An Introduction to PulsePoint’s Trader Hall of Fame

PulsePoint established the Trader Hall of Fame to highlight the efforts, insights, and professional journeys of the traders who use our Life platform every day to help put the right medications in front of health audiences at the right time.

These are the people who are shaping the health marketing industry—from the pioneers of programmatic to its future leaders. Inductees include programmatic supervisors, strategists, trading managers, and analysts. Their paths to programmatic may not have been the same, but they agree on one thing: they’re glad they ended up there.

Oh, and they all like the dancing cow. 

To be selected for the Trader Hall of Fame, a platform user must be nominated by the PulsePoint sales team. Nominations are based on those who have excelled in the platform and implemented successful campaigns.

Once a trader is nominated and chosen, they are interviewed by the PulsePoint team. During this discussion, we explore their career paths—the ups and downs, failures and successes, and the choices that led them to a career in programmatic. But we also get to know the person behind the trading desk and talk about their role models, favorite pieces of advice, families, and hobbies outside of work.

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Who they are

Many of the Trader Hall of Fame inductees came to programmatic from other careers—and they may not have been familiar with the technology, but they could sense the possibilities.

“I could see where the trends were going. Newspapers were in decline; digital was up and coming. That’s where I saw an opportunity.” – Kyle Davis, Senior Programmatic Specialist, Coegi

They have a lot to say about the potential of programmatic and the room for growth in the industry. It’s clear that the sky's the limit.

“Programmatic has been around for some time now and it’s not going away. If anything it’s just now starting to get more of the respect it deserves, especially for how efficiently we can do things.” – Billy Nicholson, Programmatic Senior Analyst, Starcom

When asked what they like most about their jobs, many of the inductees gave a shout out to the teams they work with every day. Most of them also admitted to being nerds when it comes to data and said they enjoy solving the daily puzzles programmatic throws at them.

“I find that as I’ve gotten more and more comfortable in these platforms and with programmatic media and programmatic media metrics, the analytical side of my brain has really taken a liking to digging into data.” – Owen Diaz, Programmatic Media Manager, Brado

But for newcomers to programmatic, there is a lot to learn. Our traders had invaluable insights to offer based on their experiences getting to know the industry.

“There will always be something new to learn. No matter how long you have been in the industry, there is something new: a new data provider, a new trend, a new DSP feature. You will never know it all. This has led me to have a humble mindset when it comes to my industry or technical knowledge and really forced me to stay on my toes and evolve my skills.” – Zach Wierman, Programmatic Supervisor, PHM

To support this continuous learning, they recommended having patience, asking questions, and leveraging the knowledge and experience of peers and mentors.

“... in work and in life, especially in this field, having patience is important. When you are looking into something and trying to figure out why it’s not working, because maybe it’s just taking a little bit of time to scale up, you need to have patience just to let it work, to let the platform do its job.” – Brian Snyder, Senior Associate, Addressable Strategy, Matterkind

“Definitely be patient; take your time to learn the ecosystem. It’s going to pay off in the end. Approach it like a marathon, not a quick race.” – Carlos Villanueva, Channel Manager, Butler/Till

They also emphasized the importance of curiosity, effort, authenticity, and sincerity. They recommended asking questions when you need to but also putting in the work and taking pride in your efforts and the skills you gain along the way.

“Sometimes you have to know what you need and how to get there,” – Alexandra Farber, Head of Client Services, Spring & Bond

“If something has your name on it, really put effort in it, and it doesn’t have to be perfect, but it has to be known that you cared enough to try.” – Sally Mikhlin, Programmatic Manager, Havas

Many of the inductees have been using the PulsePoint Life platform for years and were able to offer invaluable feedback on the technology and user experience.

“I love that there are so many levers that we can pull in order to optimize our campaigns. It does exactly what we need it to and it goes even beyond that.” – Samantha Schwartz, Analyst, Programmatic, CMI Media Group

“We can tap into this real-time claims data and make it really smart in the sense where you can filter by specialty or profession, you can filter by prescribing and diagnosing behaviors, and control the lookback window to make sure there is limited waste.” – Demi Morganstein, Programmatic Supervisor, dentsu Health

Outside of work, the traders have a wide mix of hobbies—from knitting and crafts to hiking, traveling, cheering on their favorite teams, and spending time with their families and pets. The PulsePoint team is proud to work with people every day who have varied experiences and interests and who bring their unique perspectives to programmatic.

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Celebrating our traders

The PulsePoint team is committed to recognizing all the amazing work that our clients do to improve health outcomes for the world’s population. That’s why we started this special series dedicated to highlighting our all-star clients who have gone above and beyond to execute successful campaigns that foster a healthier world.

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Want to be the next PulsePoint Trader Hall of Fame honoree? Contact your PulsePoint representative to get you on the list of nominees!