Getting to Know Volker Helm and How He Can Help Advertisers Find the ‘Holy Grail’

Volker Helm is our newly announced Head of Amobee EMEA, and here he shares with us his work experiences within the media and agency landscape, as well as his aspirations for the future of Amobee in the UK and Europe. 

“I have always seen myself as a translator of ideas to execution”

Volker started his career with a clear objective in mind: “I have always been curious to learn more about every aspect of the industry. I came from a Communications background as one of the Managing Partners at Ogilvy and Wunderman, and from there, I dove head first into media. What appealed to me about media agencies was the opportunity to act as a translator: translating creative to budgets, ideas to execution, and strategies to plans. This is when I knew I wanted to run a media agency.”

And not any agency, but large, renowned organisations. From CEO of IPG Initiative in Hamburg to Managing Director of the independent agency, Mediaplus Gruppe, Volker developed a valuable set of skills surrounding strategy, leadership, team empowerment and relationship building that led him to his next adventure: ad tech. As Managing Director DACH & Nordics at Quantcast, he fell in love with the intersection between data, technology and media, which eventually led him to start his own consultancy, OneBigWave, where he’s worked with marquee brands like Volkswagen, Deloitte Digital, Vice and Philip Morris International. 

“The opportunities are countless and the vision unmatched. That’s why I’m so thrilled to join Amobee.”

Last December, Volker joined the team as an Executive Consultant to help establish Amobee’s planned joint-venture with smartclip and RTL Group, his long-standing partners and friends. When the opportunity arose to lead the region, it felt serendipitous to Volker who said, “It’s almost like I’ve come full circle, my RTL colleagues used to pitch their inventory to me when I was CEO of Initiative, and now, we’re partners! Having the largest broadcaster conglomerate across Europe joining forces with us to develop the largest international gateway for TV and video inventory is a common goal I am honoured to contribute to”. 

When asked about his first impressions of Amobee, he states, “Not only do we have a strong foundation of a DSP/DMP offering, but only Amobee can further activate using exclusive, unique, contextual and cookieless insights through Brand Intelligence – a tool with a potential that I was very inspired and energised by.” 

He went on to reflect that, “it’s unbelievable to see the work that has already been done by the team. They have been working on Tech Alliance for a year and a half now and I am enthusiastic to embark on this journey, nurture this excitement and take this venture to the next level.”

“Advertisers have been trying for years to find the holy grail.”

Navigating through Volker’s past experiences and excitement about the present, it only felt natural to understand his thoughts on the future of advertising. His answer was clear, “advertisers have been trying for years to find the holy grail: how to make their advertising campaigns appealing and relevant to audiences. I am a strong believer that through solutions like Amobee – ones that focus on personalised and targeted content, leveraging engaging video and TV advertising and, of course, strong data-driven strategies – we can reach this ideal.”

Innovative solutions by nature shake things up, which leads Volker to predict that the demand for independent adtech will continue to increase: “When I was working at Initiative, we certainly partnered with the Googles, Amazons and Facebooks of the world, but the limitations coming from their walled gardens underline the need for us to balance our tech stack by adopting independent solutions. We did not want our hands tied and sought out more transparency; this is also what inspired me to join Amobee and introduce alternative solutions to my peers.”

Welcome, Volker! 

 

About Amobee

Founded in 2005, Amobee is an advertising platform that understands how people consume content. Our goal is to optimize outcomes for advertisers and media companies, while providing a better consumer experience. Through our platform, we help customers further their audience development, optimize their cross channel performance across all TV, connected TV, and digital media, and drive new customer growth through detailed analytics and reporting. Amobee is a wholly owned subsidiary of Tremor International, a collection of brands built to unite creativity, data and technology across the open internet.

If you’re curious to learn more, watch the on-demand demo or take a deep dive into our Research & Insights section where you can find recent webinars on-demand, media plan insights & activation templates, and more data-driven content. If you’re ready to take the next step into a sustainable, consumer-first advertising future, contact us today.