- [23:30]
Megan Myers
Like, I promise you, this is 31 of 50. Tomorrow I'm wearing 32.
- [23:35]
Adtech God
Yeah, exactly. I'm like, don't worry, it's not the same shirt I've been wearing for four days straight. I just basically have no style.
- [23:40]
Megan Myers
Oh. I feel like I have a. My brand loyalty, I think sits with a lot of people. So rather than brands, I probably have some, some people loyalty. I love my dog family, have a good group of people, good friends. I think that's probably where a lot of my, my loyalty sits.
- [23:56]
Adtech God
Megan, if you didn't work in streaming tv, if you didn't work at AMC or ad tech or media, what do you think you'd be doing?
- [24:05]
Megan Myers
Great question. Because I have the answer for you.
- [24:07]
Adtech God
Yes.
- [24:08]
Megan Myers
So I love food and I love wine. And I think my brother and I actually, we spent some of COVID together and talked about like opening up this place. And then obviously when you look at the reality of opening anything, like restaurants or anything, you're like, wow, this is a liability. But I. Yeah, like, well, I think that I would love to own like a wine and cheese and maybe like, you know, small sandwiches. I would say mainly French, just with my time there. But I think owning a store like that would be my dream. And the best part of it, I think, goes back to the human connection part. I just want people to come in and ask me what kind of wine they should get or what kind of cheese they should get. That's a dream.
- [24:52]
Adtech God
So I have a similar one. Mine is a cafe.
- [24:55]
Megan Myers
Yeah, okay. Oh, I love that.
- [24:57]
Adtech God
So, so, like the idea of just, I'm a big coffee consumer, which is how I'm always tweeting at 4 o'clock in the morning and then tweeting again at 11 if I don't sleep because I'm just hammering coffee all day long. But a cafe. I was a very minor owner and one years ago, and then I just couldn't really do anything, so I walked out and I said, I just don't want to be a part of this, but I would love to one day open up a very cool, relaxed coffee shop. I don't know if you've heard of something called caribou coffee.
- [25:26]
Megan Myers
Yes.
- [25:27]
Adtech God
Okay. I don't know if you've ever been inside a caribou coffee, but, like, the. The environment's amazing. Like, they've done a really good job of the sofa and the decor and feeling like you're. You're kind of somewhere in, like, the mountains, skiing, even though it's not necessarily in a location like that. And that's, I think, what I would like to do. You know, just open up a coffee shop, makes a little bit of money. I hang out and get to meet people.
- [25:49]
Megan Myers
You just chill?
- [25:50]
Adtech God
Yeah, I just chill.
- [25:52]
Megan Myers
If you ever need cheese or wine, maybe you and I should talk about some of these things. Maybe your store can help me and. Exactly. This is perfect. Let's do it.
- [26:00]
Adtech God
Yeah. This is how deals are done. Amazing. Well, Megan, thank you so much for being here today. And thank you to AMC for having you as my guest.
- [26:07]
Megan Myers
Thank you so much. This has been awesome.
- [26:09]
Adtech God
Speak soon.
- [26:10]
Megan Myers
Speak soon.
- [26:12]
Adtech God
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.