Senior Director, Digital Advertising
AutoNation Inc.
What is one of your proudest accomplishments of your career?
As part of my tenure at AutoNation, I spearheaded the development and expansion of the organization’s digital marketing initiatives with the creation of our programmatic ad program. This program allowed us to effectively target and deliver customized messaging to a diverse in-market audience across 300+ stores showcasing thousands of vehicles with a dynamic creative ad technology platform that was able to deliver the right message to the right customer at the right time. In 2015, my efforts to expand our digital presence were further highlighted by my proposal to collaborate with a London-based firm to pioneer lead generation on Facebook, where we were able to deliver thousands of leads to our stores quickly and efficiently. This work ultimately led to the development of Facebook inventory ads, in conjunction with some of our partners, prior to their official launch on the platform. I would like to think that the success of our innovative approach resulted in the official creation of Dynamic Product Ads (DPA) for Automotive, which eventually was renamed to AIA (Automotive Inventory Ads). My team’s innovative work eventually led to our direct partnership with Facebook for the placement of our vehicles on their marketplace, a distinction that set us apart as the only dealer group to work directly with the social media giant for ad placement purposes.
What is your best advice to other women who want to excel in the automotive industry?
Below are the five top things I feel are super important to excel in any industry: Build strong networks; for me, this is the most important one. Connect with professionals in your field, both within and outside of your organization. Attend industry events and engage in networking activities. Set clear goals and know what you want to achieve in your career. Be patient and learn; commit yourself to lifelong learning. Stay up to date with industry trends, seek out knowledge and skills, and invest in professional development opportunities. Develop a growth mindset, adopt a positive attitude toward learning from mistakes and be open to feedback. Be open to stepping outside of your comfort zone. Take on challenging projects, show initiative and ownership of your work, and go the extra mile.