Mister Digital

Sandro Albin (34) is a recognized digital specialist and strong networker. His forward-thinking attitude and curiosity are reflected in the constant development of new projects. After starting out in marketing with an internship for the Ski World Cup at the Lenzerheide-Valbella Tourism Association, he worked for 13 years in the publishing and media industry in various functions and positions. As a child, Sandro Albin wanted to be a tourism director. Today, he can already look back on a completely different career - Albin has completed the digital transformation himself; from Graubünden tourism expert to digital specialist with his own company in mind. Since entering the world of media more by chance in 2003, he has been setting up new projects, designing strategies and is constantly on the lookout for the latest developments and trends. After entering the media business at IP Multimedia - where he built up the digital out-of-home sector and developed innovative marketing concepts - he joined 20 Minuten five years later as Sales Manager Online & Crossmedia. He soon took over the management of the digital sales division and became a member of the management team. With new business ideas and models, he played a key role in setting up and managing the 20 Minuten Mobile department. This was also important, as traffic and the use of mobile channels exploded at the media group at this time, which promoted the need for innovative ideas on how to earn money with mobile traffic. In 2014, Sandro Albin moved to Adwebster, where he continued to develop the operational business areas as COO, built up new business units and expanded the workforce. Two years later, Albin took over the management of Adwebster and represented the digital company in public. In his free time, Albin is not only "digitally" active. He is often drawn to the great outdoors, once a year even to a remote fishing village in Ireland. "I don't always have to be online, that would disturb the fish when they're biting," says Albin with a wink. Sandro Albin has digital transformation in his blood. Not only has it accompanied and shaped him for the last 13 years, he also teaches it part-time: Albin is a lecturer at the HWZ and the University of Applied Sciences Northwestern Switzerland on the subject of digital leadership and mobile marketing. As a member of IAB Switzerland, he also teaches the Academy's Programmatic Advertising module and is involved in the IAB specialist groups. Since August 2010, he has also been working as a media and communications trainer for the Swiss Armed Forces. He conducts coaching and media training for top athletes, officers, professional soldiers and civilian leaders.

"Programmatic still needs a lot of know-how transfer"

Albin is fascinated by digital, disruptive business models. The Silicon Valley approach of "trial and error" should also be practiced more in Switzerland. Especially in the digital world, you shouldn't be afraid to try things out. It's the only way to find out what works and what doesn't. According to Albin, programmatic should increasingly become a topic for every creative, even if the discipline seems challenging at first glance. "No other marketing discipline is as driven by technology and buzzwords as online marketing," says Albin. "More know-how transfer and Swiss success stories are needed here." For Albin, programmatic advertising is undoubtedly the future of online display marketing. According to Albin, an important part of this is the automation of planning and purchasing processes. By using data and learning directly from feedback, the discipline is also gaining in value. Albin describes his vision of programmatic as "a self-learning advertising system that plays out the right advertising message in real time in response to the user's individual needs". "Targeted advertising is developing rapidly," states Albin. Around 20 percent of all digital advertising bookings in the display sector in Switzerland are already made via programmatic. Investments need to be made not only in technology, but also in specialized personnel.

Disruptive models

This summer, Sandro Albin is starting out on his own with a new company. He is leaving Adwebster as CEO "with a smile and a tear in his eye", as he says. Because the team at Adwebster is great. "But now the time has come to try it myself." With the new launch, Albin wants to strive for success-oriented online marketing that generates sustainable success and, above all, added value. However, the sales professional does not want to say much more about the new launch. Except: "A few cool disruptive models should emerge from this business." "Added value" is also his answer to the topic of ad blockers. In order to be able to counteract them in a well-founded way, a complete package of good online advertising is needed - from the form of advertising to the placement and the relevant message. "This should also make ad blockers superfluous," Albin is convinced. "We all have a role to play here. Publishers, customers, media agencies and creatives." Albin cites an experiment by Bild.de, which no longer displayed content at all if the user was using an adblocker. This cannot be the solution. "We have to counteract the adblocker culture with good advertising and make it clear to users that the content they consume has to be financed by this very advertising. Programmatic must also pay attention to another aspect, says Albin: data protection. Responsible handling of sensitive data is essential. At the same time, he is also aware that a new generation is growing up that has a completely new perspective on data protection. "This selfie generation has far fewer reservations than Generation Y," says Albin.

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