Q&A with Champion of Women Award Winner Nancy Peters

Nancy Peters is Director of Business Development at Chocolate Platform but she’s also much more than that. As her nominator for the MGS mBolden Women of the Year Awards said, “Nancy continues to show her passion and leadership in the mobile advertising space. She is full of energy, great ideas, and solutions that help grow revenue with her partners… Additionally, I have seen her get more involved in the mobile community by volunteering, coaching and presenting information to her fellow colleagues across the industry. Lastly, she continues to move with the markets and bringing emerging technology and solutions to market.”

It’s for this and so much more that MGA would like to congratulate Nancy on winning the MGS mBolden Women of the Year Rising Star Award. We chatted with Nancy about getting her start in the “dot com era,” unlocking monetization potential, and rewarded video.

 

Q: Congratulations on winning the MGS mBolden Women of the Year Award! Can you tell us a little about how you got to where you are now? Did you have any mentors that helped you along the way?

A: Thank you! I am super excited to be a part of this celebration of women in our industry. I was lucky to start out my career during the “dot com” era around 1999, when I began in online advertising with Hitachi Data Systems, then progressed to manage the ad ops team over at Knight Ridder Digital and finally over to Microsoft in Australia, as the NineMSN Ad Ops Manager turned Project Manager to lead their $1 million online sales fulfillment system for the MSN sales organization for Australia. In the last 7 years, I’ve focused mainly on business development and partnerships revolved along mobile ad tech. There have been many amazing mentors along the way, but the biggest influence is, and will always be, my father, who is a Civil Engineer, who taught me that hard work and a bit of luck is all you need to succeed in life.

 

Q: What are some of the challenges you see for women in the ad tech industry?

A: As a full-time working mother, I can tell you there is nothing more challenging than trying to be the BEST mother, BEST wife, and BEST employee. It’s a lost cause as it is simply draining. For myself, I have found the ability to be authentic in doing what I feel is right for me is what keeps me balanced. There is no rest for a mother. Period.

Overall, I’d love to see more women be considered for executive roles and to see more female representation in ad tech discussions and forums, for younger generations to look up to and emulate. The crux of the problem is that most of us women are too busy struggling every day to keep it all together or too busy raising our kids full-time at home, so quite simply, there is an evident lack of overall female representation in the working world! I know this first hand, as I was a stay-at-home mom for over five years and that was a really hard job. And it took a long time to get back to where I needed to be in my working career, both financially and position-wise, as employers took advantage of this “time off.” This is a hardship that only women can truly understand and it will persist unless there is a change to make this better.

 

Q: What more can female leaders do to support one another in this industry?

A: I wish more women would try not to fear the natural intuitive gift of being a woman. That is, we are the best at being super resourceful, empathetic and truly authentic. I say we use these characteristics to our full advantage, instead of holding back. Be true to who you are and be proud to stand out and speak up. Your voice will matter and make a difference. Don’t worry about people judging you or not liking you. Be you. I am still working on this to be honest!

 

Q: What are some of the trends along with business challenges you see facing ad tech in 2020?

A: I see more brand spend moving to server-side bidding. A definite company plug here, but Chocolate’s programmatic platform saw a significant increase in ad spend by brand marketers on programmatic video ads. A number of privacy initiatives and industry changes (GDPR, CCPA, Cookie-less browsers, ads.txt and more) in the past year posed tech challenges for many companies impacting the bottom line. However, all stakeholders are already reaping in the benefits of a much clearer and more transparent supply chain.

 

Q: What is the one piece of advice you would give to a mobile growth marketer?

A: Unlocking the true monetization potential and lifting the topline without hampering user retention is key to any mobile growth marketer’s success. Robust monetization is best achieved by personalizing the in-app purchases or ad experiences, meticulous A/B testing and monitoring engagement with bespoke analytics. Recent studies have shown rewarded video ads are the #1 preferred monetization method for app developers. With the rapid increase in programmatic video adoption, marketers have the right tools to leverage and achieve explosive growth.

 

Q: Let’s end this on a fun note! Tell us a little about yourself outside of the office. What do you do in your spare time?

A: I love being with my family, especially when vacationing in Maui! I can eat and shop all day long. Aside from that, I do love snuggling up to a good book, wine tasting in Napa with my lovely husband, watching war movies with my teen son (not because I love war movies, but this is what it takes to spend time with my teenager these days!), and a nice long trail run with my sweet 10-year-old daughter.