During the last couple of years some of the biggest growth at Kontera has been around Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG), the category of advertising that refers to everyday household items like food and cleaning supplies. As Kontera’s Regional Sales Manager, Shira Dinour has had a key role in showcasing Kontera to the CPG community. We recently sat down with Shira to discuss both her own career and the evolution of CPG advertising at Kontera.

Shira, can you tell us a little bit about your start at Kontera, and how that related to CPG?

When I came onboard in January 2010, my background was more on the advertiser side. I had spent the previous ten year at ad agencies, working specifically on CPG brands such as Unilever and L’Oreal. So a big part of my goal when I got here was to help grow our CPG business. 

It started off slow and steady, we did have test buys with a Kraft and General Mills, but I don’t think we had our first big break until 18 months in with Proctor and Gamble. It was an 18 month process of building relationships, educating about Kontera, and getting that first buy to prove Kontera works.

Because Kontera’s technology is so innovative it is a harder sale than most, but once clients get it and are comfortable enough to make a buy, the proof is in the results. Take for instance the Dimestore Study we ran with Kraft and Country Time Lemonade that showed a 54% lift in Purchase Intent when using Kontera as part of the media mix.

How does your background in advertising inform your current job?

Because I come from the agency side, I kind of know their day to day. I know what their challenges are, how there’s 1,000 of me to the 1 of them, so it’s about making sure you stand out. That’s why when I go in for a meeting; I know I need to make it as impactful as possible.

Also because I came from the strategic planning part of the agency side, I bring that experience to the table when I am meeting with my clients or putting together a proposal. I’m not just reacting, I’m thinking about what solutions we can provide to their business problems. I think that’s an advantage I have over other sellers who don’t have the agency background.

For instance, when you’re talking about CPG, you’re not talking about a high end item like a flat screen TV or a car– you’re talking about a $5 bottle of shampoo. Especially in this economic situation, their business challenge is representing the value of that shampoo to the consumer. Without the perspective of working on the agency side, you’re a lot more likely to pitch strategies that are not aligned with that advertiser’s needs.  At the end of the day, it’s all about selling a bottle of shampoo.

What is your day to day schedule like at Kontera?

I have a team of 4 Account Executives and my day to day is really about supporting them. They all have their own list of clients to call on, and the nice thing about it is we’re not split up by vertical, we’re split up by agency, so each one of them has a CPG brand that they work with.

It’s my job to go on meetings with them, provide insight, and be a strategic leader that helps them grow professionally. Additionally, I help provide coverage.

On the other side, I also help Scott Lareau, our Regional Vice President, with  forecasting and managing the business in the East; making sure we are looking at the best opportunities and refocusing on the top 25 accounts. Additionally, I keep in contact with members of the executive team on things like our product road map. The AE’s really need to focus on their accounts, and it’s up to me to have a more holistic view of Kontera, and share that big picture information, when I think it’s needed.

What kind of feedback do you hear back about Kontera from CPG Advertisers?

That we’re innovative, they love our creative solutions, and that it’s customizable; not a one size fits all type of buy. Customer service is huge, so they love the fact that we’re easy to work with, and that when we say we’re going to get things to them, we do.

CPG is all about ROI, so our ability to prove insights and analytics is a big deal. In 2012 we’re greatly expanding the reporting and metrics we provide to our advertising partners, meaning aside from the standard CTR, we can now also back up the proof of effectiveness with real time data.

What about your job do you enjoy?

I like talking, sales is a lot about talking (laughs). It’s also a lot about relationships and what I loved about my job, even dating back to when I worked on the agency side, was one on one relationship building and sharing my excitement over a new product.

There’s also something really rewarding about after working on it day in and day out, that moment when you do land a big account. When you step back and realize, wow, my hard work really did pay off and in such a big way, it makes me that much more excited and competitive about going after the next big account.

How did you get into advertising originally?

It was kind of a fluke; I studied business administration, with a concentration in marketing and international business. My school didn’t even have a focus on advertising. What happened was a friend that was working in advertising offered to set up an interview for me and I thought “yeah, I’ll give it a try and see what happens”. I started with Ogilvy & Mather, one of the more respected agencies, and I ended up falling in love with it. So it was by pure coincidence, I had no idea that there was such a world as advertising or sales. When I first started there was no digital, it was just print, TV, and radio, so it’s really cool to see how much it’s changed.

So you were pretty much there from the beginning?

I was there from the beginning, I was there in 2000 when the first internet boom happened and then busted, and was there when it came back around and people were being more skeptical because of that prior experience. Look, when I was a freshman in college there was no e-mail… there was no instant messaging, the World Wide Web was like a Unix account, you know what I mean? So it’s really just amazing to see how much it has evolved and to see the pace that’s it gone in is insane compared to traditional platforms like TV and print.

What I liked and attracted me to Kontera was that it is a technology company, and there’s that underlining technology that we’re always looking to improve. So unlike other internet startups that we’ve seen come and go, that didn’t have a foundation, I think there’s a real vision with what we do, with our Synapse Engine. The fact we put so much time into it, and the fact we’re constantly evolving and changing it, evolving with our consumer needs, to me just shows us that we’re going in the right direction.

Where do you see CPG going online in the next couple of years?

From everything I’ve read and just from the growth we’ve seen internally with our CPG partners, they’re definitely invested. Digital is huge, they know from their own consumer insights that their consumers are digitally savvy.  So they have to be there.

I think what digital advertising offers CPS advertisers is its instantaneous. They can make changes on the fly as opposed to when you place a spot on a TV schedule; you’re kind of stuck with it. Or print for example, if you’re looking to be in the November issue of Glamour Magazine, you have to book that two months out – even if something happens in the interim, you’ve already committed the dollars. So I think digital is something that can be impactful pretty quickly and knowing that their consumers are in the space and if they’re not there, their competition is going to be there and get to them first.

From all the trade articles that I’m reading, CPG digital spending is only going to continue increasing in 2012.

As Kontera’s Vice President of Human Capital, Ayelet Levav is a critical voice in shaping both the present and future at Kontera. Drawing upon her over 14 years of multinational experience in HR management, Ayelet oversees pretty much every aspect of our global recruitment and people management efforts. We recently had the opportunity to sit down with Ayelet and discuss in a little more depth her position and the Human Capital department in general.

Can you please describe your role in the company?

It’s partially the typical HR role, meaning the Human Capital team has the responsibility for recruiting, on boarding, employee relations, compensation and benefits, individual performance, and assuring the well being of company employees. The team is organized geographically, with each region lead by one of our Human Capital Directors (Sanita and Shiri) and supported by our Office Managers (Penny, Dorin and Lanita). This way we support the organization at all levels.

In addition, a lot of my focus is on our corporate culture and values, along with management and organizational processes. As part of the executive team it is my responsibility to make sure the team address people and organizational matters in a practical and consistent way. Such matters are the quality of management we provide to our people, our internal communication processes, how we manage organizational changes, etc. We want to ensure information is shared and there is a common understanding of what each one of us as an employee needs to do and why. When we make any organizational changes we make sure individual issues are addressed and that things run smoothly, with the least possible disruption to the business.

Why Human Capital and not Human Resources?

I have been asked about this only once by an employee in our San Francisco office although I am sure many wonder. It is because we prefer to focus on people as an investment rather than as a resource.

What excites you about your job?

Much of what fuels my enthusiasm is the people. This is a special group of people; always focused on what is best to do for the clients and the company, very hands on, fast paced in execution, and open to change. It’s really an enabling, unique combination.

The industry is exciting too. My background is telecommunication and enterprise software, so a lot of what we do here is new for me. The business models are intriguing as well as the rapid changes.

In the process of recruiting new employees, is there a particular quality you’re looking for?

Yes. I think it’s not a particular quality but a set of qualities that we look for to various degrees depending on the position or area in the company that we’re looking to hire.

Generally we’re looking for people with a “can do” attitude, who will step forward, have an opinion, and be willing to try new things. It’s important that employees assume a lot of responsibility in managing themselves, and have the mentality that whatever they do, they want to do it well. That’s the type of attitude shared by employees at Kontera, and these are the qualities that we’re looking for in new recruits as well.

What do you think separates Kontera from other companies?

Each and every employee in this company at almost any given point of time knows exactly what he or she needs to do and why; and how that ties into our goals, both for that quarter, and towards annual goals. This is unusual for young companies that grow rapidly.

Additionally, we adapt quickly. People in this company; more than any other company I’ve been with take change well, and are less resistant to new ways of doing things. Integrity plays a big part, it’s not just a slogan; it’s something that’s exercised day in and day out in everything we do. This level of focus, combined with determination and momentum is what allows us to execute at such a high level and fix things quickly when they break.

So these would be the four big differentiators that I’d point to, clarity of goals, adaptability to change, integrity, and execution. All things taken together it’s by far the best company I’ve worked for; I’ve had one out of four at most of the companies I’ve worked for but the combination here is unique.

How has Kontera grown since you’ve started working here?

It’s been almost two years since I joined, and we’ve grown by about 60% (people wise), though I think the nature of that growth is more interesting than the number. In that time, we’ve opened new offices in London and Chicago, so our growth is also geographical. And another thing to consider is the quality of our expansion. We’ve been able to mature our existing businesses, while also starting some new initiatives, meaning over time there’s a real diversity in the things we’re able to do and areas we are growing into.

Kontera is a truly global company with offices spread across 3 continents. Are there any unique challenges in coordinating the company’s human capital needs?

We have offices in five different cities, San Francisco, Chicago, New York, Herzliya, and London. Yes, there are challenges, but I think we’re handling them very nicely with the video conferencing equipment that connects three offices, and some good managerial habits about video conferencing, conference calling, and e-mail communication.

In addition to the technology, we’re very conscious of how important face time is and that’s something that we systematically coordinate. My team and I track the schedules of our executive team and leadership as a whole. We make sure they leverage any business travel to create opportunities for some fun time together, and make sure there’s a chance to meet people from the other offices or organizational functions they don’t normally interact with.

The response I get from employees is that it’s very easy to reach out and to get support from other people in other offices, even if they’ve never met you. People for the most part don’t feel isolated or missing information, they feel that they’re quite aware of the important stuff that’s going on, even in the smaller offices.

I’ll give you an example; we started our UK office in June 2010. After about three months I had follow up conversations with the UK team members, “how do you feel with Kontera?”, “is it what you expected?”, questions along those sorts of lines. Each one of them gave me names of people from our U.S. offices that they are in direct contact with and that help them prepare their decks for client meetings. It was amazing to see such a high level of integration in such a short period of time.

Recruiting from across three continents, have you found any significant cultural differences in Kontera employees?

Yes there’s a bit of that, but I wouldn’t say national culture is the dominate differentiator. To the same degree I can see differences in professional cultures, meaning the typical engineer’s view of an issue vs. what the typical sales person would think about the same issue. There are also regional differences such as East Coast vs. West Coast within the US, and cultural differences along the lines of age. The younger generation better known as “Y-gens”, has a slightly different attitude from the “X-gens”. We are a very diverse group of people and this diversity makes my job even more exciting.

What are your go to sites for remaining on top of industry news and developments related to Human Resources Management?

I don’t do that much – a few LinkedIn forums, usually Harvard Business Review, and then some feeds from some local business newspapers like The Globe or The Marker. Also colleagues and our VCs send me good articles from time to time. But there are no specific sites I’ll go to for specific information. I make sure my reading is balanced between HR materials and industry materials. In between that, work, and my personal life, I don’t have time for additional reading anyway.

How much of what you do is shaped internally, as opposed to what other companies do with Human Resources?

Most of what we do is what’s right for us and our business. It’s a relatively new industry; some of the stuff that’s considered best practices for HR is irrelevant for this industry. It’s new, it’s different, and I think Kontera is a unique organization as well, for instance in the way people manage themselves. I would say most of it is using our experience and common sense, in finding what would be most effective for us and our goals. A smaller portion, I would say it’s probably 70:30, is benchmarking, looking at what other companies in our industry are doing. Where we do look at the past experiences of other industries, is in dealing with more universal challenges such as global communication, remote offices, etc.

To talk about the critical role the Product Department plays in the deployment and upgrading of Kontera’s industry leading technology, we sat down with Yaron Zakai-Or, Kontera’s Senior Director of Product Management.  An engineering executive with over 20 years experience in software development, Yaron is an expert in product management, building complex and scalable internet applications, and of course a noted oenophile.

How do you see the role of the Product Group in Kontera?

The Role of the Product Group is being the technology people for the sales/fields org and the market experts for our R&D organization. We set the roadmap for our products, building a bi-directional bridge between the market and engineering to create market-driven, excellent products. We pride ourselves on building ads that will be relevant and fun to view.

What’s the most rewarding part about your job?

Seeing that “your” released product really answers people’s (i.e. end-users, advertisers, field, sales) needs is a very exciting part of the product management role. In the internet industry, because of the very dynamic market, updates and deployments are frequent so you see results of your work very quickly. Knowing that the results of your work are seen by more than 140 million unique users per month is really kind of amazing when you stop to think about it.

Also, it’s really rewarding when we get a chance to talk with our partners and customers. That’s the best learning experience for finding out how Kontera is providing value for them, and where we can improve in order to deliver even more value.

Finally, on a more personal note, I’m an avid blogger so working on projects that address the needs of both advertisers and publishers really keeps me up to date on what’s hot and interesting on the web

What’s your vision for Kontera’s technology/products?

Providing even more value to our end users, creating new In-Text ads that will keep them engaged and as a result will make both publishers and advertisers happy with our solutions. We are ahead of the curve with our Synapse engine and need to keep it the best classification technology for serving ads in the right placement. That’s the key to our success.

As someone who’s usually ahead of the curve in terms of everything related to web technology, what are your go-to sites for staying on top industry news and developments?

In terms of industry new, I read Clickz, Mediapost, Techcrunch, Ad Exchanger, Webcredible, UseIt.com , and the iAB blog.

For product management sites, I recommend the Silicon Valley Product Group blog and Joel on Software.

The Product team works in SCRUM/Kanban – an Agile methodology and work method that emphasizes teamwork, self-organization, and accountability. Can you describe the effects it has had on your day-to-day work experience?

Great question; using Scrum and more specifically Kanban lets us stay updated on how each of our features is developing, making sure we correctly take dependencies into account and work together as a team. As everything you are doing is transparent to everyone, you are always on top of things and the chance of dropping the ball decreases significantly. Using Kanban and an Agile frame of mind, we are able to constantly prioritize between projects, making sure we always work on projects that are most important to the company.

Thanks Yaron. As hinted above, Yaron isn’t just a Kontera employee; he’s also a Kontera publisher! To read more from Yaron, you can see his excellent wine tasting blog here.

Having worked for over 10 years in online marketing at such companies as Yahoo! and AOL Time Warner, Laliv Hadar brings a wealth of experience to her role as the Senior Manager of Advertiser Marketing at Kontera. As October marks her one year anniversary of joining Kontera, we thought we’d take the opportunity to catch up with Laliv and discuss her valuable contributions to our Marketing and Sales Departments.

Please describe your role in the company:
The creation of marketing tools and resources primarily for the use of the Advertising Sales group.

What excites you the most about your job?
Personally, I like that it combines creativity with strategic business thinking and skills. In terms of the contribution to the company, the goal is that my work product has a direct effect on the sales force, giving the field more tools and resources with which to sell, to ultimately drive more revenue for the company.

What projects have you worked on recently that you’re the most proud of?
Some recent projects include Kontera’s market launch where we announced new features to our technology, the Kontera Synapse, and released exciting results of a comScore study that showed the advantages of Kontera In-Text advertising to both advertisers and consumers. Before that, a big project that I led was a redesign to the advertiser section of the Kontera website, which included the launch of a new Ad Gallery featuring some of Kontera’s best in class advertising units.

In your interactions with Advertisers and Ad Agencies, what do you find they respond to the most about Kontera?
I have heard from advertisers and from our internal sales force that we perform well and, thus, we have high retention and renewal rates with clients. Clients also seem to appreciate the breadth and depth of our creative and custom solutions – delivering a unique creative and technical end-to-end solution to support their messaging and their brand.

What about Kontera differentiates it from other In-Text / Advertising solutions?
Our technology is superior, which is shown through our solid campaign performance.

While other In-Text technologies are still relying on fixed keyword lists for campaign targeting, only Kontera can provide Topical Targeting, which is the ability to identify thousands of concepts and expanded phrases relevant to the target audiences’ topics of interest. This allows us to deliver campaigns on a much larger scale, and through our dynamic A/B optimization monitor campaigns in real time, features other In-Text networks just can’t compete with.

Can you walk us through your average day at the office?
Get coffee, catch up on email and work on the computer, a meeting or two, more coffee, lunch, more work and meetings, and more coffee
Basically, it’s all about gathering feedback from the field- understanding what’s working and what’s not, what additional sales tools they require to better promote Kontera to our Advertisers clients and get our message across. And after Sales speak- it’s all about delivering

When you’re not working in the Marketing Department, what do you do in your free time?
Spend time with family and friends, enjoying outdoor activities and exercising.

What are your go-to sites for staying on top industry news and developments: Ad Age, Media Post, eMarketer, and The Wall Street Journal

Finally, what tips, tricks and tools are required for your daily work:
Strategic thinking, creativity, business acumen, and the love of PowerPoint!

Thanks, Laliv! If you’d like to see more examples of Laliv’s work, please visit our Advertisers Section.

Watch the short video interview with Ammiel Kamon, Kontera’s EVP Marketing, given at the iMedia Brand Summit held last month. See what makes Kontera’s In-Text advertising solution unique.

Check out more of our latest videos on YouTube