Ryan Luis, GM for Brand Solutions at InMobi, joins Built for MENA, the podcast on what it actually takes to build, sell and scale AdTech and MarTech in the region.
He opens with his reason for moving to Dubai: "I wanted to live somewhere outside the UK and my criteria was to wear sunglasses every day and not pay any tax. So here I am." He has fifteen years in the region and fourteen in ad tech, after starting out in finance. His ad tech start came at Yahoo, before a move to the commercial side, "the dark side as my old colleagues in finance would say", then Criteo, then Aleph, and now nearly three years at InMobi, "predominantly known as an app first SSP", which also represents Microsoft Advertising in the region. The culture shock came early. Trained in London finance to be at his desk by 8am, he found that in Media City "no one was in the office till 10", and that getting time with his MD meant a trip to a Media City shisha lounge.
The Noon launch taught him the market's speed. At Criteo they signed the new marketplace on a standard test budget and "within a month, they 100x their spend". He had wondered "who takes on Amazon and expects to win?" The lesson stuck: "when the client's ready and the market's ready, they don't wait to do a business case and test things out over a long period of time".
On the mistakes companies make here, he starts with "assuming that what works in your own country will work here in the same way", then gets specific. Name dropping global contacts backfires, because buyers are "just not interested in who you know from outside the market". The alternative takes time: "You need to come here and build credibility, have some real conversations and show that you actually care what's happening here." Hiring has to match the clients and partners you are selling to. And head office needs patience, because "you can't kill the opportunity just because it's taking a long time".
His read on the region ties it together: "Ambition is the identity of this region." Clients ask for things he first thinks impossible, and "they force me to find a way".
His contrarian take is first party data. For him, "having data available is the easy part", and it "isn't really an automatic solution to making everyone a millionaire". The real work is value, packaging and, "most importantly, how are you going to price it?"
Starting from scratch he would build "technology that makes relationships work better", beginning with campaign reporting, where reconciling three parties' numbers "eats time and trust". He cites Layer Cake: "the art of good business is being a good middleman." Five years out he is betting on malls, where "advertising will keep thriving", heading somewhere close to Blade Runner: smart glasses, holograms, "imagine Dubai Mall with augmented reality ads".
Full episode and every previous conversation at builtformena.com.
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