Our new ‘Profile: A Day in the Life of’ feature takes a look at some of the global professionals working within performance marketing. It aims to shed light on the varying roles and companies across the flourishing industry:

Name: Jasper Mullarney

Job title and company: Vice President, Direct Response Advertising, Adknowledge, Inc.

In one sentence, how would you describe what your company does? 

JM: We help advertisers eliminate waste and maximise return on advertising spend.

What are your company’s unique selling points?

JM: In a word: Innovation. Almost half of our 300 employees are software engineers, allowing us to build and innovate products from end to end, rather than relying on vendors. This creates tremendous competitive advantage and a product suite that can adapt to advertiser needs extremely quickly.

Within the last six months/year, what stands out as your company’s major milestones?

JM: Our early success was built on a proprietary email marketing platform. Since then, we’ve attempted a number of different diversification strategies into other online ad markets – social, display, video, apps and mobile. Adknowledge is truly greater than the sum of its parts at this point. In fact, this year, we’ve grown our channels to the point where they’re matching (or nearly matching) email’s revenue. To have so many channels operating at full capacity is extremely exciting and is a big milestone for us.

Duration in current role:

JM: 13 months, although in typical Adknowledge fashion, my role has evolved a lot during that time.

Where are you based?

JM: Kansas City, Missouri, USA – a long way from where I grew up in Wicklow, Ireland.

Previous performance marketing-related Co’s you have worked at:

JM: I did some web work for Gateway Computers in the late 90’s before starting in 2002 at the company which eventually became Adknowledge. I was also the president of Drive Digital Media for a short time before starting in my current role.

What are your main job responsibilities?

JM: I oversee advertising sales, account management, campaign management, production and compliance.

Take us through what you get up to on a typical working Monday:

JM: Most of Monday is spent building prior week reports to determine progress and then building strategy to hit weekly/monthly/quarterly goals. The rest of the day is spent planning the week out, ensuring my teams’ goals are in sync with those of the overall channel.

What top three websites can you be found browsing during your lunch hour?

JM: Reddit, Reddit and Reddit.

What are your top three tips for someone looking to get their hands on a job like yours?

JM: 1. Hire the best people you possibly can and empower them to grow their careers as much as possible.

2. Humility and integrity are key: Be accountable for your mistakes and let others take credit for their successes. Good leadership includes very little of the leader’s ego.

3. Try to vary your responsibilities in a way that willll allow you to gain multiple perspectives of your business – doing so will drastically improve decision making skills later on.

Career-wise, where do you see yourself in three years time?

JM: We’re in the process of reinventing email marketing, which I’m confident will grow our current business throughout the next three years and beyond, a success I look forward to being a part of. From there, I see myself either leading a new product in a high growth market or being in a cross-channel sales/strategy leadership role.

Tell us one thing people at work don’t know about you?

JM: Prior to working in advertising, I considered a career in environmental engineering. While in college, I worked for a firm that manufactured air pollution control equipment, a field I found extremely interesting. A week long stint at a Texas steel mill, in August, put a swift end to that career path. I have no regrets!

 

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