Insider’s take: Clear Channel Outdoor has hired Wade Rifkin to develop partnerships with data providers and to develop the company’s automated media buying. You can see the importance of the job by the fact that Rifkin will report directly to Clear Channel Outdoor CEO Scott Wells. Here’s the press release.
Clear Channel Outdoor Americas Hires Wade Rifkin as Senior Vice President of Programmatic
New York, New York – Clear Channel Outdoor Americas (CCOA) (NYSE: CCO), a subsidiary of iHeartMedia Inc., today announced that Wade Rifkin has joined the company as Senior Vice President of Programmatic, a newly created position. Reporting to Clear Channel Outdoor Americas Chief Executive Officer Scott Wells, Rifkin will define the company’s programmatic strategy and lead the execution and management of the company’s programmatic approach. He joins CCOA from ShareThis, the social data platform, where he was Vice President of Programmatic Partnerships.
In this new role, Rifkin will pilot the development of significant partnerships with data providers and ad technology companies to bring programmatic out-of-home (OOH) offerings to buy-side advertising partners.
CCOA’s hiring of Rifkin is the out-of-home leader’s latest move toward a sophisticated programmatic offer that streamlines OOH buying and maximizes ROI. Rifkin joins CCOA following the company’s launch of Clear Channel Outdoor RADAR, its new suite of research, data and analytics tools to help advertisers and advertising agencies more effectively plan and buy CCOA media to reach target audiences and measure the impact of their out-of-home (OOH) campaigns.“Clear Channel Outdoor Americas is executing aggressively against its strategy of offering marketing partners innovative solutions – particularly through digital and mobile enabled products – that change the way brands think about out-of-home and how we can help them reach their target audiences,” said Wells. “Developing a compelling programmatic platform is an important part of our strategy to make out-of-home easier to buy and a more integral part of a brand’s purchasing decisions. Wade brings an impressive breadth of experience in digital marketing that includes a strong background in developing programmatic solutions geared for measurable and meaningful success, and we’re very excited to have him on our team.”
Rifkin will work closely with CCOA’s technology, marketing and sales operations teams to ensure the ad tech and data infrastructure successfully supports the needs of programmatic buyers. He will identify new market requirements, define and execute CCOA’s audience strategy and develop new ways to package OOH inventory for programmatic buying.As Vice President of Programmatic Partnerships for ShareThis, Rifkin was responsible for identifying new opportunities to bring the ShareThis data set to market through business development across the programmatic landscape. Before ShareThis, he was Vice President of Programmatic at DigitasLBi_US where he established their Programmatic practice across the U.S. and North America. Rifkin was also Vice President and Group Media Director for Digitas where he led two digital media teams and directed various American Express-branded initiatives. Previously in his career, Rifkin held positions at Wieden + Kennedy and Moxie Interactive. Rifkin holds BAs in Communications and Psychology from the University of Connecticut.
