Kirill Mankovski

Kirill Mankovski, Managing Director, tells us that he joined ADA following his own experiences dealing with other marketing agencies as a client. 

Having held managerial and executive positions at leading tech firms such as Samsung and Siemens, he became accustomed to being told that what he needed couldn’t be achieved, “not simply because the agencies or the partners were bad, but often due to the level of technological development not being available.” Transitioning from the multinational corporations which make up the bulk of his resume to the startup-like culture of ADA could have been challenging, yet Mankovski states that its unique, flexible and dynamic approach appealed to him immediately. “The whole existence of the company is centred on disrupting the digital marketing industry,” he affirms. “It uses data as a core resource for any kind of decision making and AI, cloud and analytics to change the way marketing works.”

This latter statement is significant as it indicates that marketing in its current form doesn’t work optimally. Mankovski continues, “Very often, marketing is done based on ‘gut feeling’. In general, it’s still not very academic or data-driven.” Therefore, ADA’s goal is to overturn this industry standard and introduce a thoroughly digital approach based on automation and innovation. The true value of the company’s culture was realised at the beginning of 2020: while the COVID-19 pandemic began to disrupt those who neglected to develop their digital transformation strategy, Mankovski says that ADA was able to weather significant changes like remote working with noticeable ease. This is not to say there weren’t some adjustments to make: “Even having important meetings like shareholder-level discussions, which would usually require face-to-face interactions, are now online instead. The world has changed but I think we are adapting very quickly; we’ve maintained good morale and team spirit throughout the crisis.”

For Mankovski, the future of ADA goes hand-in-hand with the evolution of AI and automation. “We're true believers in AI as an important driver of change in the industry,” he explains. “Many more use-cases are emerging, especially as voice recognition technology is becoming more advanced.” Indeed, the numerous creative adaptations of AI and its capacity for analysing a wide variety of data indicates that marketing could change significantly in a relatively short time frame. As ecommerce continues to expand exponentially and the adoption of digital technology continues to permeate the industry, ADA will be pioneering a new approach that values data and its integral use. “The digital marketing landscape is becoming increasingly complex. It is for our collective good to make use of this data in the proper way, one which benefits both brands and consumers,” he concludes. “This approach isn’t the easiest one, but we believe at ADA that it is the right one.”

Read the full story: HERE