DANA OMALLEY: National Vice President of Sales
Ladies and gentlemen, the interview you’re about to hear is true. The names have not been changed to protect the innocent.
Welcome to the RANK & FILE. The place: Los Angeles, California. The company: Ranker. The interviewee: Dana OMalley, our National Vice President of Sales. She’s here to tell a story: the story of her time at Ranker since the beginning of a worldwide pandemic; the story of everything she’s doing to lead her department in solving industry-wide challenges; the story of how she came to discover just how good her coworkers are at Scattergories. And that story begins with a simple question…
Dana and some clients just before a long night of brainstorming
What do you do at Ranker?
As the National Vice President of Sales, I lead Ranker’s sales team, working with our largest advertisers and agency partners directly on their campaigns with Ranker. Our key focus is utilizing the 1 billion data points we’ve collected over the past decade, votes from visitors to Ranker.com on lists like “The Best New Original Shows on Netflix.” All that voting data allows us to target the most relevant audience for the advertiser’s message.
You’ve run teams and held leadership positions at a few different companies now, how is it different at Ranker?
Fortunately, we’ve had a lot of demand from streaming advertisers and we’ve been able to grow during the pandemic, so my team in its current incarnation is a mix of vets and new hires. What I love most about my role at the company is that our team feels like its own start-up within an established company. Ranker has spent over ten years building amazing content, a passionate audience, and a rich repository of data that allows the team to build amazing ad products, insights, and campaigns on the back of a really solid foundation. Having worked at startups and established companies alike, the combination of new opportunities and mature capabilities is a very refreshing one.
Just another highly professional Ranker standup meeting
What are some surprising things you learned about yourself, your team, and Ranker as a whole during the pandemic?
I like kombucha. The people on my team are absolute beasts at Scattergories. And the dogs of Ranker really don't enjoy Amazon deliveries.
Working mom Dana with her husband Emmett and their two children
Have you been enjoying working from home?
Do I miss my LA commute? Absolutely not. Do I miss engaging in at least some movement around an office so that the bathroom scale and I aren’t in an argument every morning? Yes, I do.
There are obviously pros and cons that come with working from home full time. Being a working mom, cutting down daily commute times and having a bit more flexibility in my schedule is a welcome change. But I do miss the impromptu conversations and learning moments (including the hilarious banter) that happen in a collaborative office, especially at Ranker.
To help with some of those missing elements, I’ve scheduled daily “Stand-Up Meetings” since the beginning of the pandemic, which have allowed my team and I to feel like we’re still a cohesive group.
How is the landscape of your position/industry evolving? Who have the players traditionally been? Who are they now?
Dana’s two beloved rescue pups Ted Danson and Lucille Ball
The death of the cookie. That is a phrase those in media and advertising see in the trades every single day. We’re going to continue to see the deprecation of the 3rd-party cookie as online user privacy becomes a greater focus within the industry. On the one hand, as an industry vet, I’m frustrated by that trend. It plays further into the unfair advantage some companies have because they control the device and/or browser markets. But on the other hand, I’m hopeful that the change will weed out bad actors, increase the value of publishers’ first-party data, and drive innovation around how marketers reach their audiences.
Ranker’s mind-boggling amount of user-declared preference data is the reason I joined the company. We are in such a unique position in terms of what we can offer partners through our first-party data, not only in terms of ad targeting, but also with regard to personalization. We launched our Watchworthy app last year, which delivers personalized TV show recommendations based on what people have told us they like through voting on Ranker combined with a user telling us a few shows they like or dislike in a Tinder-like onboarding experience. Boom! You’ve got your binge for the weekend.
It’s an exciting time for Ranker, and I’m really excited to be here building a team to show the industry all of the incredible things we’re working on.
Ewan Macgregor as the subject of Netflix’s biographical series Halston
Rank the Top 5 TV shows you’re binge watching right now.
Halston — Just finished this. Binged it in two days, and I’m not sorry.
Pose — I can’t believe it’s the last season. :(
Schitt’s Creek — I’m a late-comer to this HILARIOUS show. I watch at least one episode before bed during the week.
Below Deck Sailing Yacht — Don’t judge.
The Sons of Sam: A Descent into Darkness — I am obsessed with True Crime.
Who has been an inspiration or mentor to you?
I worked for a woman named Kristine Segrist in my first agency job at GroupM, and she’s taught me more than she probably realizes. She’s such a kind, motivating, poised, and insightful leader, and I always admired how she approached the work. When I come across a tough situation or day at work, even 15 years later, I often find myself asking, “How would Kristine handle this?” It reminds me to take a breath and a step back, identify the first step I can take in my path to solving the problem, and keep doing the same over and over again until I work through the entire issue and achieve the end result necessary. Nothing was ever impossible to Kristine, and if I can be half as strategic and agile as she was (and, I imagine, still is) in pushing through challenges, I consider myself a successful leader.
If you could only eat one food for the rest of your life, what would it be? Remember, you can only pick one. (Just kidding, pick as many as you want.)
Dana with husband and pasta chef Emmett OMalley
Vodka Pizza from Rubirosa Ristorante in Nolita, NY
Chicken Tikka Masala from Five Star Indian, a little hole in the wall Indian restaurant in Queens, NY
Everything Bagel from Murray's Bagels in Manhattan
Spicy Tonkotsu Ramen from Silverlake Ramen in LA
My brother Jeff’s homemade Fish Fry with fresh fish out of Lake Michigan
My husband Emmett’s pasta bolognese
Cheesesteak with Whiz from Jim’s on South St. in Philly
Gambas San Martín from Las Ramblas in the West Village, NY
Buffalo Chicken Wrap from Erv’s Mug in Oak Creek, WI
Ceviche from Casa Enrique in Long Island City, NY
The chocolate chip cookie from Levain Bakery in Manhattan
(I could keep going, but I’m realizing this is a long list and starting to feel greedy.)
