Ranjana Choudhry has spent decades on the buy and sell side. Now, she’s getting into ad tech.
On Tuesday, Inmar-owned digital media ad platform Aki Technologies announced that Choudhry is taking the reins from Scott Swanson as SVP of media and data platforms.
Choudhry’s resume includes creating the first-ever retail media network within Wakefern Food Corp., which operates Fairway, ShopRite and other big US supermarket chains. It’s the largest retailer-owned cooperative in the country.
She also served as chief client officer and managing director at Red Fuse Communications, an integrated agency within WPP dedicated to Colgate-Palmolive’s brands.
And Choudhry has even gotten into the education game. She teaches graduate-level integrated marketing courses as an adjunct professor at the NYU School of Professional Studies.
AdExchanger spoke with Choudhry about her new role and about her side hustle training the next generation of marketers.
AdExchanger: Your new title – SVP of media and data platforms – is a little different than that of your predecessor, which was SVP of media. Why that addition?
RANJANA CHOUDHRY: Technology is a key component in how we can make smarter and more efficient decisions on media buying and media effectiveness, as well as new, more important kinds of measurements that are much more performance-related.
When I was on the other side, I used to lust after that sort of metric. Now, on this side of the fence, I’m working on building a platform that can actually deliver self-serve media buying, and a different level of reporting with the data sources we have.
Based on your experience, what part of the advertising industry is growing and changing the quickest?
The reason I moved out of advertising into retail was because the industry was already changing. The whole concept of push communication, which is what advertising agencies are built upon, is dwindling. The newer generation is more interested in pull communication. It feels a lot more organic for them to accept that information.
For a long time, the advertising world has continued to maintain the traditional way of big TV ads and big productions. Now they’re equipping themselves with technology, with digital media and by combining agencies.
Meanwhile, retail media networks have just exploded and will continue to explode. They have the right kind of data. There’s the ability to personalize targeting and deliver more relevant communication.
What’s your overall vision for your future at Aki?
The biggest thing I can bring to the role is understanding the problems that the three biggest customers we have face.
Number one, advertising agencies. They’re not seeing retail media as a big channel, so [the challenge] is trying to get them to understand that it’s just another media buy.
Second is CPGs. I’ve run CPG businesses for 25 years and understand what they want most and how effectiveness can be driven through the right kind of technology and data insights. I can curate that and present it to them as a way to maximize the impact and their spend.
The last piece is the retailer, which is our third pillar. I’ve just come out of a retailer. I know exactly how a retail media network should be run, powered and amplified.
What inspired you to teach on top of everything else you’ve done in your career?
Teaching is 100% a passion. It takes a lot of time and effort, but I’m just driven to do it. Even when I was with WPP, I built training capsules to teach Colgate executives how to write a great brief, how to evaluate creative – all sorts of tools.
Then I thought, I’ve literally been all around the world. I have case studies of every kind of marketing and advertising communication challenge. It’s important for me to take this and impart it to the next generation, and actually teach them from real-life cases versus just the book.
Have you noticed any changes in how younger generations think about marketing as a profession?
Every class, I ask students to come up with an idea and build a business plan, because I like them to learn by doing. Three years back, literally every group wanted to build an app – an app for this, an app for that. Fast forward, and my last year’s class was all about doing business that had a sustainability aspect to it.
Similarly, I ask them to build their advertising campaign, to develop creative and build a media plan against it. In five groups, they’ve all talked about buying digital, targeting through influencers, using TikTok and even CRM and data that can target one on one.
But not one of them used traditional TV.
Do you have any practical tips for younger people getting into digital marketing?
I always say marketing is a blend of art and science. If you have the ability to use and analyze data and, most importantly, to simplify the findings you have, that is where the art comes in.
Get onto the science, embrace technology – but do not forget the most important thing: Always start with the problem of the customer, and focus single-mindedly on the customer to solve the problem.
This interview has been lightly edited and condensed.
