Collective Audience

Azerion Elevates Roxanne Harley to VP of Strategy & Growth

Omnichannel advertising platform Azerion has promoted Roxanne Harley to the newly created role of VP Strategy & Growth. Harley, previously Azerion UK’s head of growth, will expand her remit to integrate the company's marketing insight, research, sales, creative studio, customer success stories and post-campaign analysis to support strategic planning, product development, GTM roadmaps and client growth. The promotion is presented as part of Azerion’s effort to unify advertising disciplines, data streams and technologies; the company recently launched a product called Mind Map in January that aims to deliver ads when consumers are most likely to respond.

Brands Need To Stop Treating Their Agencies Like A Dentist

Data-Driven Thinking column by Kerry Bianchi (CEO, Collective) argues that after the ANA's report on questionable ad agency practices and Procter & Gamble CMO Marc Pritchard calling for transparency, brands must stop treating agencies as opaque partners. Bianchi recounts his experience auditing media and designing agency compensation, noting that traditional annual or quarterly audits are too slow for a fast-moving media landscape. The piece advocates ongoing agency and vendor management with daily access to data, shared KPIs, transparent costs, and regular check-ins to explain decisions and enable actionable next steps. It uses a dentist analogy to emphasize daily account hygiene and continuous improvement, urging brands to establish continuous feedback loops and open performance data to drive better outcomes.

Mashable Opens Its Arms To Programmatic

Mashable undertook a programmatic revamp in 2016-2017 under Chief Revenue Officer Ed Wise. Wise identified gaps in programmatic revenue, subpar viewability, and a tendency to favor direct sales over programmatic. He recruited Adam Harris from Collective as SVP of Sales Strategy and Partnerships to lead the overhaul. Harris spearheaded technical changes, including header bidding with partners such as Amazon, Index Exchange, and Rubicon, wrapped into a single wrapper and with disclosure of Mashable’s URL on open exchanges. Moat contributed to raising viewability from below average to above average, and open-exchange CPMs rose from $1–$2 to $4–$5. Mashable also pursued video programmatic integration with Amazon as a partner, aiming to unify video inventory via a header bidding-like setup. Additional hires—John Price as VP of Revenue Operations and Sara Kern as VP of Integrated Marketing—underscore a broader push to scale programmatic, including branded content and flexible audience delivery.