Noor Naseer and Kaitlin O’Brien from Basis’ Media Innovations & Technology team explore key digital advertising trends for 2025.
(The-MakeGood.com)- Shawn Riegsecker is the CEO of Centro, a media technology and services company. The Makegood spoke with Shawn about his 16-year career in digital media as well as recent Centro milestones, as the company marked its 11th anniversary.
The Makegood: Shawn, Centro recently announced Kelly Wenzel as Chief Marketing Officer and Scott Neslund as Executive Vice President of media services. How will they impact Centro’s business?
Both are incredible people with the highest level of character, integrity and commitment to being great that has defined our culture. Scott is our first senior executive hire from an advertising agency. That insider’s perspective will help us better – and more quickly – develop solutions that really make a difference for our agency partners. Kelly is a software product marketing expert and brings best practices from the tech industry to Centro. We really needed someone with a strong product and technology marketing background on the team as we prepare to launch Planner and Kelly fit that profile perfectly.
The Makegood: Centro announced that it surpassed 5,000 successful advertising campaigns managed for 2012, marking 46 percent growth over the last year. What are your criteria for a successful advertising campaign and what do you credit for this growth?
It’s been a big year for us. When an agency places its trust in us to manage a campaign for one of its clients, success means it’s flawlessly executed. There are really two prongs to that: First, we take on the entire logistical nightmare of buying digital media; it’s executed through our technology. We make our agency clients’ lives easier – get them out of email and Excel and spending more time on client value-add. Second, we make their advertisers successful: The campaign runs smoothly, delivers in full and meets the brands’ KPIs.
Our staff is the single biggest driver behind our growth. They bring a level of quality, character, and dedication I really believe is unparalleled in this high-turnover industry. But with that said, the secret to our rapid scale is really our technology. That’s what’s fueling such strong year-over-year growth. We operate the most efficient digital buying platform in the industry for premium contractual buying. It’s helping our agency partners scale beautiful advertising on thousands of sites in the mid-tail which is what many of their advertisers are looking for: “Help me take advantage of the rich, relevant, amazing content that’s available in the mid-tail.” It’s also a great complement to programmatic reach they can get on the exchanges.