In this episode of our flagship podcast One Take, we sit down with Nelson Cortez, who for the past 2 decades has audited agency-bought media on behalf of clients, for a candid 20-minute conversation about the growing complexity of media and the need for a critical eye.

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👉 The Scoop – Nelson and his family left Venezuela, where he was the media director of one of the leading international ad agencies, for the US with nothing lined up. His network and reputation for being a hard and intelligent worker soon got several openings and he joined a media auditing company as a partner.

👉 Decisive Moment – The move to the US and starting all over again

👉 Unexpected change or event – For Nelson, there were no really unexpected changes in the auditing industry. Being in the thick of it (the first year they audited $35 billion) they saw the entire change from TV to digital in a gradual way. They also saw the increased complexity of digital buys as a gradual change.

👉 What did he do? – Nelson and his team (they now have 15 people working for them) are naturally implementing AI into the company. While AI has been successful in reducing the time and complexity of the different processes they employ, senior people are still needed to give clients actionable insights. And what clients pay for are these senior insights.

👉 About older workers – Particularly in media, their value, is the experience, the knowledge, these (older) people have the experience.