[NewsMaker] Shauna Carter

Shauna Carter has just taken up the position of National Sales Director for MaxAxion. Carter is the former regional head of sales at Mxit. She joined Mxit in 2008 as account manager, eventually heading up digital media sales. Carter started her career at design agency, KSDP Pentagraph before moving to print and Time magazine. Her foray into digital sales began with a start-up called Infectious Agent, where Vodacom, Samsung and Mxit were key clients. MaxAxion is a mobile-first buying house linking brands and agencies to mobile users across a bouquet of channels, including Premium and Programmatic/RTB. The mobile marketing start-up has a growing client base into Africa.

Q: What is at the top of your to do list?
A: Maybe ask what's not on the to do list! I am treating this as very much a start-up situation so it's basically all hands on deck for the entire team. From the positioning of MaxAxion in the market to reassessing all marketing material, through to the education of the market around mobile programmatic buying, RTB and all the other channels and build offers in our portfolio.

Q: What is your main business challenge?
A: The big challenge is education. Programmatic buying is relatively new in SA (probably about two years behind more developed markets) and there is a huge knowledge gap that exists and we need to be well positioned to assist clients as we move into this space... so a big hand holding exercise.

Q: Most important attribute needed to do your job?
A: I guess I have to reflect on my previous position - I think my success was greatly attributed to my response times and diligence around the campaigns that I managed... This is a very fast paced industry and responding immediately to client requests is key.

Q: What do you love most about sales?
A: I have been fortunate to have met some great people in the industry, but I think the fact that you can never know enough and the space constantly evolving makes this a very dynamic career choice. It goes without saying: blowing a campaign out the water beating the clients' expectations does hit the mark for me personally.

Q: Tell us about MaxAxion and your role with the brand?
A: So I step in as National Sales Director. We are in a start-up position so we all have to be prepared to get our hands dirty, but the long-term position is that I will be managing and building a world-class team. Priority first and foremost is the client... we are in the business of diagnosis and performance and this dream team needs to have a broad armoury of skills from dynamic account management to creative solution-based thinkers... What we are not doing is just selling banner ads!

Q: The biggest trend to note in your industry?
A: One word: "programmatic". It's a hot topic right now and, according to Magna Global, by 2017, it's expected that 83% of all US display advertising will be programmatic so it's not a case of whether the industry will adopt, but rather when, and the buy is on a wide range of levels from straight media buys using RTB via DSPs, to retargeting campaigns through to building audiences and prospecting... a very exciting time to be in media.

Q: How will you make an impact?
A: We are taking a completely new approach to how we will be having conversations with brands and agencies - the unique mobile offerings will inspire. We are not here to sell you an impression, rather make one!

Q: What inspires you?
A: I'm going to be cliché here but it's my mother... she is 75 and head chef at Safari.com, cooking awesome food for 70 people every day, and when she is not being an awesome grandmother to 11 grandchildren, she can be found in the mountains hiking and running and swimming in the Atlantic at Scarborough. She is totally inspirational and my independence and self-reliance is attributed to this and I am lucky to see my eldest daughter already carrying on the legacy, already working hard at 16.

Q: Your life philosophy?
A: Good health and a genuine belief in what you are dong are my two philosophies that I lean on.

Q: At the top of my 'bucket list' is...
A: To swim with dolphins.