Scaling Performance
Building the First In-House Programmatic & Paid Social Team
How I built and led a high-impact media team, managing $60M+ in annual spend and driving double-digit performance gains for Fortune 500 brands.
At Ogilvy, I was tasked with something that didn’t exist yet: building a centralized, in-house programmatic and paid social capability from the ground up. What started as a gap quickly became one of the agency’s most scalable media functions — helping clients across finance, tech, and entertainment improve ROI and reclaim control of their digital media investments.
The Challenge
In 2013, most programmatic media was still outsourced, siloed, or fragmented across vendor platforms. Clients wanted more transparency, control, and performance — but agencies lacked integrated execution models.
The goal was clear:
Build an in-house performance media team at Ogilvy
Manage and optimize large-scale media investments
Prove the value through measurable business outcomes
My Role
As Head of Programmatic and Paid Social, I:
Built and led the agency’s first integrated digital performance team
Created a scalable operating model across programmatic display, video, and social
Hired and trained specialists across DSPs, social platforms, and data tools
Established internal best practices for testing, creative optimization, and measurement
Integrated with client-side analytics and brand teams for faster insights and iteration
The Results
Over the span of two years, the program grew into one of the agency’s most reliable and high-impact offerings.
$60M+ in annual media spend managed
12–20% improvement in media performance across core KPIs (cost efficiency, conversion, ROAS)
Rolled out for leading brands including:
IBM – B2B demand gen + global account-based strategy
TD Ameritrade & Synchrony Financial – High-efficiency acquisition across channels
MetLife & Sony – Full-funnel engagement + digital transformation
UFC & Showtime - High-volume event and TV marketing and dynamic creative
Ticketmaster – first in market audience extension ad network
The program ultimately served as a blueprint for Ogilvy’s global media transformation, proving that performance and brand media could — and should — work together.
Why It Matters
This wasn’t just about buying media more efficiently — it was about building a capability that gave our clients a long-term edge.
By owning both the strategy and execution layer, we were able to:
Move faster with creative and audience testing
Control cost and reduce waste
Align media performance to real business outcomes
Today, those same clients still use elements of the frameworks we built — from audience planning to measurement systems.
