by

Laurie Sullivan @lauriesullivan, January 16, 2018

Impact Radius announced Tuesday the appointment of its first CMO. Scott Brazina, a former CMO of Data XU and motocross driver for Team Honda, is excited to get back in the driver’s seat at a tech company. He sees a clean line connecting ad tech with fast-moving cars.

Brazina, a professional sports guy who went into marketing technology, believes that high pressure and rate of change and innovation all work together well, especially for Impact Radius, a performance marketing company with a focus on ad fraud detection, media attribution and analytics,.

He spent the last three years of his career racing for Team Honda and representing the United States in a world Grand Prix event.

As a race car driver, Brazina learned that keywords related to racing contribute to the innovation behind research and development. He said there are teams of engineers at big brands following drivers around the world. Racing is a fast-paced world with a got-to-win mentality.

When asked whether he wanted more to become a race car driver or marketer of technology, Brazina said: “I wish my mom was on this call, because she would keep me honest. I wanted to be a marketer of technology, but she would say, ‘Yea, that’s once you came to your senses and got over being a professional athlete.’

Brazina graduated high school a year early and deferred college for two years to race cars professionally. After breaking enough bones, he attended MIT and began to study. Then, according to Brazina, his mother said: “Finally you grew up and got a real career.”

Brazina’s career at Impact Radius began about two months ago. As the first CMO for the company, he doesn’t have a predecessor to live up to, but he has some big shoes to fill. “It’s a sign that the company is increasing its investment in marketing by opening a role and adding a CMO,” he said. “I feel fortunate to join the company. It makes a big statement about the company’s priority in marketing.”

A self-proclaimed software technology marketing junkie. Brazina also likes to read. The latest book titled “Performance Partnerships” by Robert Glazer, CEO at Acceleration Partners, helps him keep up with the best and latest strategies.

Prior to joining Impact Radius, Brazina was vice president of MarTech & Media for Dyn, an Internet Performance Management (IPM) company acquired by Oracle in 2016. While at Dyn, with development partner Cox Media Gamut, Scott co-invented patented technology lifting Cox’s Programmatic Advertising revenue through real-time optimization of Internet performance between Cox and Cox’s RTB online advertising partners. He also served as the CMO of leading marketing technology company DataXu.

Impact Radius, founded in 2008 by a team of Internet marketing and technology experts who previously founded Commission Junction, Savings.com and LeadPoint, now supports companies such as Airbnb, Uber, Levis, and Adidas.

MediaPost.com: Search Marketing Daily

(17)