The Fishbowl: Hannah Collins, Samsung Ads
The Fishbowl
The Media Leader’s interview series asks the media industry’s top salespeople 10 revealing questions, drawn from our fishbowl. The questions will be drawn at random and contain some tricky posers set by the commercial chiefs themselves.
This week: Hannah Collins, senior sales manager at Samsung Ads.
Collins joined Samsung Ads in October 2021, but this isn’t her first TV role.
Before Samsung, Collins spent almost six years on the commercial side of the BBC, most recently as senior international advertising and brand partnerships manager covering the EMEA region at BBC Studios.
She has also worked in the OOH sector, having been a sales executive at Exterion Media earlier in her career before its sale to Global.
Why are you passionate about media?
Media has and always will be an exciting space to be in. At risk of sounding clichéd, the big draw for me is how dynamic it is, always keeping things fun, challenging and rewarding.
Working for Samsung has really highlighted this. Not only is the connected TV (CTV) space one of the most exciting and rapidly growing sectors in media, working for the market leader and being the “device” means I’ve seen first hand just how fast this landscape is evolving.
Using this insight to support planners and buyers with understanding and navigating this complex landscape is a real privilege.
What is coming up in conversations with clients?
ACR (automatic content recognition) is a real source of interest at the moment. Clients want to know what it is and how they can best apply it to their media strategy.
It’s often used for four key use cases: delivering cost-effective incremental reach; reaching viewers of specific types of programmes; share-of-voice insights; and targeting light TV viewers or heavy streamers.
If you could learn any new skill from scratch, what would it be?
It would be a serious toss-up between having the ability to listen to a song once and then sit at a piano and recite it perfectly (a massive flex) or speaking another language (arguably more useful day to day).
I’ve always admired anyone who is bilingual — having the ability to switch from one language to another at the drop of a hat is a seriously impressive skill.
If people are thinking about getting into the top jobs in sales, what piece of advice would you give?
Build and utilise your network, and don’t be scared to think outside the box.
Sales is competitive and evidence-driven: the more you can prove your sales skills, the better. Be open to roles outside your dream company or goal sector. Just get stuck in and build a network — it’s never a loss.
For young women, female mentors are so important to help you find a voice when you’re new and not as confident. Find them and return the favour as you rise. My mentors helped me to believe in myself, in difficult conversations and in the day to day. They’re fundamental.
What is part of your daily routine that you look forward to every day?
I really enjoy making time for myself in the mornings.
An ideal morning is when I stick to my routine. I like to get up and go to the gym early, work out, listen to a podcast (trashy or not), grab a naughty croissant/coffee and process my thoughts before I start the commute.
On an ideal day, I get to settle in, get to my desk early and clear some admin before the inbounds start coming. It’s my way of staying cool, calm and collected, and when 9am hits, I feel like I’ve already had a productive start.
What podcast do you regularly listen to and why?
Honestly, it depends on my head space. My Therapist Ghosted Me is an all-timer — I think it’s hilarious and I can listen to it no matter how I’m feeling.
When I want to engage with the world, though, I like The Guardian’s Today in Focus and The Rest is Politics.
What’s the quality that people admire most about you?
This is a difficult one to answer without sounding like an egomaniac, but I’d like to think I am personable, genuine and fun.
Peer question: From a work perspective, what were you most proud of in the past year?
The best work is collaborative, so my biggest wins are always relationship-focused.
In the last year, I’ve developed a real partnership with Arla. The team trusted us with a small test campaign a few years ago, which has become a collaborative relationship I’m really proud of. They have faith in our data and support to solve real challenges, and it helps that they love to explore first-in-market opportunities.
Last Christmas, we built a Lurpak CTV campaign that utilised ACR data to target those hard-to-reach audiences who predominately stream. Our viewers saw the ad 6.4 times on average, with a 9.6% incremental reach — numbers that saw the ad shortlisted for an award.
Question from Kelly Williams, managing director, commercial, ITV
Peer question: What moment was the biggest turning point in your career?
Whilst at the BBC, I was offered the opportunity to work in Dubai, initially expecting it to be a year-long stint. It ended up being four.
It really pushed me out of my comfort zone; knowing no-one and having to build an entirely new social and business network was challenging but rewarding. It was a stark lesson in the importance of understanding your environment — I had to learn all the cultural nuances and business etiquette of my new surroundings.
But it did wonders for my confidence and my ability to work anywhere with anyone.
Question from Sarah Goldman, director of advertising, UKTV
Peer question: You’re in charge of the line-up for the next Glastonbury. Choosing any artist, dead or alive, who are your headliners?
Ah, I missed out on tickets this year, so my first thought would be sabotage with a very substandard line-up!
But being charitable and pushing that aside, I would go for: Spice Girls (how could you not?), Fleetwood Mac and Stormzy (after his iconic 2019 set, he needs to come back).
Question from James Cornish, SVP of international sales, Vevo
Read more Fishbowl interviews here and see what media’s top salespeople say about working in the industry and what concerns their clients. To suggest an interviewee, contact [email protected].