Viacom's Valerie Bischak: True Grit and Good Advice

After college Bischak pictured at top accepted an account management position at ad agencyamp160NW Ayer ampamp Partnersamp160and developed an understanding of the interplay between strategic and creative developmentamp160 She stayed on the agency side for several years working with clients like Johnson ampamp Johnsonamp160 Eventually she moved on to Foxamp160for a brief time sparked by interest in one of their acquisitions in the health care space before moving in 2000 to online pioneer DoubleClickamp160 At the time DoubleClick was the exclusive sales force for brands like Food Network Comedy Central and AampampEamp160and sold their digital properties on behalf of those networks working handinhand with their television sales teamsamp160 Bischak credits those two and a half years for teaching her quota ton about digital media and organizations and peoplequotEventually as those brands each brought digital sales inhouse Bischak quotclawed her way intoquot Viacom which had just acquired College Television Network later MTVU knowing that she could represent media to big brands and committing to completely learn the TV math that she needed to know to become a real quotTV personquotamp160 She spent two years on MTVU and later on Spike now Paramount and then as online business grew Viacom39s leadership needed digital expertise and Bischak39s experience as a quotdigital personquot became importantquotComing to Viacom with so many bestinbreed brands there was so much opportunity and excitement around themquot Bischak recallsamp160 quotAnd then as we launched things like audience targetingamp160created the product that became Vantageamp160and developed ways to target audiences across our portfolio I understood that right away because that39s what we were doing at DoubleClick with clickstream data in 2000quotHer team in partnership with product specialists across Viacom39s portfolio looks for the right solutions for each advertiseramp160 quotDoes it need the precision of Vantage or should it be TVbasedamp160 Would custom TV creative workamp160 Is it episodic branded programmingamp160 Will OTT or social helpamp160 Is it an influencer solution something at retail for our shopper marketing expertise or something where they really need to touch and feel their consumers on the ground with something like ClusterFest or SlimeFest or VidConamp160 Given that we and no other company amp8211 can reach over 50 of 1834yearolds we39re in a unique position to play a consultative role for partners working to understand and piece together audience fragmentationquot she explainsEven when grappling with the critical areas of fragmentation Bischak remains keenly aware of the importance of bigger life issues amp160such as the mission of the Lisa Colagrossi Foundation for which Bischak is a board memberamp160 It was only a few years ago that Bischak began speaking about the experience of losing her mother at 12 to a brain aneurysmamp160 As she knows and now actively makes clear to others one of the warning signs is a sudden onset headache that one would describe as the quotworst headache of your lifequotamp160 She spent two years on the advisory board of Experience Camps which let her give back to children who39d experienced the loss of a parent or caregiver and is still heavily involvedamp160 Through that organization Bischak learned about ColagrossiAccording to Bischak it is still a misconception that there are no warning signs of an aneurysm but there often areamp160 quotLisa Colagrossi was a news anchor on WABCTV getting up at 330 oramp160400 am every morning for work and trying to make sure that she got to her kids39 hockey gamesquot she notesamp160 quotLike many working parents like my single mother working two jobs she figured quotthe worst headache of her lifequot nausea exhaustion neck pain pain behind the eye eye twitching could be ignored or put offamp160 If you have an experience similar to one of those go to the emergency room and say the magic words 39This is the worst headache of my life39 and they will scan youamp160 If you can identify an aneurysm before it catastrophically ruptures there39s a pretty good chance of survivalquotMy experience helps me keep the perspective we all wantquot Bischak concludesamp160 quotI always say 39don39t sweat the small stuff39 is my superpower Generally I think nine and a half out of 10 things are solvableamp160 Having the grit that comes with going through that life experience has served me incredibly wellamp160 I would obviously change it in a heartbeat but what was the worst thing that has happened to me in my life is probably my biggest edgequotClick the social buttons above or below to share this story with your friends and colleaguesThe opinions and points of view expressed in this content are exclusively the views of the author andor subjects and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet Inc management or associated writers

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Viacom's Valerie Bischak: True Grit and Good Advice

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Viacom's Valerie Bischak: True Grit and Good Advice

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