Rory Mitchell Of Criteo On The Top 5 Ways To Market, Advertise & Promote An Ecommerce Business Today
An Interview With Eric Netsch
Know your competitors. Keep a pulse on your industry and understand what your competitors are doing. Advertising continually evolves and it’s important to adjust your approach in real time.
As a part of our series called “The Top 5 Ways To Market, Advertise & Promote An Ecommerce Business Today”, we had the pleasure of interviewing Rory Mitchell.
Rory Mitchell is Executive Managing Director of the Americas. He leads Criteo’s commercial team across the United States, Canada and Latin America, including customer success, operational efficiency and revenue. He brings to Criteo over 15 years of enterprise sales and client success experience in senior roles at CheetahMail, Experian Marketing Services and Cheetah Digital. Most recently, Rory was Chief Revenue Officer at advertising technology company, Steelhouse, where he was responsible for revenue strategy and execution, customer success, and revenue operations. Rory is a California native and graduated from San Francisco State University.
Thank you so much for your time! I know that you’re super busy. Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?
When I was younger, I wanted to be an actor. In fact, my first job was a small part on the Lawrence Welk show. From there I landed in a sales role and everything clicked for me. I worked for about 10 years in sales and worked my way up to leadership positions. After working in several martech roles at Cheetah Digital, Experian, and MNTN (formally known as SteelHouse), I quickly realized that this was the industry I was supposed to be in. It has all led me to where I am today at Criteo.
Can you share the most exciting story that has happened to you since you began at your company?
For me, leading a team to success and growing the business during the pandemic has been the most exciting part about my time at Criteo. During the pandemic we saw this rapid surge in ecommerce where more consumers than ever before turned to the internet to get their shopping done. This created a massive opportunity for us to help our clients reach a whole new audience while also engaging with their existing consumers to help drive brand loyalty. It’s been very exciting to be part of the team that continues to sustain this momentum for our clients, especially as stores began to open and consumers shopped on new channels. I’ve really enjoyed watching the team excel.
What’s the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? What lesson did you learn from that?
I don’t know if there’s one specific mistake I can recall, but when I think about adjusting to Zoom when I first joined, I remember lots of laughs as we all figured out this new way of working. While convenient, virtual meetings make interactions with teammates a bit more difficult especially when leading a large sales organization, so it’s been a lot of trial and error to understand how to collaborate effectively and grow better together while we’re all working virtually.
What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now? How do you think that might help people?
It’s an exciting time for the industry and my team is blazing a trail of innovation. At Criteo we’re actively transforming from a legacy business into a progressive organization in an industry that is rapidly changing. Amid privacy changes and consumer expectations, we’re proactively creating solutions that put consumers at the center while supporting advertisers. As we work towards a more open internet there is more asymmetry between marketers and adtech organizations.
You’re a successful business leader. What are three traits about yourself that you feel helped fuel your success? Can you share a story or example for each?
I like to think that I’m an empathetic person, which has translated really well to my leadership roles. It’s helpful to have experience in the area that you are leading, as leaders can relate to their team and provide a new perspective. Sales and customer success have always been a big part of my career so I understand the challenges and best practices associated with this role and can help guide my team.
I am truly passionate about Criteo and supporting advertisers with our creativity and technology solutions. This passion keeps me focused and pushing forward. Let’s face it, some days are hard, so it’s important for me to work in an industry that I am passionate about.
Lastly, I believe it’s important to understand the field level dynamics as much as possible. This understanding helps me support my team and provide value to our customers. For example, if there is confusion or a need for resolution, I can confidently explain the Criteo position and educate them on our solutions. Additionally, this expertise enables my team to learn and develop trust in leadership along the way.
Awesome, thanks so much for sharing that. I want to shift gears and talk about eCommerce. In my work, I focus on improving shopper engagement, so I’m very passionate about this topic. As you know, mobile has taken center stage in terms of how people are engaging and transacting with eCommerce stores — leading a lot of stores to lean into mobile-first shopping experiences like mobile apps. Can you help articulate a few reasons why an eCommerce business should consider creating their own mobile app?
Mobile-first shopping through apps is the way of the future. An app is an investment — but it’s a sophisticated channel that all brands should be thinking about and launching wholeheartedly if it makes sense for their goals and objectives. The longer brands wait, the harder it becomes to encourage shoppers to download and use the app. There are so many great ways to market effectively in the mobile user community, app retargeting is one big one that comes to mind. The lifetime value of users is what really makes it attractive to marketers.
The death of the cookie is going to happen. By 2023 marketers will no longer be able to track consumers online using third-party cookies. How do you think that will impact how businesses acquire and re-target customers? What can they do to pivot?
Increasing privacy awareness — including the deprecation of key identifiers are forcing marketers to adapt to a new way of advertising. In fact, our recent commissioned study conducted by Forrester consulting found that 66% of marketers and retailers (as media owners) worry growing privacy regulations hinder their organizations’ ability to personalize at scale. Commerce media is a massive growth opportunity for brands, retailers, and publishers as the industry shifts from third-party signals. By leveraging commerce data, AI, and a privacy-first approach, marketers, and media owners can break down silos to improve customer experience and strengthen loyalty while adapting to forthcoming advertising regulations
Marketers should look their partners to provide access to first-party data. At Criteo, we will continue investing in our Commerce Media network which will help marketers and media owners preserve and increase their ability to reach relevant users and personalize campaigns by onboarding, enriching, and activating first-party data.
The cost of paid ads is at an all-time high. What are some alternative strategies to reach your target consumers that don’t involve paying a third party like Facebook and Instagram?
The reality is that none of us can change the supply costs, so we need to figure out how to grow and adjust our strategies to meet our desired outcomes. How can you activate different parts of the funnel to offset costs? Some industries are looking to work more directly with publishers to offset the costs of a middleman. Smaller to midsized companies are looking to CTV and video to drive more outcomes. At Criteo, we help our customers rethink their strategies and drive incremental success across different ad formats and audiences. We really pride ourselves on educating our partners on what we see in their industry, which will help drive performance.
Ok super. Here is the main question of our interview. Based on your experience and success, what are your “ Top 5 Ways To Market, Advertise & Promote An Ecommerce Business Today?” Please share a story or an example for each.
Invest in your team and your product. Having the right talent will ensure the success of your product and your ecommerce business. Today it’s important to have a strong understanding of analytics to drive decision making. There are plenty of tactics and awesome adtech solutions to leverage, however, it is important to have the right team to employ a strong strategy.
Data drives advertising and business success. Leverage different types of data — first-party, co-op, third-party — to inform your strategies and refine your approach. Continually test and learn to find the right mix of tactics that work best to reach your customers.
Inspire purchases with relevant and engaging video ads. We continue to see tremendous growth in online video, connected TV (CTV) and over-the-top (OTT) streaming year over year. Video is an excellent part of the omnichannel strategy to deliver rich content. I’m interested in the living room as a channel — this is everything that people use while they’re home including TV, mobile and online. There is so much opportunity to reach these audiences and video is a strong tactic.
Get creative to boost loyalty. The pandemic unseeded customer loyalty and these relationships are up for grabs. Leverage creativity to attract customers and build a loyal following.
Know your competitors. Keep a pulse on your industry and understand what your competitors are doing. Advertising continually evolves and it’s important to adjust your approach in real time.
You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)
We need to figure out how to bring more equality to the world — not just acceptance but true equality. We could accomplish so much more together in an environment where everyone was set up to achieve their full potential.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
https://www.linkedin.com/in/rorymitchell1/
I want to thank you so much for your time and for sharing your expertise with us. I wish you continued success!
About The Interviewer. Eric Netsch is the co-founder and CEO of Tapcart, a codeless mobile app builder that helps Shopify’s fastest-growing brands to create an owned marketing channel so that they can reach, engage, convert, and retain their audience without ever relying on another entity for access. Eric has been featured in TechCrunch, Business Insider, The Verge, etc. To launch your mobile app, visit Tapcart.com.
