213. The Trader’s Corner: Pharma, Privacy, and the Everyday Reality of Programmatic
Release Date: 10/21/2026
213. The Trader’s Corner: Pharma, Privacy, and the Everyday Reality of Programmatic
Programmatic Digest
🎧 Summary: What does a programmatic trader’s day look like when every platform has a new AI solution, your team needs hands-on guidance, and your clients operate in a highly regulated industry? Welcome to the first episode of The Trader’s Corner, a special Programmatic Digest series spotlighting fellow programmatic ninjas and the everyday challenges, wins, and lessons that shape their work. In this episode of Trader’s Corner, recorded at Programmatic I/O, Hélène Parker sits down with Kristin BelleFountaine, a programmatic channel manager who leads a team of five specialists. Their...
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212. What’s Behind Your Location Targeting? Privacy, Risk, and Results with Charlie Simon
Programmatic Digest
🎧 Summary: When you select location targeting in your DSP, do you know what data you’re actually using? In this episode of the Programmatic Digest Podcast, Hélène Parker sits down with Charlie Simon, Global VP for Private Advertising at RTB House, to unpack the data behind location targeting and the questions media buyers should ask before using it. Charlie discusses how privacy rules are changing, why consumer consent may not answer every question, and why being near a store doesn’t necessarily mean someone intends to buy. They also explore a fashion retailer example that challenges...
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211. Understanding Programmatic Sustainability with Brian O’Kelley
Programmatic Digest
Let’s first highlight some “not so fun facts” about the topic covered in this episode, according to Anne Coghlan, COO of Scope3 in . Programmatic advertising creates 100,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide every month in the United States, which is equivalent to burning about 11.2 million gallons of gas. Serving 1,000 digital ad impressions uses the same amount of energy as doing a load of laundry in a washing machine — excluding the dryer — which produces a global average of 514.8 grams of CO2. Brian O’Kelley co-founder and CEO joins the programmatic meetup, a...
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210. How A Nurse Started in Programmatic Media
Programmatic Digest
Gulshan started as a nurse and realised that her passion was outside of the medical field. She knew she wanted to work in Marketing but did not know where to start. Luckily, her grad school professor recommended that she looked into programmatic and that is how she “fell” into the programmatic industry where she is now working for an ad agency who specialise in pharma and healthcare brands. Gulshan is such an inspiration for standing up for herself and pursuing something she wanted to and not being afraid to start “again” and take risk learning something new. It’s never too...
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209. The Future of Ecommerce: AEO, AI, and One-to-One Personalization
Programmatic Digest
In Episode 209 of the Programmatic Digest Podcast, Hélène Parker sits down with Avani Oswal, founder of Catalyst, to explore what retail and ecommerce leaders need to know as AI reshapes discovery, technology decisions, and customer experiences. Avani shares how her career moved from finance and consulting at EY to strategy at Macy’s, operational roles across ecommerce brands including IPSY, and eventually building Catalyst, a community that connects retail operators with emerging technology companies. She explains why understanding the numbers, listening closely to operators, and building...
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208. The Data Is Technical, but the Decision Is Human with Carole Lawson
Programmatic Digest
Programmatic advertising gives us more data, automation, and targeting options than ever. But behind every impression, click, and conversion is a real person whose circumstances, attention, and needs can change. In this episode of the Programmatic Digest Podcast, Hélène Parker speaks with Carole Lawson, founding partner of Marketstorm, about the relationship between data, technology, AI, and human behavior. Carole shares how her experience in technology, government innovation, behavioral economics, and data science led her into programmatic advertising. She also explains why traders should...
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207. The AI Middle Layer: The Next Brand Safety Battleground
Programmatic Digest
In this podcast episode, Dr. Cecilia Dones and Iesha White discuss the complex evolution of artificial intelligence within the marketing and advertising industries. They explore the shift of AI becoming a "middle layer" between brands and consumers, highlighting how automated systems can influence purchasing decisions using unverified information. These outstanding ladies distinguish between closed and open AI systems, warning that proprietary models often lack transparency and can lead to brand safety issues like hallucinations or data poisoning. They emphasize that while AI...
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206. A Discussion on The signal brief, AI Search, and Ozone
Programmatic Digest
AI-driven search is changing how people discover information, and challenging the intent-based funnel publishers and advertisers have relied on for years. In this episode of the Programmatic Digest Podcast, I sit down with Christian Robinson of Ozone to explore what this shift means for publishers, programmatic traders, and the future of the open web. Christian shares how Ozone helps advertisers reach audiences across trusted, premium publisher environments while reducing duplication and wasted media spend. We discuss why first-party data, authenticated audiences, and journalistically safe...
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205. Conversational Ad Ops, AI agents, and Model Context Protocol (MCP) with Rob Janes
Programmatic Digest
In this episode of the Programmatic Digest Podcast, host and guest Rob JAnes, Head of Product at AdButler, discuss the rapidly changing landscape of publisher monetization and programmatic ad operations heading into 2025. Check out the interview on YouTube here: They break down the industry-wide adjustments following Google's unexpected decision not to deprecate third-party cookies and the subsequent pivot to internal identity resolution systems. A major focus of the conversation is the existential crisis content creators face due to declining traffic, driven by generative...
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204. Martech Architecture Explained: The Missing Layer in Ad Tech
Programmatic Digest
🎧 Summary: In this episode of the Programmatic Digest Podcast, Hélène Parker sits down with Sanarr McLaughlin to unpack one of the most overlooked challenges in programmatic advertising and digital marketing: martech structure. From disconnected tools and messy integrations to reporting confusion and operational inefficiencies, Sanarr explains why many agencies, brands, and media teams are struggling under the weight of their own systems. Together, they explore how poor martech architecture impacts campaign execution, data accuracy, internal productivity, and ultimately business growth....
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What does a programmatic trader’s day look like when every platform has a new AI solution, your team needs hands-on guidance, and your clients operate in a highly regulated industry?
Welcome to the first episode of The Trader’s Corner, a special Programmatic Digest series spotlighting fellow programmatic ninjas and the everyday challenges, wins, and lessons that shape their work.
In this episode of Trader’s Corner, recorded at Programmatic I/O, Hélène Parker sits down with Kristin BelleFountaine, a programmatic channel manager who leads a team of five specialists. Their conversation explores the daily work behind campaign activation, troubleshooting, optimization, and helping traders keep pace with change.
Kristin shares how her team approaches new AI tools while navigating pharma clients’ privacy requirements and highly specific audiences. She also explains what vendors should understand before approaching an agency team: client needs come first, and evaluating a proposal takes time.
Plus, Kristin and Hélène share practical ways they use AI to manage overflowing inboxes and stay informed without reading every industry newsletter.
In this episode:
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Supporting a trading team while staying hands-on in the platforms.
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Keeping traders up to speed as DSPs introduce new AI capabilities.
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Why foundational optimization skills still matter.
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How pharma audience needs and privacy concerns shape partner evaluations.
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What vendors can do to make conversations more useful for agency teams.
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Using AI for email management and relevant industry news recaps.
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Staying open to a career path you couldn’t have planned.
A takeaway for your next workday: Start with a task that takes time away from meaningful work. Explore how AI could help, while following your organization’s rules for client and audience data.
Need backup?
Have a reporting headache, a campaign question, or something you don’t feel comfortable asking in the office? Reach out to Hélène. Your questions help shape practical, free educational content for the programmatic community.
🧠 About Us:
I’m the person programmatic traders reach out to when they want to become more confident, efficient, and effective, from hands-on DSP activation to smarter optimization.
I’m also the person media and ad-tech partners call when they want to better understand those buyers, strengthen their positioning, build deeper partnerships, and grow revenue.
www.heleneparker.com
👤 Meet Our Guest:
Kristin Bellefontaine – Channel Manager, Programmatic – Butler/Till
Kristin is a programmatic channel manager who leads a team of five programmatic specialists, supporting campaign activation, troubleshooting, optimization, and reporting. Her work includes pharma advertising, where audience needs and privacy requirements shape campaign decisions. She started her career in linear TV and radio before finding her passion for programmatic, and today helps her team navigate new AI tools while staying hands-on in the platforms.
📎 Connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristin-bellefontaine-3b82a8b3/
Check out: https://butlertill.com/
💻 Meet The Team:
Hélène Parker – Chief Programmatic Coach
🌐 heleneparker.com
🔗 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/helene-parker/
Manuela Cortes – Co-Host, Programmatic Digest en Español
🔗 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/manuela-cortes-/
🎓 Learn Programmatic:
For Individual Buyers: https://heleneparker.com/library
Subscribe to the Newsletter: https://heleneparker.com/newsletter
Be the first to find out about free programmatic training workshops: https://www.heleneparker.com/waitlist/
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