INTERVIEW : Amazing Workplaces had the pleasure to talk to Gary Burtka, VP of Operations, US at RTB House and understand about how he, his team and organization have successfully managed to stay at the top during the pandemic and even beyond.
Gary is currently the VP of Operations, US for RTB House. He is responsible for managing and developing the business in the US for RTB House. Ranked #58 out of Europe’s Top 1,000 growing companies, RTB House is a global company providing state-of-the-art retargeting technology. He is a creative, entrepreneurial sales, marketing and client services executive who specializes in developing companies within retail and tech. His background includes experience and expertise in operations, sales, digital marketing, content development, SEO, SEM, email, display advertising, social media, mobile, and affiliate marketing.
Prior to RTB House, Gary was an executive at Criteo (NASDAQ: CRTO) and was VP of Account Strategy. While at Criteo, he introduced an integration strategy to retarget products across display, social media, email, mobile, analytics, and search products in more than 37 countries that delivered more than a 10-fold increase in annual run rate from $7.5M to $86M+ in two years.
Excerpt of the conversation:
Q1. What has been your role as an operations leader at RTB? How do you feel the role of leaders has evolved during the pandemic.
There’s no typical day at work here for me at RTB House…I oversee a number of teams ranging from account management, to technical account management (engineering), to marketing and recruiting, BI and new products. On any given day I might start the morning out on an ops call with executives in Poland, talking about new products or new client tests, then I might interview for a sales role, then have a client call or QBR – all before lunch. So, throughout the day, I’m interfacing with many different teams, helping troubleshoot, ideate on problems, provide information – it’s really exciting, dynamic work. During the pandemic I believe all leaders have had to stay flexible and resilient to maintain successful outcomes for their organizations.
Q2. How have you helped your teams to stay resilient and motivated during Covid to ensure business continuity.
We allow remote work and our teams really have enjoyed the flexibility of that. Also, the fact we’re a global company has allowed employees to interact with colleagues around the world. We have all experienced hardships during COVID, it’s been comforting to know colleagues from across the globe have felt hardship irrespective of location.
Q3. How do you ensure that the organization and people at RTB continue to evolve with the changing customer needs.
We’ve deployed Streaming Video Ads as a key component of our Full-Funnel marketing solution powered by Deep Learning. This is a testament to our work helping brands drive engagement throughout the funnel. We also make sure our employees are up to date with trends and are always improving their skills.
Q4. While the way we work has changed 360 degree, what according to you are the positives and negatives of the new normal?
2020 and 2021 will be remembered for the explosive growth of ecommerce. Over the last year, many brands have shifted their focus to a digital-first approach. This has been a positive for RTB House as our employees have been busy due to the demands in the space. A negative is that, brands are realizing that they can’t just retarget their previous customers as so many consumers are now online due to government imposed shut downs they have to address all areas of the path-to-purchase with the same investment and attention as they would for in store marketing. Their need for our solution has allowed us to grow and this in turn has led to positive strides in internal employee engagement and productivity.
About RTB House:
RTB House is a global company that provides state-of-the-art marketing technologies for top brands and agencies worldwide. Its proprietary ad buying engine is the first in the world to be powered entirely by Deep Learning algorithms, enabling advertisers to generate outstanding results and reach their goals at every stage of the funnel.
Founded in 2012, the RTB House team comprises 750+ specialists in over 30 locations around the globe. It serves more than 2,000 campaigns for clients across the EMEA, APAC, and Americas regions.
After successfully deploying Deep Learning into 100 percent of its algorithms in 2018, RTB House has continued its research in the field of AI. The AI Marketing Lab and Creative Lab were set up as new divisions of the company focused on inventing and advancing MarTech products. As a result of their work, in 2020 the company introduced AI Full-Funnel Marketing Solutions and awareness Streaming Video Ads, lifting brand communication to the next level.