For Carrie Drinkwater, data is essential to driving success – but it’s not the whole story.
In August, media agency Carat tapped the Mediahub alum to become its first US chief investment officer.
Her ultimate goal, she told AdExchanger, is to bring a client-centric, ”holistic investment approach” to the business – examining each brand’s media needs as a whole, rather than focusing too much on the individual details.
AdExchanger spoke with Drinkwater in further depth about her plans for Carat US, as well as her desire to “drive human connection” across the advertising and media industries.
AdExchanger: In the original announcement, you’re quoted as saying Carat’s strength is “its distinct approach to designing for people.” What does that mean?
CARRIE DRINKWATER: It’s an attention economy these days. So, to get someone’s attention, you really have to know what’s important to them, focusing on the human. Not just the number or the demographic, but who they are.
What challenges are media agencies like Carat currently facing, specifically with regard to programmatic and CTV?
Transparency, frequency capping. I won’t call anyone out by name, but they’ll tell you their frequency cap, and I’ll see the same ad 10 times. Or as a consumer, I’ll watch something, and I’ll be served ads that on no planet I should be served.
I believe in the upper funnel. I believe in awareness, and I believe in the power of big platforms. I also believe in the bottom of the funnel. I don’t think it’s unified for clients, for categories, for campaigns. I think it’s very specific to what you’re trying to do and what’s most effective.
What kind of attributes or resources does your ideal client have?
Curiosity. Yes, the data is amazing, right? But a client that is curious and is really focusing on what they can do to push in terms of their business, to push in terms of the industry, I love [that].
There’s so many things you can do with data. But if you only look at your first-party data, how are you going to grow? Those people now, yes, they’ll stay with you. But who’s next? Who are your next consumers? What’s the next generation? Who have you missed? And how can you find them [and] bring them into the brand?
So, again, it just depends on where [clients] are in their journey and what they’re trying to achieve through their media agency. And that’s the beauty of these agencies today – having people in the room from programmatic, from search, from social to CTV, all sitting there talking about the same challenges together. That’s just a completely new dynamic than we’ve seen in years past.
How do you navigate the relationships between all those different experts?
I had a client that once said, “You always want people on your team that you want to be sitting around a table with at one in the morning.” You have to be coming to the table with no ego and no perception of what’s the best and what’s smart. You have to be willing to exchange knowledge.
If you can come to the table open and curious, that can create such magic, for sure. And ask questions. When people don’t ask questions anymore, it blows my mind.
Has it gotten trickier to convince brands to exchange knowledge or data outside of the organization?
It’s very client-specific. You know, some clients are like, “Let’s go! Here’s what I have. What do you have? How can we create together?” And there’s legacy categories that, for very specific privacy reasons, can’t. That doesn’t mean you can’t do great work for them.
So I don’t think it’s uniform. It really depends on the client – who the CMO is, who the CEO is, and the category.
What kinds of brands do you think benefit the most from relying on data?
Everybody has to rely on data. Data is a core of all investment and all media planning, all media strategy.
And data can lead you to build your brand. You know, what do they say? Sales overnight, brand over time. And there are creative ways to do that.
This interview has been lightly edited and condensed.
