Nano Interactive connecting advertisers with individuals based on their live intent (a mix of signals including search behaviour and user journeys). With search intent remaining a key way for brands to understand consumer behaviour, particularly since Covid, we recently caught up with Nano’s Managing Director, Niall Moody, to understand more about the company. We also spoke to Niall about how he works effectively working from home, and some advice for those within digital advertising.
Please describe your job: What do you do?
I lead the UK Business for Nano Interactive. My day-to-day is really varied but recently in a quest to simplify things I’ve categorised my responsibilities into 4 P’s. These are… Pitch, how do we market and sell our products; People, helping our brilliant team to develop; Processes, finding the optimal ways to carry out our day to day business; and finally Product, helping to understand our customers and build products that fix their biggest problems.
Talk us through a typical day…
The day typically starts around 6am as one of the kids jumps on my bed and scares me awake. The next two hours are spent washing, feeding, and dressing everyone and then we leave the house for the school run. I usually walk my son, Jensen to school and then take the long route home, I learned this year just how much I enjoyed running to try and keep healthy and have time to think about the day ahead.
Before starting work, it’s coffee and breakfast with my wife, Melissa, and then we head to our own little corners of the house to start work. I try to fill my mornings with calls, checking in with the team or clients as I find people tend to be more receptive and full of energy. I then spend the afternoon working on the various projects or tasks that are top of my list. I used to keep a to-do list as long as your arm but I have come to learn that I work better by giving greater focus to only the most important tasks that are going to have more impact on the business. I usually stop work when the kids are home from school to spend a couple of hours with them and away from the laptop, when they are in bed I log back on and finish anything important or use the time to work through emails.
How do you maintain an effective work/life balance?
It’s been a struggle at times this past year, but one made easier by having a good partnership with my wife and an understanding team. I proactively search out times in my week to exercise as I know that helps me feel clear minded. I try to break my days into blocks so when I am doing something, I can give it my full attention rather than trying to think about different things all at once. Another thing I do that helps me keep balance is to read a lot. I am a nerd for books on leadership and stoicism – oh and wine, lots of wine.
How has strategy changed at your company?
We used 2020 to really review who we are as a company and where we want to go. We have been hard at work developing our product to help brands reach users at key moments of intent in a new privacy first web.
How has customer behaviour (or your clients’ customer behaviour) changed during the pandemic?
Understandably, we saw a lot of brands stop spending as the pandemic broke but as the last year unfolded, we have seen confidence grow and brands are adapting their strategies and messaging as they begin to spend again. As much as we all miss the face-to-face interactions, coffees, and the odd lunch, we have seen that you don’t have to be in the same room to have a really effective discussion. We have seen a step up in requests from advertisers for consumer insights as brands seek to understand the rapid changes in behaviour each phase brings.
What do you predict for the future?
The only thing that is constant is change. So many exciting opportunities will come out of the seismic changes in the advertising landscape in the next few months and years. One thing I am excited to see is brands moving towards new ways of measuring the impact of their digital advertising, moving away from outdated proxies towards new standards that impact how brands grow.
What advice would you give a marketer right now?
I think people often add complexity to problems when it is not always needed. It’s fair to say that we have seen a huge shift in consumer behaviour this year but the fundamentals of advertising are still so important – use live consumer intent targeting to be present at the key moments of consideration for your customers and deliver interesting messages that nudge them towards your products.
