Meet Burak Maviş, a Senior Technical Account Manager, working out of our Istanbul office! Before coming to AdColony, Burak studied Economics and lived in Barcelona, and he hopes to get back to traveling soon. Outside of work, Burak enjoys playing football (soccer), skating, doing puzzles, and playing the mobile game, Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes. One of Burak’s favorite memories with AdColony involves playing football with some other AdColony team members at night. Get to know him better in this week’s AdColonized employee spotlight!
What exactly does a Sr. Technical Account Manager do at AdColony? What’s an average day like for you?
I’m doing programmatic operations, and I’m one of the four technical account managers (TAMs) whose main responsibility is to manage and grow AdColony’s relationship with the Demand Side Partners (DSPs) who buy our supply via AdColony Programmatic Exchange, while making sure the exchange as a whole runs smoothly. For the account management part, we work in tandem with the Business Development team as they handle the business related issues, while we tackle all their technical problems varying from integrations, optimizations, supply management, etc.
As for monitoring the Exchange, our team is divided between the U.S. and Turkey, so we almost have 24-hour coverage, which helps us to catch any problem that might occur instantaneously and alert the related teams if the problem is on our side or our DSP accounts if the problem happens to be on their side.
My average day is divided between email clean up (we receive a ton of them), client and team calls, and pulling data on Admarvel to figure out how I can improve the performance of my accounts.
Tell us a little about your experiences prior to joining AdColony and how they have prepared you for your role here.
Even though I have a Bachelor’s in Economics, I have been inside the advertising and marketing ecosystem since the beginning of my career. I had the opportunity to experience both the agency and the client side, as my first job was an account manager position in a boutique advertising agency. I later joined McDonald’s and worked there for four years on the marketing team. Then I quit my job, moved to Barcelona for a master’s degree and lived there for two years, which was probably one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. By the time I returned back to Turkey, the Adtech industry was getting bigger and bolder, so I thought it was the perfect opportunity for me to join AdColony.
What makes AdColony the right fit for you?
I learned almost everything about programmatic here, and I was lucky because AdColony is one of the few companies in Turkey where you can properly get this know-how holistically. And the best part is, I’m still learning something new everyday from the super smart people that I work with in various teams, which you don’t come across that often in every company.
AdColony values employee development. How do you keep growing and learning in what you do?
I’d call myself a curious person in general, and since I’m genuinely interested in the field that I’m working in, I always try to read articles or watch videos about it. I also ask a lot of questions to a lot of people (hopefully no one hates me for that), which really helps me with two things: you access information much faster than you normally do and you get to build relationships with people, which is the social aspect of it.
How do you act as a resource for the rest of your team?
I try to be available as much as possible— to help people find the answers to their questions or to show them what I would do if I was in that situation.
Is there someone you turn to personally or professionally?
My dad has been a company man almost all his life, so it has always been a good idea to ask his advice in professional matters, so he’d be my top mentor.
Many global AdColony employees are still working from home. Do you have any work-from-home tips for success you can share?
I have to say that my personal work from home experience all this time hasn’t been a success, so unfortunately I don’t have much for this one. The only thing which worked for me was turning my camera on once in a while on calls, which gives me the feeling that we are in the same room with those people.
What are your hobbies or activities that you look forward to doing on the weekends or after work?
I learned how to skate in Barcelona while I was doing my master’s, and it has become my number one hobby/sport since then. There is nothing more comforting than listening to music while skating on the beach, watching a sunset. I used to do a lot of puzzles in various stages of my life and then hung the ones that I really enjoyed doing on the walls, so one of the rooms in my apartment is actually full of them. I’m also a hardcore football fan both in terms of watching and playing, so count me in if you’re looking for people to play with.
Which app is keeping you engaged lately? Why?
Lately, Twitter is kind of the only social media app that I actively use to keep up with what’s going on in Turkey and the world. I started spending more and more time playing mobile games, especially after COVID-19, mainly to familiarize myself with the industry and of course for distraction. Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes, without a doubt is the game that I spend a good amount of time on every day, I just can’t help it. There is also this Fun Run 2 craziness happening with a group of my friends, and they get angry with me if I don’t accept their race invitations, so that game deserves a shout out as well.
Tell us one or two fun facts about you.
I’m a bit obsessive about updating software like apps on my phone, my computer, or any device that has an operating system. I guess I want to stay up-to-date with everything. Sometimes I even update the apps that are on my friends’ phones just to bother them, and then they can’t use that app until the download is complete.
I was a huge fan of escape room games in the pre-COVID times. My friends and I have probably tried at least 20 rooms/houses in Istanbul, and I still want to check out a few when all this is over.
What is your favorite moment you’ve had with the AdColony team so far?
I wish I could say this party or that summit, but I unfortunately missed all those. Having said that, I can’t remember who, but someone from the night team came up with this crazy idea to play football on the pitch next to the office after work, which would be between midnight and 1 AM. Amazingly, we were able to find 10 night shifters to play most times. It actually became a tradition to play it once a week for a couple of months, which was super fun.
What are you listening to lately (music, podcasts, etc.)?
I always try to discover new music but have been unsuccessful with that lately. I love almost all genres of music, so you can find me listening to people like Travis Scott, Arctic Monkeys, Khruangbin, and Chemical Brothers all in one go.
What are you looking forward to most in the next 5 years?
Another chance to live abroad would be an amazing experience, so I’m looking forward to that.
About AdColonized
Each AdColonized feature shines a light on a different member of the AdColony team. From favorite apps and hobbies to fun facts, we cover it all! Who do you want to see on the next AdColonized? Tweet it to @AdColony. For the latest AdColony mobile news and updates, follow @AdColony on Twitter, like us on Facebook, or connect on LinkedIn.
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