BRIAN STEMPECK
CHIEF CLIENT OFFICER, THE TRADE DESKAs The Trade Desk’s eighth employee, it was up to Brian
Stempeck to start the California-based programmatic ad
company’s fi rst New York offi ce—which he did, from his own
Brooklyn apartment, in 2010. Since then, he’s grown the offi ce
to 150 employees (the company now has over 600 worldwide).
And while the company had no revenue or clients when Stempeck
began, media spend last year grew to $1 billion.
Stempeck, 38, says that while only $15 billion of the $600 billion
global digital advertising spend is currently programmatic, the overall
analog-to-digital transformation could be just “dress rehearsal” for what’s yet to come for
programmatic TV.
“I think being infl uential in this space means being able to explain complex technology in a simpler
form, so then others can buy into the idea,” he says. “It’s kind of like this big game of telephone and
you can’t do that if you’re using really arcane, complex ad-tech terminology.” —M.S.JOHN ALLEVA
SVP, DIGITAL MONETIZATION
AND PLANNING, NBCUNIVERSALAs NBCUniversal looks to maximize its ad revenue across
all platforms and time-shifted windows, it falls to John
Alleva and his team of 75 to set pricing strategy and work
with clients to fi nd opportunities within NBCU’s digital
platforms and with partners like BuzzFeed, Snapchat and
Vox Media.
With 70 percent of the company’s entertainment video
impressions occurring via a TV screen—i.e., no fraud or viewability
issues—Alleva, 35, helps wary clients understand, “it’s the same
shows they’re already buying, just on a different platform.”
He’s now focused on the company’s trio of major sports events for 2018: the Super Bowl,
Winter Olympics and World Cup. “It’s a mix of testing out new ways we can go to market with these
partnerships and trying to understand how much consumption was there the last time we did those
events, and how different that may be going into the next one,” he says. “Thinking about consumption
changes in four years is massive.” —J.L.STEPHANIE
HORBACZEWSKI
FOUNDER AND CEO, STYLEHAULStyleHaul’s Stephanie Horbaczewski credits none other than
Ashton Kutcher with giving her the aha moment that jump-
started her career: in 2010, she happened upon an issue of Fast
Company in which Kutcher, while talking about making branded
content for Kraft, predicted that brands would need to build their
own social networks in the future.
“I was like, oh my god, this is the future of everything. It’s
video, it’s brand integration, it’s social content and making sure
brands connect with their consumers on social platforms,” says
Horbaczewski, 37.
She founded StyleHaul—a network of fashion-forward
infl uencers with more than 275 million subscribers that boasts
over 1.5 billion impressions each month—in 2011. Since then, the
company has grown by 50 percent year over year for six years in
a row. Last year, it launched a new product, Society, that gives
the network’s creators access to a dashboard with data and
analytics about the content they create and post.
“I am obsessively passionate about this. I live and breathe it,”
Horbaczewski explains. “I’m also really proud of the people who
work for me. They are out there grinding like it’s a startup every
single day and it shows.” —K.R.HANNAH HART
HOST OF YOUTUBE’S MY
DRUNK KITCHEN AND FOOD
NETWORK’S I HART FOOD
This year, YouTube phenom and My Drunk
Kitchen star Hannah Hart made the jump from
digital video to television proper. Her six-episode
show on Food Network, titled I Hart Food,
combined her love of travel and food as she
visited different cities to dive deep into tasty
treats they’re known for.
“I had the most phenomenal crew,” says
30-year-old Hart, who counts over 2.5 million
subscribers on her YouTube channel. “It was the
most positive and fun experience, and it gives
me courage for whatever’s next.”
As a creator, Hart knows how important it
is for people to take mental health breaks and
understand their personal boundaries, especially
when it comes to professional relationships
with other brands. (She’s created content for
advertisers like Barilla, Macy’s and Winc.)
“It’s a marathon, not a sprint,” she says.
“Paying attention to what your body tells you can
be tedious. You can leave a little wiggle room,
just don’t tip the scale in either direction.” —S.M.