PulsePoint’s Trader Hall of Fame: Emma Perugini

We are proud to partner with hardworking clients who are pushing the boundaries of programmatic and putting the right medications and services in front of HCPs and patients at the right time. PulsePoint established the Trader Hall of Fame to highlight their efforts and give others a closer look at the individuals shaping this quickly evolving industry. This month, we welcome Emma Perugini, Supervisor of Programmatic Media Buying at CMI Media Group, to the Trader Hall of Fame.

Emma’s journey to programmatic healthcare marketing

Emma was introduced to programmatic early on in her career. While attending the University of Delaware and earning a bachelor’s degree with a double major in finance and marketing, she learned about digital advertising through her courses and internships. Emma soon found herself in the same position as every new grad: looking for a full-time job. She came across a job listing for CMI Media Group and it piqued her interest.

“I started to look into it because, honestly, I didn’t have a great idea of what programmatic was,” she said. “After doing some research and learning about how programmatic blends data and strategy and continuous real-time decisions and optimizations, I found that I would be interested in pursuing something within the programmatic space.”

She decided to apply for the position, and she’s been a member of the CMI Media Group team for over four years. Earlier this year, she received the Brilliant Leader Award for her commitment to mentoring others and being a steady, trusted leader for her team. “The Brilliant Leader Award recognizes people who support their teams, share their knowledge, and help drive innovation. It was an honor because it reflected not just my individual contributions within my current role but also the collaborative culture that I am proud to be a part of at CMI Media Group,” she said.

Emma’s favorite parts of the job

Emma said she enjoys the problem-solving aspect of her role. Every campaign has its own goals, so she looks at the data, client constraints, and other context and pulls all of that together to understand how to drive the most value for clients. “Being able to assess the data and turn that into real-time learnings, and being able to problem solve is one of my favorite parts of the job.”

She had only positive things to say about CMI Media Group. “It’s really rewarding working at this company because of how much that they invest in their employees, as well as their strong commitment to driving positive client outcomes and exploring innovative new testing opportunities,” she said. “Programmatic leadership is always giving us new resources, different trainings, and finding out different ways to support us.”

Specifically, she said she appreciates the support from two of her mentors, Peter Smith and Lindsay King. “They are both really great mentors at CMI Media Group,” she said. “They’re always offering to lend a hand and provide their expertise in the space, so I’m very fortunate to be able to work closely with them and continue to learn from them.”

Emma’s advice for newcomers to programmatic health marketing

For people just joining the programmatic field, Emma’s advice is to stay curious and try to keep learning. The landscape is changing constantly, which means there is always an opportunity to learn something new.

“With programmatic media buying being one of the fastest evolving areas in marketing, there’s always going to be new targeting capabilities or new privacy regulations that we have to adhere to,” she said. It’s important to explore and stay interested in everything that’s changing to benefit both your clients and your teams. “It keeps us on our toes,” she said. “It’s not the same thing over and over again.”

During an internship in college, someone gave her advice that has stuck with her since: “Get comfortable being uncomfortable because that is when you grow the most.” It’s easy to stay comfortable with what you’re doing and not try new things, but challenging yourself is where the biggest breakthroughs happen and where you learn the most. If she’s nervous about doing something new or leading a new project, she just reminds herself that it’s going to be a great learning opportunity.

Emma and PulsePoint

Emma spends a lot of time in the PulsePoint platform, and she appreciates how intuitive it is to use and the fact that it offers many different advanced capabilities. “It’s very easy for us to go in and optimize our campaigns, see what settings we have in place and think of different advanced targeting capabilities that we can implement.”

Her favorite features are the targeting precision for healthcare audiences and robust reporting, which make it easy to pull in necessary metrics and interpret the data. “A huge part of being able to run an effective campaign is getting that real-time data and being able to analyze it effectively,” she said, adding that she likes being able to quickly apply optimizations in the DSP. She’s also excited about the potential of PulsePoint’s new Adaptive Optimization™. “We have started testing that out across some brands at CMI and have already seen a positive impact.”

Outside of the platform, she works closely with the PulsePoint team. “Every single person I’ve ever encountered at PulsePoint is incredibly supportive,” she said. “They’re very responsive and proactive in everything they do, and I feel like they’re genuinely invested in helping us succeed across all of CMI.” It’s a true partnership; if she ever has questions about setting up a campaign or improving a performance metric, she said they immediately offer to hop on a call and walk through it.

Emma outside of work

Outside of the office, Emma said she likes to stay busy. “I have a lot of hobbies. People actually laugh at me because of how many hobbies I have.”

She recently got into running and ran her first half-marathon earlier this year. “It was a fun challenge, but also I was like, why am I doing this to myself?” She said she loves trying new things in general, and is often taking on DIY projects or picking up new skills. One of her more recent hobbies is baking, and specifically baking sourdough and sharing it with friends and family.

“I really just love any new hobby that I can get my hands on because it allows me to stay curious and try new things,” she said. “I feel like there are so many new things to experience, and I’ve gotta stay busy to get everything in.”

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