of Data-Driven Marketing & Advertising Association (ADMA) offers digital and data-driven courses developed by industry experts for professional upskilling and knowledge diversification.

In a series with ADMA, media week talked with Vineta Mantena – Director of Digital Marketing, Optus – On engaging digital marketers in regulatory matters and why the workshop is “game-changing”.

Manthena joined a telecommunications company 5 years ago and has 10 years of experience in a media agency managing a digital marketing team.

The Digital Marketing Director runs the in-house social programmatic team in addition to SEO and affiliate marketing.

“The motivation for in-house began with privacy and regulatory changes. In my opinion, it expands the role of first-party data becoming a commodity.

“My team’s vision and current role is to run a world-class in-house marketing team. I have,” she added.

The importance of involving digital marketers in regulatory matters

Engaging and educating digital marketers on regulatory issues is essential, especially in the ever-changing landscape of advertising. Manthena said:

“The future will continue to get a little more complicated as we adapt to regulatory changes as an organization, and we are staying up to date on that.”

Mantena will be involved in what is happening on regulatory issues to plan future testing, strategic changes and key priorities such as phasing out cookies by 2024. says it can.

The Director of Digital Marketing at Optus also said that addressing regulatory issues is critical for digital marketers to keep up with changing performance benchmarks.

“How they change is a challenge that comes down to future measurements, and this is part of the problem behind regulatory change. We can plan for what,” added Mantena.

According to Manthena, Google’s announced delay in phasing out cookies has given Optus more time.

“We already have a clear vision of how we want to move forward in a cookie-free future. , and hopefully the situation will be such that there should be no significant change in performance.”

The digital marketing director said Optus will be ready and operational in a predominantly cookie-free environment by 2024.

Key Lessons Learned from the Game-Changing ADMA Workshop

Optus has participated in workshops hosted by ADMA, which Manthena appreciates, calling them “game changers.”

“It’s refreshing to have an independent view of regulatory change broken down by the different audiences the workshop is aimed at.”

Optus’ Digital Marketing Director explained that they were able to train multiple teams and departments.

The workshop provided Mantena with insights into priorities at Optus and how to ensure the best interests of customers by protecting privacy and data, and how to pivot to be central to future technical changes and integrations. said that a conversation had begun.

“ADMA provided that consolidated regulatory view, which was informative and eye-opening for our team.”

In addition to being “informative” and “eye-opening,” Mantena said the feedback to the workshop from the Optus team has been positive.

“Making these changes within the platform with first-party data requires significant engineering and resources to enable some of those features, and that should be prioritized. everyone knows.

“The fact that senior stakeholders are involved in the privacy and regulatory conversations allows leadership to prioritize those technical requirements that need to arise,” she said.

“It also ensures the visibility and significance of regulatory changes to our business and organization, enabling us to manage their impact from a performance perspective,” she added.

Mel HopkinsOptus Vice President Marketing CMO, said of ADMA’s regulatory training:

“This will generate innovation and creative thinking as advertisers seek new ways to reach and engage consumers. It leads to stronger ties.

“By developing new solutions that can measure the true impact of data-driven marketing, the industry will be better prepared for the changing digital advertising landscape,” she added.

Sarah Fernando

Sarah FernandoHe is responsible for ADMA’s regulatory and advocacy advisory.

“By inviting our in-house and agency partners to these sessions, ADMA members such as Optus can build a stronger foundation for the journey together.

“The importance of regulatory and compliance conversations within marketing teams cannot be overemphasized. These teams are responsible for collecting, managing, and using data to protect organizations and consumers. play an important role on

Fernando said privacy standards will inevitably continue to evolve with updates to legislation and changes implemented by technology platforms as regulatory changes continue to take effect. She pointed out that it reflects the expectation that

“Privacy concerns alone won’t stop consumers from using online services, but they will seek out brands they perceive as trustworthy and use services that meet their privacy expectations.

“Marketers need to be prepared for this fundamental change. It’s about partnering with representatives,” added Fernando.

Participation in ADMA Regulatory and Advocacy Working Groups

Mantena also participates in the ADMA Regulatory and Advocacy Working Group appointed by Optus Vice President Marketing CMO Hopkins.

“For me, the best part of it is traveling with like-minded people to get their perspective on some of their challenges and perspectives that impact the industry. I am honored to be able to represent Optus,” she said.

“We are talking about where we are as an industry on some of these changes, so that we can collectively have a voice if any change needs to be pushed back.” she added.

Optus Data-Driven Marketers and Google’s Cookieless Lazy Future

Regarding the future of data-driven marketers, Manthena noted that Optus is embracing a shift in innovation, especially in light of Google’s cookie-free delay.

“We have been on a journey of organizing our own data and enabling more testing and learning. We have reached out to the market and relied on our technology partners to help us on this journey.”

Optus’ digital marketing director said some of the tools and strategies they’ve deployed are on the market, and they tend to buy machine learning built from hundreds of signals and fed to machines.

“We can pretty much predict whether consumers are on their way to purchase, which is interesting,” she said.

Manthena also noted that it is partnering with third-party vendors to test authenticated traffic and exploring ways to build second-party data pipelines to facilitate future scale in the data safe space.

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Top image: Vineta Mantena