Industry Profile: Impact partnerships director Sam Morton

30 March 2021
 

Our Industry Profile takes a look at some of the professionals working across the advertising, adtech, marketing and media sector in Australia. It aims to shed light on the varying roles and companies across the buzzing industry.

This week we speak to Impact partnerships director Sam Morton.

Time in current role/time at the company:
I joined Impact three years ago as only the fifth employee in APAC. I was an account director up until February this year when I moved to head up the partnerships team to build closer relationships with our agency, technology and publisher partners.

How would you describe what the company does?
Impact is the leading partnership automation platform; our SaaS technology allows brands to automate the management of their partnerships at scale, whether that be an affiliate, an influencer, a tech partner or another brand.

What do you do day-to-day?
I’m only a few weeks into the role and it's a newly created position so there is a lot to establish. I’m still defining what a typical day will ultimately look like, but for now it's a lot of foundational activity to build the team’s capabilities and connect with priority partners. I now manage a team of three so I’m investing a lot of time in ensuring they have everything they need to create success for our partners.

Define your job in one word:
Enablement.

I got into martech because:
If you asked me this question at various stages of my career, you’d get a different answer. In the early days the networking events and long lunches were definitely a draw card but now it’s more about building my career in an ever changing industry that continues to challenge me and allows me to consistently learn something new.

What’s the biggest challenge you face in your role?
With an APAC-wide remit it’s about creating an approach that can be localised across the region. Southeast Asia in particular is very nuanced so requires a fairly bespoke execution. Setting a regional strategy can be complicated, as what works here in Australia may not work in certain Southeast Asian countries.

What’s the biggest industry-wide challenge you’d like to see tackled?
We are going through a reasonably turbulent time right now as an industry with the retirement of 3rd party cookies. We have developed a solution here at Impact, but it's going to be interesting to see the effect on the digital marketing and advertising industry as a whole. Perhaps the biggest concern around all of this is how unified measurement is applied in a post cookie world.

Previous industry related companies you have worked at:
In the affiliate and partnerships space, I’ve worked in most capacities, which gives me a great breadth of experience to take on the partnership director role. Before Impact I did a stint at eBay, prior to that I was at iProspect and further back I spent four years at dgm.

Who has been a great mentor to you and why?
It has to be the captain of the Impact rocket ship Adam Furness. Adam has this exceptional ability to get the most out of people, he has helped me to break through barriers and achieve goals that I never thought possible. I am incredibly lucky to work with Adam, he is a real inspiration.

Words of advice for someone wanting a job like yours?
Stay curious, work smart and make as many friends as you can along the way.

If I wasn't doing this for a living, I'd be:
Running a craft beer and records bar…

My mantra is:
These are not my words - I believe they have been handed down from Nick Randall to Adam Furness, then to all at Impact, but they resonate with me and I try to incorporate this into my day to day - “Make the complex simple and the simple compelling”.

My favourite advert is:
Growing up in the UK in the 90’s, we were exposed to the golden age of TV ads, so there are many, but the Tango ads are up there, they still crack me up… “oh Tony”. There was a series of them but you can get the idea here.

Music and TV streaming habits. What do you subscribe to?
I think I have pretty much all of the streaming services. Like most people during lockdown I accumulated far too many subscriptions, I think I’m at six!!! Musically, I like to keep things analog. There is something to be said for putting on a classic vinyl with a glass of red and disconnecting from the world for a moment.

Tell us one thing people at work don’t know about you?
When I was young I really loved magic so I have quite a few party tricks up my sleeve.

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