Alex Stone is the SVP, Agency Partnerships at Horizon. Stone is responsible for all of the big partnership negotiations across data, tech, programmatic and direct. Watch this video to find out more about his work and how he partners with VIZIO.
Who are you and what do you do?
I'm Alex Stone. I head up Agency Partnership and Advanced Video at Horizon Media. I’m responsible for all of the big partnership negotiations across data, tech, programmatic and direct, and I love what I’m doing.
Horizon is the largest independent agency in the world and we’re the largest independent agency here, obviously, in the U.S.. And, what makes us unique and different is, we really truly live by the mantra that “business is personal.” And that's something that Bill Koenigsberg [CEO of Horizon Media] speaks about all the time and you hear it in every new business pitch.
But we really walk the walk and talk the talk on that. So that means, when we partner with companies like VIZIO, it means really going deep and understanding how VIZIO can best support and benefit our clients, first and foremost, and how we can really help build shared equity amongst our partner in VIZIO and also our clients, whenever that makes sense.
What's it like working with a partner like VIZIO?
What I've liked best about working with the folks at VIZIO is that they're very authentic in their nature. You can have a real conversation with them and talk about real, real problems that we're facing or issues that we're trying to solve for.
They're also accessible. I've met the President, CEO of VIZIO [William Wang] at last year's NewFront, and I think that was was really cool to get that opportunity. So those are things I really enjoy working with them.
What are you excited about this year?
2024, 25, these Upfronts – I think what we're seeing is, now we've solved for the supply issues in the OTT-CTV space. Companies coming on board with inventory that wasn't previously available, because they were strictly SVOD models, that solves for things.
So, I'm excited to see where we could take this with our advertisers and making sure that they've completely explored all of the reach opportunities out there.
I'm also excited with VIZIO, really exploring the native space and that native home page ad units that are really key to a lot of our entertainment clients. It's become something that is necessary for a lot of our entertainment accounts and a lot of our accounts that are trying to promote limited-time offers.
It became the new homepage roadblock overnight and I think that that means it's something that a lot of advertisers are going to pay attention to.
And working with VIZIO's Inscape, what does that partnership look like?
We are proud to have this Inscape relationship in place with Horizon. We've had it in place for years and we use it to power a lot of our planning and our approach to planning.
And we're also using it for measurement and understanding how our audiences are engaging or tuning into certain content. Our ability to do that, our ability to target using Inscape’s data, has been really important to Horizon and something we look to continue for the foreseeable future.
What is your advice to young people in the industry?
Stay hungry, like be hungry. Roll with the punches. If something doesn't go your way, it's okay. Figure out a way to take that moment and learn from it and make yourself better. In the similar vein that I don't typically decline meetings, don't decline meetings. And do it on your terms.
So when I was a young planner buyer coming up, I took meetings at 9 a.m. at Starbucks. Right? And I accepted that free coffee, free chai tea latte. And I listened to the stories and the sales pitch and I was very critical in my questions. But ultimately that made me a better buyer, made me a better supervisor, associate director, director.
I continued that all the way up and I continue it today in my current position. So that would definitely be something I would suggest to young folks in our industry, take meetings, learn from them, think critically, ask questions, stay engaged.
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