Mindshare Unplugged spotlights and interview rising stars across Mindshare North America – people who exemplify our core values of Provocation, Speed, and Teamwork. Say hello to Raffi Mark, Associate Director, Live Marketer, FAST, Mindshare North America and find out what makes him tick.
What inspired you go to into the media industry?
When I first graduated college, I was looking into jobs across a number of fields including marketing and advertising. I hadn’t known what media was at the time, but my brother’s friend connected me to Mindshare. I interviewed, got a job, and have been here ever since!
What do you think is the most exciting thing happening in media right now?
The advancement of ad-tech. From audience data to programmatic offerings to the different tools we leverage in the LOOP, the wealth of information that is available across planning, buying, and reporting is amazing. Most importantly the ability to push every partner we work with to develop more advanced offers really makes the complexity of tech tangible and accessible.
What advice would you offer to people who are just starting out in this industry?
The first thing that I say to every new hire that I work with is that they should never stop asking questions. Our job is to understand and explain things, so without asking questions you’re likely to miss something. There is rarely a bad time to ask questions and rarely a bad question. For anyone who has ever been in a meeting with me, they can attest to the fact that I always have a question and am always trying to think through how to apply what I’m hearing! The other piece of advice that I was given pretty early on came from my Director. He told me that the most important thing to understand – especially as a more junior member of a team – is that if you’re invited to a meeting, it means you belong there. Don’t be afraid to participate, speak up, and be an active part of the meeting.
If you had a blank plane ticket to anywhere, where would you go?
I would go anywhere I can see the Northern Lights. I’ve been to Alaska, so it would have to be somewhere in Europe (Iceland, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, etc.)
