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AdColonized: Getting to Know Nihat Albayrak

Posted Jul 20, 2017

Located in Istanbul, Nihat Albayrak strives to manage successful InstantPlay™ Brand Campaigns all across EMEA. As a Campaign Manager, he constantly balances the needs of advertising and publishers to create success for everyone involved. While studying Industrial Engineering in college, Nihat gained experience working as a Production Planning Intern at a chocolate factory! On the weekends, Nihat enjoys cooking, playing cards, and playing gaming apps. Nihat, it’s time to get you AdColonized!

What exactly does a Campaign Manager do at AdColony? What’s an average day like for you?
I am the Campaign Manager. There is another Nihat in our office and he is the Office Manager. However, I get mistakenly a lot of requests from my co-workers about office needs via Slack or e-mail since we both have the same name and I just reply back “You should write to the other Nihat”. That’s a mistake everybody makes. I hope you wanted to interview me, not the other Nihat.

As a Campaign Manager, my main responsibility is running Brand Campaigns. Until the beginning of this year, I managed Display Brand Campaigns on Turkey’s Premium Network and optimized them while trying to obtain maximum fill rates on the network. After we took over the Growth Markets’ (Turkey, South Africa, and Nordics) operations as the Istanbul Office in 2017, my main responsibility is running InstantPlay™ Brand Campaigns all across EMEA.

Tell us a little about your experiences prior to joining AdColony & how they have prepared you for your role here.
I worked as a Production Planning Intern at a chocolate factory only for a month, to accomplish my mandatory summer internship at university. AdColony is my first job, first step of my career. AdColony’s kind environment and the opportunities provided to improve myself from the first day have prepared me for my role here today.

What made AdColony the right fit for you?
While I was studying Industrial Engineering, there were some phrases that all professors kept saying repeatedly like an anthem: “Optimizing performance, maximizing efficiency, minimizing cost …”

I also heard these words a lot in my job interview for the AdOps team. I realized I can develop my skills by using my core knowledge in an interesting sector growing very fast, while working for a company leader of mobile advertising in Turkey. After Mobilike joined the AdColony family, I became a member of one of the biggest players in mobile advertising.

How do you keep growing & learning in what you do?
The Adops team in Turkey has many different products like InstantPlay™ Brand, Display and Video Network, Display and Video Programmatic, Linkedin, and Foursquare, so we use lots of different tools and platforms to manage these campaigns. We started to give internal trainings to each other for every product to increase cross functionality and team members’ capabilities. Thus, I am learning to use new tools every other day, besides the daily routine.

What are your hobbies or activities that you look forward to doing on the weekends or after work?
I’ve really liked playing card games since I was a child. Then, I started to play bridge at university and it became more than a hobby for me. I was captain of the university team for 3 years. I’ve competed in many national and local tournaments and have won more than 20 trophies, including winning the National Universities Championship. I believe my duties as captain and the skills that I’ve developed in those times have positively contributed a lot to both my career and daily life.

Which app is keeping you engaged lately? Why?
There’s an app called FunBridge that you play bridge against intelligent bots to beat other players’ scores. I use this app a lot of course, as a bridge lover.

What’s one thing not many people know about you that you’re willing to share?
I eat a lot and everybody knows that, but less people know that I also cook a lot, and to be humble, I am very good at it. I can prepare different meals from the traditional Turkish kitchen.

Do you have a nickname at work? If so, is there a story behind it?
My teammates sometimes call me Niho instead of Nihat which is just another version of my name. It doesn’t have a special story.

What is your favorite moment you’ve had with the AdColony team so far?
We spend lots of time and share lots of memories with teammates both at work and outside of the office. I think all of our team events are very good. Sometimes we go out for long dinners which include lots of Turkish Raki and Turkish Kebap with the team. These dinners have been my favorite so far.

About AdColonized
Each AdColonized feature shines a light on a different member of the AdColony team. From favorite apps and hobbies to dislikes and odd secrets, we cover it all! Who do you want to see on the next AdColonized? Tweet it to . For the latest AdColony mobile news and updates, follow  on Twitter, like us on Facebook, or connect on Linkedin.

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