Guest speaker: Dana McGraw
Dana McGraw is Senior Vice President, Data and Measurement Science, Disney Advertising. In this role, McGraw oversees groups responsible for data science, analytics and audience modeling – in addition to attribution, advertiser performance and insights. She leads data science and advanced analytics for advertising sales, covering Disney’s portfolio of linear, streaming, digital and social properties.
Prior to joining The Walt Disney Company, McGraw held several posts within Yahoo!’s Media Group, including Head of Global Product Strategy, Yahoo! Sports. She was directly responsible for strategy for Yahoo! Sports Americas in the United States, Canada and Latin America, while coordinating product strategy efforts in other global markets, in addition to overseeing analytics across multiple Yahoo! properties.
Previously, McGraw held analytics roles at leading interactive agencies and coached college basketball for seven years. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in philosophy from Loyola University in New Orleans, and a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from Baylor University.
Episode summary
In this episode, Kailey sits down with Dana to discuss how data collaboration is evolving, the importance of interoperability, and the ins and outs of Disney’s Audience Graph.
Key takeaways
Building relationships with consumers isn’t about collecting data just to collect it. You should collect data in a way that creates the best consumer experience and maintains a relationship of trust.
It’s possible to create interoperability for measurement in ways that are compliant, respectful to the consumer, and achieve the goals you’ve set out to achieve.
Data science is often thought of as math and engineering, but it’s more of a social science in that it reflects culture and society as a whole.
Speaker quotes
“Don't just collect everything you can collect. It doesn't make any sense. Do what you need to do to make the consumer experience the best one possible and to maintain that relationship of trust. That's our guiding light, independent of everything else.” – Dana McGraw
Episode timestamps
*(02:49) - Dana’s career journey
*(07:29) - Trends impacting adtech and consumer experience
*(11:05) - Disney’s data collaboration solutions
*(20:13) - How Disney incorporates modeling and machine learning into their solutions
*(29:04) - How Dana defines “good data”
*(40:31) - Dana’s recommendations for upleveling inclusive marketing strategies
