Navigating Omni-Channel Marketing: Trends, Challenges, and the Future of Media Planning
Join Molly Baker, Founder of Indie Consulting and Amanda Faibis, Head of Media, Health & Wellbeing at Unilever as they talk through how Amanda’s early career shaped her dream role at a company that she had her eye on for eight years. In this episode, Amanda outlines what is important to prioritize professionally in different stages of life, and how money is not the most important thing to look for right out of college.
MB [Molly Baker]: Tell me a little bit about what's going on in your professional life without revealing who you are.
AF [Amanda Faibis]: Currently planning the rest of the year and then figuring out 2025 when it comes to all things media, our partners, our agencies, collaboration, synergies as well for six what we call operating companies or people probably really know them more as brands.
MB: How do you prioritize?
AF: Try to get ahead of it. I feel like we are more 2025 starting right now, but then you also still have to keep in mind Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Prime Day 2. It is a lot sooner than we think.
MB: Brag about yourself. Brag about yourself.
AF: I would say paid media has always been my bread and butter. I started on the agency side and have been client side for almost 5 years now, I think. But I'd say I really understand both the perspective of agencies, clients, and full funnel media, especially when it comes to, all the paid media channels, have hands and keyboard experience in the social space as well. I'd definitely say branding to ecom and and DTC, and recently I've learned more the omni retail side of the business as well and CPG, but I've also had experience in Fintech, finance, and, beauty and alcohol.
MB: What was your first paid media role?
AF: My first role was at Dechas as an associate media planner. I happened to intern there after junior year, and then luckily, Dechas was one of the anomalies that do give you offers right away, which is more similar to a marketing track, or some of the people who get those offers after their finance or consulting. I knew what I was doing pretty much the first few days of senior year. I would say I was working on the American Express account at the time at Dechas, and that really taught me so much from paid media, as well as interactions with clients and ways of working. It was definitely an intense environment.It was an agency relationship for years, a well oiled machine. We worked very hard and very late, but it was a great place to start. And that being just a really good place coming out of college to if you want to work in marketing
MB: Talk a little bit about the omnichannel media world today. How do you define omnichannel?
AF: I’d say when I always think of omni now, I do think of more retail media space, but it depends what lane in the world. Omni can mean full funnel better than omni because it can take in consideration both your own ecommerce sites, potentially if you have stores, which is not my situation, but there are beauty brands that do have their own stores. That's another channel of revenue. Plus you have the retailers and then Amazon. It's also ever changing. Yeah. Everyone's competing with each other. I'd say the consumers are constantly looking for the best price. No one's really loyal to where they purchase or probably even a brand potentially right now too.
MB: Do you think that pricing is what motivates people to buy at these different points of sale, or is it more habit based? What's your take on that?
AF: I think it's a combination of both. You've seen the rise of subscriptions, and that's something that the consumer doesn't have to think about. They know that, it's on autopay, and it's gonna show up. That makes sense for that consumer. I would also say that influencers in social media right now have an effect as well. If there is a brand doing such strong marketing that's going to be in your head. And it doesn't necessarily mean it's the best one, but whoever's doing really well on social, probably is going to be at the forefront of a consumer's mind.
MB: What do you think the biggest challenge is for brands as they think through their full funnel media investment strategy?
AF: I think it's probably taking risks of sacrificing short term profits for longer term gains or trying to grow right away, and then you're sacrificing your profit. If you don't fuel the funnel, how if no one knows about you, how are they going to take that final lower funnel purchase action no matter where they're checking out? It's definitely the balance of what's brand versus performance and having good creative. What's the messaging you're trying to accomplish and get the consumer to realize and think about your brand versus assumptions being made.
MB: What advice would you give to brands who are trying to figure out that model?
AF: There's never a good solution. Everyone is always trying to figure it out. It's being open to tests and new channels and also being patient. Just because it doesn't work in a few weeks doesn't mean that you're not gonna see the change eventually
MB: What relationship has been most impactful on you in your career?
AF: I would honestly say my relationships I've built the last two years. I think if I told my younger self to stay in touch with old bosses, or find a mentor at my current jobs. I wish I had done that, but, a few years ago when I was looking for a new role, I joined some marketing communities in the city and reached out and found who is probably one of my mentors now. And he talks a lot about relationships, keeping in touch with a few key contacts from each role that you were at. I'd say he's become very important to me and my career, as well because and also sometimes at your job, you're not always gonna have the best boss, so you're not you're not always gonna have that. I think it's seeking it out yourself within the company or externally. And it took a while for me to get there.
MB: Tell us who you are. What do you do?
AF: My name is Amanda. I currently work at Unilever within the health and well-being collective. This consists of six operating companies that Unilever has acquired as a bit of a separate business group. They are Ollie, Onnit, LiquidIV, Welly Smarty Pants, and Nutrafol. So I support them from a head of media standpoint, owning our agency relationships, all of our key joint business partners, such as Meta, Google, Amazon, supporting all things media. I always reference when I first started out, my boss said to get to a point with the key stakeholders and the relationships you're building, that if they wanna solve something on media or test into streaming or linear, for example, they know that they can go to you, and you would help them solve that. Being a resource, a source of knowledge for all these operating companies both internally and externally with our partners. So, every day is different.
MB: What does a day in the life look like?
AF: Some days are very heavy media meeting focused because I do have to know what's going on. I know everyone's budgets. I don't go super tactical, but I need to know what's going on so that I can take that high, level bird's view approach. I feel like the cross sharing learnings, work with our big key partners make up over 50%, if not more, of our funds. So those relationships are super important as well to help support. Meetings throughout the day. If not, there are specialty product projects that I'm working on.
MB: What do you find to be the most rewarding part of your current role?
AF: I think, knowing that I do have impact and add value. It's the first time in my role that I've ever felt that. I hear it from the key stakeholders that I support, especially when I've hit my one year and definitely people said to me, “I can't believe you've only been here for a year with the impact that you've had.”
MB: What do you find to be the biggest challenge in crafting this really full funnel investment strategy that helps all six businesses move from growth into growth?
AF: A few things come to mind. The six operating companies that I touch on their media budgets are all extremely different, and we're talking like, $2,000,000 for the year to $100,000,000 is a huge gap. That makes it fun and challenging at the same time. How can we make the most out of a certain amount of money? And then you have changes in regulations, you have media partners that are also constantly changing and going through their own, external, situations as well. That's really been the challenge of myself to pause or take a step back Yeah. And realize we've done a lot I'm sure. Really amazing things this year and figuring out just how we keep going.
MB: How do you think that your experience on the agency side has benefited your experience today?
AF: I think it was a big factor of one of the reasons why I got the role, especially coming external to a company that does a lot of internal transfers as well. But I think it's knowing how agencies work, knowing what's when to push them, when actually timelines you there isn't flexibility on, and also having hands on keyboards experience too. I think if you ask me, I did it for way longer than I would have liked, but it did teach me a ton of good skills. I think it's a really good foundation, and helped me to become a decision maker
MB: At 21, did you ever think you'd be doing what you're doing today?
AF: It's interesting because I was thinking about this. At 21, I was at the University of Michigan and Unilever does recruit heavily out of school. I remember I did attend a few of the business school’s job fairs.You probably had to know someone if you weren't in the business school to get the interview. I've known about Unilever and remember going to the informational sessions, but it never went anywhere from that. I actually think I interviewed a few times at Unilever over the course of eight or nine years. I always have my eye on the company, and maybe it was foreshadowing. But I always definitely saw myself go in client side, but I think I finally just found the right role and right company. And, as you get more senior in your career, part of your job is figuring out what to deprioritize. You can make room and time for the things that are the most impactful things, and that's okay. Those are decisions that you have to make now.
MB: What piece of advice would you give to someone who's looking to start their career in media today?
AF: I would say either start at an agency or one of the bigger publishers. Right now, they do call the big 4 for a reason. Although it's hard to get into that junior role and just learn because having that experience is so valuable, and you can do so many things right now. I'm thinking of, now they've been here for a year, what's next, or where do I go in a few years? We're definitely not talking about what's next. I'm not going anywhere. But I could go in so many directions because of my background, which is a blessing and a curse. But I think it's really learning the skills. I think what you do in your twenties versus what you do in your thirties is about learning everything. Try not to care about money as much, but build those relationships early on.
Trendy or Tragic:
Trendy. Love it. I went on the first day. I think going the first few days, if you can, is amazing because there's so much going on.
Becoming more influencer and trendy, and that's been in the trades a bit, but I think there's nothing like the US Open. It's one of my favorite times of the year. I recommend anyone and everyone should go.
I don't know what that is, so I am going to say it's tragic. Am I living under a rock? I've had a lot going on. Is this the new hot girl summer?
I'm gonna say it's tragic. I feel like the western boot had its thing. If you go to school in the south, or when you go out west, of course, I'm gonna wanna address the part, but it's not time. I'm still wearing my open toe Birkinstocks.
Find Amanda on LinkedIn Amanda (Beck) Faibis.
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