Season 3 Episode 12
Beyond First-Party: Building Smarter Data Strategies with Josh Pisano

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RESOURCES   ❯   The Marketing Rapport Podcast

Episode Summary

In this episode of The Marketing Rapport, host Tim Finnigan sits down with Josh Pisano, Global Head of Product for Media at NielsenIQ. They unpack what it really takes to turn data into decisions—from identity resolution to clean room collaboration.

Josh explains why first-party data, while valuable, often misses key signals and population segments. He shares how clean room technology and smarter data integration can close those gaps and improve decision-making across planning, activation, and measurement. The conversation also explores how marketers can connect disparate signals to build full-funnel strategies that actually perform.

From defining product-market fit to navigating evolving tech like AI and interoperability, Josh outlines how product leaders can align commercial impact with client needs. Whether you’re optimizing media ROI or building identity frameworks, this episode offers a grounded, practical look at what modern marketers need to focus on today.

Guest-at-a-Glance

Key Insights

• Why First-Party Data Isn’t a Complete Picture
  First-party data is often celebrated as a brand’s most valuable asset—but it’s not the whole story. Without context or external collaboration, this data tends to be introspective, narrow, and sometimes skewed by how it was collected. It may miss entire audience segments, carry inherent bias, or lack competitive dimension. That’s why collaborative models like clean rooms are becoming essential. They allow brands to safely enrich their data with broader intelligence, expanding visibility and enabling smarter, more inclusive decision-making. This shift from isolated datasets to connected ecosystems is helping marketers optimize their strategies in real time while still respecting compliance and control.

• Effective Identity Resolution Balances Reach and Accuracy
  Identity resolution has matured far beyond simply finding more people to target. Today, it’s about understanding tradeoffs between reach and accuracy and tuning your strategy to fit specific campaign goals—whether awareness or conversion. Marketers often emphasize scale, but without knowing who you’re actually reaching, you risk wasting spend. Smart identity frameworks let you map attributes like behavior, lifestyle, or intent to real-world outcomes, not just impressions. That kind of clarity transforms a campaign from guesswork to precision. The big takeaway? Identity should serve strategy—not the other way around.

• Marketing Measurement Needs to Be Continuous, Not Periodic
  Traditional measurement methods like marketing mix modeling (MMM) often deliver insights too slowly to act on. In today’s fragmented and fast-paced media landscape, that delay creates a gap between strategy and execution. What’s needed is a feedback loop that brings performance data directly into planning and activation. When measurement is continuous—not just a twice-a-year recap—it empowers marketers to adjust targeting, creative, and budget in near real time. That shift turns measurement from a retrospective task into a forward-looking growth engine. It’s not just about knowing what worked—it’s about knowing what to do next.

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Episode Highlights

From Direct Mail to Real-Time Activation
[00:05:00]

Josh reflects on how today’s marketing tactics, while tech-enabled, echo the foundational principles of direct marketing. The real transformation lies in speed and feedback loops. Marketers are still trying to drive lift and optimize engagement—but now with faster tools and better signals. Josh emphasizes that while new terms and platforms emerge, the core intent remains: understand the customer and influence behavior through better data.

“What’s old is new again… it reminded me a lot of the direct marketing game… you’re trying to drive receptivity, incremental lifts… just doing it digitally faster and more nimble, with a far better return signal to understand… how your programs are working.”

Grounding Product Strategy in Market Feedback
[00:19:00]

Josh explains that while product strategy often involves trend-spotting and vision, it’s most effective when grounded in commercial reality. He shares that he co-sells with his commercial team to stay close to market signals. The most humbling—and instructive—feedback comes from a silent room. That moment signals misalignment between product and market, and he embraces it as a compass to recalibrate priorities and build better, faster.

“When you sit in a meeting and you present something you’re super excited about or proud of… and the whole room is just flat… well, clearly this wasn’t a product that the market needed”

Scaling Global Data Activation with The Trade Desk
[00:21:00] – [00:23:00]

NielsenIQ’s global partnership with The Trade Desk marks a strategic move to scale audience targeting across multiple markets. Josh explains why choosing a single, high-impact DSP for open web activation was more valuable than juggling numerous fragmented partnerships. Their collaboration now supports activation in the U.S., Canada, Germany, the UK, and is expanding to Europe, Asia, and LATAM—offering brands a more unified, agile activation experience.

“We’ve already released in the US, Canada, Germany, and the UK… we’re going to be releasing in France, Italy, and Spain… It’s hard to do 15 partnerships and enable them all correctly. Focusing on a large-scale global strategic relationship was the most obvious first point.”

Connecting the Full Funnel: Strategy to Outcome
[00:27:00] – [00:29:30]

Josh discusses the need to break down silos between marketing strategy, measurement, and activation. Traditionally, MMM was an annual planning tool—but now the goal is to feed outcome data back into the system continuously. Josh shares how NIQ is building infrastructure to close the loop from planning through execution, helping brands shift from fixed campaigns to adaptive, signal-informed decisions across the entire marketing funnel.

“We’re super focused on how we connect all of the dots in the marketing funnel. How do we put all the pieces together from strategy to outcome?”

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Top Quotes

[00:19:00] Josh Pisano: “When you sit in a meeting and present something you’re excited about—and the whole room is just flat—there’s nothing more humbling. That’s how you know this wasn’t a product the market needed. Those moments tell you more than any internal brainstorm. They help you recalibrate fast and go build something that actually adds value.”

[00:15:00] Josh Pisano: “First-party data is critical, but it’s also introspective. It often misses competitive signals or large parts of the population. Depending on how you collect it, there may be built-in biases. Collaboration—through clean rooms or shared ecosystems—lets you build a more complete data asset without giving everything away or losing control over your data.”

[00:06:00] Josh Pisano: “We’ve gotten really good at connecting data. What we’re still not great at is diagnosing the quality of those connections and knowing how well that identity holds over time.”

[00:12:00] Josh Pisano: “Brands are overwhelmed with choices—systems, data, platforms. The real challenge isn’t access. It’s understanding how to fit new solutions into workflows that already exist.”

[00:31:00] Josh Pisano: “If all you can do is live in your little silo, your run rate’s limited. You have to meet clients where they are, not force them into your system.”

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