IT Life: Ads On Automatic

Rudiger (Ruud) Wanck is global digital COO for the advertising giant GroupM Worldwide, but online advertising is not like Mad Men.

A digital marketing buff, Wanck has worked in tech since 1994, and wants to see fully automatic stock-exchange-style screen systems that plan, buy and distribute digital adverts across sites and content

What has been your favourite project so far?
Hopefully that project is still to come. Purely from a career point of view I would have to say it was working with a supplier of construction materials in the mid 90s as they wanted to develop a web-based solution for materials supply and this got me engaged in the world of the Internet very early on.

More media automation

What tech were you involved with ten years ago?
Mainly media distribution and measurement tools.

What tech do you expect to be using in ten years’ time?
A fully automated environment for media planning and buying, similar to current technologies used on stock exchanges.

Who’s your tech hero?
Tim Berners-Lee. He created what we now know as the World Wide Web.

Who’s your tech villain?
Can’t think of anyone specific. I’m more surprised by people still not accepting the reality of  the profound  role technology is playing in shaping our future.

What’s your favourite technology ever made? Which do you use most?
Apple iPhone.

What is your budget outlook going forward? Flat? Growing?
Growing. On one hand, technologies will increasingly fuel and bring new possibilities to the advertising ecosystem. On the other hand, technology will increasingly execute non-differentiating (commoditised) activities.

Apart from your own, which company do you admire most and why?
Google. Not only have they been able to develop technology that is globally used and loved, but as an organisation they have also been able to find a good balance between creativity (innovation) and keeping a very strict and regulated global approach to technology development and business model implementation.

What’s the greatest challenge for a tech-based company/department today?
The “not invented by me” syndrome.

To Cloud or not to Cloud?
Combination of both. The Cloud has huge benefits in terms of data and data storage. However, companies should also make sure they keep full control over their core assets or unique differentiators.

What did you want to be when you were a child?
An astronaut. I studied physics to achieve that ambition, but soon after graduating realised that I was too little of a scientist and economics would give me a better chance in life.

As Ballmer prepares to leave the company, what do you know about Microsoft executives? Take our quiz!