Digital & Dirt
00:17:51 · Lucy Markowitz
[00:17:51] S1: Yeah. So I think when you think about even like our journey of knowing each other, while I've pretty much known you the entire time I've been at Vistar, Lamar didn't actually become part of the Vistar marketplace until 2016. That was the year, big year. That was the year we got billboards. And prior to that, we were mostly selling place based inventory. And I think that it was very chicken and egg because to your point, if these larger companies, public companies are going to get into the programmatic space, They want to make sure that they're going to have something to show for it. And so, we needed to have this balance of how are we driving up the amount of revenue. And I think one of the things we started seeing on the agency side was more interest in wanting to buy this way. Because the idea of buying all of their channels the same way, being able to buy through a platform to be able to add this service layer that their teams could really apply data, apply agency owned data, have measurement was really important to them. And they knew that for out of home, it was still a bit fragmented, especially at that time where you could maybe get data and measurement applied individually to each different format type. But the idea of doing it in a more universal way, I think that was one of the first things that buyers were like, this is kind of how we want to buy. And so part of the convincing was by us, but we actually needed for some of our partners that were buying at the time to like kind of give the okay to the vendors of telling them or the media owners, this is how we're thinking about buying and kind of getting them to say like, we believe that this is some of the revenue projections where it wasn't just Vistar, we were kind of standing alongside of some of these buyers across, I would say a mix of out of home teams as well as programmatic and digital groups because we really had like two sets of stakeholders. And I think at the time even digital out of home, like sat within its own team within out of home. So I feel like part of it was having it not just come from us, but actually getting the buyers on the other side to talk to our potential partners, convincing them that this was gonna be necessary in order to grow the partnership.
00:20:10 · Lucy Markowitz, Ian Dallimore
And I think over time, one of the things we've seen is like this convergence of these teams at the agencies are starting to work together. [00:20:19] S0: And [00:20:20] S1: that was just an idea back then. Right. I would say folks like Lamar, you had to trust that if this is what your buyer is asking, like it's probably something we should do. But I would say at that point it was actually not a transparent marketplace. We couldn't even say, we could show a logo slide. [00:20:38] S0: I remember this, yeah. [00:20:39] S1: But we couldn't tell you where you ran. We could tell you ran on billboard, but we couldn't tell you you ran with Lamar, which I think at that point too, transparency was such a big thing. And of course we launched a fully transparent market. I want to say it was like March 10. So just 2020, just a few days before COVID. So I think that email may have been buried in some people's inboxes, but I think since then it's been, that was one of the catalysts for growth is really being able to have that transparency.
00:21:09 · Ian Dallimore
[00:21:09] S0: Yeah. And what you're talking about is massive in our space, right? You're meeting the demand, but you're also making sure that that demand isn't just short lived. And that's what I've always loved about Vistar. It's kind of like, hey, if we're going to build something, it's not going to just be because this isn't the future in the way, because it is. And that's what I've always seen is you and the team and others have always seen where the future is headed. So it's kind of like what you were thinking about, and Michael and others on the team twelve years ago, it's kind of like, hey guys, automation is going to be the biggest success. So I'm going to switch over to the cultural side. And I'm going to say this, right, with that statement. As much as you have automation, as much as you streamline processes. I see a lot of companies and I hear a lot of people talking today really around like, Hey, if we just automate things, we could have it run more efficiently and we can have less people and costs and the ROI. And one of the things that I'll quote Kevin Riley, our president and chairman always said is he told, told myself and Ross Riley and a few others, he said, as you guys continue to adapt technology, as you continue to adapt automation, programmatic, future of AI, whatever's out there, it doesn't need to replace the people. Because the people are the heartbeat of what we do within Lamar and our company, and that technology should only aid. Day one working with you, I knew that you were gonna be a star. So I'm gonna brag about you for a moment. It's there's it's a very tough industry to be in. This is my twentieth year with the company and I feel every day I'm still trying to make a name for myself through the work that I do, the team that I create, the passion that we build. And as others have always said, you're standing on the backs of others. It's hard to stand out in this industry, but there's also not a lot of people that are like so passionate about like a billboard, a transit screen, an airport, and more than you. And watching you kind of not only help build out this marketplace and build out this demand and this excitement behind something, but you've really kind of carved yourself into it. We were just chatting offline about your time at Cannes and it seemed like you were everywhere.
00:23:22 · Ian Dallimore
You know, you were at your T Mobile ad solution, were at Brand Innovators, you had Stagwell, you know, you were at Gary Vee's and you've kind of become this iconic woman in the space. And there's a handful of people that I can with confidence say that about that are those iconic women when you see them on a webinar, when you see them walk on stage, you see a post, you stop what you're doing and you're like, this has validity. So I know that's a long winded way of bragging about you, but what what was it that helped build the culture at Vistar? Because I I believe that you were one of the main people internally that also did that. What... Is it just your personality? I know you're like probably full of fun and just love everything that you do, but what's like the heartbeat of that?
00:24:07 · Lucy Markowitz
[00:24:07] S1: Yeah. So it's like a tiny tornado in a lot of ways. As we all know, I'm limited in height, but not necessarily in voice and vocal ability. And so I think that part of it is like a little bit of shamelessness. I think being able to not be so worried about what everyone is thinking and try to go up to people, have a conversation, but not just based on nothing. I think that there's a lot of amazing people in this industry that they're not necessarily gonna come up to me. They don't know who I am, where I think there's a lot of people that I will like fan girl about. But it's also how are you gonna create those connections with people? How are you gonna follow-up on that? So when I think about how I've gotten to where I am, a lot of it is the relationship building with clients, making sure that to your point, you can't automate a relationship that you have. And there's a lot that goes back and forth over email, but there's also a lot of time that you spend in person on the phone with people. And part of that is making sure that they know as much as I could suck the air out of a room by talking. I also try and listen a lot too and understand more about the people that I wanna do business with, what their brand cares about, etcetera. And I think that builds trust of also knowing that I'm gonna make sure that things get done. Now to your point about culture, I think one, I'm surrounded by an executive team and obviously Michael, but also a lot of people that I started with at Vistar that joined, especially in the beginning. That was sort of the foundation that all of us had, which was this idea of we're gonna get stuff done. We're gonna make sure that it doesn't matter what the job is, even if it would be considered something that's like for someone more junior, like no job is beneath you.
00:25:59 · Ian Dallimore, Lucy Markowitz
[00:25:59] S0: I love that. [00:26:00] S1: And so I think that's really exemplified when I look at the teams that now I have, I would say the privilege to get to lead. I think those people embody so much of that. I would say all of the leaders at Vistar have, pardon my French. I don't know if we're allowed to curse [00:26:18] S0: on It this [00:26:20] S1: is in our DNA, this concept of just getting shit done. And I think that that means a lot, but it's also getting it done, getting it done correctly, making sure that we are tying a bow on it, getting people the information that they need both internally as well as externally explaining ourselves. But I also think we have a lot of fun. Like maybe sometimes a little bit too much fun. We show up, we like to have a good time, but we also kind of, I would say it's that work hard, play hard way about things. But it's everyone shows up from the most junior person on the team to the CEO, to the CFO. Like everyone wants to be a part of these kind of moments. And we've obviously had some really great special events that we've had, but not all of them are necessarily ones that cost a ton of money. But they're the types of things that everyone's going to remember. And they're part of what kind of bonds everyone together.