Addressable advertising veteran Aleck Schleider has joined Blockgraph as its first chief revenue officer.
Blockgraph was recently spun out as a standalone company owned by Comcast, Charter Communications and ViacomCBS that will focus on safely and securely handling the data needed for targeted advertising.
Schleider, who previously had been senior VP of client and data strategy at Amobee, will be responsible for adding clients to the Blockgraph platform and will guide that platform’s monetization strategy and commercial direction, reporting to Blockgraph CEO Jason Manningham.
“Our long-term vision for the development of Blockgraph has always been to introduce data into the television and OTT marketplace in a safe, secure and sustainable way,” said Manningham, “We knew that the CRO position would be crucial in realizing a sustainable monetization strategy, and Aleck’s demonstrated success in both maximizing revenue performance and delivering new product solutions is why he was the perfect choice for this role.”
Before Amobee, Schleider was with Videology, developing advanced TV data and measurement offerings. Earlier in his career he held posts at Forbes and Advertising.com.
“This is where the industry has to go,” Schleider said. “There needs to be a better communication and collaborative effort between the true owners and the foundations of the industry, and that's what’s happening here.”
Schleider said the mission of Blockgrah is to create a better and more sustainable data-driven media ecosystem that is better faster and more cost efficient.
“If information can move quicker into the systems for addressable targeting with less friction at a lower cost, everybody wins, right? And that's that's really what's happening here,” he said.
And if more brands are willing to bring in their data for addressable television, the industry benefits.
“We have removed the middlemen in terms of the ability to create fluidity for partners to work and bring insights and data back and forth,” he said.
Schleider has spent much of his career working on both the commercial side and the product side of the companies he’s worked for. “This is not a departure from what I have traditionally done, being in the organization as someone who can be on the commercial side, but also very much involved in the product and engineering side. Jason brought me on board because I can work on multiple sides of the fence.”
Schleider said Blockgraph already has a product roadmap of additional offerings.
“Right now, our product is very much about supporting the current participants in the ability to bring in data for addressable VOD and linear addressable, as well as the ongoing effort to further support a better understanding of what's happening across channels between linear and digital, he said.
Blockgraph is also looking to bring in the additional data partners, measurement companies, distributors and programmers.
