Meet Acronym’s Katey Kana

Group Director

When did you join Acronym?

In November of 2014.

Where were you previously and what was your title?

I worked at Mindshare, where I was Associate Director of Paid Search.

What were your responsibilities at Mindshare?

I did a little bit of everything: Providing in-depth strategic recommendations for current and potential clients; establishing current and long-term goals; analyzing search planning budgets to identify strengths and weaknesses; managing the overall day-to day-activities of search directors; and overseeing recommendations for division of budgets, including accounting for media spending, agency fees, tracking fees, etc.

What clients did you work with?

Bacardi, Chanel, Cotton, SAP and TGIFridays

What can you tell us about the special challenges you faced when handling paid search for a client in the spirits category?

Due to the strict regulations involving spirits marketing, we had to be very creative to avoid high CPCs by driving people to non age-gated sites (i.e., using partnerships and driving traffic to such sites as Pandora by tying in sweepstakes, like Bacardi Triangle).  We also had an opportunity to work with Google to avoid age gates through Chrome settings so that the bounce rate on paid search ads would be low.

We took that creativity further by scaling third-party partners such as SWOOP, which is DISCUS compliant, and using its technology to get our branding and messaging across digitally and to the right audiences.  The greatest wins in working with the Bacardi Portfolio came through thinking outside of the box. That meant using cocktail recipes, cocktail names instead of branded search and knowing how to navigate through the clutter, since seasonality is very heavy in spirits in the holiday season and digital advertising is very expensive.

What do you do at Acronym and which clients do you work for?

I am Group Director, Client Services, and I work for Ariba, BMW/Mini, NY&Company and SAP.

What do you consider to be the most interesting aspect of digital advertising overall and the current state of search marketing?

The most interesting thing about digital advertising is the consistent dynamic changes in the ecosystem and the necessity to stay abreast of all changes across the digital landscape to be informed and make the right decisions in strategy and execution for my clients.

What do you like to do best when you are not working?  

I love to travel to off-the-beaten-path places and practice yoga.