Priyanka Uppal, Senior Regional Demand Partnerships at Equativ, is a seasoned AdTech expert with over 11 years of experience. Her career spans prominent organizations where she has driven growth through strategic digital solutions. In this interview, she shares her journey navigating the dynamic digital landscape, her approach to platform strategies, and her insights into key industry trends.

 

1. Can you tell us about your journey in the digital industry and how you developed your expertise over the past 11 years?

I’m a strategic commercial digital evangelist who firmly believes that technology is the cornerstone of major businesses. Throughout my career, I’ve leveraged emerging trends and technologies to enhance business efficiency and drive growth. I’ve had the privilege of formulating and executing strategies for prominent organizations such as Times Internet Ltd, GroundTruth Inc, Lifesight Pte, Adways Inc, and Appmontize. Currently, I lead demand partnerships for Equativ in the MENA region and India. Equativ’s independent ad monetization platform empowers businesses to connect with brands in these areas. My extensive background in AdTech, MarTech, and programmatic platforms, combined with my passion for continuous learning and implementation, has enabled me to navigate complex challenges and deliver outstanding results.

2. Leading Demand Partnership at Equativ must require a strong grasp of platform solution strategies. Could you elaborate on your approach to understanding and executing these strategies for clients and agencies?

We collaborate with agencies and direct clients across various industries in the MENA region. The challenges vary from one country to another, so our main task is to understand these different markets to better support our partners.

Within our organization, we have teams dedicated to developing products that address the specific challenges our clients face in the market. Our Data and Insights team internally develops this market intelligence. We also have several specialized teams focused on inventory onboarding, brand safety and data privacy protocols, targeting capabilities, data partnerships, and tech operations. 

This structured organization helps our sales and partnerships team effectively address client challenges and provide them with the tech products they need.

3. Can you discuss a situation where you’ve had to adapt your digital strategies to a specific cultural context, especially considering your work in diverse regions like the UAE?

The UAE is a melting pot of cultures from around the globe. It’s crucial to learn from these diverse cultures to tailor how brands engage with their audiences. For advertising campaigns, we always recommend using different languages, even though English is widely spoken. Equativ has developed AI technology that enables contextual targeting in over 60 languages. This is just one example of the targeting layers we suggest. For each campaign, we utilize various targeting strategies with our technology to more effectively reach people from different cultural backgrounds.

4. With your extensive experience, you must have seen the digital industry undergo significant transformations. Could you highlight one or two key trends that you believe will shape the future of digital marketing and advertising?

Addressable media within curation marketplaces, innovative formats in brand-safe environments, cookieless solutions, and green media packages are just a few examples of emerging trends.

In terms of targeting, there are ongoing discussions around cookieless targeting, despite Google’s recent announcements. We already have many options available, such as contextual targeting, alternative IDs, and activating first-party data.

Sustainability is also a growing topic in the region. Brands are increasingly aware of the carbon impact of their advertising campaigns, and some major players are already taking steps to reduce their carbon footprint.

Focusing on programmatic, curation is gaining attention from agencies as it offers more transparency and can reduce intermediaries. This, in turn, helps ensure a brand-safe environment and combats fraud. Overall, performance and ROI are improved with curation. Additionally, AI is emerging as a solution to support many of the challenges we face.

5. What advice would you give to aspiring digital experts who aim to make a substantial impact in the industry, based on the lessons you’ve  learned throughout your career?

Adtech is a space where you need to be learning every single day. There are several ways to educate yourself and stay ahead. For example, online trainings and certifications tend to be an accessible and flexible option. Collaborating with experts and attending conferences or webinars whenever possible can make a big difference as well. In any case, it is crucial in our rapidly evolving industry to stay updated with the latest tech advancements!

 

6. Could you share a personal philosophy or guiding principle that has consistently driven your success in the digital domain?

“There are no Failures- Just results to learn from”