Nina Disi is one of the newest members to the CPX Interactive family, joining us in January, 2012.  Find out more about where she’s from, where she’s been and what she’ll be doing here at CPX.

What is your title and what do you do here at CPX?

I joined CPX Interactive as the Director of Sales for the Eastern Region.  I partner with agencies and brands to help scale digital with the plethora of media solutions that our company has to offers.   I welcome the ever changing media environment and enjoy translating new offerings into simple yet successful solutions for my client’s.

What did you do prior to coming to CPX?

Prior to joining CPX Interactive I assisted agencies and brands in streamlining their digital planning and buying process so they can devote more resources to strategic thinking and maximize their potential revenue growth.

Where are you from and where did you go to school?

I am originally from New York receiving my Bachelors Degree in Media Studies from Queens College.  I enjoyed living in Cambridge, MA for a few years and when I returned to NYC I settled in the Upper Westside of Manhattan.

We know you recently visited a far off destination over the holiday. Can you tell us more about that and why you traveled so far?

I have a passion for traveling.  The best way to learn about a country and its culture is to submerge yourself into it.  My most recent trip took me to Saudi Arabia, Nepal, Bhutan, India and Bangladesh.

What is your favorite piece of technology?

At the fear of sounding cliché…the iphone.  I’ve got to have my Words with Friends and Spotify apps.  I also like to check my weather app before I leave the house in the morning…making sure I’m prepared for whatever the day may bring.

What is one website that you constantly find yourself visiting?

I constantly find myself visiting Linkedin.com.  I enjoy networking and keeping up with the projects my colleagues in the industry are working on.

Connect with Nina on LinkedIn.

fa·ble [fey-buhl] (noun)

This past week, MediaPost published an article written by our own EVP of Marketing, David Shay.  The article talks to the current ‘perception’ of digital advertising and the need to alter that view in order to reach the full potential that the medium has to offer.

Just a little more than 10 years ago, the way we measured a user’s engagement of a specific ad would likely have involved a call center lighting up for the 15 minutes following the broadcast of a direct-response commercial. (It probably ran in the overnight hours on a second-tier cable network.)

But in the late ’90s, the idea of advertising designed for user engagement took a monumental leap forward. What became known as ‘the click’ did two things:

Read more…

Lauren Nemeth, VP of Sales, AppNexus sitting down with Mike Seiman, Founder and CEO of CPX Interactive

This morning was a very exciting morning for us here at CPX Interactive as several of our team members attended the AppNexus Summit. Our President and CEO, Mike Seiman sat down with Lauren Nemeth, VP of Sales at AppNexus to talk about the past, present and future of ad networks in the online advertising space.

Prior to his presentation, it was announced that CPX Interactive has chosen AppNexus, the world leader in advertising technology, as its new exclusive ad server.

NEW YORK, Nov. 10, 2011 /PRNewswire/ – “We are thrilled to announce our exclusive partnership with AppNexus and are extremely confident in its world-class platform to manage CPX’s enormous reach of nearly two billion global impressions per day,” said CPX CEO, Mike Seiman. “AppNexus has an incredibly scalable platform which can handle our rapidly growing ad serving and real-time bidding needs and, in allowing it to do so, we remain focused on our core competencies – designing and executing digital campaigns, driving the highest yield for our publisher partners and generating powerful and proprietary first-party campaign data.”…Read More

CPX Interactive's David Zapletal, VP of Network Operations and Mike Zacharski, VP of Business Development at the AppNexus Summit

Also announced this morning at the AppNexus Summit, CPX Interactive was named as one of the inaugural app providers for AppNexus’ groundbreaking new App Marketplace for the digital ad technology industry.  To learn more about AppNexus’ App Marketplace, read their recent press release here.

.

.

A special thanks to our Marketing Associate, Taylor Hall, for the contribution.

It was a full day of talking about Display…advertising, that is.  OMMA Display New York was held at the Sentry Centers in Midtown Manhattan on Nov. 7, 2011 as industry professionals gathered together to spend the day listening to some of the greatest minds in the internet advertising space. It was my first time attending an OMMA event as I tagged along with my fellow CPX Interactive team members, Jamie Gutterman, Director of Sales; Ross Cohen, Director of Sales and Matt Fillingame, Account Manager/Brand Sales.  I came to OMMA Display mostly to follow along with the overwhelming amount of tweeters who were vigorously participating in our sponsored Twitter feed throughout the day, but I left with an inside look at the future of display advertising.

CPX Interactive Team Members Jamie Gutterman, Dir. of Sales; Ross Cohen, Dir. of Sales; and Matt FIllingame, Acct. Manager/Brand Sales

Stephen J. Kim, the General Manager, Global Creative Solutions, at Microsoft was the first speaker of the day, following intros and opening remarks. The theme of his conversation was on the advances of storytelling and the future of digital display.  As Kim presented an array of case studies and stimulating imagery, we were all pleasantly reminded about what’s possible when we return to the idea of storytelling through a technology standpoint.

That conversation became the true focus of all the presentations at OMMA Display.  There were plenty of other points of view and professional opinions, and I will get to them, but I think the main take-away from the event was the idea that, as we embrace the growth in technology and acquire new tools for reach and targeting and incorporate all the different layers of data, we cannot forget to couple all of that equally with the technological possibilities of creative.

The following panel was titled “Man vs. Machine”, and was an in-depth discussion about the move into the Age of Analysts.  Panelist Maryann Bekkedahl, President of AdKeeper jokingly referred to it as, “It’s Revenge of the Nerds.” With technology-heavy approaches to online advertising, the industry has started to see a new generation of innovators come onto the playing field. The title of being “creative” is being replaced by “Technology creative” where artistic minds with a tech savvy side are slowly going to take over the traditional creative realm of the industry.

My favorite panel of the day was, “Try that with a DSP,” which raised the issue of technology still centering on the idea of more performance around clicks and conversions and less on creativity.  Jim Meskaukas, Co-Founder of Media Darwin, Inc. said,

“Brand advertising is a rhetorical exercise of persuasion, not bludgeoning one over the head with a click. Agencies make more money in transactions than ad creation so the creativity suffers in online ads.  The only thing that advertising technology did recently was create a better mousetrap, but at the same time, it ignored the dearth of mice and quality of bait.”

The CPX Interactive sponsored Twitter Feed located to the left of the stage.

After hearing every different take on the Display Advertising marketplace, I still stand by my original statement that the idea of storytelling or truly making a connection through good creativity must continue to be intertwined with the technology side of things. You can add new targeting tools, make a data-layered cake if you want, 100 layers high, but at the end of the day, if the creativity isn’t making that connection, offering some kind of solution or engaging the user on a personal level, then the display advertising space isn’t reaching its true potential.

As the technology in data and targeting become more advanced and widely adopted by the industry, I think we will see these “technology creatives” come in and really change up the game.  It’s only a matter of time before the art of advertising figures out how to use the science side to its advantage and evolve right alongside side in online advertising harmony.

If you would like to see more pictures from the event, visit our Flickr page.  To see more information from OMMA Display and video recordings from each of the presentations, visit their site at http://www.mediapost.com/ommadisplay/.

Last week, a press release reported on some of the new strategic changes taking place within the company and a realignment of our C-level executives as we begin to move forward into the next phase of the online display advertising space.

–(PR.com)– The changes come at a time when the company is beginning the unification of its global sales efforts, a move designed to leverage the synergies that exist between the traditionally independent silos of performance and brand advertising in the online realm.  CEO and Chairman, Mike Seiman, explains, “For a long time the industry has assumed that ‘branding’ and ‘performance’ were distinct entities.  The truth is, however, that they are two different tactical directions that ultimately both support the strategy of driving revenue to the bottom line.  With our new team in place, we are set to create significant synergies from value we have always offered on both sides of that tactical equation.”

READ ENTIRE PRESS RELEASE

A special thank you to our Marketing Manager, Dana Posner, for the contribution.

CPX Interactive employees at the 4th Annual Softball Game and BBQ

On Wednesday, October 12^th 2011, the CPX Interactive staff gathered at Eisenhower Park in Westbury, NY, for the company’s 4^th annual softball game & BBQ. With the fear of Mother Nature rearing its ugly head, predictions of thunderstorms nearly canceled the game. However, CPXers decided that a few measly raindrops wouldn’t allow them to miss a fun-filled day of festivities.

Mike Seiman, Founder & CEO, checks his phone in between games to make sure he didn't miss any important emails.

CPX Interactive holds true value to its employees’ team spirit in addition to supporting some healthy competition. After all of the hard work and dedication that these employees put in day-after-day, throughout the year, the annual company softball game & BBQ is one small way that the CPX Interactive executive team likes to say, ‘break-time everyone’! Since family and friends were also invited to join, dodgeball, Frisbee and a piñata were available in addition to the softball game.

Mike Seiman, Founder and CEO; Mike Weissman, Publisher Development Manager; and Jeffrey Reitzen, VP of Sales, CPA Division, all playing little dodgeball in between softball games.

All departments, regardless of responsibility and rank, gathered together for one afternoon and left all thoughts of business behind. Even Blackberries and iPhones were turned off…well MOST of them anyway. I did happen to catch our CEO, Mike Seiman, at one point checking in on a few things, but notably with Frisbee in-hand, so kudos on the multi-tasking skills. Aside from that, the only conversations which ensued were those of sports and games.

Sal Castelli, Director of Creative Development, gets ready to hit a home run.

While folks in the stands listened to the crack of a bat, gazed as their coworkers slid into first and, on occasion, ducked from a foul ball or two, they happily dined on some tasty grub. Catering consisted of finger-licking BBQ ribs, pulled-pork sandwiches, spicy green-bean casserole, delicious mac-n-cheese, sweet corn bread – and what’s a BBQ without some freshly-made potato salad!? 

With minimal bruising, scrapes, face-dives and trip-ups, the CPX staff clearly “had a ball” at this year’s annual event. Feel free to visit our CPX Interactive Facebook page to view our softball photo album.

CPX Interactive is pleased to report that our inaugural membership into the BrightTag ONE Partner Program is now official.  Announced in a Press Release yesterday, Oct. 17, 2011, BrightTag named several organizations, including CPX Interactive, as part of their ‘first wave’ of members connecting to the ONE Platform.

“BrightTag’s ONE Partner Program is designed to benefit digital marketing services providers by expediting activation of new clients, enhancing data collection capabilities and providing meaningful performance benefits for members’ clients.”…

READ ENTIRE PRESS RELEASE

CPX Interactive’s Strategy is the New Creative initiative has always been a conversation about, “The Promise of Digital” and reaching its full potential in the world of online advertising.  We recently revisited this conversation by hosting a panel discussion at the IAB MIXX 2011 Conference and Expo on October 4, 2011 at the Crown Plaza Times Square in NYC.

David Shay, our EVP of Marketing, moderated the panel discussion and opened up a conversation that explored how a pendulum counter-swing that has seen the industry rapidly move towards a pure technology-based vision of ad serving, combined with an acceptance of a poor online attribution model, now runs the risk of marginalizing the value of the human element that makes up the ‘art’ of ad placement.

Hear thoughts about the opportunities, challenges and dangers of the technology-heavy ad placement tactics currently being used from our panel of industry execs:  Zach Coelius, CEO of Triggit; Steve Latham, Founder & CEO of Encore Media Metrics; Michael L. Miller, CMO of SolutionSet MediaWhiz Partnership; and Mike Seiman, Founder and CEO of CPX Interactive.