PulsePoint's Trader Hall of Fame: Demi Morganstein (dentsu Health)

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 a special series, the Trader Hall of Fame, dedicated to highlighting our all-star clients who have gone above and beyond to execute successful campaigns that foster a healthier world. This month’s inductee in the Trader Hall of Fame is Demi Morganstein, Programmatic Supervisor, at dentsu health.

How Demi Got Started

Demi graduated from Penn State University with a degree in marketing and an international business minor. After college, she started a career in sales—but instantly learned that role was not right for her. “I can’t just sell something that is not actually giving an added benefit to the people I’m trying to sell it to,” she said. She knew she didn’t want to be in sales, but otherwise, her path forward was unclear.

When Demi interviewed for a job at PHM, it wasn’t for a programmatic position specifically at first; in fact, she wasn’t totally sure what programmatic was. But after talking it over with the recruiter and interviewers, she knew she wanted in. “I was like, I don’t know what this is, but it sounds like this stuff is continuously evolving and I’m ready to grow… just a great opportunity to get into something so futuristic from the ground up.”

So she took a leap of faith and joined the team at PHM as a Programmatic Associate, eventually working her way up to Programmatic Manager, which she said “created the foundation for everything.” A self-described “huge nerd for the data,” Demi said she “hit the ground running and was really, really proactive” at PHM, working across multiple brands and learning as much as she could, as quickly as she could.

Demi’s Path to dentsu

Demi had been at PHM for nearly three years when she got an interesting offer to change verticals and enter the CPG programmatic world with a lateral move to Dentsu. She wanted to challenge herself, see if her skillset carried over to different types of clients and focus more on managing others—but ultimately realized she was meant to be back in the Pharma niche when a former coworker came to dentsu seven months later. He presented her with an enticing opportunity: help build out the programmatic team at dentsu health.

The decision was not easy. In some ways, she said, she would be “starting something from scratch.” But the chance to “build a programmatic team for the health industry”—was too good to pass up, so she said yes.

Going from PHM to dentsu required Demi to adapt; she suddenly had more freedom and, in turn, more responsibilities. “Now I obviously have a lot more autonomy and I’m really kind of leading the charge for all things programmatic,” she said. “[PHM] was very structured and there was a way to go about things in a very particular path. And now I feel like I get to make the path.”

When asked about her favorite part of working at dentsu, Demi said, “The people I get to work with, 100%.”

“The internal media team is incredible and so collaborative,” she said. “Here, everyone’s like ‘What’s going to work the best to reach our client goals? Let’s do that.’ And it’s not about going against each other, it’s truly working as a team.”

Demi’s programmatic team is small but powerful. She hired one other person and together they got to start off working with a single client team, which she said, “really gave us a lot of space to develop proper swim lanes and trust before we won more business.”

Demi & PulsePoint

On working with PulsePoint, she said, “I have an excellent support team… Having access to a Slack channel with my PulsePoint reps also is huge because I’m a very technical person and if there’s a small change made in the DSP, I’m most likely going to notice it.”

But what sets PulsePoint apart from other DSPs is the direct communication and “building those relationships… getting to actually know each other, it makes the day-to-day work so much more enjoyable.”

When asked about her favorite feature of the platform, she said, “The UI is incredibly intuitive… So right off the bat, it’s a user-friendly platform that I’m excited to get into every day.” Specifically, Demi likes the Smart List and Clinical Smart List technology and “being able to use recent and relevant signals to create those lists on the fly.”

“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,” she said. “Static Target Lists are becoming a thing of the past.”

Having worked in the platform for so long, Demi is well positioned to offer constructive feedback—and does this during bi-weekly meetings with her PulsePoint team by including a “Product Requests” tab within their shared status document.

Demi’s Words of Wisdom

Demi’s advice for others trying to get into programmatic is simple: “You’re gonna have to constantly be open to learning.” She acknowledged that she didn’t know everything right out of the gate when she started at PHM. Unless you’re able to take programmatic courses in college, she said, “Don’t be surprised if it takes you around six months for things to actually click.”

People shouldn’t be afraid to ask questions. “It’s better to get a ton of perspectives, and a ton of education, to then be able to make the smartest decisions,” she said.

When asked about the best piece of advice she’s received recently, Demi quoted her manager, Brad: “You have to be your own biggest advocate, both professionally and personally.” To Demi, that means speaking up for herself, especially in situations where it’s hardest to do so.

Demi Outside of Work

Demi loves music and is a huge Spotify advocate. “I have music going throughout the day,” she said. “That’s the beauty of working remotely. I’m just doing my thing, making playlists to match whatever the current vibe is.”

After work, Demi spends her time playing in a coed basketball league with her siblings. She likes to stay active, going to group workout classes to keep her motivated. In her down time, she enjoys exploring her homebase of Philly and trying different restaurants or cooking new recipes with loved ones.

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