Meet the Mindstreamer – Chandler Swanner

Chandler Swanner’s interest in advertising dates back to her childhood. Her mother (and role model in life) was a Media Buyer and later a Media Director for 25 years. All her friends were also in the business and hearing how much they loved the industry inspired Chandler to follow in her mother’s footsteps.

For the last 6 months she’s been doing just that. As an Associate Media Buyer in our Dallas headquarters, Chandler has been eagerly learning the media buying ropes and forging new relationships with vendor reps. Her responsibilities include daily reconciliation of discrepancies and make goods for radio, TV and cable as well as gathering details to produce weekly television post logs for her buyers in each of their markets as requested by the client. She also enters out-of-home orders and handles traffic for radio and television advertising.

Fueled by her desire to learn and network in an evolving, ever-changing industry, Chandler says, “I enjoy learning the various steps as they relate to the buying process and interacting with the reps. I also enjoy tackling new challenges and problems and finding a resolution. I continue to learn something new from my superiors each week and am excited about the possibility of learning more and advancing in my career.”

The pandemic created a hurdle for launching her career, but Chandler’s dedication has helped her clear it. She even earned a nomination for Agency Rising Star by the Alliance for Women in Media DFW. Chandler says, “As a recent college grad just starting in the media industry, the biggest challenge I faced has been learning everything virtually and adjusting to being alone in a room 8 hours a day. I had to practice patience with myself, ask lots of questions, and admit when I did not understand something. Another challenge was being a new hire and having to learn about my co-workers and superiors via Teams [Mindstream’s business communication platform]. Communicating via email or Teams allowed me to get to know each individual but I wasn’t able to see the relationships between people and how they interact in an office setting.”

Her advice for someone wanting to pursue a career in this industry? “Be prepared to listen, learn and ask lots of questions. Many daily tasks are part of a bigger picture, so be patient and learn and understand each piece.”

When she’s not busy soaking up media industry knowledge, Chandler enjoys cooking, working out, going to concerts and festivals and hanging out with friends. Fun fact, she’s fluent in sign language.


An enormous part of what makes Mindstream Media Group successful is the collective talent and collaboration of its employees across the country. While we as an agency love to share stories about client successes, industry news and product updates on our MMG Blog, we also want to feature the actual people behind the work we are doing to grow client business.

 Our recent video series, Fast-Forward the Conversation, discusses the HOW behind supporting client growth through media strategy, with topics like shopper marketing, franchise work, QSR challenges, agency partnerships and more.

 We’re also now featuring a Mindstreamer (as we like to call ourselves) periodically to share their stories and celebrate the diverse people, backgrounds, interests and qualities that make us unique.

Meet the Mindstreamer – Kaya Bucarile

She plans and oversees media strategy for agency clients, working closely with project and platform managers to ensure that we are recommending the best tactics and strategies to keep business moving forward. After just four months with our team, she has become a valuable strategic advisor in client media planning and showcases her talent to help develop regional market advertising plans and introduce new store openings.

Meet Kaya Bucarile, Manager, Media Strategy based in Mindstream Media Group’s Dallas headquarters.

Kaya always had an interest in the ever-changing field of advertising and decided in college to pursue her passion. After studying Journalism in addition to taking TV, radio and theater production courses, Kaya knew that a career in advertising was in her future. Born and raised in Manila, Philippines, she graduated Cum Laude from one of the most prestigious universities there and came to the U.S. soon after to launch her career in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, following her heart to the advertising industry. Eventually, Kaya moved to Dallas and gained experience at another agency before joining the Mindstream team—and hasn’t looked back.

When she’s not cooking, traveling or working out, one might find Kaya gardening. After all, she’s a plant mom to over 40 house plants that are a mix of uncommon and rare tropical plants. She also claims a dog and a cat as family.

An interesting change that Kaya finds noteworthy in the industry involves the continuous rise of influencers and how that trend has given advertisers and brands more marketing resources. “These influencers can instantly affect the way consumers see, think or feel about a product after simply posting about it.”

 

Long term, Kaya predicts that influencer marketing is here to stay. She shares, “There are so many ways advertisers can work with influencers and I definitely think influencer campaigns need to be included in media plans. The challenge is executing them in a way that looks, sounds and feels authentic—not too much like an ad.”

Regarding “hot topics” within the media industry, Kaya notes how increasing awareness of digital privacy is widely affecting how advertisers are being able to target consumers. “Data has become a very strategic asset to the point that it is now being referred to as ‘the new oil.’ As data collection becomes more regulated, with people opting out of being tracked by apps, etc., the more challenging it is for advertisers to precisely target an audience.”

In closing, Kaya offers this piece of advice to anyone wanting to pursue a career in this industry, “Especially to women and women of color, do not be afraid to occupy space. Be proactive and always try your best to stay informed.”

An enormous part of what makes Mindstream Media Group successful is the collective talent and collaboration of its employees across the country. While we as an agency love to share stories about client successes, industry news and product updates on our MMG Blog, we also want to feature the actual people behind the work we are doing to grow client business.

 Our recent video series, Fast-Forward the Conversation, discusses the HOW behind supporting client growth through media strategy, with topics like shopper marketing, franchise work, QSR challenges, agency partnerships and more.

We’re also now featuring a Mindstreamer (as we like to call ourselves) periodically to share their stories and celebrate the diverse people, backgrounds, interests and qualities that make us unique.

Award-Winning Talent at Mindstream Media Group

Founded in 1951, the Alliance for Women in Media (AWM) is a professional organization committed to providing educational, networking and professional development support and growth opportunities for women across all segments of the media industry. AWM connects, inspires and celebrates the achievements of women in electronic media and allied fields.

The Dallas/Ft. Worth branch has been educating and acting as a resource to members and the industry for over three decades. Each year the group holds an Awards of Excellence Gala to recognize outstanding individuals in the field. Mindstream Media Group was proud to have several members of our team nominated for awards this year.

 

Bradi Slovak, Supervisor, Programmatic Operations was selected as the winner of the Digital Support Staff category.

Bradi has been a part of the Mindstream team for 7 years. In addition to managing the programmatic team in the Dallas office, she is also responsible for running and optimizing display, pre-roll video, CTV and digital PR Out of Home campaigns for a number of clients. She has a strong understanding of hitting KPI goals across a range of media channels and has extensive experience executing and optimizing media across several DSPs. Bradi enjoys putting together full-funnel programmatic media strategies and works to drive maximum efficiency, spending media dollars at the right time with the least amount of waste.

 

Chandler Swanner, Associate Media Buyer was nominated as an Agency Rising Star.

Chandler’s mother was a Media Buyer and later a Media Director in media for 25 years. All her friends were also in the business and hearing how much they loved the industry led Chandler to want to follow in her mother’s footsteps. For the last 6 months Chandler has been learning the ropes at Mindstream as they relate to the buying process and interacting with vendor reps. Her responsibilities include daily reconciliation of discrepancies and make-goods for radio, TV and cable as well as gathering details and producing weekly television post logs for her buyers in each of their markets as requested by the client. She also enters out-of-home orders and handles traffic for radio and television advertising.

 

Shelby Clement, Lead of Integrated Strategy was nominated for the Local Planner award.

Shelby has over 20 years of media agency experience across multiple media disciplines including media strategy, media negotiation/buying and account service. Throughout her career she has been involved in a variety of media efforts including leading promotional initiatives, leveraging local paid media to secure bonus airtime to execute cross-promotional activities and data collection efforts, testing various digital platforms for reaching a confirmed target audience as well as managing and providing media investment recommendations for multi-million-dollar client media budgets.

Congratulations to all of this year’s nominees and winners at the Awards of Excellence Gala. We’re already looking forward to next year!

 

Take Your Brand’s Temperature: How to Measure Brand Health

The need to establish clear brand awareness and brand health metrics is essential for any new brand awareness campaign. We believe the first challenge is to clarify brand goals according to best practices that will lead to meaningful business results. The second is to ensure those goals are adopted and understood throughout the organization. This is key to long-term planning ability and helps align resources with marketing and business goals. While brand awareness is a significant factor, there are other health metrics that should be monitored to create a full picture.

We recommend measuring total awareness, both aided and unaided, and metrics such as preference, intent to purchase and satisfaction with the customer experience. These will enable a richer view of the brand and show progress as an organization over time.

How to approach this challenge

Brand measurement should be approached on two different paths. We believe in combining a classic brand awareness and health study with a media effectiveness and impact study.

Brand awareness and health measurement study

This is a survey-based study that is conducted quarterly or twice per year at a minimum, and is designed to thoroughly understand how well a brand is known by the target audience, how it is perceived and how it is viewed against competitors. It can also measure attributes such as intent to purchase and mission-based perceptions as well. The study should be customized to the specific goals of the brand and be considered the ultimate measurement; all efforts should be aligned around this data.

Media effectiveness and impact study

Naturally, as a media agency we recommend measuring the impact of media efforts on brand and marketing goals as directly as possible. There are many great tools and technologies to help facilitate the process. The result is enhanced confidence in long-term planning for media and advertising dollars that work harder to achieve specific brand goals.

A media effectiveness study can look at cross-channel media such as TV, digital, video, print and more, understand how they work together and then provide insight on which channels deliver in more effective ways to reach specific objectives. Dollar for dollar it can help identify which tactics and platforms drive greater outcomes. It is not a full attribution study, but a quicker, less costly way to gain insight specifically on media spend and its impact.

This approach is ideal for a new brand launch since it can quickly shed light on how valuable media dollars are performing in the marketplace.

Recommendations for selecting partners and services

There are many services and agencies that can deliver a brand health measurement approach. The ideal partner is one who is a proven expert in creative and effective ways to approach brand and marketing research. They should be able to work quickly to customize for specific needs and deliver a range of research solutions that can lead to real business insights. Of course, a classic brand study is essential, but additional customer experience research can prove helpful as well, especially as the brand grows.

For the media effectiveness study, Comscore offers a variety of cross-channel media impact measurement tools. They can help determine the best option based on the parameters of the study, identify which is best-suited based on needs and aid in planning adequate budget resources. It is best to share media plans as they are developed. They will then examine for feasibility and outline costs and expectations for the study. At the end of the study, Comscore will deliver a comprehensive report of all media tactics and explain which types of media, creative and audiences were most impactful to the advertising goals.

More broadly, to evaluate total marketing ROAS and understand the impact of efforts across all channels, we recommend collaborating with a business partner who has a complete team of data scientists that can quickly recommend a data approach and build a predictive ROI model. Although it has a longer development time window, this type of model is ultimately necessary to forecast and manage marketing spend.

Next Steps

Ready to move forward with brand measurement? Let’s connect. We will review your needs, make recommendations and facilitate conversations with additional agencies or consultants as needed to ensure comprehensive brand health measurement and guidance to fast-forward your business.

Meet the Mindstreamer – Derek King

He’s part researcher, part data-cruncher, and loves digging into first-party data to find insights and patterns to help inform media plans, especially when they break the mold of what’s been done before. He’s Derek King, Senior Manager, Media Strategy & Insights based in Mindstream Media Group’s Dallas headquarters.

After having studied Advertising in the Journalism school at the University of Kansas, Derek dreamed of becoming a copywriter but ultimately decided that his mathematical abilities were better suited for a career in media planning. When a media opportunity arose, he went for it and has been loving it ever since.

 

His first agency position was with Valentine Radford in Kansas City in 1997, which was then acquired by Southwest Media Group in 2003. Then, when Southwest merged with Mindstream Media in early 2020, Derek became a part of the Mindstream family.

As an agency veteran of nearly 25 years, Derek believes he started in the industry at a great time—when traditional media was king. Over the years with the surge of technology in digital media, he’s been able to see that growth and learn the ins and outs of the digital realm firsthand. As a result, he has broad media experience, including TV/Radio, Direct Mail, OOH, Digital and Print.

While technology has automated many of those fundamental media planning responsibilities, it’s also been a bit of a double-edged sword. He shares, “The volume and ease-of-accessibility to data has been incredibly helpful, but in addition to improving and streamlining processes, it’s also increased both the amount of work that can be done as well as the number of tasks that (with experience) it is easier to do than delegate, making it much harder to disconnect.”

Even after having been in the media industry for most of his career, he continues to be inspired by the people around him, in how they interpret data and distill meaningful insights. “I’m inspired by a lot of my current (and past) co-workers that use numbers and interesting visuals to express something that is evidence-backed and compelling. There’s an art to that “distillation” process that I really appreciate.”

To someone wanting to pursue a career in this industry, Derek says “learn to love numbers and don’t overlook traditional media — they certainly still have a few more good years.”

In his spare time, Derek enjoys golf, skiing, chess and cooking. Research has also played a huge part in his personal life, noting, “While making a cursory search of a few websites after seeing the movie Secrets & Lies, I actually found my biological parents online in August 2001.” He also stays in touch with family and friends through Facebook, gets news, sports and music news from Twitter and frequents Reddit exclusively for the r/Jokes page.


An enormous part of what makes Mindstream Media Group successful is the collective talent and collaboration of its employees across the country. While we as an agency love to share stories about client successes, industry news and product updates on our MMG Blog, we also want to feature the actual people behind the work we are doing to grow client business.

 Our recent video series, Fast-Forward the Conversation, discusses the HOW behind supporting client growth through media strategy, with topics like shopper marketing, franchise work, QSR challenges, agency partnerships and more.

 We’re also now featuring a Mindstreamer (as we like to call ourselves) periodically to share their stories and celebrate the diverse people, backgrounds, interests and qualities that make us unique.

Meet the Mindstreamer – Bradi Slovak

In addition to managing the programmatic team in the Dallas office, Mindstream Supervisor, Programmatic Operations, Bradi Slovak is also responsible for running and optimizing display, pre-roll video, CTV and digital PR Out of Home campaigns for a number of clients. With the explosive growth of programmatic advertising in recent years, Bradi had no idea this is what she would be doing when she selected Advertising as a major in college 10 years ago. But the constant evolution of digital marketing is exactly what excites Bradi about her job. She says, “The Programmatic World changes so often, there is always something new to learn, a new vendor to meet with, new ways to reach audiences, etc.”

Bradi enjoys putting together full-funnel programmatic media strategies and works to drive maximum efficiency, spending media dollars at the right time with the least amount of waste. Her efforts have earned her a nomination for the 2021 Alliance of Women in Media Dallas Award of Excellence. AWM has been providing educational, networking and professional development support and growth opportunities for over three decades. Each year the group holds an awards gala to recognize outstanding individuals in the field. In fact, two other Mindstreamers have been nominated this year as well, Chandler Swanner (Agency Rising Star) and Shelby Clement (Local Planner). Winners will be announced in October.

When she’s not busy executing and optimizing campaigns across the variety of DSPs Mindstream leverages for programmatic campaigns, Bradi enjoys spending time with family and friends, spending time with her puppy Becki and traveling. She also loves to gamble and has been to Las Vegas over 20 times. What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas!

An enormous part of what makes Mindstream Media Group successful is the collective talent and collaboration of its employees across the country. While we as an agency love to share stories about client successes, industry news and product updates on our MMG Blog, we also want to feature the actual people behind the work we are doing to grow client business.

Our recent video series, Fast-Forward the Conversation, discusses the HOW behind supporting client growth through media strategy, with topics like shopper marketing, franchise work, QSR challenges, agency partnerships and more.

 We’re also now featuring a Mindstreamer (as we like to call ourselves) periodically to share their stories and celebrate the diverse people, backgrounds, interests and qualities that make us unique.