Ryanne Laredo is CCO at Smartly.io – a social advertising automation platform. I recently caught up with Ryanne to discuss her role in depth. Similarly, how data can enhance ad creativity, and her thoughts on the future of the industry.

Tell me about your role… what does a typical day look like for you?

In April 2021, I joined Smartly.io where email list of business opportunity seekers I serve as the Chief Customer Officer. In my role I lead the Customer team and support Smartly. Similarly, io’s mission of enabling brands to power effective ads and automate. Every step of social advertising to unlock greater performance and creativity.

It isn’t all glory, of course, a part of my role is to remove barriers for my team if something gets in the way of the success of our customers. There are so many dynamics in our industry now that can range from speed bumps to giant mountains to climb, like signal loss. Collaborating across product, engineering and other functions within Smartly.io to share the voice of the customer, while ideating how we help customers stay ahead is one of the most important tasks I have. I also spend a good amount of time supporting and hearing from my team on how their experience at Smartly.io can be improved.

How will Google and Apple’s privacy initiatives impact the industry – and what can marketers do in the face of this?

Privacy has been such a growing topic and for good reason – the adtech industry has not been successful in communicating with customers about how its users are leveraging technology to ultimately make online experiences better and easier. With changes coming from companies like Google and Apple it will be important for marketers to figure out other ways to get meaningful data from users whether from first-party data from customers or third-party data from providers. But one of the biggest ways is through creative testing.

With so many privacy changes now is the time to focus on creative and marketers need to work together with media buying teams to funnel data and produce the right assets that resonate with consumers. Creative data has long been an under-utilised data set. Pair it with experiences in social advertising that evoke a response and connection from consumers and you have an amazing opportunity to redefine what effective ads mean.

What are your thoughts on the future of Facebook (and its new ‘Meta’ focus?)

For many years Facebook has been on track to become a retail. Similarly, hub and the focus on Meta is an extension of this goal. What is exciting about the metaverse is its goal to expand physical limitations through its virtual constructs. However, consumers are primarily still focused on the real world. Facebook, ‘Meta’ understands this and has discussed opening brick and mortar retail stores. I think that these stores will act as a gateway to the metaverse. Allowing for consumers to move from the virtual world back to reality almost seamlessly.

What advice would you give a marketer in your industry right now?

Pursue diversity. The industry has a huge diversity problem and while progress has make the problem remains. I would recommend marketers add diversity, equity and inclusion as a key part of their 2022 planning initiatives. We needs to be sharing best practices and setting a standard for the industry. Similarly, not weaponising our approaches as competitive advantages.