Advocado, a SaaS company transforming linear TV advertising into a real-time bidding trigger for search ads and digital advertising, has announced that Amy Bobchek has joined the company as Chief Revenue Officer. The hire represents an important milestone for this new AdTech startup, which has been ‘heads down’ in product development mode until recently launching out of BETA, nine months ago, in September 2018.

Bobchek brings over 22 years of media industry experience and was most recently a Director of Sales for Comcast Spotlight where she was the go-to expert in acquisition and sales partnerships. Her efforts, along with her team of 50+ contributors, took Comcast Spotlight to the number one position in the greater DC metropolitan area.

“We’re beyond thrilled to have Amy join the Advocado family,” said Brian Handrigan, Co-Founder and CEO of Advocado.

“She has a proven track record of building mutually beneficial partnerships that help both parties achieve results. Amy brings unmatched media and advertising expertise and is the best person to enhance our client relationships. She joins our passionate team at the perfect time to spearhead our growth targets.”

What Do They Do?

Headquartered in St. Louis, MO, Advocado helps brands quantify and increase the impact of their advertising by transforming broadcast TV ads into real-time bidding triggers for search advertising and other performance-based media. Their platform works alongside their existing digital campaigns and helps advertisers increase TV ad campaign effectiveness, while increasing search campaign ROI and improving cross-channel attribution measurement.

Advocado’s technology programmatically adjusts advertisers’ search keyword bids so paid ads reach the top of consumers’ search results during and shortly after the airing of the broadcast commercial. By increasing bids during this micro-moment, Advocado’s technology is able to increase both premium ad position and visibility, which leads to better engagement and lead generation.

In turn, the software continually analyzes a real-time data stream in order to attribute online activity to TV commercials. Closing the conversion data loop between these two marketing channels helps build a better understanding of digitally engaged audiences before, during and after a TV commercial piques someone’s interest.

“Advocado is enabling the opportunity for TV and digital to amplify each other by going beyond attribution and actually impacting the search behavior of people exposed to a TV commercial. We’re helping customers take advantage of the fact that most people are watching TV with smartphones and other devices in hand, and helping to maximize that at the most valuable time: the micro-moment,” said Bobchek.

Chief Revenue Officer Plans

EQ sat down with Advocado’s Chief Revenue Officer at their new offices in Central West End, to find out her plans for the company.

Bobchek will be responsible for strategically leading the increase in revenue through sales and marketing. Currently a team of 15 people, Advocado is on a mission is to transform the advertising industry and they’re in growth stage: preparing to staff up a bigger sales team.

“With 210 TV markets in the US, we really need to have a lot of people,” Bobchek explained to EQ. “Part of my role is to design a plan for sales and marketing that will support the growth that I think we are likely to experience over the next year —and in three to five years. Another part is getting that infrastructure in place and activating the kinds of conversations we need to get a bench of talent ready to go.”

“I think this is going to be a very easy organization to recruit great talent for: People are super excited about AdTech and innovation. And I think we have a really special culture. It certainly attracted me to the company.”