When Tyler Kappen heard about the role of a Data Strategy Director at Billups, he felt the role perfectly matched his skillset.
“I felt like it was a match made in heaven for my background and what I wanted to do in the future,” Tyler said. After a year with the company, he has successfully leveraged his capabilities in data science and experience in offline media, such as tv and radio to bridge the gap between the Sciences and Media teams.
Overcoming Challenges Being New to OOH
When he came to the role, he faced several challenges. He saw that Billups had a new approach to the space.
“There wasn’t much prep for the role. It’s new to everyone,” Tyler said.
His biggest challenge was that he was newer to Out-of-Home (OOH). He was familiar with offline channels but had never had OOH as his sole focus. He said he approached that problem in two ways. 1. He applied his knowledge from different advertising planning approaches - digital, offline, radio, and tv, and 2. He made it his mission to learn from those already in the company.
“I had good resources around me, like Shawn Spooner, to onboard me into the operation, and I immersed myself in the data,” Tyler said.
He says that going super deep into what Billups does the first few weeks went a long way toward jumpstarting his success in the role.
Being Kind is the Number One Goal
When Tyler opens his laptop every morning, he wants to make sure his coworkers know he will deliver so that work will be facilitated effectively. He has a strong appetite for granting security to his colleagues. He wants to ensure his responsibilities are covered and that he’s adequately explaining how things work from a data perspective. Recognizing that he has a big responsibility working in a more complex area than other media strategists, he has to make sure that he keeps his own operations pristine so that everyone knows they are covered.
“If they are safe working on a project with me, then teams can do what they do best. They don’t have to worry about if Tyler is going to deliver,” Tyler said.
Tyler fulfills our company values through his relentless work ethic to provide his colleagues with the necessary information. His collaboration comes from a mindset that how you treat others is of utmost importance.
“If I could have anyone walk away from me thinking of me as either smart or kind, then I would elect they think I am kind,” Tyler said. “I appreciate kindness over any kind of tech application. Kindness is integral to what we do.”
Tyler’s authentic approach to work has helped him to build strong relationships across the company. His personable nature has enabled him to effectively communicate across diverse teams and clients to provide education and information on how data science is being applied in the OOH industry.
Contributing to the OOH Industry
Tyler wants to empower teams with knowledge. Before he joined the company, there was a Sciences team and a Data team, but there was a need for someone who could distill and translate information between Science and the Media team planning the campaigns.
Right now, he is bringing in and breeding a culture of data-driven decision-making. He wants to ensure all account managers are confident in answering client questions about data.
In the future, one of his dreams is to give back to the OOH industry like his mentor and supervisor, Shawn Spooner. Shawn and other scientists at the company have invented a number of patented products to improve measurement accuracy, validity, and data points for the OOH industry.
“I want to invent something in the data game for OOH,” Tyler said.
Though he’s only been with Billups for one year, he feels that the 20-year mark of the company lights a fire under him to contribute. He thinks that if the company has lasted this long, they are serious and know what they are doing.
“As a new employee that jumps into it, it makes me want to be part of the cause. I want to put my staple in the company as well and work that much harder to create something meaningful,” Tyler said.
A Passion For Data
Tyler is passionate about quantitative decision-making. He’s motivated by the ability to make difficult decisions with confidence. He says if you apply smart thinking to data, then you can find answers to solutions you would previously have had no inkling of doing.
“I appreciate what data enables the working to make objective outcomes to subjective matters,” Tyler said.
Tyler has always been intrigued by data science, with his passion extending beyond his career into his personal life. As a baseball enthusiast, one of his lifelong dreams has been to join the Baseball Writers Association of America. He wants to do a deep dive into advanced baseball stats and analytics to create a platform that would show stats such as spin rates on fastballs and how those rates could be increased scientifically.
He’s a self-acclaimed nerd who enjoys assembling and painting Warhammer figurines and playing the tabletop battle RPG game in his spare time. Unsurprisingly, this also requires his analytical skills, as how a figurine is painted affects its battle stats.
