Our Best of the Best Awards is fast approaching and entries are closing soon so get them in quick for the industry’s most spectacular awards night!
Get started on your entry HERE.
One of our incredible sponsors for the event is Quantcast. So we caught up with the company’s marketing lead APAC Germaine Hendrik to discuss why Quantcast is sponsoring B&T’s Best of the Best awards presented by Finecast…
What drew Quantcast to sponsor B&T’s Best of the Best awards?
Advertising used to be marketers calling publishers directly and selecting which section of the paper or magazine they wanted their brand or product featured in. The internet changed all that, and today, it takes a team of talent to amplify a brand.
When you look at the amount of change digitisation has had on our industry, it’s hard not to admire the diversity and the talent of the people that make advertising and marketing what it is today. As a people-centric business, we at Quantcast know how important it is to acknowledge those that come together to make what we do work.
It’s about highlighting the marketers, creative leaders, technologists, etc., without whom the wheels cannot turn in our industry. In sponsoring B&T’s Best of the Best, we hope to celebrate the individuals who come together collectively to make their brands come to life. It’s very aligned with what we do internally as well and so we thought it was a great honour for us.
How does Quantcast encourage and promote staff to reach a level of the best of the best?
Internally, there are lots of things that we do. We challenge our members to reach for the stars and be the best they can be, whether that’s with us in the business, or in another company down the road, to help their careers get to the desired point.
Our culture is an inclusive one that allows opportunities to see members explore doing projects they love, doing things such as working flexibly to get more education outside of work, or even working for another department if they want to explore other professional interests within the business.
We recognise talent in the business accordingly in our promotions as well. We also hold regular DEI&B (which stands for diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging) Designed to look after our mental health and wellbeing.
There’s also just real empathy in the business. We’ve also achieved the kind of change from COVID where parents need flexible working options. So we’re all about people basically, trying to make sure that they’re doing the best that they can be their best selves, they can achieve this.
We have a new category this year called “Diversity Champion.” What kind of worker do you think we can expect to see win this?
In my opinion, someone who is genuinely passionate about diversity and inclusion is champion material. Reflecting on a former manager who was – and still is – a diversity champion, she spearheaded activities that made a real impact in the business, including running a career support group for women, sessions with speakers to share their tips for health and happiness at work and more. These initiatives came from her passion to foster a truly diverse workplace and culture at Quantcast.
I would also say that a diversity champion is someone who’s interested in how our differences as humans–whether that’s in gender, sexual orientation, culture or otherwise–help us be better together.
Best of the Best focuses on the highest performing individuals in the media and advertising industry rather than just businesses or entire agencies. What is it about this that Quantcast felt was so important for an award ceremony?
There are many award programmes that recognise the output and impact of beautifully crafted campaigns, but not many focus just on the people. As an ad tech provider, Quantcast works with all types of clients, including agencies, marketers, publishers, and other partners and associations, such as the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) to do what we do. We know that it’s people who are the now and the future of work.
We felt that B&T’s Best of the Best kind of stood out in that it’s an award that recognises the individuals who all deserve to be recognised for what they bring to the table.
Why is it so important to promote individual achievement within the workplace?
I think success at work brings happiness, motivation, and generally the best out in people. As organisations become more digitally connected and possibly less physical– what with working from home and everything becoming more and more common– it’s important to recognise and reward the actual people who are driving the media industry forward.
It’s cliche, but as they say, people say don’t do business with companies, they do business with people. Celebrating individual achievement helps to build great teams, which in turn helps improve the media industry and the businesses in it collectively as well.
