Trader Diaries: Lone Ranger Manager of Programmatic Solutions

Age: 31
Title: Manager of Programmatic Solutions
Employer Type: Small Agency
Years of Programmatic Trading Experience: 5

6:30 a.m.: I quickly take a shower and get ready for work. No time to make lunch – I will be buying lunch today. I make sure the pets are fed and happy before I start to head out!

7 a.m.: I leave to catch my 7:08 bus from N.J. to N.Y. The bus usually takes about an hour and a half without traffic, but since today was Monday, it took nearly two hours. I usually play a few rounds of sudoku while listening to music to help warm up my brain and get ready for the day. Sometimes I will find myself dozing off while in the middle of a puzzle. Sleeping on the bus is not ideal and I try my hardest not to sleep. Walking from Port Authority to the office takes about 10 minutes and grabbing coffee is a must 🙂

9:18 a.m.: I arrive at work a few minutes late due to the late bus. First thing, I turn my computer on, get settled and mentally prepare myself for what is to come by going through any missed emails and reminder notes. After checking my calendar to see all meetings for the day, I log into the platform and check in on every live campaign to make sure pacing is doing well, and document performance.

10:15 a.m.: Fire drill! Another liquidation campaign came down and they need to be up and active within 24 hours. While creating an authorization for the campaign, we are already being sent location and creative data from the client. We send the request for authorization to the client for signature. No campaign can be entered into the system unless we receive a written agreement, so we are at a pause for now. While waiting for the signed authorization, I continue to finish up my campaign pacing and documentation from the morning.

Lunchtime: For lunch I like to take a 10-minute walk to stretch and get moving a little. I stopped to get a chicken Caesar wrap and a bag of popcorn at the corner deli and brought it back to eat lunch with my coworkers in the conference room. We talked about the Marvel universe and how they can still legally put Stan Lee in the new movies, even though he passed away. Our lunch conversations change from day to day and can span from what happens in the afterlife, to religion or sports. We try not to talk about politics, but it always comes up, then the conversation ends with someone or multiple people shouting!

3 p.m.: Since we received the signed authorization around 2:30, I can now start to gather all given campaign info and start uploading all creative assets and geotargeting specifications. Since this is not a big agency, I am in charge of all these tasks as well as all the campaign setup. I love my work, but I do find it challenging at times having to be the only programmatic person. However,  I set up easy cheat sheets, I know the platform pretty well and I am confident in the work that I show.

3:45 p.m.: I was called into a meeting discussing new client opportunities. From that meeting, there was a request for a forecasting run, and a few other elements of reporting to see previous spending, current spending, demographic analysis to create new personas, and so on.

5 p.m.: I was able to leave work on time, and quickly ran to Port Authority to catch my 5:15 bus back to N.J. It took about an hour and 45 minutes to get home with a little bit of traffic, so I was home at 7. Once I got home, I changed into pajamas and started to relax and let the day’s stress melt away while talking to my boyfriend about some of my daily work challenges.

7:30 p.m.: For dinner I took some chicken breast out of the fridge and baked it in the oven, while making mashed potatoes and some corn.

9:30 p.m.: Usually around 9:30 is when I will lay in bed and watch Netflix or Hulu. My boyfriend and I are usually watching three or four shows simultaneously, so it really depends on our mood what we will watch. We ended up watching some of season three of The Office, it is probably the fourth run through of that entire series!

11:15 p.m.: I fell asleep with the music from The Office’s theme song playing in the background. I make it a point to get a good amount of sleep so I can be the best version of myself for the day to come!