• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, March 8, 2017

PCH/Media, the digital advertising and data arm of Publishers Clearing House, has hired Spencer Scott as its first head of media platform. The move demonstrates the company's growth and change in positioning during the past 18 months, says PCH/Media GM Steve Bagdasarian. 

The new appointment and title puts a focus on the company's media operations strategy and product development cycles, Bagdasarian said. 

Scott's focus on mobile, data and analytics makes him a good fit to take on the responsibility of leading the strategy and the direction of product development, Bagdasarian said.

Reporting to Bagdasarian, Scott will become instrumental in implementing planning as the company continues to further diversify media portfolio that stems from the 2016 rebranding of Liquid to PCH/Media.

The move set out to strengthen awareness of the PCH/Media's ties to the parent brand, Publishers Clearing House, and highlight its unique offerings that reach about 73% of U.S. households. More recently, the company announced a partnership with real-time bidding platform OpenX, integrating the firm’s header-bidding technology and private marketplaces into its monetization strategy. 

Scott has been on the job for about a week and he is "shocked" at the loyalty that PCH fans show, which makes him believe there is greater opportunity to grow the business than first thought. He points to the fact that consumers need to sign up and sign into the platform, giving the company lots of data to identify and develop a people-based audience targeting platform. 

"I realize I wasn't sold a bill of goods," he said. "One of the strongest part of the PCH business is performance marketing and how users convert."
Prior to joining PCH/Media, Scott held the position of CEO at Meed Mobile, a Boston software company. When asked what how his position at Meed Mobil contributes to his position at PCH/Media, Scott described the company as an app publisher.

The largest part of the job was managing engineering and product resources, along with advertising dollars, said Scott, adding that it took long-term planning and working with a variety of teams across the company.

"PCH is a very large publisher, much larger than many people think," he said, talking about his vision for the company. "It's all about managing technology to optimize yield. … We expect to be testing new product initiatives within the next 90 days."