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A seasoned Partner Lead at Google Canada, I have navigated the turbulent seas of digital transformation, directly witnessing the upheavals in theatrical, gaming, and app sectors. My role, at its essence, is connection—bridging partners and digital opportunities, turning the swirling chaos of trends, data, and audience insights into strategies that move beyond survival to progress.
The pandemic forced a relentless digitisation; theatres, studios, and developers scrambled to pivot. This whirlwind widened an already daunting gap, and we found ourselves architects of the bridge.
Our journey begins with listening, unearthing the buried map of each client’s story. We draw the lines from offline to online, from tradition to innovation. Consider cinema—an experience as timeless as the flicker of film, yet its context is shifting. We don’t wish to replace but to illuminate, using data and personalization to connect studios with their audiences: who might care, and when and how to reach them. The cry for personalisation echoes across the marketing landscape. It seems at odds with a world increasingly guarded about privacy, yet they coexist—especially when first-party data leads the dance. If one’s screen is alive with horror, why not offer them a shiver of relevance, rather than the cold shoulder of randomness? It’s not about knowing all; it’s about resonance over noise.
My own leap into the unknown came in 2016, when I moved to the Philippines to lead Google’s agency partnerships. It was a world uncharted—new culture, new market, new challenges—etching lessons in resilience and adaptability that I carry into every conversation.
The Partner Lead role is morphing swiftly. It transcends product pitching, becoming a beacon of expertise, a strategic companion in the night. At Google, we weave media, cloud, AI, and data into a single narrative—no longer mere ad sellers, but builders of future-ready empires. This means perpetual motion; the tech world spins too fast for any pause. Machine learning, predictive analytics, the next consumer wave—standing still is not an option.
Advice to Fellow Partner Leads
My advice is simple:
“Keep evolving, keep embracing opportunities, and never sit still. Dip your toes in as many different waters as possible so you can learn, because the world is forever evolving.”
Being comfortable with discomfort is the key. Expand your field of expertise. Learn across domains. And always ask yourself: What don’t I understand yet? Because that question leads to growth.
